What Every Modern Listener Gets Wrong About Abbey Road
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- Non-clickbait title: What some modern reviewers of Abbey Road occasionally make a minor mistake about.
Have you ever thought the segue between the songs "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Here Comes the Sun" on the album Abbey Road by The Beatles was a little strange? There actually isn't supposed to be a segue there.
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Sources:
Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road years 1962-1970 (New York: Harmony Books, 1988).
archive.org/de...
Video footage:
- Mic The Snare - DEEP DISCOG DIVE: The Beatles: • DEEP DISCOG DIVE: The ...
- rjciccone - The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Inner Groove (first forwards, then backwards): • The Beatles - Sgt Pepp...
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#thebeatles #beatles #abbeyroad #vinyl
Yeah I've had to explain this to people as well lol.
Did I really just see my favorite CZcamsr drop a comment in the comments section?
Your my favorite, dude! Ur litteraly: 😎
I didn't expect to see u here lol
Hello emperor tigerstar
Emperor! Good to see you in this channel, this dude is amazing! Glad to see he’s getting recognition from a bigger channel :)
a real one has entered the comment section
Do the anglo-zanzibar war every second
I never understood why people hated this transition. Even on streaming services the chaos and build up into an abrupt end into one of the most bright and upbeat songs ever is beautiful and has an amazing impact. I think it is a good transition regardless of listening on vinyl or streaming.
I’m not sure you understand the meaning of “melancholy.”
misuse of melancholy
Not what melancholy means
They hated the transition, because #1, it's NOT a transition, it was meant to be a pause in the album while turning the record over like the man said.
These people would HATE Kanye's The Life Of Pablo
This is one of the aspects I enjoy about vinyl. Back in the day a lot of albums treated each side of a record like a different ‘chapter’ of the listening experience and treated the starting and end songs on each side like separate intros and outros.
Always loved how some concept albums used this. My favprite example has to be Quadrophenia, in which they did a similar trick to the Beatles' except the abrupt ending of the song is interrupted by a loud roar by Daltry as the protagonist's motorcycle smashes onto the ground off a cliff. And side B picks up with the protagonist, Jimmy dealing with life on his own on a trip to Brighton. This is why Spotify should have album sides be clearly stated, (The aforementioned Quadrophenia has all it's sides seperated but most dont!)
It's a concept album about #THEWAYOFTHEFATHERINMOTHERNATURE
Yeah this works very well with The Wall by Pink Floyd
I like both sides of Queen II, which are called “White” and “Black”.
@@randomguyontheinternet7940 some of them do, but i saw CD 1 and CD 2, and i guess publishers can use this "feature"
I've always loved how the darkest sounding song on the album is right next to the brightest sounding song.
I agree
For years now, I always thought the ending of I Want You (She's So Heavy) reminded me of a massive hail storm. And the beginning of Here Comes The Sun was literally just that.
Exactly. I Want You (She's So Heavy) feels like the world is crashing in around you, and then Here Comes the Sun is the calm after the storm. The metaphor works perfectly from both a sonic and lyrical standpoint. I think the transition is brilliant
@@robcampbell3387 Oh yes, exactly!!
@@robcampbell3387 it's also just funny
@@hoopz5095 And to think it came from a low hum from inside one the organs they used. They just kept shifting the pitch and speed with each refrain in order for it to sound like a windstorm. Clever to say the least!
That’s awesome! I will never be able to think of them the same!
not really related but I think the abrupt ending to she's so heavy is one of the most powerful moments in all of music. there is something so haunting about such a raw song stopping so suddenly. its just so fucking cool man. followed up by here comes the Sun like man that 'whiplash' is musical genius I don't even care it's goated.
also as for other hidden tracks I guess can you take me back off the white album and as for other cool segues the beach boys smile is full of them
I wish the band had released the full versions of I Want You and Helter Skelter. I wanna listen to long monstrosities
What do you mean 'not really related'? That's literally what the whole video was about lmao
@@majesthijmenii1976 idk
I love that abrupt ending too. There's such a frenzy of sound, it's so angst ridden and then... nothing. Like what happened to him? What happened to all that churning emotion? And also the fact that the song is quite long, you're immersed in this 'heavy' journey and then suddenly the rug is pulled out from underneath you. It's brilliant - and next thing, sunshine and buttercups 😄 Fantastic.
yeah, one of the most powerful moments in ALL OF MUSIC. John Lennon's in-the-moment decision to tell his engineer to cut the tape early was just that great. BOW DOWN before the Beatles, you are not worthy of their otherworldly recordings going into your ears.
