With me as their father, it’s impossible for my girls to have escaped The Beatles during their formative years. I sang both of them to bed with ‘Blackbird’ and ‘In My Life,’ regaled them with the A Hard Day’s Night soundtrack, and just this year took them to the Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil performance of LOVE.
But Fiona expanded her Beatles education on her own through theme episodes of Glee, which she has streamed extensively on Netflix.
It’s weird to hear any song from Side Two of Abbey Road on its own (with the exception of ‘Here Comes the Sun’). ‘Because’ isn’t an official segment of the 16-minute medley that makes up most of Side Two, but it may as well be.
John Lennon said that the inspiration for this track came to him when he heard Yoko playing Beethoven’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’ on the piano. He ask her to play the chords backward and built the song around that progression.
The second Beatles album on this list is similar to the first (Sgt. Pepper) in that its reputation and historic importance outweigh the quality of the actual songs.
They also boast the two most famous cover shots in the Beatles catalog (and perhaps in popular music history).
For my final Beatles song, or at least my final Beatles Weekend song, I’m going with not a single track but the medley that closes side two of Abbey Road. Technically, this medley probably begins with ‘Sun King’ or even ‘You Never Give Me Your Money’ — I don’t know if the band members ever clarified which songs are officially part of it — but this YouTube clip I found starts with ‘Mean Mr. Mustard.’
This is an odd little group of songs. It starts with sketches of Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam, an interesting brother and sister team… he shouts obscenities at the queen while she dresses in drag.
This weekend marks my 39th and 40th Beatles Weekend selections… five months of the Fab Four. And upon reaching that milestone, I’m going to give the boys a rest and shift my attention to another weekend theme. You’ll find out what that is one week from today.
For the final Beatles Weekend, I’m focusing on their final album, Abbey Road. Certainly one of their finest moments on record, Abbey Road features a combination of their heaviest (‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’), silliest (‘Octopus’s Garden’) and most enduring (‘Here Comes the Sun,’ ‘Something’) songs.
Meet Me In Montauk 