Beatles Abbey Road Album Sessions
For example, Abbey Road came out in late September 1969. Though Let It Be was then still unreleased, the Beatles wouldn't record another album together. But they were still young men: George was.
The legendary Abbey Road Studiosmade famous by the Beatlesis perhaps the most celebrated recording studios in music history. Countless fans would love to have been a fly-on-the-wall during the John, Paul, George and Ringo sessions. Imagine sitting in on those iconic moments, laying down track after track, with the Fab Four. Now you can come close.We invite you to come back in time as THE SESSIONS recreates those phenomenal arrangements and vocals as they happened all those years ago.
Overseen by the acclaimed recording engineer Geoff Emerick, you will experience all the sounds, energy and electricity created by the original live performances.THE SESSIONS was created by Stig Edgren, an international creative producer/designer, directed by Kim Gavin (2012 London Olympics Closing Ceremony), set designs are by Stufish UK with video projections by Luke Halls and world-class lighting by Luc LaFortune.Ladies and Gentlemen - this may have been what it looked like - here are THE BEATLES IN SESSION!
Remember in the movie WarGames when a computer asked Matthew Broderick, “Shall we play a game?” Broderick’s character chose to play “Global Thermonuclear War.” You might recall that the game has no winner. With that in mind, let’s play a similar game: “Name Your Favorite Beatles Album.” Deciding on a favorite Beatles album is like a parent picking a favorite child, picking the most beautiful woman in the Miss Universe Pageant, or deciding on Philadelphia’s best cheesesteak (it’s neither Pat’s or Geno’s). These tough questions do have answers, and the answer for the best Beatles album happens to be.Rolling Stone ranks four Beatles albums in the Top 15 of the Best Albums of All Time, placing Abbey Road at 14.
That means the magazine ranked three Beatles albums ahead of Abbey Road. Well, Rolling Stone often gets things wrong. Remember, they originally hated both Jimi Hendrix’s “Are You Experienced” and ’s debut album. So, what do they know?Abbey Road is special in so many ways. The record was the eleventh album released by the Beatles but was actually the last album in which all four Beatles participated in the recording. McCartney wanted to “get back to basics” and produce the album the way that he did early on.
Martin agreedthank goodness. Although Let It Be was the last studio album released by the band, most of that record was already completed before the Abbey Road sessions had even started. Essentially, this was the last album the Beatles were to record and, deep down, they had to know this. They went out with a bang. Here’s are five reasons why: 1.
George Harrison’s ContributionThe “quiet Beatle” delivered his best work on Abbey Road. Both “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” showed the world that he had been paying attention to Lennon and McCartney as they wrote their many masterpieces. Try not to sing along to “Here Comes the Sun.” It’s impossible. The Beatles wrote some of the greatest love songs of all time, and “Something” may be the best of the lot. The album is George Harrison’s finest hour.
You Want “Prog Rock”? Here You GoProgressive Rock crept out of the consciousness of the ‘60s and ‘70s. The Beatles, not really a prog rock group per se, recorded two of the genre’s finest songs: “I Am the Walrus” and “Come Together” — the latter, of course, is the first track on side one of Abbey Road so when the needle drops on the album, and you’re hit in the face with this Lennon-McCartney tune, you better buckle up. The track may not be indicative of what the whole album has to offer, but it does add to the eclectic nature of what lies ahead and shows that the Beatles could write any kind of music that they set their minds to.3.
Side TwoWithout question, Abbey Road contains the most unique half-album of any record in The Beatles’ catalog. Side Two contains a 16-minute medley of eight short songs fused together by producer George Martin. The set, although panned by some critics as a mish-mash of song parts, shows that Lennon’s and McCartney’s song pieces are better than most of their peers’ finished compositions. Harrison and Lennon do some of their best guitar work here. Additionally, you’ll hear George play a Fender Telecaster through a Leslie speaker on “You Never Give Me Your Money” and Ringo play his only drum solo in the Beatles’ catalog on “The End.” 4.
