According to many, the number of completion is seven, as shown,
for example, in the scriptures, describing the seven days of creation, and the
seven seals of Revelation. Now, in reference to the Beatles, recording for EMI,
most of the time alongside George Martin, also had a period pf seven years… and
then they stopped. The span of completion for our musical heroes, as a unit,
followed the pattern, much to our discontent. So, without further ado, let’s
move into Abbey Road’s love songs.
12th LP – Abbey Road
(Mutual Love Songs / 3 vs. One-Sided / 1)
It has been speculated that each verse refers cryptically to one of the Beatles.
Track 2 – Something ranks undeniably as one of the all-time greatest mutual love songs of the Twentieth Century given to the world by George, based on the lyric portrayal the singer expresses somewhere in her smile she knows, that he doesn’t need no other lover, and something in the way she knows, that all he has to do is think of her.
Background Fun Facts: Written during October 1968, while working on the White Album. Highly influenced with devotion for his wife Pattie, George also copied a phrase penned by James Taylor’s ‘Something In The Way She Moves.’
Click Here for Taylor’s piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAzgwSLiMUc
This gorgeous melodic recording hails the first-time Mr. Harrison garnished an A-side single, and the feat came at the insistent of Mr. Lennon. Come Together fused the B-side.
Track 4 – Oh Darling sways to and fro, bouncing the bee-gee-bees off the walls with this powerful rocker, packaged inside a one-sided love song by Paul, based on the lyric portrayal the singer was told by his darling she didn’t need him anymore. Background Fun Facts: Written before the Get Back sessions and found its way into the Let It Be film during a jam with Billy Preston. However, the Beatles began recording the song properly at Abbey Road on 20 April, 1969. They recorded 26 takes of the rhythm track, with McCartney on bass and guide vocals, Lennon on piano, Starr on drums and Harrison on guitar. They also overdubbed a Hammond organ part, which was later wiped.
On 26 April McCartney made his first attempt at a lead vocal, though this was unused. He returned to it on 17 July, beginning a series of single-take attempts in the early afternoon every single day since he lived only a few blocks away. The final version was recorded on 23 July.
The three-part doo-wop vocal harmonies were taped on 11 August, with which Oh! Darling was complete.
“Paul came in
several days running to do the lead vocal on Oh! Darling. He'd come in, sing it
and say, 'No, that's not it, I'll try it again tomorrow.' He only tried it once
per day, I suppose he wanted to capture a certain rawness which could only be
done once before the voice changed. I remember him saying, 'Five years ago I
could have done this in a flash,' referring, I suppose, to the days of Long
Tall Sally and Kansas City.”
Alan Parsons,
engineer
“I mainly remember wanting to get the vocal right, wanting to get
it good, and I ended up trying each morning as I came into the recording
session. I tried it with a hand mike, and I tried it with a standing mike, I
tried it every which way, and finally got the vocal I was reasonably happy
with. It's a bit of a belter, and if it comes off a little bit lukewarm, then
you've missed the whole point. It was unusual for me, I would normally try all
the goes at a vocal in one day.”
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Track 5 – Octopus’s Garden, Ringo Starr's second composition for
The Beatles was written in Sardinia. On 22 August 1968, he temporarily walked
out of sessions for the White Album after becoming disenchanted with the
increasing tensions within the group. He took his family abroad for a boating
holiday, returning to Abbey Road on 5 September. Yet, this song veers off
target on love songs.
Track 6 – I Want You (She’s So Heavy) came into being out of pure
mutual desire John and Yoko held high for each other and there lays no deigning
the couple built an unbreakable devotion toward their bond. Background Fun
Facts: Written before the Get Back
sessions, it too, found a spot on the Let It Be movie while cameras recorded
the action on January 29, 1969. The lyrics bring simplicity to the tune at its
best, just fourteen words from a man who usually intrigues the world with his
gift of wit, puns and gab. I like the response John gives after reading a
reviewer’s pounce claiming Lennon lost his imaginative wordplay ability, and I
quote, “A reviewer wrote of She's So Heavy: 'He seems to have lost his talent
for lyrics, it's so simple and boring.' She's So Heavy was about Yoko. When it
gets down to it, like she said, when you're drowning you don't say 'I would be
incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning
and come and help me,' you just scream. And in She's So Heavy I just sang 'I
want you, I want you so bad, she's so heavy, I want you,' like that.”
John Lennon
Rolling Stone, 1970
The fellows recorded 35 takes then reedited portions from take 9,
20 and 32 so as to finish the rhythm track. Overdubs included Lennon’s leads
vocal, harmony vocals from J, P, and G, a Moog synthesizer, more drums from
Ringo including conga drums, a Hammond organ plus added guitars pushed at full
volume. Almost eight minutes of adrenalin rush from a beating heart filled with
one special woman.
Track 7 – Here Comes The Sun as told by George Harrison how he
thought up the tune. “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'. Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever; by the
time spring comes you really deserve it. 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.”
George Harrison
Anthology
Track 8 – Because turned out to be George Harrison’s favorite song
on Abbey Road. A piece influenced by Yoko playing the chords to Moonlight
Sonata by Beethoven backwards.
Track 9 – You Never Give Me Your Money talks about the disgruntle
woes of earning so much with record sales but watching it mostly given over to
the Queen.
Track 10 – Sun King. Although
Lennon most likely got the title from The Sun King, Nancy Mitford's 1966
biography of the French King Louis XIV, the song descends into cod-Spanish,
Italian and Portuguese nonsense, with the odd English phrase thrown in. The
music according to George copies a close resemblance to Fleetwood Mac’s 1969
top ten instrumental, Albatross. Listen here to likeness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8scHKFwr0og
Track 11 – Mean Mr. Mustard, a mean and dirty old man, no love. The
song originated from a newspaper story about a miserly man who was said to have
hidden his money in his rectum. Gross.
