Saturday, January 19, 2008

CD Review: Abbey Road


1) Come Together
2) Something
3) Maxwell's Silver Hammer
4) Oh! Darling
5) Octopus's Garden
6) I Want You
7) Here Comes the Sun
8) Because
9) You Never Give Me Your Money
10) Sun King
11) Mean Mr. Mustard
12) Polythene Pam
13) She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
14) Golden Slumbers, 15) Carry That Weight, 16) The End
17) Her Majesty
In 1969, the Beatles knew it was over. They were ready to go their separate ways. But they wanted to end an era with a bang.
So they made Abbey Road. By now, they were done with psychedelia, and the days of mop tops, matching suits, and low bows were long gone. Abbey Road is chock full of rock classics from the band's final days.
The band's three great songwriters strut their stuff right at the start. After John Lennon's biting rocker "Come Together" comes George Harrison's masterpiece, a beautiful ballad called "Something". Then comes Paul McCartney, pop music's greatest melody-maker, showing us why killing people is funny with the bouncy "Maxwell's Silver Hammer".
And let's not forget about Ringo Starr. He wrote "Octopus's Garden", giving the album a cute little number for the kids. And all throughout the album, his drumming chops are on display.
With too many classic songs to mention and top-notch performances from the Fab Four, Abbey Road is by far the best album of the band's last years. Can you believe that the same band that made Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band made this, another one of the best albums in the history of classic rock? I've said it before and I'll say it again: the Beatles are the greatest band of all time.
****3/4

3 comments:

  1. It should be noted that Let It Be was recorder first. But, good article Ben. It was indeed sad that they could not resolve their differences. They were and still are the greatest. I also heard that Lennon hated the album, cause of the way it was split in half, with the second half being that medley. But either way, I loved it and if you forget about "Her Majesty" then the final song The Beatles did was "The End." The last line goes "And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make." That pretty much sums up their entire message.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, Lennon was loaded on heroin when he made this album, so don't listen to him.:P
    But seriously, this album is SO much better than Let it Be. The weaknesses of that album motivated them to put more effort into this one. I'm glad they did.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh I know I totally agree. Sorry if you miscontrued what I said. Let it Be was a decent album,but nowhere near the greatness of AR. I know that most, if not all of the album was recorded by the band members at diffrent times.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments are valued greatly. Please adhere to the decorum on the "First time here?" page. Comments that are in violation of any of the rules will be deleted without notice.

3/11 Update - No Moderation

*Non-anonymous commenting is preferred to avoid mix-ups. Anonymous comments are, at the behest of management, more likely to be deleted than non-anonymous comments.