Marvin J Markus asked:


d was the last studio album The Beatles recorded. There’s some confusion over this bit of trivia because Let It Be was released in 1970 and Abbey Road was released in 1969. But Let It Be had actually already been recorded, it had just been shelved due to the band being unhappy with it. It wasn’t until Abbey Road had already been recorded and released that the band hired Phil Specter to “salvage” Let It Be with his production work.

Abbey Road was a huge critical & commercial success. It remains one of The Beatles most popular albums to this day.

Abbey Road has also been critically acclaimed. For example it was ranked #14 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the top 500 albums of all time. And it’s currently ranked as the 2nd best album of all time by the users of the Rate Your Music website.

Track By Track:

#1 “Come Together”

This is one of the most well known songs on the album. Complete with John Lennon’s signature vocal and weird lyrics, George Harrison’s great lead guitar licks, and Paul McCartney’s swampy bass part that really puts the song over the edge.

It’s one of The Beatles coolest sounding songs, but strangely enough - it’s also one of their songs that’s been ruined the most in cover versions. In fact I’ve never heard a cover version of “Come Together” that wasn’t awful.

A disturbing bit of trivia about “Come Together” is that John Lennon is actually saying “shoot me” during the little musical breaks between the chorus and the verses. That lyric always gets to me a little bit considering Lennon’s fate in 1980.

2. “Something”

“Something” is another one of the best known songs on the album. It was written and sung by George Harrison and is one of his signature songs.

Frank Sinatra once famously commented that “Something” was his favorite Lennon-McCartney song. I’m not sure if that was an insult aimed at Lennon-McCartney or if Sinatra really didn’t know the song was written by George Harrison & not Lennon & McCartney.

3. “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”

A somewhat disturbingly childlike tale of a serial killer, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is one of The Beatles songs has both it’s detractors and it’s supporters. Among it’s detractors was apparently John Lennon who is said to have despised the song (which was written & sung by Paul McCartney.)

The song is one of the first to feature the Moog synthesizer.

4. “Oh! Darling”

While Lennon hated McCartney’s “Maxwell Silver’s Hammer,” he loved his “Oh! Darling.” In fact he was so enamored with the song that he wanted to sing lead on it.

5. “Octopus’s Garden”

Ringo sings lead on this one. He also wrote the song (with some help from George Harrison although Ringo Starr is credited as the only songwriter.) It’s basically a rewrite of “Yellow Submarine” which The Beatles had recorded 3 years earlier.

6. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”

This epic, mostly instrumental, track finishes off side one of Abbey Road in grand fashion with it’s amazing white noise buildup trick which blows my mind every time I hear it.

It really features some of The Beatles most interesting innovative work musically.

7. “Here Comes The Sun”

This is another George Harrison classic which is the perfect follow up to “I Want You” in the CD/iTunes/iPod format and the perfect opener to side two in the old vinyl LP format. The song, like “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” features the Moog synthesizer.

8. “Because”

This stunning song features some of The Beatles most beautiful harmonies. Lennon, McCartney, & Harrison’s vocals were triple tracked to make them sound like 9 voices.

The chords of the song were inspired by Ludwig van Beethoven’s classic piano piece “Moonlight Sonata.”

The song also features the Moog synthesizer.

#9 “You Never Give Me Your Money”

This was the first song of side two’s medley. Some of the melodies heard in this song were echoed later in track 15 “Carry That Weight.”

While the song is just the beginning of side two’s medley, it’s really a medley in and of itself as it contains a few very different sounding sections that sound stitched together.

#10 “Sun King”

This beautiful slow motion song features more beautiful harmonies from Lennon, McCartney, & Harrison. The song’s lyrics include words from different languages, both real and imagined.

#11 “Mean Mr. Mustard”

This short Lennon ditty leads directly into the next “Polythene Pam” and mentions “his sister Pam” in the lyrics.

#12 “Polythene Pam”

“So good looking but she looks like a man.” This is a great rock n roll track that clocks in barely over a minute long.

#13 “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”

“Polythene Pam” segues smoothly into this song which starts off with it’s title as the first lyric. It’s one of my favorite songs on the album.

#14 “Golden Slumbers”

The lyrics to this song were actually taken from a 17th century poem by Thomas Dekker. But the music was composed by Paul McCartney.

