Questions about "Abbey Road" album
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Please humor me as I am on a first-time journey through the Beatles albums. I'm very familiar with their hit songs and even many others but I've never been much of an album person and I'm making up for lost time. This week I've been concentrating on "Abbey Road". Loved every minute of this journey but have a few questions: 1) What is the purpose of ending the song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" so abruptly? In my own mind it gives me the feeling that the song goes on and on despite the fact that I'm unable to hear it anymore which really contributes to the passion of the feeling being expressed. I think the Derek & The Dominoes version of "Layla" sort of accomplishes the same thing but in a different way....almost three songs in one that just keeps building up and building up but it does eventually come to an end (and a bird tweet). 2) Why are there two songs with such similar words.....Here Comes The Sun.....and Here Comes The Sun King? I thought it was a little odd in the juxtaposition of the songs on this particular album. Wouldn't have seemed so odd on separate albums. 3) Maxwell's Silver Hammer....what's the background on this song? There was a recent sad and unfortunate case in the US of a male teen staying after school and murdering his female teacher ....I'm just wondering if a real life incident precipitated this song somehow back in the 60's? 4)The Spanish being spoken in "Sun King" doesn't seem to make sense. I don't know about the other languages.( If they had thrown Latin in there I could comment but with the others I can't.) Perhaps it's supposed to be that way....just nonsense? General question....how is it decided among group members what the order of the songs should be on an album? Or even how many songs a particular band member gets to sing as the lead on? I would say this is my favorite Beatles album but too early to decide.
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I'll address a couple of these and let others tackle the rest: #2: There's no connection. They're totally different songs, written by different people, about different things, that happen to share a few words in common. That's it. #4: Indeed, it is nonsense -- multi-sort of-lingual gibberish. Enjoy getting to know Abbey Road. It's my favorite Beatles album!
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Hi Scarlett, Abbey Road is characterized as having a surprise ending on each side. On side one it's the abrupt ending of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" just as you are really getting into the song --it's like cold water being splashed on your face! And on side two there's the fairly lengthy delay after "The End" followed by "Her Majesty." The English version of Sgt. Pepper has a similar surprise with the gibberish in the runout groove that will continue infinitely if it were played on a turntable without an auto return arm. There's also a high pitch that was supposedly put there for dogs to hear. Paul had a heavy hand on both albums. John used to say that Sgt. Pepper was Paul's album and Paul also put together many bits and pieces of songs on side two of Abbey Road in a masterful way in what is widely considered some of the best work of the Beatles. John referred to this weaving of bits and pieces of unfinished songs as crap. I think he was way off base on this and am of the camp that side two of Abbey Road is among the best they ever did. Here's an interesting fact regarding the sequencing of vinyl records. The songs toward the inside near the label of a record tend to be ballads in general because the speed at which the tonearm on a turntable tracks near the inside is much slower than near the outside of a record due to the circumference. I guess they kind of broke this rule with songs like "The End" but it plays a part in the sequencing of songs on an album that was pressed on vinyl. The artists and producer have a say and there is really no rule per se. Bruce is right in that the "faux Italian" is really non-sense. Lennon did this too in "Across The Universe" and later again in his "#9 Dream." The Beatles had a rule that George would get two songs on an album and Ringo would get one if he wanted it. John and Paul would do the rest. This always irked George although John and Paul were much more prolific writers and in general their songs were better than George's in my opinion. I would have to say that Abbey Road is my favorite Beatles album and side two is my favorite side. "You Never Give Me Your Money" is the song that does it for me as my favorite Beatles song. There's just something about the melody and Paul's vocals--magic! Hope this helps!
Scarlett14:
Please humor me as I am on a first-time journey through the Beatles albums. I'm very familiar with their hit songs and even many others but I've never been much of an album person and I'm making up for lost time. This week I've been concentrating on "Abbey Road". Loved every minute of this journey but have a few questions: 1) What is the purpose of ending the song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" so abruptly? In my own mind it gives me the feeling that the song goes on and on despite the fact that I'm unable to hear it anymore which really contributes to the passion of the feeling being expressed. I think the Derek & The Dominoes version of "Layla" sort of accomplishes the same thing but in a different way....almost three songs in one that just keeps building up and building up but it does eventually come to an end (and a bird tweet). 2) Why are there two songs with such similar words.....Here Comes The Sun.....and Here Comes The Sun King? I thought it was a little odd in the juxtaposition of the songs on this particular album. Wouldn't have seemed so odd on separate albums. 3) Maxwell's Silver Hammer....what's the background on this song? There was a recent sad and unfortunate case in the US of a male teen staying after school and murdering his female teacher ....I'm just wondering if a real life incident precipitated this song somehow back in the 60's? 4)The Spanish being spoken in "Sun King" doesn't seem to make sense. I don't know about the other languages.( If they had thrown Latin in there I could comment but with the others I can't.) Perhaps it's supposed to be that way....just nonsense? General question....how is it decided among group members what the order of the songs should be on an album? Or even how many songs a particular band member gets to sing as the lead on? I would say this is my favorite Beatles album but too early to decide.
