The Abbey Road Medley (Side Two)

Robert Feduccia, my friend and fellow Beatles fan, was gushing last week about his copy of the newly remastered Abbey Road album. He asked me about how involved John was in a couple of Paul's songs. Here is my reply.

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Like scriptural form criticism, one cannot speak of "Golden Slumbers" and "Carry That Weight" unless it is within the context of all ten songs in what has come to be known as The Abbey Road Medley:

Because
You Never Give Me Your Money
Sun King
Mean Mr. Mustard
Polythene Pam
She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
Giolden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End
Her Majesty


The Beatles were breaking up. They knew it and their producer George Martin knew it. Nobody really said, "Let's do a final album because we're breaking up," but that sentiment certainly informed the whole time they recorded Abbey Road. The group had just been through a near-disastrous filming and recording of the Let It Be tracks and they knew those songs weren't really the best they could do. There was even talk of not releasing Let It Be at all. So "we can do better than that" was the spirit that drove the Abbey Road sessions.

The problem was that the guys really didn't have too many finished songs for a new album. Oh, they had the splendid complete compositions on Side One (Come Together, Something, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Oh Darling, Octopus' Garden, I Want You), plus George's superb "Here Comes the Sun" that opened up Side Two. But they needed more songs to finish out the LP. You can almost hear them talking among themselves.

Paul: John, you got anything?

John: Nah, just a couple of jibberwoks with nonsensical lyrics (Sun King, Polythene Pam). You?

Paul: Not much, just a lullaby (Golden Slumbers) and that blues song we've been jamming on for a few weeks (Bathroom Window).

George Martin: Well, let's just record everything you've got and see what happens. . .

And they did. And it was Paul who said, "Let's put it all together like a suite. Can you do that, George (Martin)?"

And so George Martin did. This is a prime example of the whole being better than the parts. And as they polished each song fragment, all four of them contributed something to just about all the tracks. For example, all four sang the chorus on "Carry That Weight," a rare occurrence on a Beatles song. John also played bass on that track. George Harrison played Moog synthesizer* on "Because" and bass on "Bathroom Window" and "Golden Slumbers." John, Paul AND George played dueling lead guitars on "The End." And, for good measure, they persuaded Ringo to play his first-ever drum solo on the track so he could shine like they did on the guitar duel. In other words, despite the group's pending breakup, they apparently had a grand time recording Abbey Road.

In an interview for The Big Beat magazine, Ringo is quoted as saying:
"I love the second side of Abbey Road, where it's all connected and disconnected. No one wanted to finish those songs, so we put them all together and it worked. I think that piece of that album is some of our finest work."

Knowing this background story, I think it is clear that the Beatles knew exactly what they were doing when they gifted the world with the Abbey Road album. If they were going to break up, they might as well go out in style.

"And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. . ."

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Sources:
Stephen J. Spignesi and Michael Lewis, Here, There and Everywhere: The 100 Best Beatles Songs, New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2004

Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles Recording Sessions, New York: Harmony Books, 1988

* Among other things, Abbey Road was also one of the first mainstream rock albums to extensively use the then-new Moog synthesizer. You can hear it shine on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "Because," and "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight."