Beatles

You can't fully grasp the meaning of "Abbey Road" without first knowing what lies behind this album, how it was produced, under what conditions and above all in what state of mind the four lads from Liverpool were in. It's the last work by the Beatles; "Let It Be", as everyone knows, came out afterwards, but it stems from recordings made before the "Abbey Road" sessions.

The Beatles are more than close to breaking up: John Lennon is by now a loose cannon, almost completely detached from the band's reality, George Harrison is producing experimental records ("Wonderwall Music" and "Electronic Sound"), and Starr is absorbed in his new love, cinema; the only one still showing a bit of cohesive spirit and initiative is Paul McCartney, who pushes the others to get back into the studio once again (not least because they had a contract to honor with EMI); production duties will once again fall to George Martin, who this time will make sure to avoid the memorable rows that marked the sessions for the White Album and Twickenham.

The signs weren't good, and could have been the prelude to the recording of a tired, repetitive, banal album with no ideas — but that's not how it turned out. Paradoxically, the Beatles would be present together in the studio at the same time only a handful of times during the recording sessions, mostly just to lay down the rhythm tracks; most of the work on "Abbey Road" was done individually, with each member overdubbing their own parts. To understand the kind of atmosphere within the group, suffice it to say that Lennon wanted to put his songs on side A and McCartney's on side B. Despite this, it would turn out to be more of a group album than the White Album had been: even though the Beatles physically worked alone for much of it, the final result doesn't betray the fragmented way the work was carried out.

The album opens with "Come Together", Lennon's now-classic track that he would go on to perform live at every one of his concerts in the years to come: a dark atmosphere, exalted basslines and a total absence of high tones, with excellent work from Starr on drums; Lennon whispers "shoot me", which sends a chill down our spines when we think of what would happen 11 years later; the lyrics are a summation of the styles Lennon adopted throughout his career, layering biographical elements with nonsense, metaphors and wordplay. Next comes "Something", perhaps the most beautiful song Harrison ever wrote, and one of the best the Beatles ever recorded: it's a love story, performed with exquisite tenderness and precision; worth highlighting is the bassline, which — in this writer's opinion — ranks among the most beautiful in the history of pop and rock music.

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" was the source of bitter disagreement between McCartney, its author, and Lennon; the former considered it worthy of being a single, while the latter simply detested it. The lyrics are unpretentious, and the track is lightweight if well arranged, featuring the Moog synthesizer — invented only a few months earlier — which drives the solo. The Beatles would use the Moog very sparingly and intelligently, thus avoiding the overuse that plagued almost every other musician of the era. "Oh! Darling" carries a parodic effect and clear references, both musically and lyrically, to 1950s songs; McCartney was extremely meticulous in recording the vocal part, which he overdubbed dozens of times.

The second and final Beatles song credited to Richard Starkey is "Octopus's Garden": cheerful and carefree, it tells of an undersea world, and seems to echo the unreal atmospheres (nothing is real) of "Yellow Submarine", also sung by Starr three years earlier. The idea for the song apparently came, of all things, from octopuses off the coast of Sardinia (!), which built little gardens by gathering shiny objects on the seabed. "I Want You", at 7'51", is the longest song the Beatles ever recorded (aside from "Revolution 9"); it was mixed in August 1969, the last time the Fab Four were all together in the recording studio; it's a love song, unmistakably dedicated to Yoko Ono. Built around very few lines, it shows the new direction Lennon was taking as a songwriter: it's a dark, unsettling blues, whose coda consists of a guitar arpeggio repeated many times over; considerable difficulty was involved in inserting the "wind effect" at the end of the track (no electronic effects existed at the time); the song cuts off abruptly mid-bar, creating a kind of blackout effect; end of side A (we're talking about the vinyl LP, of course).

In response to those who could no longer see anything innovative in the Beatles' music, side B of "Abbey Road" presented new and revolutionary elements. It's made up almost entirely of a medley, a series of songs all linked together as if they were a single track. It was essentially an idea of McCartney and George Martin (who personally oversaw and directed all the orchestral arrangements), while Lennon showed no interest in the project and never hid his dislike for the medley, but nonetheless contributed several songs to its creation.