Track 12 – Polythene Pam. The character of Polythene Pam is
believed to have been drawn from two women from different times in The Beatles'
existence. The first was Pat Dawson (née Hodgett), a Liverpudlian fan from the
group's early days, who was known as Polythene Pat due to her somewhat
improbable love of the substance. “I started going to see The Beatles in 1961
when I was 14 and I got quite friendly with them. If they were playing out of
town they'd give me a lift back home in their van. It was about the same time
that I started getting called Polythene Pat. It's embarrassing really. I just
used to eat polythene all the time. I'd tie it in knots and then eat it.
Sometimes I even used to burn it and then eat it when it got cold. Then I had a
friend who got a job in a polythene bag factory, which was wonderful because it
meant I had a constant supply.”
Pat Dawson
A Hard Day's Write, Steve Turner
Lennon plays an acoustic 12 string guitar for this recording.
Track 13 – She Came In Through The Bathroom Window. The song is
believed to have been based on an incident involving some fans who took a
ladder from McCartney's garden, climbed into his house in Cavendish Avenue,
London, and stole a precious picture, possibly of his father.
“We found a ladder in his garden and stuck it up at the bathroom
window which he'd left slightly open. I was the one who climbed up and got in.”
Diane Ashley
A Hard Day's Write, Steve Turner
Some of the Scruffs are said to have known where McCartney kept a
key to his house, and took turns to look around inside. The more daring of the
set took mementos from the scene until McCartney became wise to the losses.
“There were really two groups of Apple Scruffs - those who would
break in and those who would just wait outside with cameras and autograph
books. I used to take Paul's dog for a walk and got to know him quite well...
I knew there was one picture he particularly wanted back - a color-tinted
picture of him in a Thirties frame. I knew who had taken this and got it back
for him.”
Margo Bird.
Track 14 – Golden Slumbers. The song's lyrics were taken from a
ballad by the Elizabethan poet and dramatist Thomas Dekker (1570-1632). Paul
McCartney saw the sheet music on the piano at his father's home in Heswall on
the Wirral.
“I was playing the piano in Liverpool in my dad's house, and my
stepsister Ruth's piano book was up on the stand. I was flicking through it and
I came to Golden Slumbers. I can't read music and I couldn't remember the old
tune, so I just started playing my own tune to it. I liked the words so I kept
them, and it fitted with another bit of song I had.”
Paul McCartney
Anthology
This suggests that he had written Carry That Weight already, and
is therefore likely that he wrote the music for Golden Slumbers to reflect it.
Track 15 – Carry That Weight. The song referred to the troubles
The Beatles were having, both within the group and in their business dealings
at Apple. No love connection found within this tune.
Track 16 – The End. A mutual love song mainly composed by Paul,
based on the lyric portrayal the singer asks his baby doll, “Oh yeah, all
right. Are you going to be in my dreams tonight?”
Paul shares an antidote on Ringo’s only featured drum solo––
“Ringo
would never do drum solos. He hated drummers who did lengthy drum solos. We all
did. And when he joined The Beatles we said, "Ah, what about drum solos
then?", thinking he might say, "Yeah, I'll have a five-hour one in
the middle of your set," and he said, "I hate 'em!" We said,
"Great! We love you!" And so he would never do them. But because of
this medley I said, "Well, a token solo?" and he really dug his heels
in and didn't want to do it. But after a little bit of gentle persuasion I
said, "Yeah, just do that, it wouldn't be Buddy Rich gone mad,"
because I think that's what he didn't want to do.”
Paul McCartney
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
The idea for guitar solos was very spontaneous and everybody said,
'Yes! Definitely' - well, except for George, who was a little apprehensive at
first. But he saw how excited John and Paul were so he went along with it.
Truthfully, I think they rather liked the idea of playing together, not really
trying to outdo one another per se, but engaging in some real musical bonding.
Yoko was about to go into the studio with John - this was
commonplace by now - and he actually told her, 'No, not now. Let me just do
this. It'll just take a minute.' That surprised me a bit. Maybe he felt like he
was returning to his roots with the boys - who knows?
The order was Paul first, then George, then John, and they went
back and forth. They ran down their ideas a few times and before you knew it,
they were ready to go. Their amps were lined up together and we recorded their
parts on one track.
You could really see the joy in their faces as they played; it was
like they were teenagers again. One take was all we needed. The musical
telepathy between them was mind-boggling.
Geoff Emerick
MusicRadar.com
The song closed with some of The Beatles' most celebrated and memorable
words. . . And in the end the love you take, Is equal to the love you make
The final words of the song were written by McCartney with
Shakespeare in mind.
Track 17 – Her Majesty was written by Paul McCartney in Scotland,
and was originally placed between Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam in the
medley. Instead it was the album's postscript, with a stretch of silence
separating it and The End.
Her Majesty is the shortest song in The Beatles' repertoire, and
was unlisted on original pressings of Abbey Road.
Paul offers a tidbit of info, “It was quite funny because it's
basically monarchist, with a mildly disrespectful tone, but it's very tongue in
cheek. It's almost like a love song to the Queen.”
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
In closing, Abbey Road produced an array of topical themes of
which lagged on the principles of a meaningful glorious relationship between a
man and woman, however, three out four songs dealing with love promotes a reciprocated
happiness.
Next week, takes us into the chaotic atmosphere where nobody known
as a Beatle, except Paul, wanted to be involved with the plan called “Get Back,”
the making of the Let It Be LP.
No comments:
Post a Comment