I swear to God, will people ever stop sucking off this band like they are some sort of divine intervention. I like the Beatles and it makes me want to hate them.
I think the transition from I Want You to Here Comes the Sun, even if unintentional, is brilliant. The most heavy evil sounding riff ever suddenly switching into a beautiful and wholesome track is great. It has a similar feeling to Revolution 9 straight into Good Night, which was intentional
It is NOT unintentional. The Beatles have been putting transitions from heavy songs to light ones since revolver :-
Love me to-> here,there and everywhere,
Within you without you -> when I'm 64
I heard Paul talking about this being intentional too.
🙄 They're on opposite sides of the record...
I think it works really damn great, to be honest, even if unintentional. Feels like a purposeful tonal whiplash - and it's not like there aren't some other good examples of it in Abbey Road (Something to Maxwell's Silver Hammer, for instance, or Octopus' Garden to I Want You).
That said, given every release after the LP does have that transition, I feel like pointing it out amounts to, essentially, trivia. It's a transition that exists in almost every release, so it's a part of the album. So, if you're reviewing it now, you're reviewing it with that in mind.
Exactly, it’s NOT unintentional at all. It’s John Lennon’s idea just like the end of the white album
It’s like here comes the sun is emerging from the darkness in the song before
“Hello, CD listeners. We’ve come to the point in this album where those listening on cassette or record will have to stand up - or sit down - and turn over the record - or tape. In fairness to those listeners, we’ll now take a few seconds before we begin side two. Thank you. Here is side two.” -Tom Petty
...with Del Shannon (RIP)
The sudden cut and the long pause is such an unsettling and anxious moment. Feels like an eternity. Then you get the release of Here Comes the Sun. An incredibly powerful transition
Even if unintentional, I always thought this transition was absolutely perfect. Are you kidding me?? When George says "it's been a long, cold, lonely winter", it's almost like he's referring to the outro of I Want You (She's So Heavy). It couldn't possibly be better than that.
This is actually one of my favorite transitions ever. I have no idea why some people don't like it. Even if you listen to it without a pause it still works really well.
My favorite "hidden track" on a vinyl is train in vain on London calling. It was put onto the album so late that they couldn't put it on the jacket or labels and the only denotion of it is on the hype sticker or some pressings have it in the deadwax. It helps that it's one of my favorite songs on that album
Although true, that's exactly why it is that it isn't considered a "true" hidden track.
prince had a hidden track after something like 90 tracks of 5 seconds of silence on one of his albums
There are some records that have a second groove with a hidden track on
As a vinyl collector, this is so true. Abbey road is my favorite album of all time, so when people say it's bad just because of this, I just can't agree. Thank you for explaining this for people who don't collect vinyls
Hello, King. This is a virtually pointless reply, but when I read that Abbey Road is your favorite album of all time, I felt some odd compulsion to say that it's mine, too. I've been listening to it for about 50 years, somehow, and I've never gotten sick of it. (Actually, I never get sick of these guys, period.) There's just something mildly wonderful to read that somebody else considers this BRILLIANT album to be their favorite. I'm sure we have plenty of company! The web has created so many wonderful new ways to listen to these sounds; it's a great time to be a music fan, and a Beatles addict.
@@3sportdad Thank you for replying, Abbey Road was one of the first albums I ever heard. And everytime I listen to it, I love it even more. Thank you
Hi Pizza Time King and 3sportdad Abbey road is also my favourite album of all times. I never had that problem of the cut between Iwant you and Here comes the sun because my parents had it in vinyl, and also in cassette (I most heard it in cassette at that time) and also it was one of the firsts albums that i heard in all extension. At first as a kid I didn't like I Want You, but as I get older it has raised to one of my favourites songs of all times. Cheers!
Seriously. Vinyl is definitely the best way to listen to this record. Side one and two are their own very distinct chapters and are meant to be listened to this way
I had a friend who said that you should get the CD dark side of the moon instead of the vinyl. And one of his reasons was the stop from the great gig in the sky and money. But that's not a great reason either. The stop on that record is to make you think about what the song meant and to leave you in a feeling of shock. To me vinyl is one of the best ways to listen to music
3:38 Nirvana's "Endless Nameless" on the CD version of the album playing 17 minutes after silence still as part of the last track on the album is insane
Even with such conditions, I LOVE the breath we get between She's So Heavy and Here Comes the Sun. Whether I'm listening on record or digitally, I've always loved how from pretty much Revolver onward, one song a Beatles album will be completely different from the song you heard previously (except for Let It Be, since that album maintains a pretty consistent Rock / singer-songwriter type of tone).
