Why We Love The Beatles (v2) 44 of 100

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Why We Love The Beatles (v2) 44 of 100

Abbey Road Studios - 3 Abbey Road, St Johns Wood (Paul lived around the corner), London, NW8 9AY, gave the Beatles what they needed: time, space and privacy from a world which was hungry for any news on anything they were doing. Good for record sales but bad for their creativity. Pretty well everything they did was recorded here between 1962 and 1970 and it became a place where they could rapidly become comfortable and experiment, demanding more and more of the technicians and of George Martin with techniques such as double-tracking and controlled feed-back.

The place of pilgrimage for so many fans: the zebra crossing is still there. But sadly, as with The Cavern has subtly shifted its geographical location.

So when things were grim, it was natural that they should return for what would be their last album: Abbey Road. Following the awful ‘Get Back’ sessions stacked with personal bitterness, the four lads from Liverpool got it together for one last time. The White Album had been majestic and sprawling and possibly simply too long. Let it Be (yet to be released) would need a lot of work to make it presentable as it had missed George Martins’s thoughtful guidance. But Abbey Road, the album, had the best: the studio, the producer, the technicians and for a couple of final months only: the world’s greatest band in productive mood. They were determined to get it right before they stepped down.

That’s another reason we love The Beatles.

The Back-Story

Reason 1: Story-tellers; 2: Sgt. Pepper; 3: Eternally optimistic; 4: Still cool; 5: George Harrison.; 6: Love Me Do

7: Work Ethic ;8: Synchronicity; 9: The Roof-top Concert; 10: Candlestick Park; 11: Lennon & McCartney

12: I Saw Her Standing There; 13: Liverpool; 14: Black & White; 15: Album Covers; 16: John Lennon

17: Lennon & McCartney; 18: Rock 'n Roll; 19: They Never Made it Easy; 20: Ringo

21: Meditation & Massage; 22: The Back of a Commer Van; 23: George Martin.

24: Simply Different

25: A Time to Think

26: Revolver

27: Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

28: The B Side