Post by gripweed on Jun 15, 2008 20:47:49 GMT -5
I would say this is a my favorite side of in all of the Beatles catalog.
Here's an interesting take on the "B" side.
Abbey Road Side 2 Medley
Composed Mostly of Bits and Pieces of Unfinished Songs, This Sonic Amalgam is a Masterpiece.
Today we draw details from Steve Spignesi and Michael Lewis' "Here, There and Everywhere: The 100 Best Beatles Songs," Workman Publishing, 2004.
Everything in life is a matter of perspective. Consider what two of the Beatles had to say about this 20 minute Pop Mini-Opera back in 1970:
1) Ringo: "I love the second side of "Abbey Road," where it's all connected and disconnected. No on wanted to finish those songs, so we put them all together and it worked. I think that piece of that album is some of our finest work."
2) John: "I liked the A side, but I never liked that sort of pop opera on the other side. I think it's just junk because it was just bits of songs thrown together."
Coming in a #36 on this particular list, your correspondant agrees with Ringo, to say nothing of millions of fans everywhere; the Side 2 medley is a killer set of great songs. So what, that most of them were unfinished. That's the point of a medley; take a string of songs parts and put them together into a longer whole. It was masterfully done by any standard. As we recall from the Geoff Emerick blog, the new solid state 8 track recording equipment that had just been installed at Abbey Road studios at the time lent a particularly smooth, warm sonic ambiance to this album. Emerick concluded that the very nature of the song writing lent itself to the new equipment. Interesting thought and hard to argue with. In any event, it was breathtaking in scope and virtually unheard of on pop albums before.
"Because": If you include this find number on the Medley list, it shades the medley subtley with a neo-classic/intense harsichord vibe. Spignesi and Lewis do, so I will too. As most people now know, the very interesting chord sequence in this song was arrived at when John Lennon heard Yoko playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (#14, op. 27, no. 2-written in 1801). He asked Yoko to play the chords backwards and they had their song. Lennon applied simple but majestic lyrics to it and as far as this correspondant is concerned, it is one of the most beautiful pieces in the entire Beatles catalogue. Interestingly, George Martin wrote out the three part harmony for John, Paul and George to sing; he walked them through it and when they had a good final vocal take, Martin triple copied it for the album. Thus, what we hear to this day is nine voices singing the beautiful three part harmony. A great start to a wonderful medley. Although John thought "Something" was the best song on "Abbey Road", George and Paul's favorite was this one.
"You Never Give Me Your Money": This was basically Paul writing about all the financial woes going on at Apple. The second part of the song about being in college harkens back to the days before they were Fab. The final section speaks of "one sweet dream" and getting away from it all. Great little tune that itself was three snippets from three songs strung together. Note: When Paul is singing the "One sweet dream . . . . came true . . . . ." bit, one can hear George Harrison in the background riffing that famous D-C walk down power chording arpeggio. Where did we hear that around the same time?? George used the exact same phrasing on Cream's hit "Badge" that he co-wrote with Clapton. No lawsuit when you are copying yourself. Add to that the chimes, crickets and soft bells that segue us into "Sun King." This was the one crossfade that couldn't be done musically. Paul solved the problem with sound effects basically. Bear in mind that the whole of Side 2 is a barrage of different styles of songs in different keys and different tempos. This one couldn't be "played" into the next hence the sound effects.
The next group of songs are the snippet bunch and they rock. Your correspondant just loves the group of "Mean Mr. Mustard - Polythene Pam - She Came in Through the Bathroom Window." Great song parts strung together seemlessly.
"Carry That Weight" moves on into "The End" and it is glorious. "Carry That Weight" was written expressley with the revisit of "You Never Give Me Your Money" in mind. This is the one song that was designed to sound like the penultimate closer of the album and it works wonderfully.
"The End" was almost Not going to feature John on guitar. He was so disgusted with Paul at that point what with "granny" music like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" along with Paul's basic bosiness that he would literally quit the band right after the sessions for this album finished. Nevertheless, Paul saw John and Yoko sitting Studio 2 one afternoon in August, 1969 and he was explaining how he was finishing the album. John made a sheepish comment to the fact that he might not mind adding some lead guitar on "The End." Paul seized on the fact that John was trying to be cooperative then formally asked if John would please "help" out on the dualing guitar phrases. John happily agreed and the rest is history: Ringo played his one and only drum solo and the three guitarist rocked the joint like never before. First Paul, then George followed by John and they repeated two more times each. "The End" was simple as it was defining: "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make." This Medley was the very definition of "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts." This also described the Beatles to a tee.
How true Beatle fans. This is what the Beatles were all about anyway: their music and how it spread love. Period. It was and remains now a truly great and timeless message that sums up what the Beatles were all about.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks)
Here's an interesting take on the "B" side.
