Abbey Road - Leaner, Meaner and MUCH Better!

Well this thread is interesting. Abbey Road happens to be the one Fabs album I tinkered with *for fun* and burned onto a CD.

- I really think Oh Daring should be the third track. I’m a Maccafan but not a MSH fan. Having waited till track three to get to hear Paul, I always thought OD would be better placed after CT & S.

- For track 5, you can keep MSH, but I replaced it with Come & Get It, for that fix of upbeat Popmacca.

- On side two I replaced the AR Because with the a capella anthology version, and removed Sun King altogether, making Mean Mr Mustard tumble in on top of the end of YNGMYM.

Anyway it’s fun. Making these alt version doesn’t make the original album disappear. I also think All Things Must Pass could’ve worked as part of the medley.

 

Did Abbey Road reach the absolute limit in length. As far as the engineering/mastering team was concerned. According to limits of technology & vinyl in 1969.

Side 1 is around 25 minutes, side 2 about 22 min ?

Is that why She's So Heavy cuts off like that ? If they had Faded She's So Heavy at 6-6 1/2 minutes, could they have stretched side 1 to 27-28 minutes ? Added 2-3 songs to the album ? One on side 1, possibly two more tracks on side 2.

What I'm wondering, side 2 begins with track 7, Here Comes The Sun..backtracking for a second where do experts consider the beginning of the medley to be ? After Here Comes The Sun ? Or You Never Give Me Your Money ?

I apologize if they seem like dumb questions. I'm wondering if they could have squeezed in a bit more to the 47 minute running time, & had 10 songs ( a whole album ) before the medley started.

It's not long enough for a double really... But if you added B of John & Yoko, Brown Shoe, & say a finished Come & Get it, or a finished Let it Be.

You could have a full vinyl LP of 10-11 songs before the medley... & Another 1/2 an album, just one side doing the medley.

Which were artistic decisions about the albums tracklist, length, running order. & Which were dictated by limits of mixing & mastering technology

Tanks in advankce

 

I vastly prefer 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' to 'The Ballad of John & Yoko'. As in: to my taste Max is a decent song whereas I like to pretend to myself that J&Y isn’t a Beatles song at all. This is why there's no objective method for 'tweaking' a Beatles album running order.

 

Oh! Darling is one of Paul's best songs ever period, with or without The Beatles.

 

Was Come and Get It ever an actual candidate for the album?

 

Crabby Road ?

 

Oh Darling? Weak? Are you high?

 

If "The Ballad of John & Yoko" was on Abbey Road as some are suggesting, you know we'd have threads on what should have replaced it.

 

Thank you.
Would be cool, if Apple would use my cover at one point. But I doubt that.
I created a gatefold cover for Abbey Road as well. It's in this thread.

 

Here is an appropriate Album cover for you.

 

The last uplifting note of 'Because' creates a natural segue into 'You Never Give Me Your Money', so I've always considered 'Because' to be the grand prologue to the medley; it's part of the medley even if it wasn't originally intended to be so, just as 'Her Majesty' is the accidental epilogue (or mini encore).

 

White album also has quite long sides - 23, 22, 23 and 24.5 - but there were some quieter songs that allows for slightly more space. Now, for example "London Town" album by Wings is 51 minutes long, and it seems to me for that the sound quality had to suffer, whole album has this compressed feel which might be "artistic" choice but "Morse Moose and the Grey Goose" song noticeably lacks the high frequencies (seems to me similar case is with "The Back Seat of My Car" from Ram).

She's So Heavy cuts off because apparently they recorded this long second part which probably had 16 repeats of the same phrase, I am not sure though might have been more, but it does cut off right when the 15th repeat goes to "A" note/chord. The story was that after they layered all those guitars they worked in white noise via Moog slowly rising and story goes Lennon sat there transfixed during playback and then said "there, cut it right there". It does give off this cool effect, especially on the first listens, after you get used to this segment repeating over and over and over and then suddenly it stops and the quiet is the "surprise".

Now that I think of it, I'm kind of bummed out they didn't "restore" full length of this song for the Rockband game, as they did with Helter Skelter (game version does not have fade outs and fade ins).

