Come Together

Today we begin listening to Abbey Road, considered by some to be The Beatles' best album, and definitely one of the most influential and highly-praised albums of all time. According to Wikipedia, "Abbey Road is widely regarded as one of The Beatles' most tightly constructed albums, although the band was barely operating as a functioning unit at the time." 

The tension between the guys during the recording of the White Album had only increased; however, they felt that, since this was likely to be their last album together, they might as well put aside their differences and join forces once more to create a career finale that would be worthwhile and meaningful. Most of the songs were recorded between July and August of 1969, which was after they recorded the songs from Let It Be, which was released after Abbey Road (though Abbey Road is considered their "final" album, while Let It Be is more of a tying-up-loose-ends album).

A final note about the album before we dive into the first song: The album cover is one of the most instantly recognizable images... ever. It features neither the name of the group nor the album title on the cover. 

The first song on Abbey Road is "Come Together". Probably one of the more lyrically cryptic songs in the Beatles repertoire, there are a couple of theories regarding the meaning. From Wikipedia:

It has been speculated that each verse refers cryptically to each of The Beatles (e.g. "he's one holy roller" allegedly refers to the spiritually inclined George Harrison; "he got monkey finger, he shoot Coca-Cola" to Ringo, the funny Beatle; "he got Ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker" to Lennon himself; and "got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see" to Paul); however, it has also been suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait".

I've heard this song many times, and when I read the first theory, a verse for each Beatle, it made perfect sense to me. I'm rather less fond of the second, that Lennon was writing of a single character (possibly himself), but before I started this post I did feel that the song was about an individual instead of several. Both theories are possible; I think it's up to the listener to decide which is more or less likely. (One thing I find somewhat eerie about this song is that John whispers "Shoot me" a few times throughout, which is almost unrecognizable due to Paul's distinctive bass riff and Ringo's drums.)

That's all for today! On to the next great song tomorrow. I do find it appropriate that the first song on the last Beatles album, when the guys had agreed to set aside their differences for one last hurrah, is called "Come Together."

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Heard It Tally: 40

Songs Completed: 172