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The Beatles - Abbey Road Medley First Mix Down - July 30th 1969

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Uploaded by on Apr 29, 2009

THE ORIGINAL ABBEY ROAD MEDLEY WITH HER MAJESTY IN BETWEEN MUSTARD AND PAM. TAKEN FROM THE BEATLES BOOTLEG ALBUM THE ABBEY ROAD COMPANION.

The Beatles, producer George Martin, and the Abbey Road engineers assemble the first rough cut of the proposed Abbey Road medley. Paul McCartney, feeling that the song "Her Majesty" distracts from the flow of the medley, has it removed and orders it erased. Second engineer John Kurlander, not wanting to destroy a Beatles song, instead appends it to the end of the medley tape, adding 15 seconds of leader to make sure it's kept separate. When he finds out, Paul likes the effect so much that he leaves the ending of the album just that way.

The climax of the album is the sixteen-minute medley consisting of several short songs, both finished and unfinished, blended into a suite by McCartney and George Martin. Most of these songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for The Beatles and the "Get Back"/Let It Be sessions.

"You Never Give Me Your Money" is the first song of the Abbey Road suite. It was written by McCartney and based loosely on The Beatles' financial problems with Apple. It slowly and quietly follows into "Sun King" (which, like "Because", showcases Lennon's, McCartney's, and Harrison's overdubbed harmonies), "Mean Mr. Mustard" (written during The Beatles' trip to India), and "Polythene Pam" (all of these Lennon compositions). These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (written after a fan came into McCartney's residence literally through the bathroom window[9]), "Golden Slumbers" (based on lyrics but not the music of Thomas Dekker's 17th-century song of the same name), "Carry That Weight" which features chorus vocals from all four of The Beatles, although Lennon was in hospital at the time of the primary recording due to a car accident with Ono, his son Julian and Ono's daughter Kyoko (he recorded his vocals at a later date), and the climax, "The End". The latter is notable for featuring Starr's only drum solo in The Beatles catalogue. Starr hated solos and had to be persuaded to do it. It was even edited down several bars from its original recorded version. Toward the end of the song, immediately prior to "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make" line played over piano chords, are eighteen bars or measures of guitar solo: the first two bars are played by Paul McCartney, the second two by George Harrison, and the third two by John Lennon, then the sequence repeats.[10] Each had a distinctive style which McCartney felt reflected their personalities: McCartney's playing included string bends similar to his lead guitar work on "Another Girl" from the Help! album; Harrison's was melodic with slides yet technically advanced and Lennon's was rhythmic, stinging and had the heaviest distortion. Immediately after Lennon's third solo, the piano chords of the final line "And in the end...." begins.

An alternate version with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (with Starr's drum solo heard slightly in the background) appears on the Anthology 3 album. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make".

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  • Pauls vocal on "Slumbers" is just breathtaking.

  • Strange - I'm so used to the classic album it's weird to hear 'Her Majesty' where it once was! Cool post - Thanks!

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  • This is really awesome, but it's a bummer that the recording sounds all distorted. Is it possible to fix this in audio software? >.<

  • Her Magesty makes so much sense now. Now I know why the song started like that on the Abbey Road album. Cool!!

  • The finished edit after mustard was crap on the original released album

  • ビートルズ、アビーロード、黄金メドレーファーストミックダ­ウン、1969、7月30日~グレイト! #bigsp #beatles

  • Here's a fun clip, "40 Years of History in 3 Minutes" which celebrates The Beatles, the "innocence" of the time and various historical landmarks along the way. Enjoy.

  • her majesty sounds AMAZING THERE!

  • Thanks for the post.

  • As always... on 'Carry that weight' Ringo's voice's on top!

    Well done Ringo ♪ Your drumming here is mazing too!

  • download link for the entire album???

  • THIS is how i feel that The Beatles should have released Abbey Road (the FINAL mix).No i got my wish!!!!

  • Where are the first few (milli)seconds of Mean Mr Mustard?

  • Wow, I had been waiting years to hear Her Majesty placed where McCartney originally placed it. Great thing the engineer´s assistant didn´t discard it.

  • Can you upload the rest of the bootleg?

  • THIS is How i feel ABBEY ROAD should have been sequenced.Well...finally...I'm getting my satanic wish.

  • Thanks for the post.

  • Great to have this

  • Whoever posted this extremely poor recording needs his head examining. Get it off!!!

  • i want some "oh darling" live in concert video....from somebody please upload

  • i have an album in my basement. its called Watching Rainbows. its all obscure beatles recordings. a lot with abbey road and some past masters. its sick

  • It's just too bad it's so overmodulated.

  • Where can I download it?

  • The music was moved, but the drums intro is still there.

  • This is just so great!

  • @TubeRuleEnforcer

    you're right.  she is. and yours probably is, too. i am going to do my part to clean up my language and attitude. thank you for not being as hateful and backwards as me.

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