I am not an expert but Here Comes the Sun is a separate song, and so was Because. I myself consider You Never Give Me Your Money separate track too, although it itself consists of small song bits Paul had around (like "One Sweet Dream"). I personally "split" the medley as 1. Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard, 2. Polythene Pam/She Came in Through the Bathroom Window, and 3. Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End.

For what its worth, in Beatles Rockband game, they have medley starting with You Never Give Me Your Money, and Because and Here Comes the Sun are separate songs.

To me these songs don't have the Abbey Road feel for some reason.

The ones that I know of are: have one side with just songs, which John allegedly wanted - he later was dismissive of the medley but it seems he actively worked on it - have side 2 with the medley, which had a working title of "Huge Melody"; Paul later cutting out Her Majesty (it was between Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam). The rest seems to me a standard "rule" of two George songs (one per side), one Ringo song, etc.

 

I agree . Those are my two least favorite tracks

 

Just needs "Because I Know You Love Me So", "Who Slapped John", and "Kreen-Akrore".

 

I’ve stated my objections to a revision ; earlier; no need to repeat here; BUT there is one element that I feel is up for debate/discussion- that involves the placement of the “hidden” track of Her Majesty.

Originally; it was part of the medley; see link below-which gives its history and actual comparison of what it sounds like as released - and as originally intended; but objected to by ...........!

Opinions? Comments?

 

Paul's decision to cut it out was justified. Since the complete cut bit survived, one can easily re-insert it nowadays where it originally was, if so desired. But with "Her Majesty" in the middle it kind of slows down and almost stops the medley. I prefer it as a "hidden track", but without the sudden blare of D chord left over from Mr. Mustard and with clean non-cut ending as well.

 

doubtful, but it could have easily fit on McCartney to replace filler instrumentals.

 

'Man, she's my pal'...

 

I don't think it fits AR. I like Yoko as much as anyone, but it's good to have a last Beatles album where she isn't seen/heard/stated. 'Old Brown Shoe' wouldn't have fit either. It was the right single at the right time, and Yoko got on the picture sleeve and the label and got to #1. Good for J&Y; it practically validated their relationship. And John and Paul got to have their last Nerk Twins hurrah together in the studio.

The Beatles were pretty pro-active for what might have been considered a disastrous first half of 1969. They got the get-back-t0-the-roots 'Get Back'/'Don't Let Me Down' single together for an April release, holding a place for the Let It Be album and film of the following year. They put together the merry 'Ballad Of John & Yoko'/'OBS' single in May, '69. They had started recording Abbey Road in the meantime. They just needed to remember that films and music didn't necessarily go well together for them beyond a certain point.

 

Abbey Road is brilliant in its intended form. I wouldn't change a thing, but have played around with the idea of adding both Old Brown Shoe and The Ballad Of John & Yoko to the track listing with poor results. I think Old Brown Shoe would fit perfectly from a sonic perspective, but I can't find a good home for it without shuffling the track order and I don't want to do that. I love how the original running order flows. TBOJ&Y just doesn't fit for me at all. The theme and sonics of the song just aren't Abbey Road quality.

 

I know we now the album, but I've found that - to some people, it's a hidden goldmine. They might know the cover of the album and know it refers to the Beatles, but do not know most of the music within it.

That's right, a lot of casual music fans only know the hits off of it and that's it. So it kind of blows their mind when/if they hear the whole thing. If someone didn't think that these guys were that great before, after they hear the album it's pretty damned obvious, and before the album is even over.

The Beatles' sheer heavyweight musicality per square second might be at its highest on Abbey Road, even within some of their most light-hearted songs. They could only have made this album with all the experience they had built up throughout their career.

As strange as it may seem, the Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, or White Album Beatles could not have pulled off Abbey Road.

 

Comparatively with Beatles standards, rather weak for me. Comparative with Octopus's garden, a gem!

 

"Always shouts out something obscene
Such a dirty old man
Dirty old man"

 

I could live without Maxwell but the other two you want to cut are both good tracks.

 

Here you go, you are welcome (let's wipe Let it Be off the face of the earth) :

Come Together
Something
Two of Us
Across the Universe
Let it Be
I Want You (She's So Heavy)

Here Comes The Sun
Because
You Never Give Me Your Money
Sun King
Mean Mr Mustard
Polythene Pam
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End

Her Majesty

(sorry Ringo)