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#1 "The track could have gone on until 8:04, but John decided on a 'sudden' ending. Engineer Alan Parsons recalled 'We were putting the final touches to that side of the LP, and we were listening to the mix. John said 'There, cut the tape there.' Geoff Emerick cut the tape and that was it.'" (from the book 100 Best Beatles Songs by Spignesi & Lewis) BTW, fun trivia fact: This was the last time all four Beatles were in the studio together (Aug. 20, 1969) for the remixing & editing of this song. #3 Just one of Paul's crazy songs. No background on this that I know of. Mal Evans bangs the hammer in this. #4 "John said that Sun King came to him in a dream (Shades of Yesterday!)" and "'chicka ferdi'--that's a Liverpool expression; it doesn't mean anything, just like 'ha ha ha' "(also from same book as above) You should get that book I mentioned--really good!
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Scarlett14:
Please humor me as I am on a first-time journey through the Beatles albums. I'm very familiar with their hit songs and even many others but I've never been much of an album person and I'm making up for lost time. This week I've been concentrating on "Abbey Road". Loved every minute of this journey but have a few questions: 1) What is the purpose of ending the song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" so abruptly? In my own mind it gives me the feeling that the song goes on and on despite the fact that I'm unable to hear it anymore which really contributes to the passion of the feeling being expressed. I think the Derek & The Dominoes version of "Layla" sort of accomplishes the same thing but in a different way....almost three songs in one that just keeps building up and building up but it does eventually come to an end (and a bird tweet).
I have a theory about this although John never confirmed it himself...John was a huge fan of the the classic 1968 sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and he said he watched it many times while tripping on LSD. I read he even owned his own copy of the film, an actual film print, years before there was videotape or DVD. Anyway, there is a part of the movie where one of the astronauts has to go outside of his spacepod into space and he is only tethered by an airhose to the pod. All you hear is the hissing sound of air for several minutes. The computer HAL controls the pod, but then cuts the airhose and murders the astronaut, and it goes dead silent. The last few minutes of I Want You (She's So Heavy) has the same sound of hissing in the background, white noise produced by the Moog Synthesizer which gets louder and louder, and then it abruptly gets cut off. Exactly like the scene in 2001. The sound of the lifeline being cut. That's what I think of when I hear it.
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beatlesfanrandy:
Scarlett14:
Please humor me as I am on a first-time journey through the Beatles albums. I'm very familiar with their hit songs and even many others but I've never been much of an album person and I'm making up for lost time. This week I've been concentrating on "Abbey Road". Loved every minute of this journey but have a few questions: 1) What is the purpose of ending the song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" so abruptly? In my own mind it gives me the feeling that the song goes on and on despite the fact that I'm unable to hear it anymore which really contributes to the passion of the feeling being expressed. I think the Derek & The Dominoes version of "Layla" sort of accomplishes the same thing but in a different way....almost three songs in one that just keeps building up and building up but it does eventually come to an end (and a bird tweet).
I have a theory about this although John never confirmed it himself...John was a huge fan of the the classic 1968 sci-fi movie 2001: A Space Odyssey and he said he watched it many times while tripping on LSD. I read he even owned his own copy of the film, an actual film print, years before there was videotape or DVD. Anyway, there is a part of the movie where one of the astronauts has to go outside of his spacepod into space and he is only tethered by an airhose to the pod. All you hear is the hissing sound of air for several minutes. The computer HAL controls the pod, but then cuts the airhose and murders the astronaut, and it goes dead silent. The last few minutes of I Want You (She's So Heavy) has the same sound of hissing in the background, white noise produced by the Moog Synthesizer which gets louder and louder, and then it abruptly gets cut off. Exactly like the scene in 2001. The sound of the lifeline being cut. That's what I think of when I hear it.
Now that is interesting! Never heard of John's interest in 2001 (even if Planet of the Apes was the superior sci-fi movie of the time... well, in my opinion. Also released in '68.... Written by the best writer of all-time).... Agreed though with Bruce that Abbey Road is the best Beatles album. So great, so brilliant. Love it.
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Thanks for the book recommendation Nancy--I'll pick up a copy! There was a Macca interview I heard not too long ago where he discusses where he got the word "pataphysical" from. I know John wasn't too happy about having to do this song.
Nancy R:
#1 "The track could have gone on until 8:04, but John decided on a 'sudden' ending. Engineer Alan Parsons recalled 'We were putting the final touches to that side of the LP, and we were listening to the mix. John said 'There, cut the tape there.' Geoff Emerick cut the tape and that was it.'" (from the book 100 Best Beatles Songs by Spignesi & Lewis) BTW, fun trivia fact: This was the last time all four Beatles were in the studio together (Aug. 20, 1969) for the remixing & editing of this song. #3 Just one of Paul's crazy songs. No background on this that I know of. Mal Evans bangs the hammer in this. #4 "John said that Sun King came to him in a dream (Shades of Yesterday!)" and "'chicka ferdi'--that's a Liverpool expression; it doesn't mean anything, just like 'ha ha ha' "(also from same book as above) You should get that book I mentioned--really good!
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Nancy R:
Shades of Yesterday!...You should get that book I mentioned--really good!
