Reviewing an album by the Beatles is a little like reviewing the sun or the moon. Like the sun or the moon, a Beatles album is a fact of life: something to be accepted without thought, enjoyed when it's good, endured when it's not. You wouldn't question or analyze one any more than you would question or analyze a miracle. And the Beatles' music is often miraculously good.
So I thought once, that is. When I accepted the Beatles in the same unthinking way as I accepted the sun or the moon. In the same way, I suppose, as young believers accept the Virgin Birth or the divine mission of the prophet Muhammad (pbub). Nowadays, like a lot of young believers when they've grown up, I'm prepared to be irreverent, if not quite blasphemous, and I can come right out and say it.
The Beatles weren't absolutely always a perfect band. Sometimes their music self-indulgent and ugly. They weren't the Alpha and Omega of pop, or its fons et origo either. To be honest, when they were bad, they could be very, very bad. Fortunately, the corollary applies: when they were good, they could be very, very good. Miraculously good.
And you can hear examples of both on this album, which was once my favorite album by my favorite band. It wasn't as famous as Sergeant Pepper's, or as long as the White Album, or as disjointed as Let It Be, and it had a cover of classic simplicity and depth. I could look at those four figures striding eternally in bright 'sixties sunshine with the same unfailing interest as I could once listen to the music those four figures had created to accompany that cover. "Come Together" was so compellingly catchy, for example.
But nowadays I know that this was thanks in part to Chuck Berry, who wrote part of the music for it. Not that he realized he had at the time, but John Lennon inadvertently plagiarized Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" (and covered a Berry song on his solo "Rock'n'Roll Music" by way of compensation). The Beatles weren't the most original band there has ever been, and this is just a particularly glaring proof of it. Nor were they the most musically gifted, as players of instruments, and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is a particularly glaring proof of that.
No, what they were was very musically gifted as creators of melodies and lyrics. "I Want You" has no tune and its lyrics are barely worthy of the name, and it's more like musical masturbation than anything else. No doubt many would agree, then, that it's appropriate that Paul McCartney wrote it, but whatever his faults as a person, there's no doubting, most of the time, his flawlessness as a composer, and I could forgive a dozen variations on "I Want You" for the sake of some of what he produces on side two.
The medley that begins with "Mean Mr Mustard" is a feast of sweet McCartney melody and tart Lennon lyrics and rhythm. Learning the stories behind some of the songs has spoilt them a little: their mysteriousness was part of their appeal. "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", did she? Why? Well, I didn't know, and I liked not knowing, because I could fit my own pictures and my own experiences to the words. And no matter how often I had listened to the album I still loved waiting for the way the medley swooped or leapt from section to section and for the jewels of melody or phrasing each section contained.
And that's not to mention George Harrison, whose contributions to Abbey Road, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun", prove that he could match Lennon and McCartney as a songwriter, if not quite as a prolific songwriter. Like the Beatles themselves, Abbey Road is flawed but fabulous. It has its longueurs but it has its lusciousness too, and I can't think of any other band who could have written music worthy of that cover: classically simple but with unending depths.
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2007 Beatles 64p value on specially designed 'Abbey Road' design envelope. Bears the 64p ... more
'Abbey Road' stamp and a special 'Abbey Road' guitar shaped postmark for the first day of issue. Limited edition of just 1000 pieces worldwide, nice Beatles commem...
Postage & Packaging: £2.50 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Advantages: One of my favourite Beatles albums, full of life, soul and fantastic vocals Disadvantages: There isn't a big McCartney love song (we do get the next best thing though) and Ringo sings!
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