Still on Abbey Road

It was almost 30 years ago today.

John Lennon had just been shot dead and it was all in the papers and my older cousins had been talking about it and telling me all about the Beatles. And I bought my first record on 12 Feb 1981. I remember it like it was yesterday. A cold overcast day in Guwahati, Assam, India. Bought it at Bharali Brothers , something of an institution in the city at the time for music and musical instruments. I believe it’s turned into just another electronics store now. Pity.

Those were days you’d ask the guy at the counter to play the LP for a bit before you shelled out your dough. Or your dad's for that matter. 50 bucks – if that’s what Papa shelled out - was a lot of money then. Especially when shelled out for a nine year old ! And I’ve never managed to forget the thrill of hearing the first ShhhhckDngg hiss-and-bass sounds of Come Together. We were on a visit to the city and I had to wait a couple days to get back home to listen to it but that sound stayed with me all day. It has stayed with me forever.

I know it’s hard to pick a particular Beatles album from their last few. But I guess I’d have to choose Abbey Road - and for purely musical reasons. It’s close to perfection. Brilliant songwriting. Strong contributions from all three. And mind, Ringo actually sang on Octopus's Garden as opposed to mumble it. Easily George Harrison’s best guitar playing with the Fabs. And Ringo even did a bit of drumming on this album !

The blue of Something, the bright yellow of Here Comes The Sun.The black comedy of Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Pick a weak track anybody ? Those several classics on this album you could listen to in 1970 or 1980 or 1990 or 2000 or 2010 and not tell which era they’re from if you didn’t know. The harmony on Because. That fade out on I Want You (She's So Heavy). A medley at the end to bring the curtain down on a show the dimensions of which the biz is unlikely to ever see again. What a swan song this album was.

And I bet it was intended, planned and written to be one humongous Rock-and-Awe swan song. The guys knew it would be their last and gave it their all. And more. Namely, production.

If you leave aside the elaborations of a Sgt Pepper as another end of the spectrum altogether,Abbey Road was also the Beatles' best produced album . It zaps me to hear ‘purists’ bring the album down by just that notch because of its sleek production. Excuse me. It was a studio album so why the fuck not ? And it was 1969 dammit, Neil Armstrong was tripping to the moon by then , right. It was anyway always going to be a very Seventies rather than a Sixties record but of course like most of their stuff it went on to bust those era labels. And it’s the production that makes the Abbey Road sound the most current of all the Beatles albums.

So here I am now , another time , another place. Another situation. Not a happy one . Mourning the loss of a dear one. Transience. Easy come, easier go. Another gone.

Same album. Some comfort !

For a guy that feels good listening to a fairly wide range of music , at least of the classic rock variety , I realize this blog’s so choc-a-bloc with the Fabs. Hmm. Well yeah I guess, that’s how it is then. And has been for 30 years. And Abbey Road is where the first step was taken.