Here is the story behind the Abbey Road Beatles’ album cover (click here.)
I thought of it a few Weeks ago when my friend Rose Ellen Guyther posted the following on her FB page.
The photo was taken by her husband Joe. Great shot considering that it is a busy London road situated on a slight turn. Tourists standing out in the middle of Abbey Road road trying to take photos of folks walking across it need to be very careful. Obviously, Joe and Rose lucked out traffic-wise and got this great photo of her crossing the famous road.
My second Abbey Road connection occurred just the other day when some sharped eyed visitor who had been in the Buzzy’s Country Store bathroom asked if that was me in the photo crossing Abbey Road.
Here is that poster photo adorning the Buzzy bathroom wall. Note the photo in the lower left hand corner.
For a related post on this (click here.) Maybe some day I will tell you my back story as to how the above photo came to be. Like Jimmy says “A woman is to blame.” More correctly, in this case though, a woman gets the credit for having taken the photo of me in full stride crossing Abbey Road.
And finally, another reason that I mention this today has to do with the Beatles’ album cover photo having been taken on 8 August in 1969 by Iain MacMillian. Interesting factoid about Iain’s taking the photo is that he only took six photos of the Beatles crossing the road to and fro that day. Photo #5 was the one selected for the album.
Music wise, Abbey Road still remains my favorite Beatles’ album and yes, I think that it was their best collective effort. It was their final album as a group. What is remarkable is that despite their feuding with each other and coming undone as a group (click here) they still somehow managed to pull it all altogether for one last great album before they literally hit the road. This from a Rolling Stone article:
Quick aside here – a bar room bet for you: name the recording studio where the Beatles recorded the album Abbey Road. If you said “Abbey Road Studio” you would have been the correct name of the studio as it stands today.
However, back in 1969 when the Beatles were using the studio, it was named “EMI Recording Studios.” Don’t believe me (click here.) For some more related bar room trivia – do you know who Paul Cole is/was? (Answer click here.)
As for a tune to leave you with, I believe I have played every tune on Abbey Road for you here in previous Buzzyblog posts. However, in addition to the tunes that did appear on Abbey Road, the Beatles recorded a couple others that weren’t on the album. Here is one below. The following comment was made about it:
