Abbey Road

Side Two

Images

• CD Cover: from The Beatles CDography
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• Back cover of the British LP, from Pepperland.
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• Original photo used to make the back cover. A curiosity from Pepperland.
  

This was the last Beatles album to be recorded.

This was also the first time The Beatles used synthesizers. (Some people say that it was also the first time a pop/rock group used that instrument). They can be heard in Here Comes the Sun and also Because.

A famous characteristic of this album are the two medleys on side 2: the first from You Never Give Me Your Money to She Came In Through The Bathroom Window and the other embracing Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and The End.
The medleys weren't actually recorded as single pieces. Only Sun King-Mean Mr.Mustard and Golden Slumbers-Carry That Weight were recorded together, the others were recorded separately and later crossfaded.

There is also a "hidden track" (today, on CD, not so "hidden"): Her Majesty. It was supposed to be on the first medley, between Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam, but was later removed, and finally placed 30 seconds after the end of The End. The edit was done badly, so it begins with a chord that belonged to Mean Mr.Mustard, and its own final chord was cut.
The first UK pressings of the album didn't feature it neither on the cover nor on the disc label, but it was added on later editions - but not in Brazil (see below).

The Cover

The cover of Abbey Road is, along with Sgt. Pepper's one, the most famous of The Beatles, and like that, used as a symbol of the group and copied many times.
The crosswalk, actually placed on Abbey Road in London, is a landmark for most Beatlefans that go there just to take a picture across the street.
This cover also presented new clues for the "Paul Is Dead" myth: The Beatles seems to be in a funeral processional, in which Paul, on bare feet, is the dead. Also the Volkswagen on the left has the license plate LMW 28 IF, which someone associated to the fact that "IF" Paul were alive he would be 28...
Many years after, Paul McCartney parodied the cover in his album "Paul Is Live", this time he crosses the street alone with his sheepdog (and wearing shoes!), and the VW plate is 51 IS, telling that he "IS" alive and is 51...

International Differences

The medleys were always banded (the tracks were separated on the LP).

Her Majesty doesn't appear on any track listing before the remastered edition. But it was always there on the disc, and separated from The End.

Some later pressings of the non-remastered album (in the 80's) have Carry That Weight and The End not separated and then Her Majesty, separated. (Someone at EMI-Odeon may have thought that the first two were just Carry That Weight, and Her Majesty was The End...)

Remastered Differences

The main difference is the inclusion of Her Majesty on the track list. But as the LP cover wasn't changed, it still doesn't feature it, although the disc label does. On CD it appears on all track lists.

More Information:

Only Some Northern Songs (E.Cabrera)
Beatles CDography (M.Rolig)