#15 “Carry That Weight”

The chorus of this song features all four Beatles. One part of the song references the melody/lyrics from “You Never Give Me Your Money.”

#16 “The End”

Features a drum solo by Ringo Starr (the only drum solo on any Beatles song) and short lead guitar solos by McCartney, Harrison, and Lennon - one after the other, in that order. They go through that sequence twice before the final “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

#17 “Her Majesty”

This 23 second acoustic guitar ditty by Paul McCartney was originally intended to go between “Mean Mr. Mustard” & “Polythene Pam” but they had decided to leave it off the album. It was actually tacked on to the album at the end by sound engineer by mistake, but The Beatles decided they liked the mistake and left it on the album.



Christopher

Tyler Longenecker asked:


I was on my way home from the office tonight and I caught an interview on the radio with Paul McCartney.  Usually I’m not very in tune to these kinds of things but the title to his new album “Memory Almost Full” caught my attention.  He went on to say, and I loosely quote…”When I talk to the business people in my life I always tell them…I’m an artist, I need a significant amount of empty space in my head to allow a song to find it’s way in there”.  As a small business person I thought to myself “how convenient for you Paul!”  A little jealous I suppose, I got to thinking about this feeling that there are no such conveniences in the small business world, and that perhaps, there should be.  If we go beyond the point of “memory almost full”, or perhaps more appropriately to our technological advances, “virtual memory running low”, and lose site of the creative process could we be allowing the onslaught of technical information to “crash” our success?

 

What percentage of small business owners would say that they face exponentially greater demands for technical production today than they did two years ago?  What percentage would have said the same thing two years before that?  Even those of us (myself included) who have prided themselves on a neat and tidy worldview seem to be at a cross roads between a calm, happy lifestyle on one hand, and being consistently “frustrated” with the competition and complexity of a maturing on-line marketplace. 

 

When it comes to the challenge of succeeding in the face of technical adversity and simultaneously successfully managing our private lives, how can we tell if we are on the right track?  What can our frustrations tell us about the direction of our small business in relation to the general marketplace?  Are we on information over-load or are we simply chargning down the path to success?

 

Allow me to innocently suggest a barometer for judging when to say when to the demands of life, put your feet up and kick back into a looser mode of thinking.  Just as the thermometer isn’t either hot or cold but rather tells us what the temperature is, allow me to propose a modern day thermostat that can shed light on how small business owners might be able to draw a line between the need for production, and the need for sanity. 

 

Ask yourself this right now—>  How many minutes or hours of television (or reading) does it take to unravel your thoughts and put you in a mode where you can actually fall asleep?

 

The first clue that we could be over-taxing ouselves is when it takes more than 5 minutes of mindless television to calm down from the last 15 hours of positively brain-thumping thought patterns.  If it’s going to take a steady drip of digified ignorance just to catch some ZZ’s it might be time to consider adjusting our modus operendi.  Increase this demand for mindless activity to an hour of television and it could be time to consider therapy.

 

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

 

BUT!     IF EVEN THAT WON’T CUT IT AND YOUR MIND JUST DOESN’T WANT TO SHUT OFF AT NIGHT, AND YOU CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR NEXT MOVE, AND WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT, AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF GOING IN THIS DIRECTION VS. THAT DIRECTION…AND SO ON AND SO FORTH….

 

My friend, congratulations!  You crossed the threshold and are hanging in their with the best of the best creative minds.  Now all you need to do is cut out the mindless television and find better ways to relax!!!

 

What!?

 

What I am pointing to with this article is this:   If we are insensed about tehnology and technical information as small business owners we are probably on the right track, despite what we might recognize as “frustration”.  Think supply and demand.  What if there is a strong demand for something, but there lacks an equally strong response to meet the demand?  There’s an imbalance.  When things are “out of balance” it’s naturally going to take a stronger effort on the supply side of the scale to make things right.  In this particular case we are discussing a complex marketplace that demands quality technical production.  What we typically view as frustration and feeling behind the 8-ball, is simply our natural tendency to want to gain control over our surroundings and reclaim our position as masters of our domain.  In this market, it’s going to take quality technical production to achieve that, and for most of us, we just aren’t where we want to be.

