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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Album Road - A True Masterpiece, 6 Mar 2003
I was delivering newspapers 7 early mornings and 6 evenings per week in 1969 when the album was released. I'd always had to rely on my elder Beatle-fanatic cousin when listening to Beatles LP's (as the vinyl was endearingly called), as I could only afford to buy singles. My first ever single was She Loves You in '63 (which I still have), but my first proper album purchase was the last that the Beatles recorded as a foursome. When I look at the surface of that record now I'm surprised that it's in such good nick considering the number of plays it's had.Today the CD gets played regularly, and with good reason. It's 30-odd minutes of sheer delight - the Beatles at their musical and lyrical best. It's interesting that popular music was going though a metamporhosis; the split into either bubblegum or heavy rock was becoming clear, and went in favour of the latter. In 1970 the Beatles had already become deeply uncool to many 16-year-olds, who were by now into Pink Floyd or Tyrannosaurus Rex, Traffic and Hendrix. But not me. Though I was into the other stuff, I loved the Beatles dearly - and Abbey Road was a great way for such a hugely influential bunch of guys to bow out. Producer George Martin has referred to Abbey Road as a "happy album" whose recording brought "the boys" back together one more time. I'm glad it did. My favourite film of all time is "A Hard Day's Night", for all sorts of sentimental reasons, and my favourite album of all time is without a doubt Abbey Road. Wow.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the musical legacy continues,.., 30 May 2006
As a (young) 52 year-old who grew up with the fab 4 I think it's great, just great, that reading the reviews here about Abbey Road (and the other Beatles albums) that their musical legacy is obviously appreciated by young music fans who weren't even born when the band split. Abbey Road has it all, great classic tracks and superb production from George Martin (the 5th Beatle!)Buy it, listen and enjoy. It will still sound innovative and fresh in another 37 years. My one gripe: when will we get a new re-mastered issue?..this release dates from 1987.Happy listening everyone.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfection, 27 May 2005
This album is possibly the greatest album ever released. It is certainly in my top two with the Beatles' White Album being the other. I won't argue which one was better, they are both sublime in their own way. But maybe Abbey Road just nudges its predecessor because it is an unbelievably consistent and brilliant album. No padding whatsoever, not that there is much of that on any Beatles album. And also because it is their last. And one has to simply marvel why the Beatles had to end at all, after producing such a masterpiece. Well of course there are many reasons why that couldn't happen. Klein, Yoko, musical differences to name but three.
But to the songs. The opener 'Come Together' is possibly the finest Lennon song ever, and add to that Ringo's best ever drumming on a Beatles track and Paul's wonderful bass playing and backing vocals and you may well have the best Beatles song ever. Seriously. And if that isn't good enough we then have 'Something' which is probably George's finest ever moment, and again here we see the band turn in a truly brilliant performance. Paul's bass line is incredibly inventive and melodic, and Ringo's drumming is just perfect.
But this album is about more than musicianship. It is an incredibly emotional and moving set of songs which make up their swansong to the world. Every time I listen to it I imagine what might have been if they had carried on as a group through the 1970s. It was not to be but their final album is so crammed full of brilliance that I suspect at the time it was rather taken for granted. Another Beatles album. Great? Of course, what would you expect? But I suspect very few listeners knew it would be their last. And now we can evaluate objectively just how good these songs were. 'Oh Darling' is a bona fide McCartney classic rocker, which is incredibly difficult to sing if you've ever tried. 'I Want You' is classic Plastic Ono style Lennon, quite surprising that such a stupendously personal track appeared on a Beatles album. But it did. 'Because' features not only a wonderful melody but the greatest three part harmony ever committed to vinyl by John, Paul and George. 'You Never Give Me Your Money' may be three mini songs put together but nevertheless is a strong candidate for the peak of McCartney' Entire Career. And as Ian Macdonald perceptively points out, it may well be no less than McCartney recognising the Beatles' imminent demise and launching a solo career. 'Step on the gas and wipe that tear away'. 'Octupus' Garden' is not a poor man's Yellow Submarine (as Macdonald claimed), but infinitely superior to listen to at least, on account of the superb Beatles musicianship on display here and throughout this album. And on this track, a quite superb Harrison guitar solo. And Ringo's lyrics, no doubt helped a little by George, are genuinely uplifting. The day Ringo writes a song devoid of optimism and hope is the day we should all pack up and go home. 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' may have annoyed a few people, most noteably John Lennon. But it has enchanted millions of people over the years so as to make Lennon's view absolutely irrelevant. This song is McCartney at his 1969 effortless best. It had Ringo humming it in the lift by his own admission. Nothing to be ashamed of in this song. It is wonderful. George's second number 'Here Comes The Sun' is quite possibly the most perfect song ever written. It is incredibly uplifting in its beauty, in its melody, in its lyric and of course the Beatles turn in such a Tour De Force performance which renders any cover version, of which there have been many, vastly inferior. The vocal harmonies on this tarck and indeed throughout this album are probably the finest ever. Yes there is a Beach Boys influence there, but on Abbey Road the Beatles take these things to an altogether higher level. So that we not only have Melodies from Heaven but Harmonies from Heaven too.
This is probably the greatest album ever made and if any final proof was needed the Side Two Medley surely proves the point. OK so it is mostly McCartney. But Lennon's contributions in 'Sun King', 'Mean Mr Mustard' and 'Polythene Pam' are not exactly low lights. The whole things flows together so majestically that this 15 minutes of music is probably the best ever sequence of music ever released. Paul's Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight / The End are so fantastic that it is hard to recognise the man who had just five years earlier been writing such innocent pop songs such as 'Can't Buy Me Love'. Lennon claimed to dislike Side 2 of Abbey Road but I suspect there was a hint of jealousy there. McCartney would not surprisingly struggle to even approach such standards in the ensuing years. 'The End' has Paul, George and John trading guitar solos, to tremendous effect. This song shows what The Beatles could achieve collectively. And this element was undoubtedly missing in the solo years. Even though they all achieved brilliance on their own.
There was no room for Paul, John, George and Ringo on one record hereafter. So they made an album each. But on 'Abbey Road' they came together one last time and produced such a marvellous album that it must be the very definition of swansong and collective brilliance. If ever an album deserved six or seven stars, then this is the one.
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