Abbey Road in 1969 was the last Beatles album on which the Fab Four recorded together. By then, deep creative and personal differences had set in, and the album would be more of a gear-straining collection of solo efforts than four shoulders against the wheel. At work on their 11th studio album at Abbey Road Studios between February and August 1969, the Beatles had done it all and seen it all. Collaborative exhaustion had set in. In fact, the band had become so successful that they were detached from the culture they helped start back in 1964.
Giving up touring in 1966 to become studio musicians was a necessity, a self-imposed exile. Their outsized fame dwarfed Hollywood standards and had sparked a dangerous mania. For better or worse, the vacuum they left in the rock-concert marketplace was quickly filled by artists such as the Rolling Stones, Cream, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, the Byrds, the Kinks and Pink Floyd. Abbey Road would be the Beatles' final moan before members went their separate ways. Let It Be arrived in 1970, but much of the material predated the recording of Abbey Road. The title said it all.
Now, 50 years after Abbey Road's recording and release, Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe has issued a super-deluxe three-album edition featuring the original 17 tracks newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo, high resolution stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos. There also are 23 session recordings and demos, most of which are previously unreleased. Other album configurations include a three-LP box, a deluxe two-CD set, and a standard one-CD and one-LP edition. Do yourself a favor and buy the three-CD super-deluxe edition. The extras are well worth the extra cost.
In retrospect, the Abbey Road album is something of a CAT scan of the Beatles' collective soul, with all of its weariness, frustration and boredom. Revisiting the music, you sense they were fairly fed up with each other's quirks, sour on George Martin's heavily orchestrated vision, weary of studio cabin fever, and angry about not being in the forefront of social change. They were apolitical at a time when taking a stand was part of the music's ethos.
I was never a fan of Abbey Road. When the album came out, my family had just moved to the suburbs of New York. The Beatles' breakup became news just as our moving boxes were torn open. Most 13-year-olds I befriended skipped the album and rarely put it on once they owned it. Same here. Even at 13, I felt the album was a low-energy, unfocused collection of singles and transitional music-hall montages housed on an album that lacked kick or cohesiveness. It was foreign and clearly about personal issues that kids my age knew little about. The cover should have been stamped, "It's complicated."
Listening again today, the original tracks still fail to lift me. But the bonus material is another matter entirely. These 23 tracks make up a fascinating drone-like fly-over of a sprawling construction site. What's fascinating is that the album's songs actually sound better in their early roughed-up form than the glossy finished product. Which made me realize what I didn't like about Abbey Road to begin with. It was too polished, too inside and earnest. The coarseness of the bonus tracks along with the experimental intros (Maxwell's Hammer, Because), the pep (Come and Get It) and drill-downs (the string parts on take 39 of Something and take 17 of Golden Slumbers-Carry That Weight) exhibit none of the dreary melancholy found on the album's processed master tracks. Instead, the early material still bears the joy of creation and the magic of discovery. [Photo of Ringo and George playing George's moog synthesizer]
In May 1970, months after Abbey Road's release, the Beatles released Let It Be. The album felt like something flung from the window of a getaway car. The Beatles had broken up a month earlier, and the album was a farewell letter without an apology. From Two of Us to Get Back, the songs on Let It Be were a tour de force of simplicity. By then, my life in the country had become much simpler. I finally had my own room, and there were lawns, paths through thick woods, wild animals, streams and pitch black nights and dead quiet. Riding around on my green Sting-ray bike, Let It Be made complete sense. A new chapter had begun, and Let It Be was a more suitable soundtrack. [Photo of John at an Abbey Road session]
Long and winding road. Here's a clip taken by Mary McCartney on her phone of her dad crossing Abbey Road in London last year...
JazzWax tracks: You'll find the Abbey Road Anniversary Super Deluxe edition here.
JazzWax clips: Here's Giles Martin, George Martin's son, on the Abbey Road project...
Here's the studio demo of Something...
Here's the strings instrumental part to Something scored by George Martin...
And here's the newly mixed Something from the 50th anniversary album...
