The Beatles - Abbey Road Video Album - Part 1
Side One
Come Together (4:19)
Something (3:02)
Maxwell's Silver Hammer (3:27)
Oh! Darling (3:27)
Octopus's Garden (2:51)
I Want You (She's So Heavy) (7:47)
Side Two
Here Comes the Sun (3:06)
Because (2:46)
You Never Give Me Your Money (4:03)
Sun King (2:26)
Mean Mr. Mustard (1:07)
Polythene Pam (1:13)
She Came in Through the Bathroom Window (1:59)
Golden Slumbers (1:32)
Carry That Weight (1:36)
The front cover image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.
Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the "Paul is dead" conspiracy theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an impostor, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Road's commercial success in the US.[140] Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.
The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by Booker T. & the M.G.'s McLemore Avenue (1970), Kanye West's Late Orchestration (2006) and by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?" Yesterday (2019) is about a musician who suddenly finds himself as the only person who remembers the Beatles and becomes famous for performing their songs. One of the film's posters depicts him walking on a similar zebra crossing, alone. From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Road
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Abbey Road
1 George Harrison was sitting in the garden of Eric Clapton’s country house when he began writing “Here Comes The Sun.”
2 All four Beatles were together in the recording studio for the last time on August 20, 1969, when they finalized a mix of Abbey Road.
3 According to George Harrison, the guitar parts on “Sun King” were inspired by the sound of Fleetwood Mac’s big hit single, “Albatross.”
4 The word “pataphysical,” as heard in “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” came from the French avant-garde writer Alfred Jarry, who died in 1907. Paul became interested in his writing and discovered “pataphysics” (defined by Jarry as the “science of imaginary solutions”) in one of the writer’s later works.
5 “Come Together” was banned by the BBC in 1969 because it mentions Coca-Cola and the company had a policy against product placement in songs broadcast on the radio.
6 “Octopus’s Garden,” written by Ringo Starr, was inspired while he was on board Peter Sellers’ yacht in the Mediterranean. The boat’s captain told Ringo how octopuses gather stones and shiny objects from the sea bed to build gardens.
7 According to John Lennon, he asked Yoko Ono to play the chords to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” backward to create “Because.” This is not entirely accurate, but it is very close to the overall sound of The Beatles’ song.
8 As Ringo explained, the idea of the Side Two medley was born out of necessity: “John and Paul had various bits, and so we recorded them and put them together. A lot of work went into it. That last section is, for me, one of the finest pieces we put together.” Paul embraced the idea enthusiastically. “It gave the second side a sort of operatic structure, which was quite nice because it got rid of all these songs in a good way.”
9 “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window” was inspired by an incident when one of the Apple Scruffs (the girls who hung about outside The Beatles’ office) climbed in to McCartney’s house via the bathroom window. She then let in some of the other girls, who stole photos and clothes.
10 Some of the lyrics for “Golden Slumbers” are based on “Cradle Song,” a poem and lullaby from Thomas Dekker’s 1603 comedy, Patient Grissel. McCartney saw the sheet music, left by his stepsister Ruth, on the piano at his father’s home in Liverpool.
From: https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/beatles-abbey-road-streets-ahead-time/
