Abbey Road it is probably the best known recording studio in the history of popular music. Inside its walls, albums by artists such as the Beatles, Pink Floyd, shirley bassey, cilla Black, Cliff Richards, Fela Kuti, Radiohead, soda Stereo, The Alan Parsons Project, Kate Bush, last last, Oasis, Florence + The Machine and a long list of music for movies.
Just as the religious visit the Vatican or Mecca, lovers of popular music of the 20th century make pilgrimages to the mythical studio that was immortalized in the last album recorded by The Beatles in 1969 titled: Abbey Road.
Photographer Mary McCartney has been lucky enough to see a piece of the place’s history. The documentary of herIf These Walls Could Sing” (Disney, 2021) is a love letter to the celebrated studio.
McCartney’s documentary brings together the testimonies of some of the most famous people to have passed through those studios, including his parents Paul and Linda McCartney, and is a work of preserving the memory of the studio.
Abbey Road Studios was built in 1929 on a 19th century Georgian building at 3 Abbey Road, London, England, when it was acquired by the Gramophone company. It later became Electric and Musical Industries, now known as EMI. Abbey Road was the first recording studio designed to record classical music and was later adopted by new generations as a place for sound experimentation.
In Abbey Road The Beatles found a place where they were able to take refuge from the screams of the public and use the study as a tool that led them to transform popular music as we know it. In 1967, while the Liverpool quartet was recording their magnum opus Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in the studio next door, a young band called Pink Floyd he was recording his debut album The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn. For Pink Floyd it was also an important place of experimentation where they worked on their subsequent works, including The Dark Side of the Moon which this year celebrates 50 years of its launch.
Among the characters featured in “If These Walls Could Sing” are Paul MCCARTNEY Y Ringo Starr from The Beatles; Roger Waters, david gilmour Y Nick Mason of Pink Floyd; Shirley Bassey, Elton John, Jimmy page, Cliff Richardsthe Gallagher brothers and Giles Martin.
elton john did in these studios his first session as an accompaniment musician for The Hollies on the ballad “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” while Jimmy Page was one of the session musicians for the theme song for the James Bond film “Goldfinger” that he recorded Shirley Basseywith one of the best interpretations of popular music of the 20th century.
Although it is built with many testimonials, the documentary leaves you with a good taste in your mouth. It’s like a greatest hits record, a brief run through some of Abbey Road Studios’ key moments. It would be impossible to cover all the albums that have been recorded in this venue and it does not neglect its importance as one of the most important studios for film orchestration work.
At heart “If These Walls Could Sing” is also a living tribute to his father’s work with the Beatles and a tribute to George Martin, one of the key figures in the history of Abbey Road. Today, your son Giles Martin He is the one who maintains that legacy within the studios.
Mary McCartney has had a privileged view of the history of studies Abbey Road. “If These Walls Could Sing” is a tribute to this mythical place where the songs that have accompanied us and form the soundtrack of our lives were recorded.
