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MMOC Blog #19 - Why the Abbey Road LP is overrated

6/4/2017

8 Comments

 
"I did name my cat Abbey after all, although I do frequently point out that she's named after the most overrated Beatles album.  Please let me know how wrong I am!"
The Beatles are easily my favorite band.  John Lennon in particular is my favorite singer/songwriter to ever walk the planet.  So why would I write a blog bashing the final album the group recorded together?  Well, I do think Abbey Road is a 5/5 star brilliant album, and maybe even one of their top five records.  But to think it's their best... overrated seems like a better adjective to me.  Is Sgt. Pepper or another of their earlier albums overrated?  Certainly not.  Let me explain.  If you have an argument against me I'll just drink a ton of Blue Lights and yell at you.
 
The songs aren't that great (for the Beatles, anyway)
There are at least three songs on Sgt. Pepper that are better than anything on Abbey Road.  Come Together is overrated.  The George songs are great but there are only two of them, and most of the pieces of the medley wouldn't stand up to most Beatles songs on their own.  If you compare an album like Revolver song by song to Abbey Road, it's not even close.  And I'm not sensing the cohesion of Rubber Soul or the adventurousness of Pepper or the White Album on Abbey Road either.  Rock critics can be jerks though, and again I must stress I am not one at all and absolutely appreciate the album as a whole.  But we'll continue
 
Lennon mailed in his performance
Abbey Road and Let it Be are probably John's weakest albums with the Beatles, and this happened after he'd shown his dominance once again on the White Album.  Sure, you could debate that he was still the leader of the band at this point, writing and singing as many songs as anyone.  But I tend to prefer Beatles albums where John is on fire and writing most of the songs (Rubber Soul, most early albums etc).  Or on an album like Pepper where Paul may have written more songs, John made up for it by writing a few of the best songs we've ever heard. 
His bad car accident right before the start of the sessions could probably explain his disinterest, so there's a valid excuse at least.  But it still doesn't make Abbey Road a top four Beatles album.
 
McCartney was being a control freak
Paul was probably the sole reason the last couple of Beatles albums were even made.  And we can thank him for that.  He may be the most ambitious rock musician alive today.  But as much as I love the medley on side two, Maxwell's Silver Hammer is one of the very worst Beatles songs.  I'm not an Oh Darling fan either.  The fact that those were chosen over All Things Must Pass and other George tunes was a bit arrogant.  Let's just say it didn't help hold the unit together.  It probably was time for them to go their separate ways, at least for a while.  The sad thing is, it appears they were nearly ready to pick up where they'd left off when John was killed.
 
Harrison was the only Beatle who was "on"
And let's not forget many of George's best songs were being passed on by this point.  His experiments with an awful-sounding Moog synth at the time didn't help things much either.  Sure, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" are two of the greatest songs ever.  But George having the best songs on a Beatles album is just plain wrong to me.  Imagine if he had the two best songs on Pepper.  That would have been impossible for anyone.  At the same time, his guitar playing on Abbey Road was maybe the highlight of the album.
 
You like it for its production?
The term audiophile is subjective.  Many people point out the fact that the Beatles now had more tracks to record on at Abbey Road Studios (which is an ultimate destination for people like myself, but was becoming a prison for the Beatles by 1969), and George Martin's finished product sounds sonically better than previous Beatles albums.  Well on the other hand, maybe slightly because of this, I think Abbey Road barely even sounds like a Beatles album.  Sure, it was a big step up from Let it Be, despite a few classic songs being on Let it Be.  But I see it almost as a reunion album - It's just the reunion happened very quickly before the guys in the band all started to completely despise each other... not a great atmosphere to record an album in.  I can't help but feel down listening to it sometimes.
 
So I guess these clouds surrounding the Abbey Road album make it the Beatles' ultimate triumph to some people.  Personally, while it's all just opinion, I think if someone likes it better than Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper or White Album they've overlooked something.  As weird as I am, I like Beatles For Sale and some days even Help better than Abbey Road.  And let's not forget that while the Beatles first few albums are not among their best, they were easily the best anyone was putting out at the time.  While Abbey Road had some stiff competition.  But what do I know?  I did name my cat Abbey after all, although I do frequently point out that she's named after the most overrated Beatles album.  Please let me know how wrong I am!
 
​-Tyler
8 Comments
Trevor Osborne
2/13/2019 06:08:23 pm

totally agree about Abbey Road being overrated the side one sequence of maxwell/oh darling/octopuses/i want you is where the album falters for me .ordinary by Beatle standards .Dont get me wrong Its a great album just not the best.Probably Rubber Soul or Revolver for me

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Bob Bykowski
9/4/2019 09:03:51 am

It may be a cardinal sin to say this if one is a die-hard Beatles fan (which I am), but I really believe that 'Abbey Road' is the band's weakest album (in their British configurations) next to the 'Yellow Submarine' soundtrack. I actually even prefer 'Let It Be'. Here's my reasoning:

Ok, the album has four truly great tracks. "Come Together" may just be the funkiest thing the band ever did. The lyrics are mind-boggling obtuse, John's vocal sounds like he's back in rocking form, and Paul's bass work combined with Ringo's drumming on this one is simply superb. It gets the album off to a great, promising start.

