The Beatles - Abbey Road

The Beatles' last days as a band were as productive as any major pop phenomenon that was about to split. After recording the ragged-but-right Let It Be, the group held on for this ambitious effort, an album that was to become their best-selling. Though all four contribute to the first side's writing, John Lennon's hard-rocking, "Come Together" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" make the strongest impression. A series of song fragments edited together in suite form dominates side two; its portentous, touching, official close ("Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight"/"The End") is nicely undercut, in typical Beatles fashion, by Paul McCartney's cheeky "Her Majesty," which follows. --Rickey Wright Amazon.com essential recording

 GREAT GREAT GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a great lp It tops most of there lps . What a swan song for the Boys, Just if they stayed together for a few more years wow. May 10, 2008

 Fantastic
An incredible work of music. Simply a masterpiece, and in my opinion has to be the best rocknroll/pop album of all time.


and if you'd like a laugh, read the the 1-star reviews.

May 6, 2008

 The Best of the Best by the best!
What's not to get? Yes, Maxwell, and Octopus are a bit silly! If you know their histort and you know where they were during this particular period, you'd understand that they needed a bit of silliness!
John was busy being '....Heavy" w/ Yoko and the peace movement; Paul was melting down, George wanted out, and Ringo wanted everyone to just get along. There is not ONE piece here that if you listed to it, you wouldn't walk away humming. This album is the epitome of the Beatles's Magic! It is just too bad it was the last of it.

"Something" and "Here Comes The Sun" are two of George's best songs ever (and "Something" may be the single greatest love song ever)
"Oh Darling" is a bluesy masterpiece with Paul screaming with the best of them and showing why he will always be one of the best singers of all time.
The one who didn't really give his best effort was John (& I say that with love, as John Lennon has been a huge influence on my life!)
"Come Together" has a great riff, but he ended up getting sued over the lyrics by Chuck Berry (& I thought they were friends!)
"I Want You (She's so Heavy) again has a GREAT riff...slow and hard...driving and whirling to an abrupt end....but again....John...where's the Lennon wit??? ("I want you so bad it's driving me mad")
Mean Mr. Mustard is kind of cool, but seems like he cut it short to please someone else (Paul? George Martin?)
"Because" however, is an absolutely beautiful piece of work w/ some of their best harmonies ever...(which by the way are really showcased on this album very well)

Abbey Road is less about individual songs and more about the whole product: Less about the lyrics and more about the harmonies. And musically (both instrumentally & vocally), one of the greatest albums of all time!

But, again, it all just fits together...this is what a group should be about! Where John didn't have his best day, Paul & George rode in on the white Horses.

I was very young when the Beatles broke up (10), but I do still miss them!

April 19, 2008

 Are you kidding me?
"The greatest album of all time" is a matter of taste but anyone that does not have this on the top 10 list is an idiot. The (very few) people who gave this less than 5 stars must be tone deaf morons! April 18, 2008

 Great music, but the CD cries out for remastering
I've listened to Abbey Road dozens of times. Tonight as I listened to the CD, I was motivated to write about the sound quality. It sounds like a poor transfer. I have the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs vinyl, and though it has been a long time since I listened to it, it is much more tolerable than the CD. Why? The CD sound is a plastic imitation. Ringo's cymbals sound like white noise. The drums are all stick and no skin. Bass is flabby and indistinct (granted, even on the Mobile Fidelity release it is not anything to praise, but the CD is worse). The organ on Harrison's "Something" sounds more like a Casio keyboard than a Hammond. There's a smudging of everything and very little sense of open space around any of the vocals or instruments. I could go on and on, but if anyone can get a superior analog version of this album, they can make their own comparison. I think in almost every category, any trained listener would find the CD sound worse.

Yet, I have trepidations about the inevitable remastered versions of the Beatles catalog that are rumored to be just around the corner. When they remade the Let It Be album (Let It Be Naked), the sound had more clarity, but it also seemed dynamically compressed. I could live with it, if they did that to the other albums, but I would not be completely satisfied.

Most people will think I am just nitpicking. But good music deserves a decent transfer from the master tape. Comparing the CD with the vinyl, this didn't happen when Abbey Road was transfered to digital. I find the CD convenient, but it is always a strangely unsatisfying experience. The CD gives an impression of this great album, but the unnatural timbres of instruments and electronic quality of the voices deaden the beauty of the songs.

If you buy this, just remember that there is more to this album than you will ever hear from the CD. We hope for better... maybe the remastered version. But I may just digitally record my vinyl copy. It may well outdo any future remastering. April 5, 2008

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