Sept 26, 2019, 9:28am
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| The album's cover would become iconic in popular culture. PHOTO: Iain Macmillan |
WHEN Paul McCartney phoned George Martin in early 1969 asking him to produce the album that would become Abbey Road, the producer was hesitant.
The man, who many called the fifth Beatle, was sick of the infighting and spitefulness he had witnessed earlier in the year as the band recorded the tracks for Let it Be.
"It was such an unhappy record, even though there were some great songs on it ... I really believed that was the end of the Beatles," Martin would remark.
With McCartney hanging on the line, Martin told him: "Only if you let me produce it the way we used to do it".
McCartney agreed. Martin asked if John Lennon would agree to the arrangement.
"Honestly, yes," was McCartney's reply.
Years later, Martin would reflect on the situation frankly.
"It was a very happy record. I guess it was happy because everybody thought it was going to be the last," he said.
It's strange to think that, by the time they came to make Abbey Road — which was released 50 years ago today — the Beatles were a load of contradictions.
The most obvious was that while publicly they appeared united, in truth they were sick of the sight of each other.
Just a few months before, George Harrison had famously walked out of the group.
Lennon's response was brutal: "Let's get in Eric [Clapton]. He's just as good and not such a headache".
They had another contradiction too — the biggest band in the world was going broke.
A shaky start in the studio
How they had found themselves in this situation is a story in itself.
Suffice to say it caused even greater divisions as Lennon, McCartney and Ringo Starr turned to the rapacious US accountant Allen Klein to save them, alienating McCartney.
Now here they were back in the studio to make a record that would channel their creativity and get their company Apple out of financial trouble.
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| Just days before recording was scheduled, John and Yoko were injured in a car crash. PHOTO: AP Steve Sands, file |
The good news came in the quality of the songs they brought to the sessions.
Bizarrely, many of the tracks they would record had begun their life during the miserable recording of Let it Be.
Bizarrely, many of the tracks they would record had begun their life during the miserable recording of Let it Be.
The bad news though, was that for all Lennon's assurances that he would put down the gloves and play good music, he was in the grip of heroin addiction.
A car crash, addiction, arguments and missed sessions
Things didn't start well as they came together in the studio.
Just days before recording was scheduled to begin on July 1, Lennon and Yoko Ono were injured in a car crash. Lennon had 17 stitches and Yoko, too, was badly hurt.
As a result of the accident, Lennon missed the first sessions.
Meanwhile, anticipating his arrival, he demanded a double bed be installed in the studio with a microphone that would allow Yoko to add her thoughts to the creative process.
When he recovered from the accident, the first song set for recording was McCartney's — Maxwell's Silver Hammer.
Like every Beatles album, there was one clanger. According to Lennon, this was it. He refused to play on the track.
Unfazed, the band continued on, but not without eruptions.
According to music writer Ian MacDonald, the sessions went from "cold tolerance to childish violence".
"Lennon twice argued savagely with McCartney, at one point taking a less than peaceful swing at his wife Linda," he wrote.
When asked about Abbey Road, Lennon downplayed the sessions, remarking that all that he could remember was recording Come Together and it was like a haze.
Little wonder, really. Lennon, torn by his narcotics addiction, had effectively surrendered his ego and sense of self to the drug and Yoko Ono, other band members would say.
From 'insignificant song scraps' to hits
As it happened, Come Together had taken its title from a political slogan LSD guru Timothy Leary used.
Its musical form had come from the Chuck Berry song, You Can't Catch Me. Lennon had taken the song and slowed it down. If anyone missed the musical similarities, he even used the same line: "Here comes old flat-top".
Elsewhere, Lennon's contribution was uneven. He described Polythene Pam, Mean Mister Mustard and Sun King as insignificant song scraps.
In many ways, he was right. But the key to Abbey Road is found in the more egalitarian nature of the record.
For the first time, the band fully acknowledged George Harrison's talents with Here Comes the Sun and Something (it, too, had its first line stolen from a James Taylor song).
The other key, of course, was Paul McCartney. He'd always been a hard worker, the enthusiast, doubly so now as he tried to make a difficult situation work.
Taking the song scraps from Lennon's musical notebook and working tirelessly with George Martin, he created a song suite for side two of the album.
Then, having recorded the basic backing tracks for each of the segments, the band came together "live" to play overdubs giving the segments a unity and continuity.
McCartney's dedication didn't end there. Each day he would arrive early to re-track and perfect his vocals for key songs, including the voice shredding rocker Oh! Darling.
Despite his heroin haze, Lennon was not going to be upstaged. As the sessions drew to a close, he sensed his own overall contribution lacking.
His response was to focus on the song I Want You. The problem was, he had two versions he liked.
Then, in a masterstroke, he decided to put them together and use a moog-synthesiser to give the song a unique climactic quality with a brutal cut off ending.
Iconic photo nearly didn't happen
As the record moved to its final stages, a cover had to be created. The cover of Abbey Road may now be iconic, but it came as something of an afterthought.
For much of the recording process, the album was tentatively titled Everest. As it happened, it was the brand name of the cigarettes smoked by recording engineer Geoff Emerick.
The original idea had been to fly the group to the Himalayas for the photoshoot, but as Beatles chronicler Mark Lewisohn revealed, they couldn't be bothered.
Instead, they decided to go with a hastily created idea that McCartney had sketched on a piece of paper showing the four crossing the road.
The photo, taken on August 8, would become the most copied image in pop history.
A divided band
The drama and tension were not over, though.
In early September, with Starr in hospital suffering stomach pains, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison convened at the Beatles headquarters in Savile Row to discuss the groups' future.
To keep Starr informed, they recorded the conversation.
Fifty years on, with transcripts of the tape finally made public, it's clear how deep the divisions inside the band really were and how, despite those divisions, attempts were made to find a way forward.
For his part, Lennon demanded they divide up any future albums with four songs apiece and — in a clear attack on McCartney — that they stop putting sub-standard tracks on LP's for the sake of popularity.
Then astonishing everyone, he suggested they do a Christmas record for the fans.
Rebuffed with silence, it is now clear Lennon left the meeting deeply disturbed about what he should do next.
A last-minute bombshell from Lennon
Always impetuous, he held his fire until September 20.
Then, just six days before Abbey Road's release date, he dropped a bombshell — he wanted out. The Beatles were over.
Incredibly, the four agreed it must remain a secret. There were too many business deals yet to be finalised.
Oblivious to all the drama, the fans devoured the record as it hit the shops.
Sales for Abbey Road were bigger than any previous Beatles album. It was just what Apple Corps needed.
It would take another six months for the split to be made public.
In the wake of the break-up, fans would finally hear the fruits of the fractured Let it Be sessions, but in truth, Abbey Road would be the Beatles' final artistic statement.
It's a record with many charms, but the words of the final song recorded by the band, The End, hold a special poignancy: "And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make".
It was a sentiment that seemed to sum up both the band and the decade it had soundtracked so exquisitely — with all its turmoil, triumphs, heartaches and contradictions.
The dream, however, was over.
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