 

Allow me a few more closing points (as if I’ve even made one yet!) before I close ———————

 

The best example of supply and demand frustration is illustrated through our innate supersensitivity to ’quality’.  Everywhere throughout our lives we can see a very strong demand for ‘quality’.  This yearning has been with the human race since the beginning and it’s one of the great blessings that God our Creator has given us.  Our need for ‘Quality’ is one of the strongest demands that we will ever face.  Every encounter, every interaction, every bite of every burger across our blessed nation demands ‘quality’.  We demand ‘quality’ products, ‘quality’ service, ‘quality’ friends and ‘quality’ leadership.  When we don’t get ‘quality’ in whatever we are dealing with we have an almost supra-natural tendency to spin ourselves into an assortment of negative emotions.  Someone throws us a weak response to our demand for quality and it literally puts us in a whirlwind!  If we really think about it, how many times throughout our day can we trace back our frustrations to a lack of ‘quality’?

 

Now let’s refrase the original question.  What percentage of small business owners would say that they face exponentially greater demands for QUALITY technical production today than they did two years ago?  Duh!  …So what’s the cause of this?  Simple, it’s greater complexity.  We live in a world where it’s getting harder and harder to keep things simple.  It’s the great challenge of our day.  We’ve all heard “keep it simple stupid” (KISS) but how many times do we find that it’s not quite that easy?  If we can understand a balance between two very opposite pieces of advice we might just have the answer that we are looking for.

 

First we are told to “keep it simple” and then we are told “if your not frustrated you’re probably on the wrong track.”  So what gives?  The truth is nothing truly gives.  We run small businesses and we run the risk of failure if we can’t find our niche in this “e-world” type marketplace.  We have to be masters of both principles if we want to be at our best.  We have to take the complex and make it simple, but not be swayed by the frustration we will encounter in the process.

 

We could sum this all up by saying that greater marketplace complexity equals a greater demand for ”quality technical production”.  Sounds innocent and detached but what cuts deep is the reality that the results inevitably fall on us.  It’s easy to associate ‘quality’ and ‘lack of quality’ with other people and the products and services that they provide.  It’s easy to make excuses about our B2B solutions and the inefficiency we are getting from our vendors.  What’s not as easy to swallow is the fact that whenever we talk about frustration over quality we are likely missing the point.  In the end it’s the quality of our own production that we are really frustrated with no matter how many hands are in the pot. 

 

If you’ve felt these same frustrations and ever wrestled with yourself over gaining control and balance over your business life and your personal life, I can only tell you what I think has helped me tremendously.  Work hard, play hard, and take whatever time is necessary to keep your head clear and your thoughts in the right direction.

 

Now, I can’t pretend that I am going to Paul McCartney’s next small business seminar, but I do feel that when “memory is running low” it’s time to take my frustration and turn it into something useful like every successful business person does.  It’s time to step back, take a deep breath and think about what I’ve been thinking about.  Am I using my frustration well?  Am I improving on my own production?  Am I learning fast enough?  More importantly though, what about my faith and my family?   And you know, once in a while it’s not too much to think — what about me?  How’s my thinking?  What do I need to get tuned in?  What do I need to do to prepare myself for market?

 

Depending on how well I can answer these questions I can start to feel out if it’s maybe not such a bad time to be out of balance or if it’s high time for a family vacation or even just a long walk or a good movie. 

 

Maybe I might learn something, have some fun, or even get some good sleep that night… and who knows it might be nice to wake up from sleep rather than trying to wake up from being awake.  Perhaps Paul McCartney has given us a new motto to consider when he said “I’m an artist, I need a significant amount of empty space in my head to allow a song to find it’s way in there”. 



Hector

Nor Nan asked:


es is the music band that has great reputation as well as very long and interesting history. There is no doubt that this group has made significant success for their career and it is still good to learn more about how they get such a success. The following article covers a topic that includes a short history of them. You may find that before they become The Beatles they have to face so many problems and obstacles, which require patience and a lot effort to struggle. If you want to learn more about it, here’s your opportunity.

The guy named John Lennon, who has very strong inspiration from the rock and roll music of Elvis Presley, created the Beatles. John Lennon and his friends had formed up the music band named Quarry Men in the year 1957. At the end of the year 1942, John met Paul McCartney, the guy from Liverpool, and persuaded him to join the band after he finished seeing John’s performance.

