portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008
Saturday, June 26, 2021
The Beatles - Abbey Road Medley - "The Long One"
THE ABBEY ROAD MEDLEY
perhaps the greatest Beatles composition and album work they committed to vinyl . . . . . . . albeit a string of outtakes or bit parts of songs left unresolved as they worked in the Abbey Road studio all sewn together . . . . . . . . . it remains a favourite piece of music of any and all genres. It blew me away when first I heard it and though folks are putting it back in the order it is alleged it was intended (Her Majesty was designed to appear earlier and not as a coda) I still prefer it where it should be on the vinyl at the very end as if an afterthought to catch us out . . . . . . 'put me back into my bag' or rug you fuggin' superman . . . . I say!
The medley
Contents
Abbey Road was really unfinished songs all stuck together. Everybody praises the album so much, but none of the songs had anything to do with each other, no thread at all, only the fact that we stuck them together.
Abbey Road is perhaps best known for the eight-song medley that dominates side two. Known during recording as ‘the Long One’, it begins with ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ – the melody of which recurs during ‘Golden Slumbers’/‘Carry That Weight’ – and culminates with The Beatles’ parting statement ‘The End’.
After the Let It Be nightmare, Abbey Road turned out fine. The second side is brilliant. Out of the ashes of all that madness, that last section is for me one of the finest pieces we put together.
John and Paul had various bits, and so we recorded them and put them together. It actually points out that this is where it’s at, that last portion. None of the songs were finished. A lot of work went into it, but they weren’t writing together. John and Paul weren’t even writing much on their own, really.
I tried with Paul to get back into the old Pepper way of creating something really worthwhile, and we put together the long side. John objected very much to what we did on the second side of Abbey Road, which was almost entirely Paul and I working together, with contribution from the others. John always was a Teddy boy. He was a rock’n’roller, and wanted a number of individual tracks. So we compromised. But even on the second side, John helped. He would come and put his little bit in, and have an idea for sewing a bit of music into the tapestry. Everybody worked frightfully well, and that’s why I’m very fond of it.
John Lennon later expressed dislike of the medley, and claimed he had wanted his songs on one side of the album and Paul McCartney’s on the other.
I liked the A side. I never liked that sort of pop opera on the other side. I think it’s junk. It was just bits of song thrown together. And I can’t remember what some of it is. ‘Come Together’ is all right. And some things on it… It was a competent album, like Rubber Soul in a way, it was together in that way, but it had no life really.
John Lennon, 1970 Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner
The concept of the medley came into being at around 6 May 1969, the day The Beatles recorded Paul McCartney’s You Never Give Me Your Money. Rather than give the song a rounded ending, right from the first take it ended sharply, just before where the lines “One two three four five six seven/All good children go to heaven” were later added. The lack of a proper ending suggested The Beatles were already thinking of the song as part of a bigger whole.
I think it was my idea to put all the spare bits together, but I’m a bit wary of claiming these things. I’m happy for it to be everyone’s idea. Anyway, in the end, we hit upon the idea of medleying them all and giving the second side a sort of operatic structure – which was great because it used ten or twelve unfinished songs in a good way.
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