Great shtuff
The sudden jump between the two tracks highlighting the stark difference in shade between them is one of my favourite things about CD and digital versions.
I think the entire order of the songs on abbey road is pure perfection. Whether it’s the wonderful blends between songs such as polythene Pam and she came in through the bathroom window or the stark contrast between songs like I want you she’s so heavy and here comes the sun, or come together and something
It’s all just perfect in my opinion. How anyone could dislike the order (as chaotic as it is) is beyond me
I like the way it works on stream too, it's like the outro from i want you (she's so heavy) is the "long cold lonely winter" from here comes the sun
i think so too. but it wouldnt have hurt if they added one or two extra seconds between the tracks imo
My high school art class let students bring in music to make everybody listen to, back before iPods, and I brought in the CD version of Abbey Road. When this transition hit, the whole class looked up and went, “Whoah” and took a deep breath, you could feel the energy in the room change. It’s been 25 years and I still remember it vividly, I think it’s brilliant.
I grew up listening to the cassette tape version of the album, where Here Comes the Sun is the first song on side one, and Come Together is the first song on side two. Regardless, falling off that sonic cliff at the end of She's So Heavy before flipping over the tape or having the auto reverse kick in is quite a breathtaker. Having it followed by Come Together feels quite natural. Both songs have a proto-grungy feel to them.
Yeah, cassettes were notorious for that kind of disregard for the intentions of the people who created the music. 8- tracks were even worse. It resulted from the limitations of the format, but it completely compromises the experience of listening to certain records.
A slightly related phenomenon is that before the Beatles started Apple, and had control over the release of their albums, Capitol would play around with the tracklist on how their albums were released in North America. For example, having growing up listening to the North American version of Revolver over and over and over again countless times, I still to this day can’t get used to the correct version of the album, which includes I’m only sleeping, Dr. Robert, and, and your Bird can sing.
I just picked up the cassette recently and was disappointed that they decided to flip the opening tracks.
Switching the opening tracks on Abbey Road is pure sacrilege!
on Tools debutt album Undertow, the last track Disgustipated is actually the 69th track on the album. what was suppose to happen is after Floods the 9th track on the album, there is a pause for a long time with each "song" taking up one second on the record giving you about a minute full of silence. now days when you hear the song they just give you the full minute of silence at the beginning of Disgutipated, but it was fun for people ripping it in the 2000s seeing 69 tracks
Right, this is a great example of artists playing around with their track listings. I believe Korn also did something similar on Follow the Leader, with there being 12 individual tracks of silence at the start of the album.
@@nojrants the reason for that one is because Jonathan Davis, lead singer of Korn, was very superstitious of the number 13. It also contains a hidden song at the end of “My gift to you”
In the streaming version, it doesn't even have the silence, it goes from one track to another as usual
This also happens with DMBs under the table and dreaming. Confused the hell out if me when i first saw it
the same exact thing with 69 tracks happens with US copies of Blur’s “Modern Life Is Rubbish”
Thank you for this! I was a rock radio DJ and record producer in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. As a producer, one of the responsibilities I had was deciding the sequencing of the tracks on the album. The decision about what to put "last" and "first" on each side was something that involved hours, days, weeks of discussion. Back in the days of vinyl, what constituted an "album side" was integral to the entire project. That is now lost in the streaming world except in cases where someone buys or streams an album and listens straight through. Even then, though, there are no "sides" any more, for the most part.
I actually put albums where that break between sides is important into a playlist and I created an intermission track. It’s the audio from the Beatles help! Movie “end of part one, intermission” followed by like 15-20 seconds of silence, then “end of intermission, part 2” I find it a good automated substitute, compared to what I used to do. Just pause the end of the track, wait a bit, play the next track.
Where could I find that playlist?