Abbey Road Side 2 Medley
Composed Mostly of Bits and Pieces of Unfinished Songs, This Sonic Amalgam is a Masterpiece.
Today we draw details from Steve Spignesi and Michael Lewis' "Here, There and Everywhere: The 100 Best Beatles Songs," Workman Publishing, 2004.
Everything in life is a matter of perspective. Consider what two of the Beatles had to say about this 20 minute Pop Mini-Opera back in 1970:
1) Ringo: "I love the second side of "Abbey Road," where it's all connected and disconnected. No on wanted to finish those songs, so we put them all together and it worked. I think that piece of that album is some of our finest work."
2) John: "I liked the A side, but I never liked that sort of pop opera on the other side. I think it's just junk because it was just bits of songs thrown together."
Coming in a #36 on this particular list, your correspondant agrees with Ringo, to say nothing of millions of fans everywhere; the Side 2 medley is a killer set of great songs. So what, that most of them were unfinished. That's the point of a medley; take a string of songs parts and put them together into a longer whole. It was masterfully done by any standard. As we recall from the Geoff Emerick blog, the new solid state 8 track recording equipment that had just been installed at Abbey Road studios at the time lent a particularly smooth, warm sonic ambiance to this album. Emerick concluded that the very nature of the song writing lent itself to the new equipment. Interesting thought and hard to argue with. In any event, it was breathtaking in scope and virtually unheard of on pop albums before.
"Because": If you include this find number on the Medley list, it shades the medley subtley with a neo-classic/intense harsichord vibe. Spignesi and Lewis do, so I will too. As most people now know, the very interesting chord sequence in this song was arrived at when John Lennon heard Yoko playing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" (#14, op. 27, no. 2-written in 1801). He asked Yoko to play the chords backwards and they had their song. Lennon applied simple but majestic lyrics to it and as far as this correspondant is concerned, it is one of the most beautiful pieces in the entire Beatles catalogue. Interestingly, George Martin wrote out the three part harmony for John, Paul and George to sing; he walked them through it and when they had a good final vocal take, Martin triple copied it for the album. Thus, what we hear to this day is nine voices singing the beautiful three part harmony. A great start to a wonderful medley. Although John thought "Something" was the best song on "Abbey Road", George and Paul's favorite was this one.
"You Never Give Me Your Money": This was basically Paul writing about all the financial woes going on at Apple. The second part of the song about being in college harkens back to the days before they were Fab. The final section speaks of "one sweet dream" and getting away from it all. Great little tune that itself was three snippets from three songs strung together. Note: When Paul is singing the "One sweet dream . . . . came true . . . . ." bit, one can hear George Harrison in the background riffing that famous D-C walk down power chording arpeggio. Where did we hear that around the same time?? George used the exact same phrasing on Cream's hit "Badge" that he co-wrote with Clapton. No lawsuit when you are copying yourself. Add to that the chimes, crickets and soft bells that segue us into "Sun King." This was the one crossfade that couldn't be done musically. Paul solved the problem with sound effects basically. Bear in mind that the whole of Side 2 is a barrage of different styles of songs in different keys and different tempos. This one couldn't be "played" into the next hence the sound effects.
The next group of songs are the snippet bunch and they rock. Your correspondant just loves the group of "Mean Mr. Mustard - Polythene Pam - She Came in Through the Bathroom Window." Great song parts strung together seemlessly.
"Carry That Weight" moves on into "The End" and it is glorious. "Carry That Weight" was written expressley with the revisit of "You Never Give Me Your Money" in mind. This is the one song that was designed to sound like the penultimate closer of the album and it works wonderfully.
"The End" was almost Not going to feature John on guitar. He was so disgusted with Paul at that point what with "granny" music like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" along with Paul's basic bosiness that he would literally quit the band right after the sessions for this album finished. Nevertheless, Paul saw John and Yoko sitting Studio 2 one afternoon in August, 1969 and he was explaining how he was finishing the album. John made a sheepish comment to the fact that he might not mind adding some lead guitar on "The End." Paul seized on the fact that John was trying to be cooperative then formally asked if John would please "help" out on the dualing guitar phrases. John happily agreed and the rest is history: Ringo played his one and only drum solo and the three guitarist rocked the joint like never before. First Paul, then George followed by John and they repeated two more times each. "The End" was simple as it was defining: "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make." This Medley was the very definition of "The whole is greater than the sum of the parts." This also described the Beatles to a tee.
How true Beatle fans. This is what the Beatles were all about anyway: their music and how it spread love. Period. It was and remains now a truly great and timeless message that sums up what the Beatles were all about.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks)