Abbey Road

Abbey Road


In 1969 the four members of The Beatles created a landmark album that was a very popular of its time. This album was recorded and produced in London, at Abbey Road Studios.  The album includes a mixture of songs written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.   John Lennon and Paul McCartney mainly credited each other to be the main composers (but you can tell their individual styles apart). 


The album was very diverse and almost sounded as if the band were about to fragment, because of the separate styles in the music and, interestingly, The Beatles split up in the following year.  The two songs I've decided to analyse are & Maxwell’s Silver Hammer and & Come Together.


 I chose these two songs because I enjoyed the way they experimented with the percussion. It's difficult to judge the album objectively as it isn't in my personal collection, but I can appreciate Abbey Road for being a landmark album.   I also appreciate the craft and skill that was put in by George Martin, as this was already a time when The Beatles had decided to refuse to perform live, so in this album they were able to introduce more affects without worrying about the practicality of it when performing.
 This includes the distortion on the lead guitar played by George Martin and some delay on the vocals of John Lennon in the song Come Together.Come Together begins interestingly with a vocal percussion affect which enables the bass to standout.


As the first verse begins, more drums begin to drop in, such as the floor tom-tom and some hi-hats. The pace of tthe drums starts to increase until it reaches a sudden stop for half a bar, ended with a hi- hat. Then suddenly when the chorus starts, the bass guitar stays at the same level as it originally was, but the electric guitar increases in volume with a small compressed drum beat behind it. The length of the chorus is very short and I feel that this was done on purpose to be individual, as was the whole album. .  After the second chorus there is an electric piano solo that then leads onto a slide solo being played by George Harrison. The drum beat then becomes out of sync and starts to play hi-hats constantly, without a bass drum or a snare drum.  Finally, the lyrics of Come Together are slightly ironic as the band does separate in the following year which is 1970 and you can almost tell this because the album is very disparate.




 The second song I have chosen is Maxwell’s Silver Hammer which was most likely written by Paul McCartney. This composition was a very whimsical late 1960s song and was very much of its time.  It begins with a piano and a tuba with a simple drum beat and a soft voice.
 The mood of the song is very jolly at the beginning, but then becomes slightly rough as a distorted electric guitar then comes in for the chorus with a hammer sounding piece of percussion. A synth or mellotron then appears towards the end of chorus, but it was most likely to be a mellotron as this instrument was a key feature in the Sargeant Pepper album.
The lyrics are very twisted, even though the mood of the song’s melody is very calming especially with the smooth synth at the end that comes to a sudden stop.


 I enjoyed these two songs on Abbey Road, although they were the only two. I found the album complex as well as incredibly uniquee and I do understand why The Beatles were so big then and still are now. 


Kit Farino                   September 2015