The Beatles' Abbey Road (1969): A Track By Track Analysis
"And in the end, the love you make is equal to the love you take"
The penultimate album of the sixties and the most iconographic album in The Beatles’ catalog is Abbey Road. Marking both the end of a decade and the end of one of the greatest bands in history, Abbey Road dignifies the Fab Four as individual artists going off to make independent sounds rather than the nearly identical mop-top teddy boys of the early ‘60s. While this album was considered a collection of “throw-aways,” particularly “Yellow Submarine,” many of these songs have grown to become cultural touchstones. On this album, the Beatles are at their tightest even if in many ways these works of art were being forced out of them despite their creative desires.
“Come Together”
John Lennon’s quick clapping hands introduce us to the first track on Abbey Road. It’s domineering, hollow, and erotic. What once was the cheeky risque-ness of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” is long gone now, subbing out for much more imposing rock sexuality found in Lennon and spotted throughout the album. The song itself was inspired by Timothy Leary, a friend of Lennon and LSD mahatma and supposed liberator of the collective mind, who visited Lennon and Yoko during their bed-in protest in Montreal best known for their sign slogans “Hair Peace, Bed Peace.” Leary wanted to run for office with the slogan “Come Together” and requested that John write him a song using it. Lennon’s voice takes on a sharp pointed staccato that punctures the hollowed-out beat with quick whining slides. The transition to the chorus adds an abrupt melodic quality but the ending of it is all the more abrupt. Lennon uses a single line as the chorus, keeping it in a suffocating pocket of the song. The release comes in the instrumental bridge with Lennon ad-libbing over top into the fade out. If any Beatles song was representative of John Lennon’s identity at the time and through the early ‘70s it’s certainly this one. Lennon kept up his psychedelic interests and political affinity and grew into a mature browbeat rock sound.
“Something”
Watery and gentle, George Harrison’s “Something” is incredibly intimate. A personal favorite love song, the lyrics are undoubtedly romantic. Harrison writes about several feelings like the feeling that he “-don’t need no other lover” and how he doesn’t know exactly what is causing that feeling, just that he’s certain of it. This song was dedicated to model Pattie Boyd, who Harrison met during the shooting of A Hard Day’s Night. The two have a complicated love story furthered by Eric Clapton’s involvement but it’s a powerful one. The song features large crescendos within the chorus, creating a direct emotional movement that functions in tandem with the lyrics. The guitar solo is saturated and fluid, not letting up on the hopelessly romantic longing that the song provides. One of the best songs Harrison provided to the Beatles catalog as well as one of their best true love songs, “Something” is an ode to romance and all the unwilling possessions and feelings that come with it.
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
This avant garde vaguely provincial-sounding song is a baffling one. The only one who seemed to like it in any capacity was Paul McCartney, the one who wrote it. The story is actually about a fictional serial killer named Maxwell Edison. Edison’s first fatality is his girlfriend, who he killed with a silver hammer. He then kills a teacher and then a judge. There is a strange paradox present in the song with such dark subject matter being married to a very typical McCartney “Paul song” writing style. Aside from its off-putting narrative sung with a joyful disposition, the actual instrumental contains an actual hammer clank similar to some of the literal sound effect choices used in McCartney’s section of “A Day In The Life.”
“Oh! Darling”
A commonly overlooked track off of Abbey Road, McCartney’s “Oh! Darling” is a blast from the past. McCartney’s songs in the Beatles catalog have always been known for wholesome romance and a sometimes sickeningly domestic sweetness. In this track, McCartney takes it to a whole new length infusing it with that fifties sound reminiscent of where the Beatles started as young boys being mocked by American reporters for being “knock-off Elvises.” McCartney’s voice is much more mature in this track and he delivers a taste of some of that electric rock star vocal sound he’s capable of as seen most on the White Album with the “Hey Jude” ad-libs and “Helter Skelter.” He also has this fierce sense of longing, an emotional intensity that isn’t as typically found in some of the classic Paul love songs like “When I’m 64.”
