I finally got to listen to the 2019 reissue of the Beatles Abbey Road and I am thoroughly, and happily surprised.
It was almost like hearing it for the first time. I was surprised because I didn’t expect there’d be much of a discernable difference. I’ve heard Abbey Road SO many times and I know it SO well that I thought it couldn’t be “improved.” Surprise! It sounds fresh and new. Almost like a perfectly executed cover version, sort of like Billy Sherwood’s Back Against the Wall* project. There’s a definitive Wings vibe too, as if Linda is there backing her man, (she actually is).
The new version touched me in an emotional way that I wasn’t expecting. Of course, I laughed at times, I mean, these guys are hilarious, but I didn’t expect "Something" to bring me to tears. WTF?
The track that most impressed me is Octopus’s Garden. Maybe the best track on the album? I know, “best” is unquantifiable, but it stands out as exceptional, in true Beatles form. As Her Majesty played, a melancholy sense of “wow, this is where the Beatles ends” swept over me, and as the track abruptly terminated, I literally broke into laughter and proclaimed, “it’s all a big effing joke”
NOTES:
*Released in 2005, Billy Sherwood's Back Against the Wall is a tribute to Pink Floyd's The Wall, and features notable contributors as, but not limited to: Adrian Belew, Tony Levin, Keith Emerson, Ian Anderson...
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