Abbey Road

The love you take, is equal to the love you make

Hi Son,

My formative years in rock music came in high school. Much of the music I consumed as a teenager was getting to know 60s and 70s rock through greatest hits albums. A while back I mentioned that the Past Masters Volume 2 began to introduce me to the not-so-mainstream tracks of the Beatles. It really set off a chain reaction of me buying every US studio album on CD in short order. When I got to Abbey Road, which would be the next-to-last release from the band, I knew of a few songs on the album. One of them strangely enough was “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” In eighth grade, there was a classmate of mine in history class who had just heard the song. He was jazzed about it, that he would somehow find opportunities to mention it. He would go on with the first verse and then defer the beginning of the chorus to another classmate of mine.

Classmate 1:

Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical
Science in the home
Late nights all alone with a test tube, oh, oh, oh, oh
Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine
Calls her on the phone
"Can I take you out to the pictures, Joa-oa-oa-oan?"
But as she's getting ready to go
A knock comes on the door

Classmate 2:

Bang, Bang

Classmate 1:

Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head

Classmate 2:
Clang! Clang!

Classmate 1:

Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead

This always stayed with me for some reason, so when I took my first listen of Abbey Road I was somewhat anxious to get to the third track. If you read the lyrics without hearing the song, you see they’re pretty dark. The music is anything but dark. John Lennon describes the music as “more of Paul’s granny music.” The have been a handful of tracks written by Paul that coincede’s with this theme. It really is kind of goofy and playful sounding that if you ignored the lyrics it seems very upbeat. Peronsally, I really enjoy the song. It’s one I enjoy coming back to when I listen to Abbey Road. However, this song would go down in infamy amogst the band. Ringo was quoted saying “it was the worst track we ever had to record.” This quote really encapsulated the state of the band at this point of their history. However, when I listen to the album, I don’t hear any conflict at all.

The album starts off with my favorite opener of theirs, “Come Together.” The bass on this song is incredible and the subtlety of Ringo on the drum kit is perfect. I consider the bass riff as one of the best I’ve ever heard. Then the first of George Harrison’s masterpieces comes next, “Something.” Lennon and McCartney were on the record saying that it was Harrison’s best song he’d ever wrote. Hell, even Frank Sinatra said it was “the greatest love song ever written.” It, like so many of their songs, has one of the most recognizable guitar riffs. George does the lead vocals. It honestly makes you want to hear more tracks with him doing lead vocals. There are subtle key changes throughout the song that are brief, but perfectly placed. This is a big reason why Abbey Road is my favorite album of theirs.

“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is next then followed by “Oh Darling” and “Octopus’s Garden” Ringo would take the vocals on “Octopus’s Garden.” It was the customary “Ringo track” that is featured on their albums. The motivation behind this song was from Ringo ordering Fish and Chips on a boat trip, but instead got squid (yuck, squids are one of the cringiest things for your dad, ick). The boat captain would then tell Ringo a bunch of facts about octopus’s, one being that they build gardens with rocks and shiny objects. The other inspriation for Ringo was a result of the rising tensions amongst the band. That would bring on the line “I want to be. Under the sea. In an octopus’s garden.” It was his way of wanting to hide from the in-fighting amogst the other three band members. One personal tangent about this song is from a place in Wisconsin that your mom and I have visited a handful of times, called the “House On The Rock.” Now I could write an entire essay about this place all by itself. It is one of the weirdest, trippiest, but fun experiences I’ve ever had. Midway through touring the house is a music machine next to a display of a shark and squid (ick!). The music machine plays “Octopus’s Garden” when you put money into it. It was always $0.25 well spent.

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is next followed by the second masterpiece of George Harrison’s, “Here Comes the Sun.” George plays lead with an acoustic guitar in another one of the most recognizable riffs in the history of rock. This song was my initial motivation of wanting to listen to Abbey Road. It uplifts me every time I hear it. Very often I will hear this song playing in my head if I see the sun rising over the horizon. Whenever I put on Abbey Road, sometimes I get anxious to want to skip through tracks 4-6 just to get to it sooner. The brillance of the song writing is in the time signature changes. George was strongly influenced by Indian classical music. I can tell you, changing time signature mid-song can be very difficult. To do it several times through a song, speaks to the brillance of the Beatles.

