HAVANA, Cuba.- This September 26 marks 55 years since the launch in the United Kingdom, in 1969, of Abbey Roadthe last of the albums they recorded the Beatles.
Abbey Road It was recorded between February 22 and August 25, 1969. Let it be It had been recorded earlier, in January 1969, but was not released until May 1970, when the Beatles had already announced their split.
The last time John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr played together was on August 20, 1969, when they met in a studio to record “I want you (She’s so heavy),” the nearly eight-minute song (the longest on a Beatles album) that ends the A-side of Abbey Road.
The cover photo of Abbey Road, showing the four musicians crossing the London street of the same name, is the most famous album cover.
Abbey Road It is considered, along with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Bandthe masterpiece of the legendary British group. And it is no wonder. In Abbey Roadwhich featured a 30-piece orchestra conducted by George Martin and Lennon, McCartney and Harrison used a Moog synthesizer for the first time, the Beatles demonstrated that however great their contradictions and conflicts, and however much rock had changed, they were far from having exhausted their creative possibilities.
And so, they said goodbye in style, with a brilliant album. Especially on the B-side. After the impressive vocal harmonies of “Because”, came a sort of suite of eight songs linked together, each lasting more than 15 minutes, that left you breathless. And when the needle on the record player seemed to reach the last groove, the appearance of Her Majesty surprised us. A touch of lightness and humour after the elemental truth of the verses of “The End”: “And in the end the love you make is equal to the love you take”.
Abbey Road It was a wonderful way to end. I wish all breakups, if they were inevitable, always had an ending like that. But also in the way they ended, the Beatles were unique.
This is one of my all-time favourite records. It has been ever since I first heard it at the home of my friends the brothers Carlos and Guillermo Ubieta, in Lawton, in 1970, just a few months after it was released on the British market (I don’t know how we managed, given how difficult it was to get records in Cuba, for someone to lend it to us so quickly).
My dear friend Agustín Gordillo usually starts the first day of each year listening to the Abbey Road. He did it when he lived in Alta Habana and he continues to do it in Miami Springs, where he has lived since 1990.
I never get tired of listening to it either. It brings back pleasant and sad memories. There are probably more sad ones. But sometimes one needs to taste sadness too.
Luckily, Abbey Road It contains one of the most optimistic songs I have ever heard: “Here comes the sun”. I listen to it over and over again when winter lasts too long and the world seems to fall apart. And it always manages to pull me out of the hole.