That LineToday, more than ever: “And in the end/the love you take is equal to the love you make” 5. The Cover ControversyThe Abbey Road album cover features one of the most iconic, recreated photos in history. Who wouldn’t want to go back in time and watch John, Paul, George, and Ringo walk across that famous crosswalk? In the background of the photo, there are a few people in the distance. Man, how I would have loved to be one of them! At the time, conspiracy theorists looked at “hidden clues” from the photo to justify conspiracy theories that Paul McCartney was, in fact, dead, and while Life magazine featured a cover story stating that, thankfully, “Paul is still with us,” those rumors live on.
Sure, the cover art has nothing to do with the music, but it’s part of a remarkable story.When Beatles fans talk about their favorite album, there’s never a debate when someone disagrees. I can tell you why I love Abbey Road, but I would never tell someone whose favorite Beatles album is Rubber Soul that they are wrong. You know why? Because I love Rubber Soul, too.In the end, the reason why I like Abbey Road best is simple: listening to that record always makes me happy.
“Everybody’s laughing / Everybody’s happy.”–Photo by Robert Landau/Corbis via Getty Images. The US version of ‘Rubber Soul’ lacks three terrific songs that are on the UK version, and they are essential to the overall character of the album – “Drive My Car”, “Nowhere Man” and George’s wonderful quasi-Byrds tribute “If I Needed Someone”. Yes, the US version does have “I’ve Just Seen a Face” and “It’s Only Love”, but those two tracks sound equally great hearing them on the UK ‘Help!’ album. The only real plus to the US version of ‘Rubber Soul’ is that it omits “What Goes On”.
Otherwise, the UK version is superior in every way. Jimmy, how is “Maxwell’s.” important to the character of the album? It’s a cheery song about a serial killer! People got on John Lennon’s case for writing “Run for Your Life” on ‘Rubber Soul’ and accused it of being a misogynistic and cruel song.
Why does Paul get a pass on “Maxwell’s”? Because he sings it a childlike voice instead of Lennon’s approach, which sounded realistic? I’ll stand by my opinion that “Maxwell’s” is an awful song and that it sounds out of place on the album. And I will stand by my opinion that side one goes straight downhill after “Something”. Just my two cents. The Beatles are my absolute favorite band, but I’m going to go against the grain and give my opinion that ‘Abbey Road’ is by far their most overrated album. Sure, the medley on side two is great.
And sure, “Come Together” is wonderfully funky and “Something” has a gorgeous melody. BUT (and this is a huge detraction) you also get four lousy songs right in a row on side one that definitely detracts from the overall quality of the album.
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” may be the single worst song the band ever recorded. Darling” sounds forced and labored, especially when you compare it to first-rate McCartney belters like “I’m Down” and the band’s marvelous cover of “Long Tall Sally”, both of which are in the same musical vein. “Octopuss’ Garden” is a third-rate rewrite of “Yellow Submarine”. And “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is positively annoying, with that proto-metal riff that goes on and on forever, and it’s lyrically embarrassing as well.
Beatles Abbey Road Album Sessions Video
The rest of the album – outside of these four songs – is great, although it tends to be overproduced to cover up the fact that the band was splintering and it gives a false illusion that the group was an ongoing creative force that would stick around for a while. Another flaw is that it hardly has any input from John Lennon, and of the few contributions he makes to the album, only “Come Together” stands out as being first-rate. While the Beatles never made any album that was less than an A minus in overall quality, there’s no way I could ever personally consider ‘Abbey Road’ to be one of their best. It’s erratic. Brilliant in sections and mediocre in others. “She’s Leaving Home” has a wonderful arrangement and great counterpoint vocals from both Paul and John. It’s also a touching song.
The Beatles Abbey Road
“Good Morning Good Morning” has the gutsiest use of horns on a Beatles track except for “Savoy Truffle” and the sax solo on “Lady Madonna”. “Rocky Raccoon” is a terrific acoustic track from Paul, and it has a great narrative in the lyrics.I agree about George’s Indian songs. Always felt they sort of dragged on. I used to absolutely hate “Revolution #9”, but now I sort-of appreciate it as an advanced avant-garde track that influenced a lot of modern bands such as Sonic Youth.I just thought of one POSSIBLE track that the band did that’s worse than “Maxwell’s” – “What’s the New, Mary Jane?”. That was pretty bad.