The title
While some of The Beatles' albums - notably the film tie-ins A Hard Day's Night and Help! - were titled early on during the recording process, Abbey Road remained untitled until the recording sessions were well underway.
We went through weeks of all saying, 'Why don't we call it Billy's Left Boot?' and things like that. And then Paul just said, 'Why don't we call it Abbey Road?'
Anthology
Its working title was Everest, named after the cigarettes that sound engineer Geoff Emerick smoked. The packets had a silhouette of Mount Everest on them, and The Beatles liked the imagery.
It was around July, when it was very hot outside, that someone mentioned the possibility of the four of them taking a private plane over to the foothills of Mount Everest to shoot the cover photograph. But as they became more enthusiastic to finish the LP someone - I don't remember whom - suggested 'Look, I can't be bothered to schlep all the way over to the Himalayas for a cover, why don't we just go outside, take the photo there, call the LP Abbey Road and have done with it?' That's my memory of why it became Abbey Road: because they couldn't be bothered to go to Tibet and get cold!
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
The eventual title was suggested by Paul McCartney.
While we were in the studio, our engineer Geoff Emerick always used to smoke cigarettes called Everest, so the album was going to be called Everest. We never really liked that, but we couldn't think of anything else to call it. Then one day I said, 'I've got it!' – I don't know how I thought of it – 'Abbey Road! It's the studio we're in, which is fabulous; and it sounds a bit like a monastery.'
Anthology
The cover artwork
Abbey Road was unique among The Beatles' albums to feature neither the group's name nor the title on its front cover. The four members were pictured walking away from EMI Studios - a symbolic gesture given the thousands of hours spent inside there since 1962.
The photography was taken by Iain Macmillan on 8 August 1969. A freelance photographer, Macmillan was a friend to John Lennon and Yoko Ono; he died in May 2006.
The session began at 11.35am. Macmillan positioned a stepladder in the middle of Abbey Road, and quickly took six photographs using his Hasselblad camera while a policeman stopped traffic from passing. He used a 50mm wide-angle lens, set at aperture f22 at 1/500 seconds.
In three of the pictures The Beatles were walking away from the studio; in the remainder they walked from right to left. In each of the shots the order was John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
During shots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 the group were walking out of step. However, the fifth shot was perfect, and was selected by Paul McCartney for the album.
In the background an American tourist, Paul Cole, was pictured standing next to a police van. Cole was unaware he was pictured on a Beatles album cover until some time later. The Volkswagen Beetle car which was parked on the other side of the road was sold at auction in 1986 for £2,530, and is currently on display at the Autostadt museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Related articles:
- Mixing, editing: I Want You (She's So Heavy)
- Radio: Side By Side
- Abbey Road to offer studio time to wealthy hotel guests
- Recording: Can't Buy Me Love, You Can't Do That, And I Love Her, I Should Have Known Better
- Recording: Please Mister Postman, It Won't Be Long
Didnt Mal Evans play the Anvil... not Ringo?
Mal Evans played the anvil during rehearsals at Twickenham, as seen in the Let It Be film. In the studio some months later, when they were making Abbey Road, it was Ringo.
Actually, it seems that it was Mal. This quote from Geoff Emerick in a track-by-track walkthrough, interviewed by Joe Bosso, Thu 10 Sep 2009:
"For the hammer bits, we actually had to rent a proper blacksmith's anvil. The thing weighed a ton, as did the hammer used to strike it. Ringo tried but he just couldn't hoist the hammer in a way that allowed him to hit the anvil with the correct timing, so Mal Evans [one of The Beatles' roadies], who was a large man, he wound up doing it."
Just a curious fact when the picture was shot (8/8/1969), these were the Beatles' ages (in order from left to right in the picture):
a) George - 26 (02/25/1943)
b) Paul - 27 (06/18/1942)
c) Ringo - 29 (07/07/1940)
d) John - 28 (10/09/1940)
Regards.
Oscar.
Thanks Oscar. Useful to have a reminder that Paul was 27, not 28.
"28 IF" became part of the 'Paul is dead' conspiracy, in relation to the number plate of the VW Beetle car behind the group. As in, McCartney would have been 28 IF he was still alive. Incidentally, the other part of the number plate, LMW, was taken to mean 'Linda McCartney weeps'. Crazy stuff!
Don't forget the attire, Paul is barefoot, (people are buried barefoot), John is in all white as an angel, George is a grave digger and Ringo is a preacher.
very intentional
Nonsense.
Funny is that "Red Hot Chilli Peppers" have same named album. Don't know why?
The RHCP's Abbey Road E.P. is a tribute to The Beatles' album, and the cover features a similarly posed picture of the group (naked except for socks).
See http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:wnj9kett7q7q
Back when they had LP's, I always liked the back cover shot of the girl in the blue mini-dress walking by Abbey Road. So 1969.
I wonder if the model was one of the Beatle women of the era?
It wasnt a model who posed for the back of the album. the photographer, Iain McMillan, wanted the back just to be the road sign, however the girl in the blue dress walked in the shot and had no idea what was going on.. in the end they liked how the shot came out because it was interesting.. so there you have it
I just listened to the "Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab" issue of Abbey Road recently. Sounds just like the studio tapes! I haven't listened to the new remaster yet. Probably can't get any better.