Nancy, I looked for this book on Amazon and I did not see one about the Beatles. Can you please post a link? Thanks.
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Erik in NJ:
Nancy R:
Shades of Yesterday!...You should get that book I mentioned--really good!
Nancy, I looked for this book on Amazon and I did not see one about the Beatles. Can you please post a link? Thanks.
Look on half.com if it's out of print. That's my go-to source for anything that's not sold on Amazon anymore. (It's called 100 Best Beatles Songs: A Passionate Fan's Guide)
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Erik in NJ:
Nancy R:
Shades of Yesterday!...You should get that book I mentioned--really good!
Nancy, I looked for this book on Amazon and I did not see one about the Beatles. Can you please post a link? Thanks.
That's not the book. She meant THINK of Paul's song Yesterday...John-dreamt SunKing same as Paul with Yesterday.
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dappa-macca:
Erik in NJ:
Nancy R:
Shades of Yesterday!...You should get that book I mentioned--really good!
Nancy, I looked for this book on Amazon and I did not see one about the Beatles. Can you please post a link? Thanks.
Look on half.com if it's out of print. That's my go-to source for anything that's not sold on Amazon anymore. (It's called 100 Best Beatles Songs: A Passionate Fan's Guide)
*that* one is on amazon.
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oobu24:
dappa-macca:
Erik in NJ:
Nancy R:
Shades of Yesterday!...You should get that book I mentioned--really good!
Nancy, I looked for this book on Amazon and I did not see one about the Beatles. Can you please post a link? Thanks.
Look on half.com if it's out of print. That's my go-to source for anything that's not sold on Amazon anymore. (It's called 100 Best Beatles Songs: A Passionate Fan's Guide)
*that* one is on amazon.
Sorry for the confusion and thanks for the info! -
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oobu24:
Erik in NJ:
Nancy R:
Shades of Yesterday!...You should get that book I mentioned--really good!
Nancy, I looked for this book on Amazon and I did not see one about the Beatles. Can you please post a link? Thanks.
That's not the book. She meant THINK of Paul's song Yesterday...John-dreamt SunKing same as Paul with Yesterday.
Correct! The book is called "100 Best Beatles Songs: An Informed Fan's Guide" by Stephen J. Spignesi & Michael Lewis. They did change part of the title to "A Passionate Fan's Guide"
http://www.amazon.com/100-Best-Beatles-Songs-Passionate/dp/1579128424/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396132838&sr=1-1&keywords=100+best+beatles+songs -
"Her Majesty" ending came about quite by accident. It was supposed to be part of the side 2 medley. Paul decided against it after listening to the playback & ordered it cut out. Some of the engineering assistants were unaware of this & were trained never to throw stuff out. So, they just added it to the end of the tape. That's why the song starts on the wrong note. When Paul heard it, he said to leave it on the album. By that time, they didnt have time to add the song title to the album cover, so it was probably rock's 1st "secret" song.
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Thanks Joey. Couple questions...what do you mean by starts off on the wrong note? Who decided on the long delay between The End and Her Majesty?
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When side two was originally being sequenced Her Majesty was slotted in between Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam so the crashing opening chord of Her Majesty is actually the last chord of Mean Mr Mustard. And the "missing" last chord of Her Majesty was left in the rough mix with the opening chord of Polythene Pam. The engineer cut the rough mix tape at those spots when Paul told him to cut Her Majesty out. The reason for the long delay between The End and Her Majesty is because the same engineer simply tacked Her Majesty on to the end of the side two rough mix tape but added 20 seconds of leader tape in between. Thus the silence. No artistic reasoning behind it, just a bit of happenstance that Paul liked, so it was retained that way when the final master was compiled.
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So as usual Paul got his way...
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Some of the best artistic reasoning in history seems to be through coincidence
Thanks for the background information on this! Here's a bit more info re Mean Mister Mustard "his sister Pam" was changed from the name that Lennon originally wrote for this snippet during the White Album sessions (I can get the bootleg out if you want for the original name--beer is obscuring it in my mind at the moment :lol
to gel with Polythene Pam. Moptops: It wasn't so much Paul "getting his way again" it was that Paul was the only one at this point showing up to work on the damned albumgraystoke:
When side two was originally being sequenced Her Majesty was slotted in between Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam so the crashing opening chord of Her Majesty is actually the last chord of Mean Mr Mustard. And the "missing" last chord of Her Majesty was left in the rough mix with the opening chord of Polythene Pam. The engineer cut the rough mix tape at those spots when Paul told him to cut Her Majesty out. The reason for the long delay between The End and Her Majesty is because the same engineer simply tacked Her Majesty on to the end of the side two rough mix tape but added 20 seconds of leader tape in between. Thus the silence. No artistic reasoning behind it, just a bit of happenstance that Paul liked, so it was retained that way when the final master was compiled.
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Erik in NJ:
Here's a bit more info re Mean Mister Mustard "his sister Pam" was changed from the name that Lennon originally wrote for this snippet during the White Album sessions (I can get the bootleg out if you want for the original name--beer is obscuring it in my mind at the moment :lol
to gel with Polythene Pam.Shirley.
