CPT Flashback - August 8, 1969 - 50 years ago today the Beatles, greatest rock group in history, released their final album, Abbey Road

Enjoy a trip down memory lane as you check out the history, back story, and results of the last album recorded by the Beatles.  It was the end of the long and winding road of the Fab Four from Liverpool.

Here Comes the Sun – George Harrison

Subtitulada en Españo

Why The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ Album Was Streets Ahead Of Its Time

With some of the most magisterial songs The Beatles ever wrote, ‘Abbey Road’ was the final album they recorded, and now stands as many people’s favourite.

Published August 8, 2019

by Richard Havers

 Richard Havers

Prior to 26 September 1969, most people in the world were blissfully unaware that Abbey Road was the location of EMI’s London recording studios. Some keen fans may have spotted the name in news reports of The Beatles’ activities, but this was a time when it was of little importance to most fans where something was recorded. Ironically, given the album’s title, not all of Abbey Road was recorded at Abbey Road, and, in truth, the title is as much about the street and the zebra crossing outside as it is about the studio itself.

But when all is said and done, the album is for many, including this writer, the absolute pinnacle of the band’s achievements. All this, despite having been recorded as the band was breaking up amid internal strife and bitterness.

“A natural born gas”

Abbey Road was The Beatles’ 11th studio album and the very last to be recorded (their 12th – and last-released – studio album, Let It Be, was mostly recorded prior to this record). Rolling Stone magazine called it “complicated instead of complex”, while Nik Cohn, writing in The New York Times, suggested that “individually” the songs are “nothing special”, The Guardian called the album “a slight matter”, and the Detroit Free Press suggested, “We expected inventiveness. We got a good LP.”

However, Chris Welch, writing in Melody Maker, felt just the opposite: “The truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism.” Similarly enthusiastic, The Record Mirror said that Abbey Road was “every bit as good as the last three” albums by the group. History, too, has been much kinder, with many now citing this as their favourite Beatles album.

What makes Abbey Road a masterpiece?

What is it that makes Abbey Road a masterpiece? Well, the breadth of the musical vision, the sheer scale of the band’s collective musical imagination, and the audacity of it all, at a time when The Beatles were coming to the end of their time together.

And then there are the two George Harrison masterpieces, ‘Here Comes the Sun’ and ‘Something’; both rank alongside the best songs the band ever recorded. Of the former, uDiscover’s Martin Chilton, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says “it’s almost impossible not to sing along to” – and he’s right.

‘Something’ is sublime, the perfect love song and John Lennon’s favourite track on the album. Often prior to performing it in concert, Frank Sinatra would describe it as “the greatest love song ever written” (while also erroneously saying it was his favourite “Lennon and McCartney composition”).

Something to luxuriate in

Side Two’s 15-minute “medley” begins with ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’, a Paul McCartney song. It transitions beautifully into ‘Sun King’, which was written by John and features John, Paul, and George’s impeccable harmonies. From there the medley runs into two more Lennon songs, ‘Mean Mr Mustard’ and ‘Polythene Pam’ (both written in India). Then it’s a quadruple shot from McCartney: ‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’, the beautiful ‘Golden Slumbers’ and ‘Carry That Weight’ (which includes elements from ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’), before the medley closes with ‘The End’.

Opinion is divided among some fans and critics about some of the remaining tracks. However, there is no disputing the power, no denying the magnificence, of two of John Lennon’s compositions. ‘Come Together’ is one of the great opening tracks on any album. Likewise, ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ just takes the band to a place they had never been before… towering.

The songs not entirely recorded at Abbey Road were ‘Something’, which features some overdubs recorded at Olympic Studios in Barnes, West London. For ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ the band recorded the rhythm track in February 1969, at Trident Studios in Soho’s Wardour Street, where a composite of the song was then assembled. Work continued on the song until August (including a session on 8 August, when the album’s cover shoot also took place), as recordings were added to the original Trident tape; the finished song, completed at Abbey Road, was another composite made from two versions of the song. Meanwhile, ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ was started at Olympic in May 1969, and then finished at Abbey Road over a number of sessions in July and August.

Abbey Road is far greater than the sum of its parts, a record that, more than any other Beatles album, stands the test of time when played as a whole. It is not an album to cherry-pick tracks on random play – this is one to put on, to luxuriate in ‘Come Together’, and to finish with a smile on your face as Paul sings about Her Majesty being “a pretty nice girl” on the closing, “hidden” track.

