Word: abbeys
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...determinedly unadventurous and unpretentious to the point of seeming derivative. So why do we nevertheless like the Beatles so extravagantly? It is worth, I think, the effort to try and understand the abstract roots of the Beatles' superiority, a superiority that is evident from beginning to end of Abbey Road...
...still makes beautiful sense. Or how else to explain the presence of "Oh Darling" on the album, a song which would have been no more than a flat 1950's period piece if not for the breathtaking ripples of drums and piano that accent it? All the music on Abbey Road is vaguely familiar in broad outline but it might as well have not been for all the good it does anyone trying to put the album down for that reason...
Side two of Abbey Road is a long poem by, I'm sure, John Lennon, and performed under his guidance. (In fact, this whole album is very much John's trip, just as the last double-album was Paul's and George's.) This whole song-poem is done in the style of "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" with short sections of lyrics and themes disappearing and re-appearing to build to the definite expression of a particular message and its corresponding mood...
...time around Lennon is different, more at peace with himself and the world and advocating the same for everybody. Again the metaphor of his relationship with his ex-wife recurs and the difference in his handling of it shows exactly how he has changed. Thus, on side two of Abbey Road, which must always be thought of as a single unified composition, Lennon's insistent call is for everyone to come to terms with the world just as he has come to terms with himself for the pain and sorrow that he caused someone else (i.e., Cynthia Lennon). The song...
...Abbey Road then is an album of the Beatles at the very height of their creative powers, a combination of extraordinarily strong songs written and performed with a kind of relentless assured zeal, and-on Side two in particular-infused with a mature and compassionate poetic vision, No wonder the Beatles are still Number One on every rock freak's list...