ABBEY ROAD

Abbey Road is the 11th studio album by the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969 by Apple Records. The recording sessions for the album were the last in which all four Beatles participated. Although Let It Be was the final album that the Beatles completed before the band's dissolution in April 1970, most of the album had been recorded before the Abbey Road sessions began. A double A-side single from the album, "Something"/"Come Together", (George Harisson's first A-side) released in October, topped the Billboard chart in the US. Abbey Road is a rock album that incorporates genres such as blues, pop and progressive rock, and it makes prominent use of the Moog synthesizer and the Leslie speaker. Side two contains a medley of song fragments edited together to form a single piece. The album was recorded amidst a more collegial atmosphere than the Get Back/Let It Be sessions earlier in the year, but there were still frequent confrontations within the band, particularly over Paul McCartney's song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", one of four tracks on which John Lennon did not perform.

I don't agree with Lennon about him saying, that McCartney was making "music for grannies", well only with maybe one or two exceptions. But I kind of agree, that Maxwell's Silver Hammer is not that good. Lennon himself probably wrote THE song for Grannie's, though, on the former album: "Goodnight", sung by Ringo. At times, I think this is the best album The Beatles ever made, and for the first and last time, all 3 songwriters (Ringo's Octopussy's Garden is a joke) made about the same amount of great songs on an album. Harisson's "Here Comes The sun" is one of the very best Beatles-songs at all. McCartney's contribution to the medley on side 2 are far better than Lennon's, but Lennon's "Come Together", "Because" and "I Want You" are stellar songs. When I really noticed "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" years ago (in the 90's), my reaction was "Now I know, where Cheap Trick got their sound". McCartney's vocal on "Oh Darling" is out of this world!! He is truely my favorite singer of all time. What's you opinion of Abbey Road?

Before this album was released in September 1969, Betales had released a soundtrack to the movie "Yellow Submarine", but the "new" songs from that one (Only A Nothern Song, All together Now, Hey Bulldog and It's All Too Much) are not worth mentioning imo, but now I did it anyway. (17 January 1969). A single (Get Back/Don't Let Me Down) was released a year ahead of the release of "Let It Be" (11 April 1969) and the single "The Ballad Of John And Yoko/Old Brown Shoe" was released 30 May 1969.

Usefull information:

George thought, before changing his mind, that "Something" would better suit Joe Cocker or even Jackie Lomax, rather than The Beatles. Cocker recorede a version for his album released in November 1969. Years later, "Something" was part of Frank Sinatra's live set, and for years he presented the song as his favorite Lennon/McCartney-song. Poor George.

The single “The Ballad Of John & Yoko” are only Paul And John playing, that means McCartney on the drums (and that great Bass-riff, that McCartney wrote, and made the song so much better). Maybe it was around this time, that Lennon answered a journalist who asked him, if Ringo was the best drummer in the world: “He’s not even the best drummer in The Beatles”. :-)

Album Ranking:

1. Abbey Road

2. Revolver

3. The White album

4. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band

5. Rubber Soul

6. A Hard Days Night

7. Help 8. Please Please Me

9. Beatles For Sale

10. With The Beatles

11. Magical Mystery Tour

Niels' Ultimate Beatles Playlist:

1. I Saw Her Standing

2. Love Me Do

3. Please Please Me

4. She Loves You

5. All My Loving

6. I Want To Hold You Hand

7. A Hard Days Night

8. I Should Had Known Better

9. If I Fell

10. And I Love Her

11. Can't Buy Me Love

12. Anytime At All

13. Things We Said Today

14. I Feel Fine

15. Eight Days A Week

16. She's A Woman

17. Every Little Thing She Does

18. Help

19. The Night Before

20. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

21. You're Gonna Loose That Girl

22. Ticket To Ride

23. I've Just Seen A Face

24. Yesterday

25.We Can Work It Out

26. Day Tripper

27. Drive My Car

28.Norwegian Wood

29.Michelle

30.Girl

31.I'm Looking Through You

32. In My Life

33. Paperback Writer

34. Taxman

35. Eleanor Rigby

36. Here, There And Everywhere

37. Yellow Submarine

38. For No One

39. Got To Get You Into My Life

40. Strawberry Fields Forever

41. Penny Lane

42. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

43. With A Little Help From My Friends

44. Fixing A Hole

45. She's Leaving Home

46. A Day In The Life

47. All You Need Is Love

48. Fool On The Hill

49. I Am The Walrus

50. Hello, Goodbye

51. Hey Jude

52. Lady Madonna

53. Back In The USSR

54. Dear Prudence

55. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La Dah

56. Happiness Is A Warm Gun

57. Martha My Dear

58. Blackbird

59. Get Back

60. Don't Let Me Down

61. The Ballad Of John And Yoko

62. Come Together

63. Something

64. Oh Darling

65. I Want You (She's So Heavy)

66. Here comes The Sun

67. Because

68. You Never give Me Your Money

69. She came in to the bathroom window/Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on May 12, 2016 at 8:34pm

I listened to this album for the first time today, and after listening to it, I was very anxious to read your thoughts (why, I don't know, because it seems we hardly agree at all on music) on the album. I really, really enjoyed listening to the full album. I have to agree that it's an exceptional album. By far the most homogenized work I've heard by the band (in case that word doesn't translate, I mean it's very cohesive). It has a touch of blues, some harder rock and even some prog leanings. I actually like Ringo's song here. Maxwell's Silver Hammer is the song that I like least, but it's not that bad. I'll list my songs, but I'm gonna list the medley as individual songs since that's how they are listed in my iTunes.

Running Album Ranking:

1. Abbey Road

2. Rubber Soul

3. Revolver

4. Help!

5. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

6. The White Album

7. A Hard Days Night

8. Please Please Me

9. Magical Mystery Tour

10. Beatles For Sale

11. With The Beatles