THE BEATLES SWAN SONG

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Swans don't sing. They whistle or trumpet, or in the case of the swan most common in ponds, the mute swan, only hiss and snort. But

According to ancient legend, the swan does sing one beautiful song in its life just before it dies.  The Legacy of The Abbey Road Medley

Some Beatles fans or Beatlemaniacs see a general meaning out of the entire “Abbey Road Medley” as just a collection of unfinished songs, as John Lennon once said.

Most involved with this marvelous medley were proud of it, including George Martin, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr.

Many agree with Ringo, as the “Abbey Road Medley” is often considered one of the greatest feats by the Beatles. The medley is, after all, the climactic end of the most exciting musical act of all time.

When we're young, we want to be older, then as we grow older, we wish we were younger. During my, I'm a really cool dude 😎

because I’m going to be a Teenager for a decade, The Beatles released their legendary eleventh studio album Abbey Road.

Side two of the album features the “Abbey Road Medley”, a collection of eight (mostly) short tracks that run 16 minutes in total. The medley, together with its recording sessions, provides a climactic end to The Beatles as the successful GOAT$. 

“You Never Give Me Your Money”  followed by Lennon’s “Sun King”, “Mean Mr. Mustard”, “Polythene Pam”, and McCartney’s “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window”, “Golden Slumbers”, and “Carry That Weight”. The medley ends with the fitting “The End”

The “Abbey Road Medley” opens with “You Never Give Me Your Money”. McCartney claimed he wrote the song about Allen Klein, who became the Beatles’ manager in 1969 much to his dislike. “This was me directly lambasting Allen Klein’s attitude to us: no money, just funny paper, all promises and it never works out, “McCartney said. “It’s a song about no faith in the person.”

“You Never Give Me Your Money” fades into the medley’s second song “Sun King”. The song was originally titled “Here Come the Sun King”, but to avoid confusion with George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun”, the title was shortened to “Sun King”. The sound of the recording was inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross”, who had a massive hit with the instrumental during that time.

“Sun King” abruptly changes into “Mean Mr. Mustard”. Lennon wrote the song in India during the Beatles’ Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh. The song was inspired by a newspaper story about John Mustard, whose wife filed for divorce because he was a miser. Lennon wasn’t a fan of the song and called it ‘another piece of garbace’.

“Polythene Pam” is the fourth song of the “Abbey Road Medley”. Similarly to “Mean Mr. Mustard”, it was written in India and disliked by Lennon. The song was inspired by several events in Lennon’s life. First by Pat Hodgett, an early Beatles attendee who befriended the Beatles. Hodgett had the habit of eating polythene, which earned her the nickname “Polythene Pam”. Second by novelist Royston Ellis, who took Lennon to his home to meet a woman who was dressed up in polythene.

After Lennon’s contributions to the medley, McCartney finished it. Starting with “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window”. The song’s genesis is rather unusual and addresses the devoted female fans of Paul McCartney, who turned into burglars someday in 1968. Fan Diane Ashley later recalled: “We were bored, he was out, and so we decided to visit him. We found a ladder in his garden and stuck it up at the bathroom window which he’d left slightly open. I was the one who climbed up and got in.”

“Golden Slumbers” is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the “Abbey Road Medley”. The ballad was based on the 17th-century poem “Golden Slumbers” by Thomas Dekker. “I was playing the piano in Liverpool in my dad’s house, and my step-sister Ruth’s piano book was up on the stand,” McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now. “I was flicking through it and I came to ‘Golden Slumbers’. I can’t read music and I couldn’t remember the old tune, so I just started playing my tune to it.”

“Golden Slumbers” is seamlessly followed by “Carry That Weight”. All 4 Beatles sing in the chorus, which is a Beatles rarity. The meaning of the song is ambiguous but generally addresses the turmoil going on within the Beatles at the time.

“The End” is the climactic end of the “Abbey Road Medley”. All 4 Beatles have a solo on the song, including the only drum solo by Ringo Starr in the entire Beatles catalog. The recording marked the last session involving all four Beatles, which is fitting to the song’s title. “The End” famously ends with the closing lyrics “And at the end/The love you take/Is equal to the love you make”. It is essentially a farewell from the Beatles.

“The End” was supposed to be the closing track of Abbey Road, but is the penultimate song because of the hidden track “Her Majesty”. “Her Majesty” was supposed to be on the “Abbey Road Medley” but was omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tvSvjpcBuo

 

It was the last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles,[2] and is the final song of the medley that constitutes the majority of side two of the album. The song features one of the few drum solos recorded by Ringo Starr.

McCartney said, "I wanted [the medley] to end with a little meaningful couplet, so I followed the Bard and wrote a couplet."In his 1980 interview with PlayboyJohn Lennon acknowledged McCartney's authorship by saying, "That's Paul again ... He had a line in it, 'And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give,' which is a very cosmic, philosophical line. Which again proves that if he wants to, he can think." Lennon misquoted the line; the actual words are, "And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make"... and so it goes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Ujexj9YGs

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