What Every Modern Listener Gets Wrong About Abbey Road

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).

Video footage:
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#thebeatles #beatles #abbeyroad #vinyl

[EmperorTigerstar]

Yeah I've had to explain this to people as well lol.

[adamcool]

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.

[Electrohead]

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.

[AstroSully]

I've always loved how the darkest sounding song on the album is right next to the brightest sounding song.

[flyoverbassin]

“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

[HEWHOTAWNS]

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

[groceries__tho]

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

[Agos]

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

[ConglomerationCat]

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.

[MelvinTheHugger]

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.

[sombra]

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.

[chrismack]

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

[robcampbell]

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.

[C.G.Jr.]

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

[pizzatimeking]

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

[frmr]

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

[larry]

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.

[fishogynist]

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.

[splintercast]

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.

[DBDpurekiller]

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