I've done that as well. I also put that "pause" between the end of an album propper and the CD's bonus tracks (if the CD itself doesn't have a bit of extended silence there)
You could also use John Lennon's "Nutopian National Anthem" which us 5 seconds of silence
"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" to "Here Comes The Sun" is probably one of my favorite track transitions of all time,
To me "Here Comes the Sun" is the calm after the storm. After being lost in the chaos of "She's So Heavy" for so long, suddenly it's over and "Here comes the sun, it seems like years since it's been clear, It's alright."
I've also heard people talk about the "transition" from the great gig in the sky to money in dark side of the moon which is the same case as this one. Heard some people say it's weird that there's no transition and others saying that they like this silence between them. Sometimes I forget that not everyone knows how vinyl works and get annoyed about this.
Streaming (ironically) breaks flow a lot of times. Negative space music disappears leading to jarring cuts between songs, hidden tracks are on full display, sometimes even loading the next track can break flow if one track is supposed to seamlessly go into the next.
I agree, this is pretty common nowadays. On some streaming services they actually add a pause between tracks, thus disrupting seamless transitions. On Spotify you can turn this off in settings, although I believe it's turned on by default. Likewise, many services will auto-play another song after an album concludes, which can be really jarring. If an album has a really impactful ending, sometimes I feel like I need to stop and process what I just heard. So Spotify playing a random single there can really hurt the experience.
Truly never even thought of the break between sides, but the jolt from the one song to the other also never bothered me. Agreed that it works.
I actually really love this transition; the drastic change in tone adds to the charm for me
A 90s pop punk band called Ash did a really clever thing with their second album named 1977: the hidden tracks were placed at the front of the album. You'd press play and then immediately rewind and it would start counting backwards
You're presumably referring to the CD here (dominant musical format of the 90's). The original "soundtrack" album CD to the TV series The X-Files (actually the shows theme plus a bunch of alt. bands doing music "inspired" by the show) had a similar bonus track. To be able to do it they took advantage of a quirky feature of the CD format's original coding for dividing up the music into tracks: originally the ability was programed in to have a kind of unlisted time between tracks, where after say, track 5 ended at it's listed time of, say, 4:13, there might be an interval of say 7 seconds before the official start of track 6, which you'd see on your CD player's time counter as a negative number countdown like "-00:07, -00:06, -00:05", etc., during which you might hear studio chatter, count-ins or false starts before the "real" start of the next track. If you skipped ahead to the next tracks, the skip feature would skip right past all of these between-song tracks, and as an unintended consequence when a CD is first put into the player it would automatically skip past any "negative" track before Track One, unless you put the CD in the player and then immediately started rewinding it. The reason most people never heard about any of this is because the feature was almost never used, I had a live Hendrix CD that was released by a very early CD only label called Rykodisc that used these negative tracks for the between-song audience noise and any spoken commentary between songs, but other than that almost everyone immediately decided to make any sort of between-song audio from an album either the end of the previous track, the unskippable start of the next song, or give it its own propper track listing, to the point where later CD players lost some of the ability to deal with these negative tracks and couldn't even properly play CDs like the X-files album (and presumably that Ash album) that had a negative track before track 1.
That's why when it became possible to create digital versions of vinyl releases, I always added a silent 9 second spacer file between the end of one vinyl side and the beginning of the next. Many albums in the day were consciously programed taking into account side 1 and 2 of the vinyl format. As George Martin once explained, start a side with an exciting first track, and end it with one that's hard to follow. Thats why I Want You (She's So Heavy} ends side 1 of Abbey Road, and why A Day In The Life ends Sgt. Pepper rather than appearing in the middle of side 1. It's usually a mistake to disregard the artist's/producer's/director's original intention.
I like to think of the abrupt transition as though one is "breaking through the stormclouds, into a bright and swift sunrise..."
A Japanese singer-songwriter, Miyuki Nakajima, had an album called Hajimemashite. The penultimate track is a light waltzy song, but toward the end it starts distorting and you start hearing an ominous countdown. Six, five, four, three, tw....the final track, an eighties rocker, crashes in midway through the "two". I love it.
Very nice, I always wondered why they put one next to another and never remembered they could be on different sides lol. Great video, thanks for ranting
Two things:
1. I was a child when the Beatles first appeared on the scene in the USA, and about 13 when Abbey Road came out. Your video makes an excellent point about the space between two sides of an album. Sometimes, in later years, the tape or CD of a previous album will mix the original LP's song order, as with Jefferson Aiplane's Surrealistic Pillow, or might mix the order and add a song, as with Leonard Bernstein's Latin American Fiesta.