Afterwards, in the year 1943, The Paul’s schoolmate joined the band on leading guitar and also changed the name of the band to Johnny and the Moondog. In early 60’s, Cliff who was the schoolmate of John Lennon, joined the band on bass guitar despite the fact that he had no knowledge about music and notes. Tommy Moor was replacing Pete Best for drums and the band used the name Silver Beetles. Soon after, the name of the band was changed again from Silver Beetles to The Beatles.

After that, the new Beatle music band had the first concert to welcome new member, Pete. In December 1943, Harrison was arrested by German police and sent him back to his hometown because he was too young and after him, the guys from Liverpool were also sent back to their home country.

In the year 1960, the Beatles started their concert performance again in Cavern Club in Liverpool, and this place was the beginning of their success story. They had almost 300 performances at this place and then they decided to go back to German in April 1961. At this time, one of the band members decided to leave the band to be full time artist and they became four instead of five.

Paul compulsorily had to play bass guitar as well. After that, the Beatles performed concerts in Liverpool many times until 9 November 1961, Brian, the owner of music record, came to see their concert. Brian’s customers had asked him for “Bonnie” which is the song that The Beatles had made the record in Germany few months ago. Two months later, Brian became the first band manager for The Beatles who changed the look of all members of the band including their hairs



Lewis

Merryl Lentz asked:


The devil is said to appear in countless forms, and many people were convinced he appeared in the form of rock bands when they began backmasking their lyrics in the 60s.  Backmasking, or backward masking, is a technique of recording song lyrics backward onto a track that is played forward.  What started as an innocent accident by John Lennon swirled into a frenzy of controversy, record-burning protests, proposed government legislation, and a witch hunt for bands whose lyrics were deemed satanic.

Backmasking of song lyrics was one of the Beatles’ many musical innovations.  While high on pot, John Lennon accidentally played the tapes for the song “Rain” backwards, and liked the sound of the reversed lyrics.  The rest of the band agreed, and incorporated the effect into the tune, making it the first to contain backmasked lyrics:  “Sunshine….rain.…when the rain comes, they run and hide their heads.”

At the time, music was recorded on vinyl, which could be manually played backwards on a turntable.  A disc jockey, intrigued by rumors that Paul McCartney was dead, played the tune “Revolution 9” backwards, and heard the lyrics “Turn me on, dead man,” as well as the lyrics “Paul is a dead man, miss him, miss him,” when playing “I’m So Tired” backwards.  These lyrics appeared to confirm the “Paul is dead” rumor, which popularized the backmasking of rock music lyrics.

This led to a fierce backlash from Christian fundamentalists in the 70s.  They accused Led Zeppelin of planting satanic lyrics in “Stairway to Heaven.” They also alleged that bands, including the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Electric Light Orchestra, Queen, and Styx were cooperating with the Church of Satan by backmasking messages from the devil into their song lyrics.  The religious right pushed for legislation to place stickers on these bands’ albums warning about lyrics inspired by Lucifer, but the bill was defeated.

In retaliation, several of the accused bands recorded albums containing intentional, ridiculous backmasked lyrics.  ELO fired back with an album called Secret Messages, containing the backmasked lyrics, “Thank you for listening,” “Look out, there’s danger ahead,“ and “You’re playing me backwards.”  Styx took jabs their critics with the album Kilroy Was Here, whose lyrics parodied an imaginary group called “The Majority for Musical Morality,” which outlaws rock music.

Heavy metal song lyrics reeled from some of the hardest hits.  In his 1988 trial, serial killer Richard Ramirez testified that the lyrics of “Night Prowler,” from AC/DC’s Highway to Hell album, drove him to commit murder.  Judas Priest was sued in 1990 because two Nevada boys had made a ******* pact that was allegedly inspired by the subliminal lyrics, “Do it,” in the band’s song “Better By You, Better Than Me.”  The case was dismissed for insufficient evidence that the lyrics played a role in the boys’ deaths.

Like inkblots and clouds, lyrics played backwards can be interpreted as anything if you concentrate long enough.  Or, as comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic joked in the backmasked lyrics of “I Remember Larry,” “You must have an awful lot of free time on your hands!”  Elcitra siht deyojne uoy epoh.



Joel