Now here we come up to the final nine tracks of the album. This is what puts Abbey Road above all of their other albums. Track 8 is called “Because” and I guess is not officially put of the “melody of tracks” that follows, but I have always considered it to be directly involved. The music is John, Paul and George performing vocals with a Moog synthesizer and harpsicord in the background. I always get this vision of being in the middle of a desert when I listen to this song. Then we go into “You Never Give Me Your Money.” It starts with Paul singing to the piano and then bass coming in. Then halfway through the entire band comes in with Ringo’s drums really popping. I love the contrast of both halves of the song. I’ve always felt that “You Never Give Me Your Money” stuck out more than “Because” when going into the final 7 tracks of the album. It’s a great song and one of my favorites on the album.

Then we go into “Sun King.” It’s a slow-tempoed chill song that ends with lyrics of “Romance languages.”

“Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazon
Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi parasol
Questo obrigado tanta mucho que can eat it carousel”

I learned the lyrics of the entire song, including the “Romance languages.” The languages and meaning themselves were something I never knew. I always thought these three lines were a romantic tribute, however they were not. John would admit these lyrics were just a bunch of Spanish words strung together randomly. Here’s what they translate to.

“Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazon”
WHEN FOR MUCH OF MY LOVE OF HAPPY HEART

“Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdi parasol”
WORLD PAPARAZZI, MY LOVE, CHICKA FERDY FOR THE SUN

“Questo obrigado tanta mucho que can eat it carousel”
THIS THANKS, VERY MUCH, CAKE AND EAT IT, CAROUSEL

“Sun King” then transitions immediately into “Mean Mr. Mustard.” The tempo picks up and then brings in the entire band in the background. The next track “Polythene Pam” is this driving sound with the drums that for some reason makes me think of surfing. Maybe because it has some type of “Beach Boys” feel to me. The next track is “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window.” The backstory on this track is from a woman, Diane Ashley, who broke into Paul’s house! She took a ladder and placed it by the bathroom window on the upper flooer, which had been left slightly open. She then proceeded to climb into Paul’s home and go to the front door to let in the other fans who were waiting outside. They looted his house of clothing and photos.

The feel going into the next track “Golden Slumbers” is kind of a reset. The lead vocals are Paul were he’s singing a lullaby saying “sleep pretty darling, do not cry. And I will sing a lullaby.” Then Paul seeming goes into full throat the second half of the song. That transitions directly into “Carry That Weight” which sounds like it’s part of the same track. It includes a bridge giving a call back to “You Never Give Me Your Money” with different lyrics. The song ends with the entire band providing vocals singing “Boy, you’re going to carry that weight a long time.”

Lastly, we get into the final track of the sequence which is fittingly called “The End.” It begins with a loud guitar riff, followed by Paul going full throat again and then goes into what I understand to be the only drum solo for Ringo featured on any of their albums. Once Ringo’s done, the band sings “Love you, love you” over and over for probably a minute straight. Then the final lyrics, which are one of my favorite lyrics of all time. That outro’s with a beautiful guitar solo.

“And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make”

A statement that really could not be any truer. It’s a principle I live my life by and could only wish every person in existence also lived by. Abbey Road for me has the best beginning and end of any of their albums. Really of any album ever created. It’s not a concept album, but the tracks flow in-and-out so wonderfully. After Abbey Road they would go on to release their final album “Let It Be.” However, it was the last album they would record as a band. I constantly wonder if they should have switched the sequence of releases between Abbey Road and Let It Be. Having the final line in “The End” is about as perfect of an ending a band could make. There would be a hidden track placed just after “The End” called “Her Majesty” that does not come in until 14 seconds after the conclusion of “The End.” It’s just Paul singing to acoustic guitar for only 23 seconds. It’s kind of a silly track to come after “The End,” but in a way it kind of brings you down from such an emotional high “The End” leaves you with. Just a quick bringing the listener out of euphoria. It’s unnecessary in my opinion, but I guess the track was one, if not the first example of a hidden track. Abbey Road, like many of their albums, would leave an enormous influence on future music in the rock industry. It truly is one of the masterpieces, not only just in rock, but in music period.

Love,

Dad