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(c) Ian Hammond 1999
All rights reserved

Abbey Road 

It is said that the Beatles were no virtuosos. Untrue, untrue. This
album reveals their utter mastery of the instrument they pioneered and
exploited to the limit: the pop rock recording studio. Their ability
to remain (mostly) within the bounds of a simple rock combo, and yet
discover and explore new sonic frontiers on each new major album is
their astounding achievement. Virtuosos.

Lennon and Harrison, in particular, returned from India full of beans,
both reapplying themselves to learning the guitar; a process which was
enriched by the countless hours of live playing on Let It Be, right
on time for Abbey Road, where their individual and ensemble skills
go another step forward. McCartney and Starr were with them all the
way.

What is amazing is how much of this album could be performed live by
the four Beatles, perhaps with a keyboard addition. It is what they
play that makes this album rock polyphony, in the true sense of the
word. Martin and Emerick returned to the fold to see this last album
out the door.


Come Together
Seeded by a line from a Chuck Berry song, Lennon's last self-portrait,
as the thoroughly modern Beatle, is also a homage to the master.
Timeless hip and a benchmark test for what can be done with two
guitars, a keyboard, bass and drums, with each Beatle contributing
flawless taste to a shared aesthetic. 

The point is simple: it's a long way from an early Chuck Berry rock
'n' roll to late Beatle rock. But it's almost no distance to travel at
all. The same instruments, playing only marginally different parts.
And yet two completely different worlds. Come Together abstracts
Chuck Berry.


Something
George Harrison defeats his own demons in a song that represents
triumph over himself, and some of his beast friends. From the first
note to the last, Harrison is in total control, producing a flawless
homage to Ray Charles and presenting himself as a very visible singer.

The song builds on all his strengths, in particular his sense of song
architecture. It has the most passionate of Beatles' bridges and an
exquisite solo which shows him untying that other arm from behind his
back. Something is Harrison's Classic. 


Maxwell's Silver Hammer
A simple song with a simple setting, the last of McCartney's
applications of rock to pre-fifties pop music. As usual a professional
performance with most of the tricks of the trade being applied to this
Daring Young Men In Their Flying Machines type song.

Apart from a risque lyric and avant garde anvil, it is the lead guitar
that catches my eye, played above the solid piano/bass/drums band
track, with rhythm guitar joining only for the chorus. It's the
instrumental sections that do it for me and the closing Silver Hammer
Man.


Oh! Darling
McCartney's tribute to the fifties performed by the band's basic combo
with Lennon on smashing right hand piano. Only the peerless (one man?)
harmonies would have problems being replicated in a live performance.
Don't forget to listen to what the drummer does.

The verses represent the broad repose of Fats Domino on Blueberry
Hill. This is doo wop heaven people.

The bridges are, of course, totally demented. This identifiable form
of Little Richard vocal insanity was McCartney's realm alone, but
Harrison and Lennon match him instrumental. McCartney's cathartic last
verse makes it all worthwhile, particularly the tailored doo wop
section telling us we've just been somewhere.


Octopus's Garden
Ringo makes it just past the post to become a true fourth Beatle
songwriter. Writing a song is easy. Creating one to fit an image is
more difficult. Starr achieves that here with a song that fits his
Yellow Submarine image. The Beatle that kids love. And we're all
kids.

It's all so effortless. Lennon decides to turn his favorites Dear
Prudence pattern into a pop rock rhythm part. Harrison becomes a
fount of country picking knowledge. A bit of three part harmony in the
chorus and a jangle piano. Next song please.

The Beatles last great opportunity to goon it up in a bridge
instrumental that features Speedy Gonzales and Lennon blowing bubbles.
And Harrison's stinging guitar solo (love the light chording at the
return). Harrison stars throughout the song.


I Want You
Lennon's favored mode of expression was music, but his best instrument
was his mind. While McCartney and Harrison are superb musicians with,
perhaps, more emotional depth than John, it is Lennon who has a simply
unfathomable mind which constantly amazes us, even at the conceptual
level before the song starts. We don't all always enjoy the results,
particularly when the author's goal is to use a battery of device to
make us feel ill at ease and unsettled.

I Want You is Lennon's biggest (Beatle) song. Seven minutes of pain
and fear. The conundrum is that the song is based on his shortest
text: I want you. If you like, the song explores Lennon's death
march vision of the extraordinary ramifications and consequences of
those three words: I Want You. Forever. Totally. Without
Reservation.

Musically, we have another homage, this time to the slow rock blues in
the Minor mode. Songs like Well, or House Of The Rising Sun.
Again, the Beatles show us what can be done with essentially a
straight rock combination. Lennon demonstrates his ability to rise way
above the occasion with his legendary talking lead guitar and solo.

The vision of the closing procession is staggering. Lennon marches off
into eternity, stern, ravaged by the winds of time. He sounds like
he's in pain, said my young son Randy a few years ago. The master
stroke is to add the swirling white noise from the Moog.

Lennon explored this Wagnerian slowing of the musical moment in his
solo career extensively. Lennon's vision thing: it's art folks.


Here Comes The Sun
What I truly admire about the Beatles is the way they could keep it
simple, or, go back to being simple. Here Comes The Sun is yet
another homage, this time to the other essential master of rock, Buddy
Holly, translated here into the world of Classical Gas.

Ironically, it was Harrison who was fulfilling all George Martin's
wildest dreams on this last album, every track a potential single
A-side, and the best polyphonic rock money could buy.

