The Beatles' Abbey Road medley : extended forms in popular music / Thomas MacFarlane.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacFarlane, Thomas, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Beatles. Abbey Road.

Beatles.

Abbey Road (Beatles).

Rock music--1961-1970--Analysis, appreciation.

Rock music.

Physical Description:

x, 199 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, music ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2008.

Summary:

In September 1969, the Beatles released their final recorded work, Abbey Road, using a variety of progressive musical ideas that expressed the group's approach to multitrack recording and offering songs that constituted a highpoint in the Beatles' musical corpus. Of particular interest is the concluding sequence of songs (tracks 8-17): seemingly unrelated fragments woven together into a musical form that has thus far defied attempts at categorization. The Beatle's Abbey Road Medley: Extended Forms in Popular Music offers an analysis of these fragments, commonly known as the Abbey Road medley, in order to understand and explain the emergent musical form and to clarify the relationships between music recording and music composition.

Thomas MacFarlane provides an overview of the Beatles-their history and their music-within the context of popular music and culture between 1962 and 1970, paying particular attention to the production of the album Abbey Road and the pivotal influence of producer George Martin on the Abbey Road medley. After explaining his method of analysis, MacFarlane applies it to the recording and transcription of the Abbey Road medley, examining the implications of the work's structure and demonstrating how the Beatles expanded the parameters of the popular music form by incorporating recording technology directly into the compositional process. Drawing conclusions about musical form and practice in the recording process of the 1970s and beyond, MacFarlane also suggests other examples of rock music that were influenced by Abbey Road. An appendix transcribing the author's interview with the Beatles' de facto manager Peter Brown, a selected discography, a bibliography, and a selection of photos will be of particular interest to musicians and Beatles fans alike.

Contents:

A beginning

It's been a long, long, long time

Methods and techniques of analysis

Prelude

"Because"

Movement I : "You never give me your money"/"Out of college"/"One sweet dream"

Movement II : "Sun King"/"Mean Mr. Mustard"/"Polythene Pam"/"She came in through the bathroom window"

Movement III : "Golden slumbers"/"Carry that weight"/"The end"

Postlude

"Her majesty"

An implicit challenge.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 189-194) and index.

Includes discography: pages 163-188.

ISBN:

9780810860193

0810860198

OCLC:

145379726