The 5th Beatle Sir George Martin

TRACK LISTING

·         Come Together

·         Something

·         Maxwell's Silver Hammer

·         Oh! Darling

·         Octopus's Garden

·         I Want You (She's So Heavy)

·         Here Comes the Sun

·         Because

·         You Never Give Me Your Money

·         Sun King

·         Mean Mr. Mustard

·         Polythene Pam

·         She Came in Through the Bathroom Window

·         Golden Slumbers

·         Carry That Weight

·         The End

·         Her Majesty

   Album Selections

Beatles Come Together

(Double click for full screen)

Beatles Something



Beatles Maxwell's Silver Hammer



Beatles Oh! Darling



Beatles Octopus's Garden



Beatles Because



Beatles Golden Slumbers



Beatles Carry That Weight



Beatles The End



Beatles Her Majesty

Here Comes the Sun Background Story

CPT Spirits in the Sky - Death - Such a Final Notion - But what if people hadn't died?

The mind is a marvelous thing of somewhat magical qualities because it has the ability to reject any principle like the laws of nature or laws of god and imagine a world without those laws.

You should try it some time.

For example, take the principle of death, what if death could be undone for people.  Then take some of the people who died way to early in life and just imagine what they could have done with a "normal" life span compared to what they did in a tragically shortened life.

Like Jesus for example.  Now JC turned everything in the world upside down for all time and he died at age 33 after preaching just 3 short years.  What if he stuck around preaching until he was 70 which is not all that old anymore?  Then he would have had 37 more years of preaching and imagine what impact that might have had on things.

There might never have been any question of him being the true Messiah and all those various sects and denominations of Christianity might never have existed, sects which led us into 2000 years of warfare, hatred and willingness to ignore the Ten Commandments although Jesus never said there were Ten, just one and then a second.

Singers and composers seem to be targets for early death.  Buddy Holly died at just 22, Hank Williams at 29, Patsy Cline - Jim Croce - Momma Cass Elliot all at 30, Karen Carpenter at 32,  Bob Marley at 36, Harry Chapin at 38, John Lennon at 40 and Elvis at 42.

Holly, Williams, Croce, Marley, Chapin and Lennon were among the greatest song writers of all time and were not even close to reaching their peak in terms of creative output.

Consider the enormous body of work all these gifted artists, singers and songwriters all, generated in their abbreviated lifetimes.  All of them should have lived 28-48 years longer if they lived a normal life meaning we lost out on more than 50% of their potential musical contributions to our history.

Then there is the strange 27 Club, those artists who died at the age of 27, and this includes a host of singers pushing the envelope like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain and the most recent addition Amy Winehouse.

How bizarre is that?  Not a single one died of anything remotely connected to "normal" circumstances.  Some people even speculate they might have subconsciously or even consciously died when they reached that age.  Drugs, booze and prescription drugs all played a role in the deaths.

Let's change fields of entertainment and take movies for example.  James Dean died at 24, when he was just getting started while Marilyn Monroe died at 36, at the peak of her popularity and Natalie Wood died at 43.  Even though Natalie spent her entire life in movies she was just reaching new fans and rebuilding her image.

So how did they die?  A car wreck, drug overdose (or murder), and drowning, again no natural causes and we were all cheated out of an entire body of work.

Of course in politics there was Bobby Kennedy at 43 and John Kennedy at 46 who along with their friend Martin Luther King, Jr. at 39 all were taken at the beginning of their contributions to America.

And let us never forget the enchanting fairy tale story line of Diana, Princess of Wales, dead at age 36, because of her contributions to the future of royalty in terms of personality and legacy.

Is there a lesson?  Make sure when you are planning your life the way the insurance and finance companies want you to you take the time to enjoy the present as if it were the last days of your life because it just might be.

Actuarial tables suck!

.

CPT Spirits in the Sky - John Lennon - born October 9, 1940, died December 8, 1980

John Winston Ono Lennon MBE was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who rose to worldwide fame in the music industry.

Thirty-eight years ago, December 8, 1980, John Lennon, of Beatles fame, was assassinated in New York City at the young age of forty.

The working class kid from Liverpool was an accomplished author, painter, songwriter, singer, musician, philosopher, revolutionary, visionary, father, husband, and the soul and co-founder of the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music.

Here is John Lennon in his own words.

Penny Lane
(Double click for full view)

Happy Xmas

(Double click for full view)

Imagine
(Double click for full view)

.