Harrison's guitar part is peerless. I guess I'm repeating myself, but
I really get knocked out by his strumming between the picking
everytime I hear the song. The bridge, built out of almost nothing,
ends up going places no other Beatle song has ever explored.

Yet another triumphant last verse. An album full of them.


Because
Beethoven or Doo Wop? It's Lennon's vision thing again that provides
the Beatles with their ultimate vehicle for three part harmony. 

Ostensibly dedicated to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, this poetic
work is an exercise in stasis, of perfect poise and minimal movement.
About as far removed from the deliberate irritation programmed into I
Want You as you can get, while sharing the same style of arpeggio
figure (yet another guitar part for Lennon to rise to the occasion).

Lennon's perfect egg and the Beatles last complete recording. It was
no use him writing this kind of material after he left the band. Who
was to perform it?


The First Medley
Written in Happiness form, this song is just as successful in taking
a disparate group of fragments and forming a seamless whole.

You Never Give Me Your Money -- This in-your-face lullaby view of
his disintegrating world opens the medleys that, on paper, has many
Lennon characteristics. A long intro, nonsense words, Happiness
design. But it's Macca and he's feeling philosophical.

Out Of College -- back to the fifties with a straight Boogie acting
as a booster intro to:

Magic Feeling -- he asks where it's gone, and then pulls it out a
hat, with those great harmonies, Harrison's chiming guitar, and is
that Johnny playing those baritone guitar bits (a little like I need
a fix)?

Link -- a guitar duet, climbing up to a pattern not unlike the intro
to Like Dreamers Do, falling into:

One Sweet Dream -- an excuse to use something close to the Walrus
chords. The bridge is an early performance by Wings. Yes it did to my
surprise goes down as one of his better outbursts. A sketch for
Maybe I'm Amazed.

Outro -- The dream takes us back to the lullaby that opened the song,
where we all go to heaven. Tinkling bells have us fall into:


Sun King
The sounds of a deep South American jungle introduce to one of those
dry hot days where nothing seems to move. Not even the leaves on the
trees. This perfectly executed soundscape doesn't go much beyond the
basic combo, organ and choir. 

Keep your ear on the bass and especially the drums all the way
through. It's the organ and harmony that make the Sun King's entrance
so noble. But on arrival we find he is a colorful birdlike creature
surrounded by quietly chanting peasants.


Second Medley
The second medley is a series of short vignettes, that at the same
time provide a rocky center to the pie being baked.

Mean Mister Mustard -- Isn't Mustard, like, in-your-face, up-yours
darling?. And we all know he never stuck the ten bob note up his nose.
The band love it and it shows. McCartney's harmony above Lennon's lead
vocal is a real bonus.

Her Majesty -- Well, this is where it was originally planned to go,
and follows from Mustard which talks of seeing the queen. Macca
plays a convincing guitar, using the same little trick he uses on
Rocky.

Polythene Pam -- Time to rock, energized by Lennon's stunning rhythm
guitar. I can never imagine him standing still while playing on this
track. 

Solo and Link -- The rhythm guitar updates Bo Diddley as we have
something much more of a 1963 fit for the guitar solo. We're rocking
and its time to make a gift of the tempo to McCartney with that
sinister descender. Oh Lookout indeed.

She Came In Through The Bathroom Window -- it doesn't get much
better than this on bass, drums and two guitars. What is apparent is
the independence of the parts, and the ensemble. The rhythm guitar and
lead both drive me insane. For the third time on the album, McCartney
uses perfect doo wop harmony to help out with the last verse.


Third Medley
To sleep, perchance to dream? McCartney's two medleys are both about
sleeping and dreaming. Perhaps we're just a little weary of carrying
that weight. Life was not easy for a 1969 Beatle, but he expresses it
eloquently, without regret and with love. Let's put on our Sunday
best, polish the shoes and go out with a bang brothers.

Golden Slumbers -- McCartney's treatment of an ancient lyric, and
his second lullaby around the chords a-d-G-C on the album. Not much
more than piano, drums and bass and a vehicle for McCartney's
passionate chorus. One of the few times we notice Martin's score.

Carry That Weight -- McCartney is being autobiographical again and
we notice how Starr's voice always stands out in a crowd, be it here
or on Hey Jude. This is how Give Peace A Chance might have sounded
as a Beatlesong.

You Never You Give Me Your Money"/"Carry That Weight -- The reprise
rounds of the body of the album proper. But as on Pepper, the
message comes after the last curtain. 

But we're starting to get blase here. Just reeling of one song after
another. Let's rewind to the reprise of Money... and treat what
comes after as an extended introduction to The End. 


The End -- The Beatles say goodbye with solos from each of them.
Starting on the flimsiest of evidence we fall into to Starr's classic
and only recorded drum solo. Simplicity itself, and a fitting tribute
to the man who changed rock 'n' roll drumming. Hear how he remains
supercharged as the guitar players pick up their axes.

In my dreams I hear the three distinct guitar solos as one, or as
three aspects of the one voice. It's a very big guitar I hear. But
they're all grown up now folks, and its time to go out and get a real
job, which is what McCartney's closing Shakespearian couplet seems to
be telling us.


And Then There Were None
Pepper, The White Album and Abbey Road -- all monumental works
where the Beatles drive in the piles of a career that keeps every
album they ever made available in any reputable record store all
around the world. No wonder seventeen year olds can't buy the White
Album -- it's still being sold at full price thirty years on.

Listening the Beatles' albums like going to the olympics and seeing an
athlete double the height of the high jump every four years. It's
Michaelangelo. It's Beethoven. It's Njinksky. It's the Beatles.