What Did John Lennon Really Think of ‘Abbey Road’? His Recorded Commentary Tells All

When Abbey Road dropped in 1969, it was met with a warm reception by Beatles fans around the world. Despite not being the Fab Four’s final record, it was the last record they recorded together before breaking up in 1970. There was a lot of tension during that time between each member, culminating in lawsuits and quite a bit of mud-slinging.

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Naturally, when John Lennon sat down for an interview with Tony McArthur (of Radio Luxembourg) on September 26, 1969, it would be easy to expect him not to have kind words for Abbey Road. He was also known for being quite blunt. Surprisingly, the opposite happened. Throughout the interview, Lennon gave a track-by-track commentary of the album, and most of his comments were quite warm.

The Beatles’ breakup was rough, but it’s clear that Lennon had a lot of affection for the group’s last album.

What John Lennon Really Thought of ‘Abbey Road’, From the Man Himself

Throughout the interview, John Lennon lent his commentary and analysis on each track found on Abbey Road. Naturally, they started with “Come Together”, the first track on the record written by Lennon himself. Lennon was pretty humble about the track, admitting that it would likely just be a B-side to “Something”, written by George Harrison. Lennon also noted that “Something” was “the best track” on the record.

Next up was “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, a Paul McCartney effort. Despite the tension between McCartney and Lennon, the latter didn’t have anything incredibly negative to say. He referred to the track as a “typical McCartney singalong or whatever you call them.”

He did get a bit critical when talking about “Oh! Darling”, though. He noted that McCartney “didn’t sing too well” on the track. “I always thought I could have done it better,” said Lennon. “It was more my style than his. He wrote it, so what the hell, he’s going to sing it.”

Next up was Ringo Starr’s contribution, “Octopus’s Garden”. McArthur noted that it was the only song that Starr wrote for the album. Lennon was gentle in his encouragement of Starr. “It’ll be a few years before his production is going as fast as ours, it took George [Harrison] a few years,” said Lennon.

Next on John Lennon’s commentary on Abbey Road were his thoughts on “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, a song he wrote about Yoko Ono. Lennon seemed more interested in talking about the then-revolutionary Moog synthesizer they used on the song, saying that the technology could handle “all ranges of sound” and jokingly noting that “if you’re a dog, you’ll hear a lot more.”

Lennon had kind words for “Here Comes The Sun” and “Because” as well. He noted that the former reminded him of Buddy Holly, and that the latter was inspired by Ono playing the piano. He asked her to “give me those chords backwards,” which led to “Because”.

“Medley”, which might be the most iconic work on the album, was also spoken of warmly by Lennon. He said that the 16-minute medley of songs was a “good way of getting rid of bits of songs” that the group had sitting around for years.

Overall, Lennon spoke affectionately about the album. How could he not, really? It’s an amazing piece of work.

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