The Beatles’ Anthology is a documentary on the Beatles’ history and their musical career. The Beatles’ Anthology 3 was their final release in 1995 and had a track list of 50 songs. In their last year, the group members were in disagreements with John Lennon most of the time. He was spending most of his time with his new wife, Yoko Ono, whom he sometimes took to the studio and this did not go well with the other group members. Paul McCartney was exerting too much control on the group and tried too hard to bring the group together which was futile as the group would have broke up in anyway. Before they broke up, they shot a film, Let It Be in 1970. It showed the whole process of making an album and also it showed the period of time when the group was not on very good terms but they managed to come up with a master piece album, Abbey Road, which left their fans in awe.
John Mendelsohn in his review wrote that side two had a great influence on him and John Lennon appeared to be at the top of his form when creating the song “Come Together”. I quite agree with John Lennon that the album Abbey Road shows a band that is still the same as ten years ago and while Sgt. Pepper’s band strained for significance, the Beatles seemed flawless in the album. Putting together different vocals together to a wonderful album was well done job, the Beatles were Schizophrenic on this album.
Compare the music from the two sides of the album Abbey Road. How does the album’s character differ from one side to the next? Give specific examples to support your ideas.
Side one includes such songs as: “Come Together”, “Something”, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, “Oh! Darling”, “Octopus’s Garden” and “I want you (she’s so heavy)”. While side two includes songs such as: “Here Comes the Sun”, “Because”, “You Never Give Me Your Money” and the rest. Side one includes mostly solo songs. Two of George Harrison’s songs are pure masterpieces like “Something”, which for once gave George Harrison a spot among the giants to show his prowess and “Here Comes the Sun” performed by Lennon and McCartney respectively. Side two represents the band as a unit with beautifully written songs. Side two takes it all as the medley and the end of the second side is just amazing.
Еhe Beatles film Let It Be (1970)
Let It Be is a documentary about the album and efforts made to recapture their old group spirit. In the film, the Beatles are playing songs and reminiscing about the good old times. The performance on the roof was the most exemplary and it was the first time the group had played together after the three years of a break and probably the last time they did. During the shoot of the documentary, the group members were not in great terms as they quarreled and were capricious. While making the film the members of the band even walk out of the set and this was an indication that the group members could not stand each other and maybe it was time to move on as solo music artists, as John Lennon was saying, “it was hell making the film”.