Nick Hoad

Once again, I find myself compelled to write a little introductory paragraph prior to listening to the album, because the Beatles are so enduringly popular and I’ve never quite been able to understand why. I’ve been told many times about the cultural phenomenon that gripped the world in the 1960s, but it’s impossible to really know what that was like given my age. The fact that this is late-era Beatles will help, as I’ve always found that material better than their early works. See you on the other side.

Forty-seven and a half minutes later…

Abbey Road is an album of two halves: romance and nonsense. Many songs have a foot in both camps, but all of them feature at least one of the two. In general, I think the nonsense is better; it’s more unique and interesting to listen to than the hackneyed schmaltz of songs like Something, and sets the Beatles apart from other artists. The strange, surreal nature of the nonsense side was a bit off-putting at first, but it grew on me over time. Perhaps this was because Come Together was the very first song and I hadn’t had time to get used to it yet, but I think it’s mainly because, unlike the other nonsense songs, Come Together doesn’t even begin to make sense. The others have narratives, or at least the suggestions thereof, but Come Together steadfastly does not. It struck me as the kind of song that will have people will scrambling to find hidden meanings, despite the the obvious meaninglessness of it.

Speaking of striking, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’s a bit dark isn’t it? There’s a gleeful mischief about it, the lyrics and music perfectly at odds with each other. Part of the entertainment came from the shock value, the Beatles of all bands coming along with a song about three different people’s heads getting smashed in took me by complete surprise. I really enjoyed it.

And then we come to I Want You (She’s So Heavy), the worst song I’ve encountered on this journey so far by a country mile. It’s a truly egregious example of a long song that fails to justify its length, alternating between two equally dull sections that seem to simply repeat themselves, verbatim, for the best part of eight minutes. Most of the lyrics come from the title. Absolutely dreadful.

It’s a good thing Here Comes The Sun is around to get things back on track. The cover by Jacob Collier is the version of this with which I’m most familiar, but the original stands as one of, if not the best songs on the album. It’s not profound by any means but it’s just *nice*. It’s timeless and infectiously optimistic, and there’s a reason it’s been remembered by the world at large longer than many of the other songs from Abbey Road. It also happens to be thematically appropriate; at time of writing the UK is on the precipice of a major heatwave so the words “here comes the sun” are more of a warning than a celebration.

The last section of the album is described on Wikipedia as a medley. What that seems to actually mean is that several mostly disparate songs were recorded as one long track, and then split into a few too many parts later on. Tracks 11-13 are clearly one song, as are tracks 14 and 15. Track 16, The End, is different, but the ending of 15, Carry That Weight, goes directly into the beginning of it as though it were the same song, for seemingly no reason. It’s not a fade, it’s a hard switch, but it’s clear that they didn’t stop in between them. John Lennon himself wasn’t a fan of this section and said it was “just bits of songs thrown together”, and I have to say, I agree with him. The bits themselves aren’t bad, but they feel embryonic and underdeveloped. It seems like a sketchbook of ideas with potential, rather than any of them being cultivated properly.

I began this review by commenting that I’ve never understood Beatlemania. I still don’t. Everyone says that Abbey Road is so amazingly brilliant and I just don’t get it. Did people find and distribute the Beatles’ stash of drugs? Is there an emotional depth to the mainly meaningless lyrics that everyone else experiences and I, for some reason, can’t? Or is it simply the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia kicking in again? Whatever the case, bar a select few songs, Abbey Road really didn’t work for me.

Favourite Song: Maxwell’s Silver Hammer

Next Time: AC/DC – Back In Black

And just as a little afterthought, it really annoys me that everyone on the cover is walking left-foot-first, except Paul for some reason. Inconsequential as far as the music’s concerned but irritating nonetheless.