Music
Store

There is not a false note on this album. It kicks off with a forceful vocal from John Lennon on "Come Together," which is balanced by the tenderness of "Something," one of George Harrison's best songs (and only Beatles A-side single contribution). With "Because" Lennon wrote one of the loveliest melodies of his career. Even the silliness of McCartney's "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and Ringo Starr's child-like "Octopus's Garden" exude charm and warmth from a band that was on the verge of fragmenting forever and taking some of the innocence of the sixties with them.

And then there's the side-2 suite (tracks 9-16)which still makes for powerful listening thirty years later. Sir Paul McCartney summed it all up in "The End": "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." And so the curtain rang down on the best rock 'n' roll band in our lifetime. ESSENTIAL


Abbey Road indeed...   August 14, 2003
 37 out of 42 found this review helpful

Abbey Road is the best of the Beatles, hands down. While they might not have jived on a personal level like they did in the early days, their inner strife sure made for good music (as well as their ineptitude with finances). This album stands above the rest as the best and the brightest, with some of the best producing and best playing. The two standouts here, I think, are George and Ringo. George's beautifully crafted guitar, and Ringo's masterful, yet subtle drumming really stand out. George and Ringo also put together some good songs. Something is George's best song with the Beatles in my opinion.

Come Together (10/10): There's probably some really incredibly deep hidden message behind this one, I'm just not smart enough to decipher it. An excellent song with a catchy refrain.

Something (11/10): As I previously stated, George's best song with the Beatles, in my opinion. Very pretty song that he wrote for his wife. Very intricate, delicate guitar on this song that only George could master. Very good.

Maxwell's Silver Hammer (10/10): It would've been a nine, but since the story behind Paul's chuckle while singing is that John mooned him, it gets a 10. Very funny song about a kid who kills people with his hammer. Its not really that funny the more that I think about it, but Paul makes it so.

Oh! Darling (10/10): A 50's style rocker where Paul really belts out the lyrics and apparently screamed himself hoarse to get the sound right. Which he did. Good song.

Octopus's Garden (9/10): A song by Ringo about living under the sea. A lot like Yellow Submarine, and funny too. Ringo was the drummer and didn't know a lot of chords for the guitar, so its one of the simpler songs on the record, which is the only reason it got the 9 instead of the 10. Ringo has the best voice for this song, it makes it a very happy, inviting song thats a lot of fun to listen to.

I Want You (She's So Heavy) (10/10): This is one of the best tracks on the record. John's 7 and a half minute ode to Yoko is amazing and has some really great riffs. Gets stuck in your head really easily. If you don't know why the song cuts off, too bad!

Here Comes the Sun (10/10): George wrote it at Clapton's house while ditching a meeting for Apple Corp. Maybe thats why they went bankrupt and had to close the store? Probably not, but the song is excellent and George, again, has a great guitar peice in store.

Because (7/10): The low-light of the album, if you will. The song uses the riff from I Want You, only its synthesized and slowed down. Not a recipe for success. The lyrics are trippier than any thing else on the record. The song is held aloft by the sound of "nine" Beatles singing. I'm luke-warm on this song.

Abbey Road Medley Pt. 1 (10/10): This "song" encompasses You Never Give Me Your Money all the way to She Came in Through the bathroom window. It starts with a tale of mismanaged funds. Very good, Paul really belts the lyrics out. Then we go to a tale of some Sun King. I don't get it, but it has a nice section where they sing in what seems to be Italian. Don't know what they say, but it sounds nice. Then we go to Mean Mr. Mustard who is just that. The song is pretty good though. It's followed by the tale of his sister, Polythene Pam. A hard rocker, much like Helter Skelter, only tuned down a little bit. Very good. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window is a story about how female fans got past security. Who'da thunk it, from the confusing title and all.....

Abbey Road Medley Pt. 2 (10/10): Starts with Golden Slumbers, which is a song on only which Paul and Ringo are heard, as Paul plays piano, and Ringo plays drums. Very good song. Then we fade to Carry That Weight. Another less than subtle song about the failing finances of Apple Corp. Listen for the refrain from You Never Give Me Your Money. Then we get to The End. It's one last showing of the skills of all of our young Liverpudlian lads. Quite a spectacular way to go out. The End indeed.

Her Majesty (5/10): Only it isn't the end, and Paul has a nice self-important surprise for us all. Its a 23 second song about the Queen. While it is funny, it should've been somewhere in the medley. Not tacked on at the end so Paul could get the last hurrah. It would've been a 10 any where else on the record.

This purchase would be an advisable one. Very, very advisable.


The love you take   December 10, 2000
 35 out of 37 found this review helpful

After the hardest studio sessions they've ever had to stand ("White Album" and "Get Back/Let It Be"), The Beatles knew the end was coming. So they made the effort of reuniting, despite all their differences and made one of the greatest popular music album ever recorded and listened by the human race.