I used to know this but now I can't remember: Did original copies of the album leave "Her Majesty" uncredited on the back cover? Anyone? Thanks!
Yes "Her Majesty" is uncredited on the back cover of my original Abbey Road LP!
BUT
"Her Majesty" is credited on the B-side record label!
Go figure.
Yes, I still own one. Bought it in the early '80s.
Yes, Her Majesty was left off from the back of the album on the first pressings.
My favorite song on the album is "Sun King". I like everything about it from the arrangement to the way it is performed. If you want to go to school, you get three albums: Revolver, the White Album and Abbey Road.
Another interesting fact the beatles are walking away from abbey road studios which could mark the end of their recording career
It's too bad that the technology took so long to catch up with them. They could have done some incredible things.
I listen to this album all the time. My favorites are the shorter songs.
Only problem with todays technology like cd's in general are the last songs are supposed to be medley yet they are cut song by song for easy tracking on cd so you get some annoying sudden blank killing the medley vibe. In order to bring back the medley feel to those tunes just like in records and cassette tape is simply stick them together using a nice audio software and boom! their continuous again just the way i like it.
That only happens to me if I play it in my computer rather than CD player. (And the cool thing about the computer is that I can resequence the tracks to restore "Her Majesty" to its original and rightful place in between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam"!)
The greatest album ever recorded, composed, conceptualized, performed and produced! Every track is a jewel. Even the Ringo track is a masterpiece (probably due to Harrison's imput) but a masterpiece none-the-less. The second side suite or medley, whatever you wanna call it, is the single most inspiring entity in rock history that there is! It's like a Beethoven symphony with each movement by a different composer. When it slides from "Polythene Pam' into "She Came in through the Bathroom Window" and kicks back into "You Never Give Me Your Money" during "Carry That Weight" it makes me wish I was a Beatle just so I could claim that level of genius! I've read that "I Want You (she's so heavy)" was written by Lennon to align himself with the new emerging heavy/progressive bands like Led Zeppelin. If that's true than he did it right! I dare say that it surpassed anything ever done by any "heavy" band including the great Led Zeppelin. Although I do think that it's Paul's bass playing that makes the song along with Billy Preston's playing. Indeed, Paul's bass playing overpowers almost every track...in a good way! I've also read tat Paul was primarily responsible for the second side of segued tracks. Well, thank you Paul! John always said that he hated that second side of half finished tracks thrown together, maybe a little jealousy on his part?
During the Beatles' later years, Ringo and George seemed to be developing their own musical partnership. George obviously assisted in writing Ringo's Octupus' Garden (even though he did not take a songwriting credit). Then, a year or so later, Harrison helped Ringo record one of his greatest songs "It Don't Come Easy." Then in 1973, George played a big role in Ringo's self-titled solo album with the 2 former Beatles co-writing the #1 smash "Photograph" - a song as good as any they (or Lennon-McCartney)had released since the breakup. Perhaps had they remained Beatles, the Harrison-Starkey songwriting team would have evolved to counter the vaunted Lennon-McCartney songwriting machine.
The reason why I Want You is so great is John's intensity. Obsession and soul.
That is what makes the song.
All the great bass and piano playing don't mean a thing if a song isn't great to begin with.
Without John's four tracks on the second side, especially Because, the segue wouldn't be the same.
"Another interesting fact the beatles are walking away from abbey road studios which could mark the end of their recording career"
Begining with I want you, all the way through to the end of the album, is unbelievably awesome. Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Octopus's Garden however both pretty much blow. And Oh Darlin should have been sung by Lennon (even though McCartney wrote it).
Octopus's Garden has awesome Harrison guitar and cool piano and backing vocals. Maxwell's Silver Hammer has goofy sounding but very cool lyrics and cool use of the moog. It is this kind of variation that makes the Beatles so great. Yeah, those songs pretty much "blow" (my mind).
It interesting that John often said how he hated the segue of songs on side two - also there is this sense that he and Paul were not working together by this point - yet look at this interview quote:
"Paul and I are now working on a kind of song montage that we might do as one piece on one side. We've got two weeks to finish the whole thing so we're really working at it."
You can read the whole Lennon quote at http://beatlesinterviews.org/db1969.0503.beatles.html
it's really interesting because John's tone is so normal.
That's a really interesting interview - I'd not seen it before. It's great to see John being so enthusiastic about The Beatles' projects, and so sad that it all fell apart just a few months later.
According to the Rolling Stone article from late 2009 on the group breakup he originally enthusiastic about the medley but he soon soured on the idea
It's been great reading the discography notes here- very informative!
Just a note about "Her Majesty" not being performed/rehearsed until the Abbey Road sessions: if you're talking strictly the TRACKING sessions at Saville Row, that's true... But it actually was shown to the boys by Paul during rehearsals at Twickenham in January '69.
(I just looked up the dates on A/B Road, and it appears it was played 1/9, and twice on 1/24.)
Good point, although the 24 January session was at Apple, not Twickenham, so it was performed at both places. I'll update the article on Her Majesty.