2. Even back circa 1970, Abbey Road, as I recall, was released in some versions with "Come Together" starting Side A and "Here Comes the Sun" starting Side B, and in other versions, the two songs are switched. I personally prefer "Here Comes the Sun" starting Side A, even if it does put two George Harrison songs together. I imagine that on a sideless string of songs, "Come Together" is a better segue from "I Want You (She's So Heavy)".
You’ve made a very good point! By the time you turn the vinyl over and Here Come The Sun starts, you’re ready for the change in mood.
Thank you, for not making this video 20+ minutes long.
Great video, love your format and editing. Keep it up!
Thank you! Glad to hear it
@@nojrants absolute madman John = peak format editing
I always think of the transition between “I want you (she’s so heavy)” and “here comes the sun” as imagining being in a storm with the wind blowing and everything flying around you. Just for it to stop and the sun comes out. I look at it as though no matter the troubles and hardships you may face, it will eventually dissipate and the warmth and relaxation of the sun will come to set you free.
I’d argue it’s the most effective transition on the album, especially one that literally has songs that segue into each other to create a medley.
there’s a hidden track at the end of Heathen Chemistry by Oasis that starts half an hour after the last track finishes, Spotify doesn’t separate them so it has the final song being 38 minutes long with most of it being silence
You bring up a good point. Younger audiences aren't listening to these songs on vinyl, or even on a cassette, so they simply aren't aware of the physical limitations of the media they originally came on. But I agree with you about She's So Heavy/Here Comes the Sun--it's a great juxtaposition even if the Beatles didn't intend it that way. And I remember the first time I listened to Abbey Road with a friend. Her Majesty was of course not listed on the album or sleeve, so when it started playing after The End, my friend and I were both quite shocked and surprised to hear it.
I've never took issue with the transition, because they're both such good songs that I don't really care. But thank you for explaining
THANK YOU!!! You are so right! The abrupt break after she’s so heavy is ON PURPOSE!!! Good video :)
Thank you!
Just watched both videos, you're great. Always happy to find high quality small channels👍
About wrong flags:
San Marino. Check the talk page of the Flag of San Marino and you’ll see it was only recently corrected
Bowie's berlin trilogy does A and B sides really well as Low and Heroes both dedicate the B side to (mostly) instrumental tracks and Lodger dedicates side A to the travel theme of the album.
holy shit i didnt know some people didnt get this! this part has always been one of my favorite moments from abbey road
I remember coming to this realization on my own when listening to album made in the 50s and 60s. It's why so many iconic old albums have really abrupt tonal shifts right in the middle.
I thought this was going to be a joke video, but your actually saying facts
Speaking of whiplash; has anyone else listened to A Night At The Opera by Queen and gotten whiplash from Death On Two Legs followed by Lazing On A Sunday Afternoon?
Because the first time I listened to that album I cried from the raw emotion of Death On Two Legs, and then was in shock with how they could put such a light hearted song afterwards.
Another few cool examples of hidden tracks are Queen's 'Untitled Hidden Track' from Made in Heaven, the last and the only Queen posthumous album featuring Freddie Mercury, the hidden track is their longest ever track out of their studio work and it's preceded by "Yeah", another hidden track, their shortest one; "Don't Sit Down" after "Unwashed and Somewhat Slightly Dazed" off of David Bowie's second homonymous album from 1969, A.K.A Space Oddity; Nirvana's "Endless, Nameless" featuring at the end of their Nevermind album, Weird Al Yankovic would later parody the same method used by Nirvana (having ten minutes of silence after the listed tracks, then followed by the unlisted track) with his song "Bite Me" in his "Off the deep end" album, album which also features a parody of Nevermind's hit single "Smells like Teen Spirit" called "Smells like Nirvana".
Anotherone of my favorite occurrences of this is Black Sabbath's "Blow on a jug", which was inspired by something that happened to them on a concert and it's barely noticeable track a few seconds long with a very low volume mix. It's also in one of my personal favorite and in my opinion underrated albums by them "Sabbotage". Although in the 2021 remaster release it's much louder and you can catch it right away, although the titular jug is barely noticeable in that mix.
One of my favorite ends of a vinyl side is on ELOs Out Of The Blue. The first side of the second disc (which is an entire mini concerto Jeff Lynn wrote within the entire album 😍) ends with everyone's favorite ELO song, "Mr Blue Sky". The robotic voice at the very end of the song may sound like it's saying Mr blues sky-y but if you listen closely it is actually saying "Please turn me over"!!! This has no meaning when you're listening digitally but having a vinyl tell you to turn it over when the side is done is just so cool!