I have said before I prefer "Revolver" because you can get out of it a complete philosophy to your life, and the lyrics and musical experiments were never better than on that album, but I have to recognize that the production and orchestral work made with this CD can be considered as the best music The Beatles made in their whole succesful carrer. It's so removing, you can get deep emotions by the listening experience, you can feel lots of noises, like the constant presence of death and dark perceptions of the world, the optimism, the humour, the social comments, I mean... The Beatles' lyrics here are getting simpler, but more to the point. They are writing rock'n'roll again, the songs with deep and hidden meanings are gone, as are the strange but interesting instrumental arrangements and studio experiments they made in their more psychedelic albums from 1965-1967. They are PLAYING MUSIC again, that's the final gift they gave to the world.

The first side of the album is a very hard-to-unify bunch of songs. "Come Together" finds John Lennon at his funkiest mood, laughing at them all, as always, and the rocky guitars (and specially the Fender Rhodes piano solo played by Paul) make the perfect dark environment this acid song needs to have. "Something" has to be the loveliest ballad ever written, its simple structure and lyrics are adorned by the expert orchestral arrangements by George Martin, the guitar solo by the singer/composer George Harrison, is stunning, as is the middle-eight. This particular track also shows The Beatles as a band, with John playing a notorious wah-wah rhythm guitar, Paul playing his bass guitar at his best (hear those chord variations!) and Ringo getting his turn at the drums. Notable. It gets into your subconscious, and it also was a big hit by the Fab-Four in 1969 (you can get a remastered version in the recently released "1" CD). "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Octopus's Garden" are underrated humoristic and ironic songs. Written by Paul and Ringo respectively, they help to make the album a little lighter, and to remember those days where the music and the lyrics were not mean to be something with deep meaning, but most notably something to enjoy the experience of playing music. Plus, Ringo's lead vocal on "Octopus's Garden" is one of his best, his lyrics are intriguing and very psychedelic, making this song a pleasant surprise and one of the high points of the album. "Oh! Darling" is a lovely and heart-breaking ballad with an impressive vocal interpretation by Sir James Paul McCartney (John said he could have done it better!) and a bluesy air that can remove all the hairs in your body... "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", with its weak lyric, is no more than a great jam by the biggest band in the world (but they knew how to make it into a great rock'n'roll moment!) The final noises can REALLY scare you.

George Harrison finally gets the chance to show how a good songwriter he was on this album. Apart from "Something", he wrote the best song on "Abbey Road": "Here Comes The Sun" (the opening track for side 2) which also has very good orchestral arrangements (Martin takes care of the production in both Harrisongs, and you can note it!), optimistic lyrics and the brilliant acoustic guitar work that George made by himself. It can really blow your mind. And it's relaxing and lovely.

After that, the album gets a spirit of unity and you can't realize where does a song finish or another begins: "Because" is the Lennon version of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata", and shows the greatest vocal performance ever made by John, Paul and George in 9 voices! The lyrics are intriguing, and the electric harpischord (played by George Martin) with the Moog Synthesiser (played by George Harrison!) make the song sound even more electrifying! "You Never Give Me Your Money" is the first part of a McCartney medley, with a complex structure, brilliant guitar moments, and... ask Paul what he's singing about. Then, there is the medley: "Sun King", "Mean Mr.Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" are John's songs, beautifully arranged and almost always accompanied by Paul on backing vocals. Then there is "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window", a lovely and intriguing acoustic/pop/rock song. All of those songs are unified and glued to each other so you can't really define which is which...

And then, they wave goodbye. "Golden Slumbers" sends you to sleep in a quiet but removing mood. "Carry That Weight" is sung by the four of them, and in "The End"... the love you take is equal to the love you made. The drum solo by Ringo and the three guitar solos (by Paul, George and John, in that order) are the oportunity they have to say goodbye to the world. They do it, and it's simply thrilling. I mean, listen to them: they are a BAND again!

And when you think it's all over, "Her Majesty", a very strange but simple song by Paul closes the album. They have made it at their best, and they know a door is closed, and a new time begins...

So they have made it perfectly. They were capable of give the world the best music, and when they felt the work was finally done (with this masterpiece), they left. And the love they took was equal to the love they made. This album IS pop & rock absolute perfection. Buy it and enjoy it. It's hard to take it off from your stereo.

(P.S.: If some fans want to review the album with LONG texts, leave them. Sometimes is necesarry to open your mind and listen to another points of view. Just be patient...)


Final Walk   January 4, 2001
 32 out of 34 found this review helpful

While Let It Be was their final release, Abbey Road was the result of the last time they recorded together in the studio. Despite the annonmosity and frayed tensions among the band, Abbey Road shows that they could produce music head and shoulders above everyone else. "Come Together" has a Chuck Berry riff and George Harrison's "Something" has became a standard with even Frank Sinatra recording a version. "Oh! Darling" has Paul McCartney flexing his vocal muscles and "Octopus' Garden" is a fun and goofy Ringo Starr composition. "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is aptly titled as it has an urgency and yearning John Lennon vocal with heavy guitar playing. "Here Comes The Sun" is the best song George Harrison did with the Beatles with it's optimistic lyrics playing in stark contrast to the dark clouds surrounding the band at the time. The song suite that closes the album shows the band were still willing to push boundaries and it is appropriate it closes out with a song called "The End". Abbey Road marked the close of the recording career of the greatest group in music history. In the six years that they made music in the studio together, they produced songs that not only affected the music world, but the world as whole. From their hair, to their clothes to just about everything they did, they gripped the public's image and attitudes.