Growing up on Long island, a vinyl copy of this album somehow made its way from our neighbor’s basement into our living room and never left. We spent many weekend afternoons as a family listening to Abbey Road on the turntable when there wasn’t much else to do (Internet and cell phones had not yet been invented). Like many, I know every note of this record. If you can own only one Beatles studio album, this is the one. So what are you waiting for? Find yourself a copy immediately!
Abbey Road is a celebration of the Fab Four’s ten-year ride as the decade’s- and the world’s- most popular group and a fitting farewell to their fans (who were now starting families of their own). Among all the Beatles’ albums, Abbey Road has a unique warmth. I especially enjoy the modern sounds (modern for 1969) of songs like “Come Together” and “Something” that foreshadowed what was to come in the ‘70s musically. And, as annoying as McCartney-penned Beatles’ songs can be (on this album we get “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and “Oh! Darling”), they are good-natured fun and can still run circles around anything acts like Pavement, Magnetic Fields, or Beck ever accomplished in their entire careers.
Love it or hate, I think Side 2 of Abbey Road is still the most gratifying 20 minutes of music in the history of rock, and “The End” contains the group’s final message to the world: “And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” And then McCartney tacks on a stupid song about the queen. But Paul was the band’s hitmaker and that’s probably why the other three put up with him for so many years. Beatles have to eat, too. On their own, none of them ever got this good again- including McCartney. Grade: A+
Listen to the album on Spotify...
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