THE COVER OF THE ABBEY ROAD ALBUM
Posted on 09/27/2019 9:12:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Mark Kramer is a huge Beatles fan. Just hours after stepping off his overnight flight from Florida to London, he is not bleary-eyed but brimming with energy as he savors his time at the world's best-known pedestrian crossing.
Beside the streaks of white paint that mark the zebra crossing on Abbey Road -- a site protected since 2010 for its cultural and historical importance -- he rattles off Beatles facts, talks about the band's musical journey and grows ever more excited.
Kramer, 40, is here because of "Abbey Road," the seminal album the band released on September 26, 1969 -- 50 years ago Thursday.
Named after the street where it was recorded, it got mixed critical reviews but was an immediate commercial hit, topping the charts in the UK for 17 weeks and the US for 11, and selling 4 million copies in just six weeks.
It would prove to be the last studio album the group made together ("Let it Be," which came out in 1970, had already been recorded), as John Lennon had broken the news to his fellow band members that he was leaving shortly before its release.
To mark the special occasion, an anniversary edition of "Abbey Road" will be re-released on September 27. Produced by Giles Martin, whose father, George, was the Beatles' friend and producer, it will contain out-takes and additional material.
Giles Martin told CNN that his father thought that "Abbey Road" would be the group's final album. He added: "I think they (The Beatles) knew things were changing. I think they were looking for a way out and they had all become more individual. Because creative people want to be creative and they all wanted to do different things."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Been there done that. My ex was almost run over.
I did mine too. It’s a very busy street!!
Greatest album ever!
Most overrated band in history
'COME TOGETHER'
"Come Together" heralds the more song-focused first side on Abbey Road, as Lennon transformed an idea he'd originally written for Timothy Leary's failed gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. Leary, who was name-checked while attending Lennon's bed-in for peace earlier in the summer, ended up in jail on possession charges. That opened the door for Lennon to take back his song. He originally envisioned it as a Chuck Berry-style rocker, even directly referencing "here come old flat-top" from his 1956 hit "You Can't Catch Me." Paul McCartney suggested they slow things down as a way of differentiating things, leading the way with a swampy, mixed-forward bass line. Unfortunately, that didn't mollify Berry's publisher. Morris Levy sued, saying the two songs were still too similar. They settled out of court, with Lennon agreeing to record a batch of Levy-owned songs that became 1975's covers-focused
Nope. That would be the Stones.
People still listen to their crap?! The Beatles are probably the most overrated band ever.
I will concede though - "Got to get you into my life" is kinda of a jam.
Well, they are a bit cynical. Good product for the Ministry of Propaganda.
'SOMETHING'
The original studio version of this George Harrison song ended up stretching to nearly eight minutes, before a four-chord coda led by Lennon at the piano was excised. Lennon later sped up the same pattern to create the foundation on "Remember" for his 1970 solo album Plastic Ono Band. By then, Harrison had scored his first-ever A-side chart-topping single, a sign that the Beatles' other songwriter had officially come into his own. "For the first time," engineer Geoff Emerick later told Music Radar, "John and Paul knew that George had risen to their level." Joe Cocker – who'd already had a U.K. No. 1 hit with the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" – actually made the first pass at "Something," based on Harrison's original demo. His version wasn't released until after Abbey Road was already on store shelves. "Something" went on to became the second-most covered Beatles tune, after "Yesterday."
'HERE COMES THE SUN'
Harrison had endured a brutal winter marked by the collapse of the Let It Be project, a drug bust and increasingly contentious business meetings; then suddenly the first signs of spring arrived. "'Here Comes the Sun' was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: 'Sign this' and 'sign that,'" Harrison said in his autobiography I Me Mine. "So, one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton's house. The relief of not having to go and see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric's acoustic guitars and wrote 'Here Comes the Sun.'" They'd grown close over the previous months, as Clapton sat in on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and Harrison returned the favor on Cream's hit "Badge." Harrison completed that skeletal arrangement with more sounds from the then-new Moog synthesizer; Lennon, who was recovering from a car accident, isn't featured on this song.
I remember standing in line at the record store in the mall. I think it was a Listening Booth store. There was a life size cardboard cut out of the album cover in the store and two whole tables of Abbey Road albums for sale. My cousin bought two,me and my brother both bought just one each. Some folks in line had 5 or more they were buying. Great times for great music!
Speaking of music...take your socks off...or this will knock them off...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ST9TZBb9v8&list=RD1ST9TZBb9v8&start_radio=1&t=2
Do you or anybody know (or has Sir Paul himself explained ),why he was walking barefoot in the cover?
Abbey Road right now (it’s raining in London)
https://www.earthcam.com/world/england/london/abbeyroad/?cam=abbeyroad_uk
Paul was s stinkin’ hippy that’s why.
The last good album by the Stones was Some Girls. They’ve cashed in on their legacy ever since.
The Beatle’s music has universal appeal across generations of people, as we see from this story.
There is a lot of great Rock music, but after seeing the current state of music, it’s clear nobody else can, or will match the Beatles.
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