It begins with "Here Comes The Sun", an acoustic track with minimal but perfectly matched lyrics and music, revealing George Harrison's golden period, one too often overshadowed by the Lennon/McCartney partnership. With "Because" the actual medley begins: it's a Lennon song, built on the same chords as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, but in reverse order; the lyrics are oddly clear, with no metaphors, no obscure references. Next comes McCartney's "You Never Give Me Your Money": the lyrics are clearly autobiographical, dealing with the disastrous financial state of Apple; the track can be seen as a suite made up of three sections that are only seemingly independent; different stories and moods intertwine, hinting at an escape from that reality. "Sun King" and the following "Mean Mr Mustard" are instead the work of Lennon: the first revisits his classic brand of nonsense with lines of Italian and Spanish (even featuring a "paparazzi" straight out of Fellini), while the second was inspired by a real person. Also by Lennon is the following "Polythene Pam", sister to "Mr Mustard", likewise inspired by a real person and sung with a broad Liverpudlian accent. Next comes McCartney's "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", likely inspired by an incident in which a fan broke into his home; the language, rich in imagery with a vaguely surreal quality, brings us back to the atmosphere of "Sgt. Pepper". The following "Golden Slumbers", a typical McCartney piano ballad, is marked by gorgeous string and horn arrangements, superbly conducted by George Martin. "Carry That Weight" bursts in without warning, blending into the previous song's lyrics: the words work as a metaphor, with the author describing his reluctant role as leader, while a reprise of the lines from "You Never Give Me Your Money" reinforces the meaning of what came before. "The End", again by McCartney, is in spirit the final track of the Beatles' last album: it opens with an instrumental section, preceded by the only drum solo Ringo Starr ever recorded in his career (for obvious reasons...); it's pure rock'n'roll, with distorted guitars and a fast tempo, as if the Beatles wanted to give us one last performance tous ensemble before saying goodbye, which arrives wrapped in a bed of strings and a gorgeous guitar line underscoring the song's single verse — their artistic testament, which Lennon called a cosmic, philosophical line: "...and in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make".

After 16 seconds of silence comes what we would today call a "ghost track": it's "Her Majesty", an irreverent yet good-natured portrait of the Queen of England, showing how much the Beatles' attitude toward the political establishment had changed since they'd been awarded the MBE back in 1965. It can be called a ghost track because this final piece, originally part of the medley before being cut, wasn't listed on the sleeve credits. The title would only appear on later reissues.

The album was originally meant to be called "Everest", after a brand of cigarettes smoked by sound engineer Geoff Emerick, but as is well known, by that point the drive to take on new projects had completely run out, so since nobody had the energy or the time to travel to the Himalayas for the cover photos, it was decided — far more economically — to shoot them on the pedestrian crossing on Abbey Road, right outside the studios where the Beatles had recorded for eight years, making it one of the most famous crosswalks in the world.

According to many, "Abbey Road" is the best Beatles album, or second only to "Sgt. Pepper". It's undeniable that it's a magnificently produced album: it conveys intense, refined feelings and atmospheres, completely absent from the "White Album". It's a unified work despite its fragmented nature. Even while physically apart, the Beatles set aside their individual self-interest and put their respective talents to work for the sake of a unified whole. McCartney reaches full maturity as a composer and arranger; Lennon, despite his indifference to the project, delivers gems crucial to the album's success; Harrison is at the peak of a creative outburst and contributes two magnificent songs; Starr shows noticeable improvement, less in technique than in arrangement, which is more varied and articulate.

The Beatles are the Beatles: even when apart, they influence one another, forming a hotbed of ideas and experiences; the Lennon-McCartney duality is the necessary condition for the machine to keep running, even if it will ultimately lead to the group's breakup. "Abbey Road" represents the peak of an arc that took the light-hearted, cheeky Beatles of the early years to the height of experimentation reached in 1967/1968, and then saw them return to placing greater importance on melody, without giving up the influences gathered from their past experience — thus creating a true masterpiece.

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27/10/2006