 Abbey Road w/The Beatles CD 1987 Review created: 07/14/06(updated 11/05/08) 59 of 63 people found this review helpful.
I had the 1969 LP of this Beatles 1987 CD and just had to have it again. I first thought I was going into a mid-life crisis and teenage regression by buying it! But, as soon as I put this CD into the Kenwood car stereo and played it through Blau Punkt speakers, I realized I'd never really "heard" the truest & clearest sound of the musical talent of the Beatles before that day in 2006. I thought to myself, my gawd they were that good back when? All but for recording technology evolving, the musical quality was lost on an LP & even the cassette. The tracks are all classic and many of them were paid tribute to by the Bee Gees (and even Steve Martin!) in the movie "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
Track listing
1. Come Together
2. Something
3. Maxwell's Silver Hammer
4. Oh! Darling
5. Octopus' Garden
6. I Want You (She's So Heavy)
7. Here Comes the Sun
8. Because
9. You Never Give Me Your Money
10. Sun King
11. Mean Mr. Mustard
12. Polythene Pam
13. She Came in Through the Bathroom Window
14. Golden Slumbers
15. Carry That Weight
16. The End
17. Her Majesty
The lesson for me is that this 47 minute CD is (not) new music from 1969-70.
And it was by the original Beatles: Paul McCartney 64 now, 27 then! 16yo when some of these songs were composed (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass--and he's still singing and playing these songs in concerts today--without the rest of the band); John Lennon (murdered in NYC) (vocals, guitar, keyboards); George Harrison (deceased of natural causes) (vocals, guitar, synthesizer); Ringo Starr (alive and kicking, but not with Paul McCartney or in Beatles' style (vocals, drums, percussion). Sir McCartney is the only one of the four who still carries on the Beatles' traditional music that this CD represents.
Even though John Lennon became such a high profile martyred Beatle, Paul McCartney inspired the songs for the 1969-70 Abbey Road. George Harrison had his first hit single "Something." John Lennon created the more spacey heavy metal ones, "Come Together" and "I Want You."Ringo Starr made a favorite hit with children in his "Octopus' Garden."
McCartney can carry the group's sound without the rest of the original band. This leads me to believe he was the heart of the group. I always presumed that Lennon, who was so radical and out in the media front, carried the sound of the Beatles.
I hadn't realized it then like I do now, that this CD has a little something in it for everyone. You've never heard the classic Abbey Road until you've heard the CD!
Review ID: 10000000001398492  Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours. You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote. Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.  A Grand Finale.................. 14 of 15 people found this review helpful.
"Abbey Road offers something for everybody, a 90 year old senior citizen could enjoy this album just as easy as a five year old girl or boy. The sounds and tastes of this record are all over the map. For instance, whereas "Come Together" is a serious rock anthem with a heavy message, songs like "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" (Lennon-McCartney) and "Octopus's Garden" (Ringo Starr) are pure silly pop. The Beatles also tend to get very romantically inclined on "Abbey Road," as on the excellent "Something" (check out the wonderful string section), and on "Oh! Darling," where Paul McCartney belts out the lyrics in his most heartfelt tone. Overall, there's a boyish, innocent quality to these songs, especially lyrically, yet a sophistication in the sound and musical development. In short, The Beatles and their producer, George Martin, had the resources and talent to shine years ahead of their time.
Though The Beatles were on their way out with "Abbey Road," the 7 minute plus song "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is reminiscent of another British band on their way IN in 1969, none other than Led Zeppelin. The song features severely wanting lyrics and an ingraining guitar riff that stays in your head light years after you hear it, definitely Jimmy Page style, before Page became a household name. On the flip side, songs like "Because" and "Sun King" are positively airy and lightweight, yet no less spectacular. The Beatles thrived on hazy and dreamy songs that featured their sky-high choruses and melting melodies. Mere mortals simply can't write music like this, yet The Beatles made it seem as easy as playing hop-scotch on a bright sunny day.
Starting at "You Never Give Me Your Money," the album transforms into a hot-potato medley of one inherently melodic song after another, as if the guys went composition-crazy and miraculously melded some of their best songs into one boiling pot and spewed everything out in one shockingly creative assembly line of tracks that just blend together magically. It's like a movie score with words or a spur-of-the moment "best of" mixture. Undoubtedly, Paul McCartney and John Lennon deserve the lion's share of credit for creating some of the best songs in the history of rock and roll in a span of twenty minutes on the second side of one album. The guys sound excited, joyful, happy to be alive, inspiring, crazy, and willing to experiment.
As the music on "Abbey Road" mutates from one moment to the next, sometimes in the space of just one song, the lustrous sounds and sky-high choruses mix perfectly with the weightless lyrics, which sometimes refer to strange events or people, or just as easily, sound hazy and dreamy, in their own spacey world. Nonetheless, it's worth mentioning The Beatles blatant attempt at spreading their famous "love is all you need" message throughout the album, especially the back-half of the album. As the album winds down, and we here such greats as "Mr. Mustard" and the punkish "Polythene Pam" (both ahead of their time), it's the understatement of the century to say that it ends dramatically. The Beatles go out with a positive and touching message on one of the last lines of the record, and it's not a reach to say that this is one of the most well thought out albums ever made, a concept album with no real concept. I'm now beginning to understand why many have said over the years it is The Beatles and then everyone else.........
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