THE BEATLES ABBEY ROAD PT.2

The original idea was very simple- like with their others, I would play the album and talk about it.
But things are never so simple.
The long length of The Beatles' Abbey Road album left little time to really get deep into it on a slightly less than hour show.
So it was decided we would do TWO shows, as the importance of the Beatles and the album, when originally released and still today, was of such a magnitude it would be worth it.
The use of the brilliant book BEATLESONGS by William J. Dowlding provided us with firsthand quotes, little-known facts and details about the production of each song.
Including: where each song idea came from, who contributed how much to each song, changes to titles, lyrics and music, the instrumentation used- and John, Paul, George and Ringo's own thoughts on the songs development.
I was with Engineer Ken Stanley back then, and with the addition of some other unrelated but what you will find interesting music, we were able to flesh out the shows with less me and more tunes, lol!
So please join me for an intense and intellectual listen to one of the all-time Classic Albums.

Here's the link to Part Two and why did the Beatle Cross The Road?, at WLSO.FM:

http://wlso.fm/wordpress/archives/1973

Mike

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Comment by Mike Pell on March 25, 2011 at 2:55am: RJ,

You have a point there- because it was the Beatles they were cut some slack on Lennon's repitition.

John at that time was becoming the Darling of the critics...and to become even more so because of his political actions.

And a hair metal band in the 80's would have been criticized...hell, I would have criticized them, lol!

So I know what you mean.

I like it because as I mentioned, I can never anticipate when it is going to end, and after all these years that still strikes me funny.

You just like Octopus!
Really, have you ever eaten it?

Italians make it delicious!

With those two similar sounding songs at the end, Fannie Mae by Buster Brown was something of a hit, while the Rolling Stones song was theB-side side of a single.

Good to have you listening to the Fab Four, lol,

Mike

Comment by Mike Pell on March 24, 2011 at 5:18pm: Niels,

Oh of course...hahahahahaha!

That's right and thanks for reminding me, Cheap Trick has always credited the Beatles as an influnce, and at times sound very much like them.

Gee, I haven't listened to them in a long time, and I have a boxed set.

About time I dug it out, always loved Surrender, lol!

As for I Want You being about heroin or Yoko, I think that author would have mentioned it, or at least he would have quoted John regarding it.

So I can't say, but he may have had Yoko in mind- I don't think he had gone off the tracks yet.

Yes that song Under Assistant West Coast Promotions Man is a Jagger.Richards composition, so it is a ripoff...and that was my point regarding George Harrison and the Chiffons fiasco.

Thanks again for the listen and writing me,

Mike

Comment by RJhog (Admin) on March 24, 2011 at 10:46am: I really like the song I Want You (She's So Heavy). But I do have an observation. Aren't the lyrics very repetitive? I ask because a repetitive song written by John Lennon is still a great song, but a repetitive song written by, say, a hair metal band in the 80's would be a repetitive song. Know what I mean? Just an observation. But like I said, I like the song.

I also like the Octopus song by Ringo. I think I said that in my comment on part 1 for some reason.

And the songs at the end are very, very similar. I think many "great" and many "average" songwriters ripped off somebody at some point. Why does it matter? If you wrote a great song that was later ripped off and the song doing the ripping was better or more popular, maybe that's the song you should have written to begin with.

Comment by Niels (Mod) on March 24, 2011 at 5:32am: Mike, another great show (of course).

I've allways thought, that the riff in "I want you", especially in the last part of the song, reminds me of Cheap Trick, but then again, Cheap Trick never denied any influence from the Beatles, on the contary.

I've read, that "I want you" was about Heroin. Maybe it's about Yoko, I do'nt know. Who knows?!

Yeah, they sound alike, the Buster Brown-and Rolling Stones song, but RS never really denied any "influence" from old bluse-artists, I guess. Was the RS-song "written" by Jagger/Richards? If so, it was clearly a rip off.

I'm looking forward to next week's show.