Music Review by Bill Rendall

Abbey Road - The Beatles

It appeared that the Beatles were finished as a band following the disappointing recording sessions later released as the Let it Be album. Fortunately they were able to regroup and put their differences aside long enough to record the great final album Abbey Road.

When Abbey Road was recorded the Beatles had fully matured both as songwriters and musicians. The Beatles were not guitar heroes like some of their contemporaries such as Eric Clapton but the lead guitar work in 'The End' is as good as anything you will ever hear. McCartney, Lennon and George Harrison all trade guitar licks in their own distinctive style in what sounds like a spontaneous jam.

Harrison wrote a number of songs during the time the Beatles were together but he was always in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney. With Abbey Road he came up with the song 'Something' which would be rated as highly as anything the Beatles had done. Even Ringo Starr contributed a reasonable song with 'Octopus's Garden.'

There is no doubting the brilliance of much of the Beatles' music but their albums included some misfires too. This was due in part to the eclectic musical styles they employed.

All four band members took turns singing lead vocals. Lennon and McCartney were both great singers and both deserved the opportunity to display their talents. Harrison was an adequate singer but was not in the same league as Lennon and McCartney. Allowing Ringo to sing on the Beatle albums was a nice thing to do but was not the best way to present the music. Joe Cocker took full advantage of the opportunity to record 'With a Little Help from My Friends' with a more emotional vocal treatment.

The members of the Beatles didn't restrict themselves to a single instrumental role in the band. McCartney in particular played a wide range of instruments. They all played keyboards at times and Harrison also played the sitar. They also used extra musicians on occasion, notably using classical musicians in novel arrangements for rock music.

The style of some of McCartney's songs owes more to vaudeville than rock. These songs may have worked well as singles but often detracted from the quality of the Beatles' albums. Some of Lennon's songs were too experimental. His worse excess in this vein was the musical collage 'Revolution 9' from the White album which sounded more like Stockhausen than the Beatles. Mercifully Lennon found outlets for his experimental music outside of the Beatles in the band's later years.

Unfortunately Abbey Road contains a McCartney vaudeville style song in 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer.' This blemish aside the album sounds to me like a unified whole played by a working rock band. This is ironic considering that the band was disintegrating at the time the album was recorded. The long medley at the end of the album was very cleverly put together. Of particular interest is the use of sound effects as a segue between 'You Never Give Me Your Money' and 'Sun King.' This technique was extensively used a few years later by Pink Floyd on their classic album Dark Side of the Moon. Perhaps it is no coincidence that Alan Parsons was an engineer on this album as well as on Abbey Road.

Abbey Road was one of the first albums to feature the Moog synthesizer. The Beatles used the synthesizer subtly to enhance the music rather than going overboard with this new toy. It is most prominent in 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' and 'Because.'

'Because' is also noteworthy for it's beautiful three part vocal harmony. It is a timeless classic and was still effective when used decades later on the soundtrack for the movie American Beauty.

'The End' would have been a great finish to the last album recorded by the Beatles. Unfortunately this position in history was stolen by a little bit of McCartney nonsense called 'Her Majesty.' This song was originally part of the long medley but was cut out because McCartney didn't like it. Later on he decided to paste it onto the end of the album instead. You can tell that 'Her Majesty' was cut and pasted. The end is abruptly cut off before the last beat. The opening beat includes an electric guitar sound from what was the previous song in the medley.

Many of the songs on Abbey Road are dominated by McCartney's virtuoso bass guitar parts. It is noticable that the bass became increasingly prominent on the later Beatles albums as McCartney wielded his power in the recording studio.

Considering the large number of classic songs they released over their career it is astonishing that the Beatles could keep coming up with even better material. It is a rare accomplishment for a rock band to end their career with their best album as the Beatles did with Abbey Road.