There's also George's two supremely melodic masterpieces, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun", which showcase his coming-of-age as a songwriter. While there's other George songs with the Beatles that I think are better than these two (I can think of three that I prefer - "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "I Need You" and "Don't Bother Me"), there's simply no doubt that these two are well-crafted, beautifully arranged songs that I never get tired of hearing. They fit snugly into the Beatles' top-notch canon of their most memorable work.

The fourth great track is the gorgeous "Because", in which producer George Martin triple-dubbed the group's three-part harmonies to angelic effect, and it gives off the aural effect of a glistening, shiny diamond. Hearing this reminds one of how effortlessly the group could show their diversity and shine at the same time.

That's the great stuff, now there's the rest. The sequence on side one of "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Oh! Darling", "Octopuss' Garden" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" gets my vote as the worst sequence of four songs in the Beatles' entire recording career. "Maxwell's" is simply awful, possibly the weakest moment in the band's history. Trying to make a sing-along ditty about a guy going around smashing people's heads in with a hammer is never a good idea, and McCartney makes it worse by singing it in this coy, cloyingly cute voice that is alarming upon first listen. Subsequent listenings just highlight the stupidity of the song's concept and lyrics. No getting around it; a true dud.

"Oh! Darling" is Paul trying on his Fats Domino/Little Richard persona again, but where previous attempts at writing and performing this type of song were successful, this one just plods along and sounds forced. The melody sounds like it either wants to exit or begin fresh with a better conceived song. And "Octopuss' Garden" is nothing more than a second-rate rewrite of "Yellow Submarine" that lacks the same zany charm.

Rounding out the side is John's "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which basically amounts to John's pleading of love and lust for Yoko. It's not awful, but the simplistic lyrics and repetitive main riff do get somewhat wearing. What makes the song somewhat interesting (barely) is how the riff mounts and mounts during the last third of the song like someone trying to drive a dying car engine through a snowstorm, and then it just cuts off. Again, interesting but not really a good song.

The highly regarded medley - beginning with "You Never Give Me Your Money" and concluding with "Her Majesty" - on the second side is decent, thanks mainly to producer George Martin's wizardry in tying together a group of half-finished songs by the band that just may have been half-finished because the group realized they weren't all that great to begin with. But Martin's production skills make it work, and even though McCartney's "You Never Give Me Your Money" and "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window" are the only songs within the medley sequence that actually work well as individual compositions, it's still pretty exciting to hear John, Paul and George take turns duelling it out on lead guitar on "The End", and conclude with the immortal line "And in the end/The love you take/Is equal to the love you make", which serves as a fitting epitaph for both the band's career and the love given by and received by their fans. No doubt, the medley is a fine piece of work in how it's constructed and executed, but the actual songs within it are only so-so.

So that's my assessment of 'Abbey Road'. It's a solid B Plus album by a band that otherwise made A or A minus albums. A very good album, but hardly their best by any stretch.

Reply
Roger Virtue
11/7/2019 08:56:26 pm

I agree with all you say, and your reasoning, especially regarding the sub-standard song sequence on Abbey Road, Side 1, beginning with the truly awful Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Although it's been some time since you submitted your comments, I feel they need endorsement.

The only other observation I would make is that the production quality is doubtless, in a technical sense at least, the high point of the Beatles' and George Martin's careers. Yet to me it often has a curious bloodless, dynamically-dead and soul-less feel. Abbey Road may be B+, as you say, and that puts it well down the rankings.

And, like you, I think Beatles For Sale has very good songs (originals and covers) and performances. I also think Magical Mystery Tour is often overlooked, probably particularly by people enthralled by Abbey Road.

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Roger Virtue
11/7/2019 09:02:21 pm

A postscript. Forgive me Bob for referring to you liking Beatles For Sale - although I hope you do. I was confusing your comments with some one else's.

Reply
Bob Bykowski
11/8/2019 04:33:43 am

I do like Beatles for Sale quite a bit. The original compositions are all uniformly excellent. It's just a couple questionable covers choices such as "Mr. Moonlight" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" that lessen the album's overall impact.

Roger Virtue
11/12/2019 02:23:51 am

Very true,. Everybody...:Carl Perkins' original
rendition of his own song has spice and humour; George misses by a mile. Mr Moonlight is very silly, though John
does invest it, oddly, with some very passionate singing.The original compositions, especially the first four (?) tracks of Side 1 are the equal of much of Hard Day's Night, I think.

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Tania link
10/26/2023 09:02:50 am

Appreciate this bllog post

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Kylie Young link
7/14/2024 07:52:56 am

Nice blogg

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