Abbey Road: A fantastic progressive rock album.

Discuss.

Word.

Edited by Slartibartfast - August 28 2009 at 19:18

"Come Together" starts off the album with an odd bass/drum riff, unorthodox lyrics, and irregularly recorded vocals. Completely unique to anything the public had heard at the time. Very experimental while staying within the realms of verse/chorus. That's crossover prog.

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" has unusual length and structure and uses a moog synthesizer to make white noise. It also ends suddenly.

"Because" supposedly plays the chord progression to "Moonlight Sonata" backwards. It also has somewhat odd instrumentation and overdubbed vocals for large harmonies.

Then comes a sixteen minute Abbey Road Medley that takes you on a journey all over the place. The Sun King, Mean Mr. Mustard, Polythene Pam? They destroy the verse/chorus structure (the hallmark of progressive music) and hit eight different movements. If this track was released by anyone but the Beatles it would be praised as a brilliant opus of progressive rock.

"Her Majesty" was cut straight from the middle and tacked on the end, with a crash starting the song and an abrupt ending. Oh boy!

There are (obviously) a few tracks on the album that aren't progressive in nature. However, "Wish You Were Here" and "Have a Cigar" are hardly progressive, and they make up more of progarchives' favorite progressive rock album than these songs do on Abbey Road.

Good post above, TSB.

It's, imo, the Beatle's greatest album, and has progressive qualities, but be warned that this topic will be moved to the Proto-Prog and Prog-Related Lounge since this forum is intended for bands that are included in prog categories whether we think certain albums Prog or not (of course, it would have been moved to a different Prog forum if The Beatles were in a Prog category -- the featured albums one).

Incidentally, bing progressive (adjective), or even progressive rock is not necessarily enough to be deemed Progressive Rock (noun).


Edited by Logan - August 28 2009 at 14:36

Yes it's progressive and it's a damn fantastic album!

I really like all Beatles albums from Rubber Soul onward.  Regard the rest as ok but I am not a completionist.

Definetly a masterpiece of proto prog. The albums structure, instrumentation, and recording techniques are all staples of what would become and is progressive rock. The Beatles are very important to the development of prog, if they didn't experiment as they did, there are many bands that wouldn't have been influenced to follow in that spirit and expand it.

I like Her Majesty


...the song I mean

"Ringo Starr does tend to lower the average a bit"

Ringo Starr did a fantastic job on Abbey Road. "Come Together," "She Came In Through the Bathroom Window," and "The End" in particular.

I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have "Baba O'Reilly" without "The End." Give the man some credit!

Finnforest wrote: It's OK, but mostly warmed over left-overs from the Let It Be sessions.  LiB is the true Beatles classic, and I'll go to my grave failing to convince people of that.  The sheer emotion and poignancy of those songs makes crap like Poly Pam and Mr Mustard and Maxwell sound like tripe.  Though Harrison did very well on Abbey, I'll give it that.

You'll never convince people of that, no, but I can agree that it is their most underrated album. Definitely a GREAT album.