Friday, September 27, 2019

Abbey Road may be "iconic", but "the best of all time"...?

Much is being made of the 50th anniversary of The Beatles Abbey Road album, released (in the UK, at least) on 26th September 1969. Many superlatives are being bandied around on radio stations and in the online and printed press. Many people seem to think it is the best album ever. It's certainly one of the most famous albums ever, and one of the few that justifiably fits into the much overused "iconic" category. But "all time great"? I don't know.
It's not particularly deep, not particularly experimental or revolutionary. It's much less influenced by John Lennon than previous albums, relying more on the (lesser) song-writing talents of McCartney and Harrison and (God forbid!) Ringo Starr. There are perhaps a handful of great songs on it - "Come Together", "Something", "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" maybe come into that category, maybe even "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight". But some of the other well-known cuts ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Octopus's Garden", "You Never Give Me Your Money", I'm looking at you) are far from great. Even that rather dum-de-dum-de-dum song about the weather, "Here Comes the Sun", hasn't aged well, despite its fame. And there is a lot of rather uninspired filler - who can sing along to "She Came In Through tbe Bathroom Window", "Mean Mr. Mustard", "Polythene Pam" or "Her Majesty"?
Even the album cover is usually described as "iconic". Well, maybe - iconism is a strange thing - but really, when you look at it, it's just as pedestrian as it subject matter. The Beatles did knock out some good ditties in their time (although I was never a big fan, even as a kid), but not that many of them appear on this album. And extolling an album for its disjointedness and unevenness - making a virtue of a failing - is just plain perverse my view. If you want a more critical review to counteract the more general back-slapping and adulation, try this one.
I don't know. Maybe I'm just a jaded old sexegenarian, but - hell, this is supposed to be the apotheosis, the sine qua non, of my era - but I just don't feel it. I have a suspicion that it is most famous for being Fab Four's last studio album - so people just assume it must be the best. It was certainly not universally lauded when it first came out, before people knew that the band was soon to split. But, me, I find it a bit of a slog to listen to (I have tried, just today). Sorry.

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