Ok, so I already knew about the side separation, but that clip at the end astonished me! Good video
Thank you, glad to hear it
Mic The Snare is one of my favorite channels, but i really had to shake my head at that moment in the video.
Would highly recommend his channel though
I agree, I think Mic The Snare is a great channel overall, just a slight mistake there
Modern technology has made redundant, the physical limitations that once shaped creativity.
The CD version of Tom Petty's "Full Moon Fever" has this twenty-second spoken word interlude after "Running Down a Dream" that I think is mostly meant as a joke, but I actually kinda wish more albums did something like this.
"Hello, CD listeners. We’ve come to the point in this album where those listening on cassette or record will have to stand up - or sit down - and turn over the record - or tape. In fairness to those listeners, we’ll now take a few seconds before we begin side two. Thank you. Here is side two.”
@Error 52 I loved that part of the CD. It goes right into "I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better". A great cover of The Byrds tune.
Re: hidden tracks, Sonata Arctica's Shamandalie is about a 4 minute song followed a few minutes later by what I originally knew as a separate easter egg track of the band chatting and jamming just referred to as Jam. Spotify decided to put them both into the same track with like 5 minutes of silence in between
Hey, I'm a big fan of your videos so it's really surreal to see your comment here haha. Thanks for the comment, I'll be sure to check that track out!
@@nojrants No way, small world!
In the early 1980s, a college classmate told me he had just bought Abbey Road, but returned it to the store as defective because of the abrupt endings on both sides. I explained to him that it wasn’t an error, and he was shocked.
This is actually one of the only things I prefer on streaming. I love the juxtaposition between the two.
On original CD releases, Nirvana's nevermind had a song called endless nameless that you would have to wait 10 minutes for, and on in utero the same for a song called gallons of rubbing alcohol flow through the strip, tho both songs are now easily accessible on Spotify
Two great examples of hidden tracks. I believe Endless, Nameless only appeared on certain versions and not on vinyl releases, while Gallons was on non-US pressings, which brings up a whole separate point about how the same album might have differences based on pressing or country.
Here is something i never thought I needed to know. Good job!
The libertines did the hidden track thing really well with their second album. I didn’t even know the hidden song was called London until this year, because it’s literally not mentioned anywhere on the vinyl LP, CD, or streaming release! It’s just slapped onto the end of the closer, What Became of The Likely Lads, with seemingly zero care at all!
It’s not even a separate file from the official closer either, with the CD version and streaming both having it as a continuation of the same file as the previous song, making it pretty much untraceable unless you’re patient enough to wait for it to play at the end of the album. All the early 2000s CD ‘hacking’ in the world couldn’t tell you as much as a name or which band member wrote it, or even when it was recorded, and I just think that’s so cool
If The Beatles had done similar for Her Majesty on digital releases, I imagine people would think about the album a lot differently.
Her Majesty was originally part of the side two medley but it didn't really "fit" so they cut it.
That's why it starts with the chord from Polythene Pam.
Paul told the engineer to get rid of it, but he tacked it on at the end to save it and the boys liked the way it creeps in at the end.
They liked to do that - from the extra long one note fade of A Day in the Life to the Inner Groove on Sgt Pepper, to the fadeout and return on both Strawberry Field Forever and Helter Skelter to the White Album's chaotic Revolution No. 9 fading into the lullabye 'Goodnight' to end the album, Abbey Road had a surprise ending on both sides.
It’s not just that it’s an abrupt ending followed by a calm intro, it’s more like a cut off where it’s almost like they actually cut the recording of I Want You a tad bit too early.
Yep. You nailed it. The way we listened to that album, and all albums for that matter, back then was very different than now. Thanks for pointing it out.
I used to listen to this on LP, and I like the transition between the two songs just at much when one segues into the other. In fact, I'd say it adds a "back story" to "Here Comes the Sun". That song is a moment of peace and beauty in an otherwise chaotic (or at least cloudy) world. After the white-noise cacophony, Harrison's song has an enhanced refreshing, calming effect.