“Octopus’s Garden”
Ringo’s second and final song as a member of The Beatles is “Octopus’s Garden.” Partially because of its nautical relation to Ringo’s other song “Octopus’s Garden” and similar elementary sound, it’s commonly referenced as a children’s song. The entire track is an easy listen although not a huge stand out on musicality or pushing any boundaries. The inspiration for the song was found when Starr went on a boating trip with his family in Sardinia in 1968. The boat’s captain told him everything he knew about octopi and the fact that they would comb the sea bed in search of shiny objects and stones which they would build gardens with stuck with Starr, causing him to write the song. The actual chord sequence is provided by Harrison and with Starr’s writing they birthed a song that many people reference as a song of their childhood.
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy”
Lennon’s eroticism appears again in a love song which he dedicated to Yoko Ono. This song again takes on that domineering rock sound that Lennon has come into but includes a smoother rolling underlying beat furthered by the percussion and bass. The spiraling funk-influenced break of the line “She’s so heavy” creates this maddening spiral descent, carrying the lyrics' messaging into a very literal soundscape. The song also imbues itself with elements of flamenco and some screeching driving organ giving it a distinctly unique sound. The rock vocal cannon in the chorus is another unique aspect, opting for an asynchronous walk up for dissonance which is furthered by an a-harmonic vocal tonality. The chorus melody also contains an intense encumbrance rumble and thrum making the song sound much more carnal than lovely, especially in comparison to the prior takes on the love song in the album done by Paul and George.
“Here Comes The Sun”
One of the most well-known Beatles songs let alone songs in general. This song, while being one of the most memorable, is one of the closest songs to being about the Beatles ending. This song is written by George Harrison about the feeling he felt being able to walk around his garden after being freed from his daily meetings at Apple Headquarters. Taking this messaging in and also seeing the footage of Harrison’s jubilance when the band ended makes it hard to not connect the two considering how unhappy he was with his involvement in the band and his future attempt to leave it before the band officially broke up altogether. The electric instrumentation particularly the keys in one of the chorus variations drenches this song in technicolored optimism. The song takes on a message of its own having soundtracked many people’s lives and growing up especially but that same feeling of relief and happiness that Harrison felt (no matter if it meant the end of the Beatles) rings true through all the interpretations.
“Because”
“Because” is a slower version of a classic Lennon psychedelic interpretation. The song as a whole is incredibly languid and moves like a serpent through a gorgeous three-part harmony sung by John, Paul, and George. This being said, it ends on a particularly abrupt drawn-out vocal note with no resolve. This is actually because the melody is borrowed from the chords of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No 14 in C Sharp Minor (better known as Moonlight Sonata) played backward. This song also reeks of eroticism as found most literally in the line “Because the world is round/It turns me on” although much more spiritual than physical.
One of the most overlooked parts of Abbey Road is the eight-song medley which occurs in its second act entirely made up of unfinished songs. This medley was ultimately engineered by Paul. The songs in the medley are as follows: “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,” and “The End.”
“You Never Give Me Your Money”
A sweet piano introduction twinkles the listener into the start of the Abbey Road 8-song medley. This song is broken into three sections. An important aspect of this album is that it was meant to be the last. The first section reflects on how the Beatles would receive pieces of paper that told them how much money they earned and yet they were given the money itself. The sound is a bit tragic and wistful, kind of like a pre-nostalgia. It then kicks into the second section where Paul talks about leaving college poor which ultimately changed for him with his involvement in what was originally Lennon’s band. It has a bright uplift which is furthered by a classic Beatles vocal harmony. This song is not only about the Beatles though. The final section is actually about Paul without the Beatles. A common belief is that the Beatles escaped Paul before he was ready to let it go and this may be true. That being said, the final section of the song is about Paul going away to his new life with his wife Linda and being able to leave his worries behind with his lover. This ending is fit for the end of Paul’s journey with the Beatles considering the romance he had been singing out for the past decade. Closing it out with a vignette of packing up and driving off with a sweetheart seems like the only proper way to end it.
“Sun King”
Crickets chirping transitions the listener into the next medley installment. A gentle yet linear groove opens up to some excellent Beatles harmonies which utilize a similar focused blend to what appears on the track “Because.” There’s a dreamlike Beach Boys sound to the vocals which sound far off and nostalgic. While the lyrics may sound exceedingly lustrious utilizing romance languages like Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, the Beatles say very little. The song is an inside joke of sorts. They say several words common to tourists and even throw in a Liverpudlian expression, “chicka ferdy,” camouflaging it against Spanish. This isn’t the only time they use puns disguising them in a foreign language. They make a play on the phrase “cake and eat it” replacing it with “que canite.” The song is strewn together gibberish with the sound of exoticism and mystique.
