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Abbey Road - The Beatles

review by Stephen Cummings for Juice magazine - 1997
The Fab Four's 10th LP, recorded in 1969, was their last album together. Abbey Road is at odds with itself. A third of the songs were over a year old. The sessions were often attended only by the Beatle whose song was involved. Nonetheless, this album touches on everything that is great about rock and pop music.

Opener "Come Together" - the tune, stolen from Chuck Berry - is a spaced-out groove, driven along by Paul's insidious, funky bass and electric piano. Lennon closes the side with "I Want You," a heavy, experimental pop track. George Harrison also came into his own as a songwriter. John said "Something" was the best track on the album. Sinatra described it as "the greatest love song of the past 50 years." Mostly Abbey Road is a testimony to the strength and failings of Paul McCartney. His punchy, yet melodic bass playing is a revelation. But it's the medley which takes up most of side two where he delivers the goods. Most of the songs were fragments of discarded tunes which McCartney sewed into a rich quilt. So, even in their death throes, the Beatles were the greatest, pound-for-pound heavy-weights of pop.


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