Oh my god I’ve explained this sooo many times to people using these two songs as examples. Thank you for educating
On the last track of Deftones’ Around The Fur, once the song finishes there’s 14 minutes of silence, then you hear a guy hitting a bong for like 20 seconds, then another 12 minutes of silence until the hidden track starts
it's funny that it wasn't intended because i think it's kind of genius. i love it.
The chapter analogy is apt. Like playing a live gig where you have to decide how to begin and end each set - leave the listener ready for a breather but also wanting more.
Also, you could stack platters on your player's spindle, so oftentimes you wouldn't even necessarily be hearing the two songs back to back.
Another thing that kinda irked me about Mic's video was in a segment towards the end where he gave a brief overview of each Beatle's solo career, he falsely claimed that George released music between the breakup of the Traveling Willburys and his death in 2001, when... that isn't true. He did a couple of tours and worked on the beatles anthology, sure, but he didnt release any studio albums or even singles between the Willburys and Brainwashed.
There is another great example of a track of a French band called FFF in their eponym album FFF, there is a hidden track before the 1st track (made possible because it is a CD)
It is also funny that the track is called « Number one » even though it is actually placed before the first track…
There is also a hidden song after the last track of the album…
Quote :
Track 11B is not credited on sleeve and appears as a ghost track on track 11A.
There is another hidden track BEFORE THE FIRST TRACK, you can listen to it by using the "
Bravo! I have always loved the stop silence after She's so Heavy... it gives you a chance to catch your breath after the long heavy metal nightmare ending of Side A. George's sweet guitar on side B, played in an upper register, is like a breath of fresh air in a stale room. Thank you for stating what we all knew, those of us who were blown away by this fantastic Beatles experience at the end of the 1960's.
It's actually more realized with them butting up together with the sharp contrast of dark and light.
And by the way, since CD's from 1984, it's been heard this way longer than it has ever been heard with a record, actually even earlier if you recorded it onto cassette to listen to it on the go, so I don't know what people are talking about.
The transition worked well in my opinion. I think it gives it an interesting vibe.
Yeah, youngsters, we used to know when the first half of an album was done, because we had to flip it over if we wanted to hear side two. It's a complicated scenario, but just pretend it's a record album because it was........................................................................................
I think this issue is especially relevant when we are talking about double albums.
When i listen to double albums i usually take little breaks at the point where we change sides. I think it makes the whole thing more digestable.
You didn't quite get that right. After hearing I Want You, you would get up and play it again.
I'm going to say personally this hard abrupt transition was one of my most epic and emotional experiences I've had during a trip. If you listen carefully during the outro of I want you, it start becoming very unnerving as it reaches the end, then suddenly you are welcomed by the harmonious sound of George Harrison's guitar telling you everything is fine. That has been the most I've cried listening to a song.
I love the transition between I want you (shes so heavy) and Here comes the sun, its the difference between that dirty and noisy end and the clean beautiful beginning of Here comes the sun that is totally brilliant although unitentional as you say. You also listened in a different way to records in that you didnt get up and change the song for every other song, you listened more to the full record much since it want very conventiant to get up and change the song, these day with digital audio and streaming you listen to one song here and one song there easily and the feel of an album often gets a bit lost.
THANK YOU. I’ve been preaching this for years!
3:30 Another example of a terminal groove with an infinitely repeating clip is at the end of the song "I am The Beat" by The Look (A sort of Barry Manilow-esque post-punk single that didn't get much exposure here in the USA). The closing line being the title, when the stylus gets into the terminal groove, the word "Beat!" is repeated 45 times per minute forever.
Thanks, I'll have to check that out
It's not quite a hidden track but the vinyl pressing of the new Boygenius album features a lock groove at the end of Side 2, so that the final lyric of the closing track repeats infinitely.
"Waiting ... Waiting ... Waiting ... Waiting ... Waiting ..."
Very cool use of lock-grooves
I’ve had a copy on vinyl beforehand and knew they expected 20 or seconds before side b played, but I remember listening to the remix the night it came out and getting chills at the transition. I’ve always found the juxtaposition between the heaviest and the happiest songs on the album very moving
Not to mention how the limitations of vinyl influenced track sequencing. As the groove advances and each rotation includes less physical space, fidelity is lost - hence why faster songs are typically side starters and the back half of each side typically is composed of slower or less intricately arranged pieces.
I personally think the quick cut with “Here Comes The Sun” immediately following works best, but you make an interesting case with great points.