“Mean Mr. Mustard”
Picking up the energy again in the medley is “Mean Mr. Mustard.” The song itself sounds a lot like a Ringo song until about halfway in, one of the only hints to Lennon would be the usage of walk downs. The actual inspiration for the song was a newspaper article about an old man who would hide his money wherever he could so that other people wouldn’t make him spend it.
“Polythene Pam”
Barely noticeable, the medley carries into “Polythene Pam” which is barely distinguishable from the song prior possibly because it’s another Lennon track. A bit more kinetic rock and roll energy reminiscent of the Beatles hangs over the song. The character, Polythene Pam, is a combination of two people. One of their original fans from when they were playing in the Cavern Club had a habit of eating polythene earning her the title of Polythene Pat. The other girl though was named Stephanie who wore a polythene bag and supposedly spent the night with Lennon which he would describe as a near-orgy.
“She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”
Heavy drums carry on the fiery energy of the last track into the next before settling into a gentle buoyant groove. Another overlooked gem on the album, “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” has a very subtle dark helplessness to it, especially on the lines “Didn't anybody tell her?/Didn’t anybody see?” which is incredibly topical because it's about a break-in experienced by McCartney. A teenage girl had placed a ladder leading up to his bathroom window and opened the front door allowing her friends to come in and steal some of his clothing, photographs, and negatives. Nothing truly happened to the girls who broke in having been protected by their “silver spoon” as referenced by Paul. The song is incredibly catchy and shows a mature sound to a generally classic McCartney style of writing.
“Golden Slumbers”
A sweet gentle tune, McCartney references an interpretation of a traditional lullaby. The specific lullaby in question was written by Thomas Dekker in the 17th century but McCartney could not read music when he came across the song in his step-sister’s songbook so he ultimately made his own. This song feels honestly too short because like all the other medley songs, it’s unfinished. McCartney attacks the lullaby turned almost ballad with a certain rock intensity that feels so deeply intimate and emotional.
“Carry That Weight”
“Golden Slumbers” into “Carry That Weight” rival the smooth transition between “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam.” Instead of an entire new section “Carry That Weight” sounds like an overture to “Golden Slumbers” having carried over the piano’s presence especially. The horns add an epic sort of tragicness to the song which is met by an all-too-short guitar solo played by Harrison. The song reflects on the Beatles once their career began to sour. It’s crowded with money, business problems, and the general encumbering weights of stardom as well as serving as an emotional prelude to the breakup of the Beatles which McCartney would later cite as one of the darkest times in his life.
“The End”
A literal title, this is the end of the medley but it was also originally intended to be the end of the album and the end of the Beatles. The song takes on a predominantly instrumental interpretation fit for a final bow, especially with the small solos given to Ringo within it (the only drum solos on any Beatles recording). In many ways it also has some instrumental nods comparable to their earlier works like Rubber Soul and also to some of the pacing in Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band while also returning to that old rock’n’roll sound they initially started with. Ringo also isn’t the only one getting some love, while the guitar solo sounds seamless it’s an interplay between Harrison, Lennon, and McCartney. This anthemic goodbye is also furthered by the last-minute introduction of an orchestra. The lyrics in this song are admittedly spare, having only three lines and yet also say so much. The line "And in the end, the love you make is equal to the love you take” is in a way the perfect dying breath for the band and an ideal send-off.
“Her Majesty”
At first glance, “Her Majesty” is a strangely episodic conclusion to an album that seemingly has a perfect ending. It was originally intended to be placed between “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam” but McCartney didn’t like how it sounded and chose to scrap it. John Kurlander, engineer of the album didn’t want to completely throw it away so he placed it at the end for safekeeping which McCartney ended up liking so it stayed that way. Again it’s another classic Paul song appearance and in a way feels like his personal send-off apart from the band considering the weight of losing the Beatles seemed to affect him the most. It’s short, sweet, and a bit provincial but no doubt has Paul McCartney written all over it.
I was wondering when you would do this one. Love it!