Abbey Road is one of the most famous streets on the planet. Somewhere I once read that it is one of the most photographed streets in history. I do not know if that is entirely 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 of rock, obviously. On this final masterpiece by the Beatles, there is a song with one of the most incredible, human, and at the same time beautiful stories I have ever read. Something, described by Sinatra as the greatest love song ever written.
That the Beatles were going to break up around mid 1969 was an open secret. Each member of the legendary Liverpool band had their private life deeply rooted by then. That made getting together and staying together for weeks or months to compose new albums, or to promote them through concerts and tours, practically impossible. Even so, the four greatest guys who ever happened to exist and coincide making music decided to go out in grand fashion.
That is, to compose one last album together. At first, they wanted to call it Everest. Yes, like the famous mountain in Nepal. There are even records of their intention to create the album cover with the four of them at the base of the highest mountain in the world. For obvious reasons, that idea never saw the light of day. Instead, they decided to step outside the studio, Abbey Road, owned by EMI, and on the crosswalk take one of the most iconic and most frequently honored photographs of recent times.
Now, there has always been this urban myth that spread after the breakup of the Beatles, which basically claims that the Lennon McCartney duo monopolized too much attention and were locked in a dispute to be the leaders of the band in every sense, deliberately leaving George Harrison, the creative genius, relegated to a mere accompanist. False on many levels, and the best proof of that is that Something, written, composed, sung, and fully realized by Harrison during the Let It Be period, is very likely one of the most beautiful songs ever composed. Pure musical legacy. Iconic.
The story goes that when Paul first heard the song, he was so astonished that he could not say a single word. He himself tells this to Rick Rubin in a documentary that I recommend watching on Apple TV. McCartney explains that the immediate connection everyone felt with the song was so strong that he could not find the right bass line for it. He could not decide whether to make it more harmonic or simply keep time. In other words, whether it should be complex or simple.
Another detail I cannot overlook is that George Harrison drew inspiration from his girlfriend at the time, Pattie Boyd, while creating the album. A woman who is responsible for inspiring two rock figures to write songs that transcended their eras: Something in Harrison’s case, and Layla in Eric Clapton’s, who would remain Harrison’s best friend until the former Beatle’s death in 2001. And yes, sometimes reality surpasses fiction itself. The deepest, most passionate, most substantial and unsurpassable song in history has as its muse a woman who was unfaithful yet incomparable.
That is what I love about rock, about music. Songs that give you goosebumps from the very first seconds. They are filled with spectacular, human stories. They are not the product of something made exclusively to be disposable. Call me an unapologetic melancholic, but I truly appreciate the inspiration that lived in that man when he wrote such poetry and such a work of art. Something is a piece of such intellectual depth and musical achievement that it does not matter in which era you listen to it, it will always move you and raise the hairs on your skin. Long live the Beatles.