I originally listened to this Album as an album with the full physical effect of turning it over to side B, as I did with all albums before CDs came into the world. That’s all there was at the time. The song choices for the end of side A and the start of side B were carefully considered. Artists that thoughtfully integrated the album flip into the experience really stood out. Some albums made the end of a side’s groove into a loop (instead of a spiral) so it would repeat a few seconds of sound forever until someone got up and flipped it.
The tonal shift never really bothered me because it’s a bit abrupt, but it’s like Ok Computer’s Exit Music (For a Film) leading into Let Down. Heavy darkness transitioning to sweetness.
But it makes sense that it’s side A leading into side B, that’s an important observation.
It reminded me of how endless, nameless by nirvana is no longer a hidden track thanks to streaming.
A good example of how the two sides of a record influence the creative process is Bookends by Simon & Garfunkel. the first side has a overarching concept while the second doesn't. It's probably weird to new listeners hearing it without the break.
Sometimes context of the medium matters! Certainly true of rock LPs in the late 60s onward. The cassette formats later on made it so you sometimes had to reorder stuff or leave something out. Funny enough, the first time I heard Abbey Road was on a cassette that had swapped the opening tracks of each side, "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun", and for quite a while I thought that was the order they came in. 😅
Another interesting one is classical music. Naturally, older large-scale works were written for live performance, not LPs, so you have all sorts of logistical considerations of how to record things or fit them on discs. A live performance of Bach's keyboard suites, for example, would tend to include almost all the repeats to stay true to the proportions and structure of the pieces (apart from a modern convention of leaving some repeats out of the minuets). Same goes for, say, the repeats in Haydn sonatas, etc. But on older recordings of such works, you may find the players leaving out a lot of repeats, in deference to the limited space on discs.
Of course, this is something I already knew, and yet, personally, I LOVE the way it now jumps directly to Here Comes The Sun.
it reminds me of All I Need into Faust Arp on In Rainbows by Radiohead, a much needed "Break" after such powerful sounds.
In my opinion listening to it without pausing, is way more interesting and the difference between the tones adds a great musical moment
i actually think it’s such a cool transition on streaming. the juxtaposition is almost like a bit of humor in the album, showing that even though the band is giving you some grand, wall of sound, they’re going to drop you right into a sweet pop-rock song and not take themselves too serious. obviously the band didn’t do this on purpose, but it’s cool to see how an album can be re-interpreted on different listening formats.
If I had to choose one album to listen to on a loop forever to the exclusion of all else, it would be this album
In the days of record albums, Side Two Track One was usually the second most important track on the album in terms of potential hits, because when DJs and reviewers got a new album, they would often just listen to the first track on each side to decide whether to play or even listen to the rest of the album. It was a little different for The Beatles, but the lead tracks were still very important. On this album they were Come Together and Here Comes the Sun.
Even on digital formats, you should definitely be aware of the sides when listening to "album oriented" bands of the LP era, because it's often very likely that the song order and production were done with two wholes in mind.
Judas Priest's "Sad Wings of Destiny" is a case where the sides accidentally got switched in the pressing, with Side B being labeled A and vice versa. The original sleeves had the intended track list, but later on they started printing it the way it had become. The album actually has an instrumental intro, titled "Prelude," which ended up starting Side B and became extra confusing on CD. Since acquiring an LP version I've been playing the intended side first, but it always worked fine anyway, as both sides have a sense of an intro and an end.
I agree, the medium of the time effects how it was made and how it was supposed to be presented. And that Judas Priest example is interesting, thank you for bringing that to my attention!
Picture, late summer night 1969, warm and quite outside, lights are dim, side one of Abby Road on the Turntable, you finally slipped into I Want You / She's so Heavy, it builds and builds, with that increasing background hiss slicing into the guitars over and over. It STOPS! Silence. The arm moves to the inner groove, quiet static for a moment, then the auto arm picks up the needle and clicks over to the off position. Dead silence. YOU CAN'T MOVE. The world stopped.
Many vinyl LPs did not have any distinct separation of songs. This was common for the classic Moody Blues albums, each track fading into the next. When transferred to digital the tracks are given distinct breaks and many players insert a gap. The listening experiences should be the same as the LP but isn't.
In addition to inner grove easter eggs, a few LPs were mastered to go into an infinite loop at the end. An example of that is the album Touch by the band Touch (1969). The final track ends in a wash of white noise and if you turn off auto return of the tone arm it will keep playing forever.