1969, ROLLING STONE magazine gives the just-released Abbey Road album a bad review:
“What’s it like? Well, I don’t much like it, but then I have a thing about the Beatles. Since Revolver I’ve been buying their albums, playing them a couple of times, and then forgetting about them. The last album was, admittedly, exciting in places, but I still don’t play it much because there’s still too much stuff on it that should have been edited…Of course, the Beatles are still the Beatles, but it does tread a rather tenuous line between boredom, Beatledom, and bubblegum…
…Side two is a disaster…The slump begins with “Because,” which is a rather nothing song…the biggest bomb on the album is “Sun King,” which overflows with sixth and ninth chords and finally degenerates into a Muzak-sounding thing with Italian lyrics. It is probably the worst thing the Beatles have done since they changed drummers. This leads into the “Suite” which finishes up the side. There are six little songs, each slightly under two minutes long, all of which are so heavily overproduced that they are hard to listen to…
…It is tempting to think that the Beatles are saying with this album that the only alternative to “getting back” for them is producing more garbage on this order, and that they have priced it so outrageously so that fewer people would buy it. But if that’s so, then why bother to release it at all? They must realize that any album they choose to release is going to get a gold record just because so many people love, respect and trust the Beatles. They’ve been shucking us a lot recently, and it’s a shame because they don’t have to. Surely they must have enough talent and intelligence to do better than this. Or do they? Tune in next time and find out.”
—Ed Ward (RIP), Rolling Stone, November 15, 1969 (RS46)
