Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 176

Record label: Apple

Produced: George Martin

Recorded: Abbey Road, Olympic Sound, Trident Studios, London; February 22–August 20, 1969

Released: September, 26 1969 (UK) Ocotober 1, 1969 (US)

Chart peaks: 1 (UK) 1 (US)

Personnel: John Lennon (v, g, p, o); Paul McCartney (v, b, p, g, d); George Harrison (v, g, syn); Ringo Starr (d); Billy Preston (o)

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

Running time: 47.26

Current CD: Parlophone CDP 7 46446 2

Further listening: Let It Be (1970); Anthology 3 (1997)

Further reading: Revolution In The Head (Ian Macdonald, 1998); Many Years From Now (Barry Miles, 1997); The Beatles As Musicians (Walter Everett, 1999); www.beatles.com

Download: Not currently legally available

The Beatles were falling apart in 1969. The January Get Back sessions (temporarily shelved but later Spectorised and released as Let It Be in May 1970) had been even more miserable than those for the White Album, John Lennon appeared more interested in promoting himself and Yoko as avant-garde peacenik performance artists than his old band, and a dispute over who should take control of The Beatles’ finances saw the group that had represented such an explosion of artistic and spiritual possibilities in the ’60s ending the decade as bitter, feuding businessmen. Even their remarkable producer, the normally unruffled George Martin, had stayed away from the Get Back sessions: ‘I thought, oh gosh, I don’t want to be a part of this anymore.’ So, he was surprised to be asked by Paul to produce a Beatles record ‘like we used to’ but agreed on the condition that he be allowed to produce a polished studio album, which is exactly what he did. With excellent group performances, slick programming and high production values (it’s the best sounding Beatles album) giving the impression of a unified whole, in fact the sessions were as disparate as ever, the band personally uncomfortable with each other, rarely attending the overdubbing sessions of each other’s songs.

‘On Come Together I would have liked to sing harmony with John,’ McCartney said later, ‘but I was too embarrassed to ask him.’ Paul wanted the songs linked together while John wanted each song separate, preferably with all of his on one side; the compromise of separate songs on side one and a medley taking up much of side two was reached. Although Lennon would later talk of he and Paul ‘cutting each other down to size to fit into some kind of format’ as the main artistic reason why The Beatles could no longer continue as a group, it’s also the reason why Abbey Road is such a success. Excesses are mostly curbed, strengths are emphasised. This, combined with Harrison’s two offerings – for the first time, comparable to Lennon’s and McCartney’s (Frank Sinatra sang Something throughout the ’70s, famously calling it ‘the greatest love song of the last 50 years’) – make Abbey Road a heartbreakingly fitting epitaph. Get a certain kind of music fan of a certain age in a certain mood and he’ll tell you that pop music was all downhill from here.