Abbey Road is one of the most famous streets on the planet. Somewhere I read that it was one of the most photographed streets in history. I don't know if that's totally true or not.... What I do know, is that it is also the name of one of the most extraordinary albums in the history of music; and rock, obviously.... In this last masterpiece by the Beatles, there is a song that has one of the most incredible, human and at the same time, beautiful stories I have ever been able to read. "Something," named by Sinatra as the most beautiful love song ever made.....
The Beatles were going to break up in mid '69 was an open secret.... Each of the members of the legendary Liverpool band had their private lives too deeply rooted. This made getting together and being together for weeks or months to compose new albums, or to give promotional concerts and tours, practically impossible... Nevertheless, the 4 greatest guys to ever be born and make music together, decided to go big.
That is, to compose together one last album. In principle, they wanted to call it "Everest". Yes, like the famous mountain in Nepal. There are even records of wanting to create the cover of the album with the idea of the composition of the 4 of them, at the base of the highest mountain in the world. For obvious reasons, that idea did not see the light of day. However, they decided to go outside the studio (Abbey Road, of the EMI label) and on the crosswalk to take one of the most honored photographs of recent times.
Now, there was always this urban myth, which spread after the Beatles' breakup, which is basically that the Lennon/McCartney pairing hogged too much attention and that they were in a dispute to be the leaders of the band in every way, leaving (deliberately) George Harrison's creative genius behind as a mere "sidekick". False in multiple ways, and the best proof of this, is that "Something", written, composed, sung and performed by Harrison around the time of "Let it Be" is, quite possibly, one of the most beautiful songs ever composed. Pure music legacy: iconic.
According to the story, when Paul heard the song, he was so amazed that he simply could not say a word. He tells Rick Rubin himself in a documentary that I recommend you watch on Apple TV. McCartney says that there was such a connection that everyone immediately had with the song, that he couldn't find a good bass line for the song.... He couldn't decide whether to make it more harmonic, or just plain tempo. In other words, complicated or simple.
George Harrison was inspired by his girlfriend, Pattie Boyd, during the creation of the album... A woman who is responsible for inspiring in two rock figures songs that have transcended their eras: "Something" in the case of Harrison and "Layla" in Eric Clapton; who until the death of the former Beatles in 2001, was his best friend... And yes, sometimes reality surpasses fiction itself. The most profound, passionate, substantial and unsurpassable song in history, has an unfaithful but peerless woman as its muse....
That's what I love about rock, the music; the songs that just start out just make your skin crawl.... They are full of spectacular, human stories. They're not the product of something made exclusively for the scrap heap. Call me a melancholic without qualms, but I do appreciate the inspiration there was in that man to write such poetry and artwork. "Something" is a work of such intellectualism and musical accomplishment that no matter what era you listen to it, it will always move you and make you bristle.
