In 1969, The Beatles released their legendary eleventh studio album Abbey Road. Side two of the album features the “Abbey Road Medley”, a collection of eight (mostly) short tracks that run 16 minutes in total. The medley, together with its recording sessions, provides a climactic end to The Beatles as a group. In this article, I’ll discuss the story behind the “Abbey Road Medley”.
We will dive into the origin behind the medley, as well as the story and meaning behind every song.
The Story Behind the Medley
At its core, the “Abbey Road Medley” is a collection of unfinished songs. Initially titled ‘the Long One’, the medley was mainly an idea by Paul McCartney.
“I think it was my idea to put all the spare bits together,” McCartney said. “We hit upon the idea of medleying them all and giving the second side a sort of operatic structure – which was great because it used ten or twelve unfinished songs in a good way.”
The “Abbey Road Medley” was largely a collaboration between McCartney and producer George Martin. They felt the end of the Beatles as a group was near, and saw the medley as a climactic end of the Beatles (Abbey Road was released as the group’s penultimate album, but was the last album the band members recorded together). John Lennon contributed three songs to the medley, but he wasn’t a fan of the operatic sequence.
“I liked the A side. I never liked that sort of pop opera on the other side,” Lennon said. “I think it’s junk. It was just bits of song thrown together. And I can’t remember what some of it is.”
The first sign of the medley was the recording of its opening track “You Never Give Me Your Money”. Rather than giving the song a proper end, McCartney stopped, implying the song wasn’t finished yet, which indicated that something was to be added.
“You Never Give Me Your Money” was followed by Lennon’s “Sun King”, “Mean Mr. Mustard”, “Polythene Pam”, and McCartney’s “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window”, “Golden Slumbers”, and “Carry That Weight”. The medley ends with the fitting “The End”, written by McCartney. Let’s go over each track!
The “Abbey Road Medley” opens with “You Never Give Me Your Money”. McCartney claimed he wrote the song about Allen Klein, who became the Beatles’ manager in 1969 much to his dislike. “This was me directly lambasting Allen Klein’s attitude to us: no money, just funny paper, all promises and it never works out, “McCartney said. “It’s basically a song about no faith in the person.”
Sun King
“You Never Give Me Your Money” fades into the medley’s second song “Sun King”. The song was originally titled “Here Come the Sun King”, but to avoid confusion with George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun”, the title was shortened to “Sun King”. The sound of the recording was inspired by Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross”, who had a massive hit with the instrumental during that time.
Mean Mr Mustard
“Sun King” abruptly changes into “Mean Mr Mustard”. Lennon wrote the song in India during the Beatles’ Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh. The song was inspired by a newspaper story about John Mustard, whose wife filed for divorce because he was a miser. Lennon wasn’t a fan of the song and called it ‘another piece of garbace’.
Polythene Pam
“Polythene Pam” is the fourth song of the “Abbey Road Medley”. Similarly to “Mean Mr Mustard”, it was written in India and disliked by Lennon. The song was inspired by several events in Lennon’s life. First by Pat Hodgett, an early Beatles attendee who befriended the Beatles. Hodgett had the habit of eating polythene, which earned her the nickname “Polythene Pat”. Second by novelist Royston Ellis, who took Lennon to his home to meet a woman who was dressed up in polythene.
She Came In Through the Bathroom Window
After Lennon’s contributions to the medley, McCartney finished it. Starting with “She Came In Through the Bathroom Window”. The song’s genesis is rather unusual and addresses the devoted female fans of Paul McCartney, who turned into burglars someday in 1968. Fan Diane Ashley later recalled: “We were bored, he was out, and so we decided to pay him a visit. We found a ladder in his garden and stuck it up at the bathroom window which he’d left slightly open. I was the one who climbed up and got in.”
Golden Slumbers
“Golden Slumbers” is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the “Abbey Road Medley”. The ballad was based on the 17th-century poem “Golden Slumbers” by Thomas Dekker. “I was playing the piano in Liverpool in my dad’s house, and my step-sister Ruth’s piano book was up on the stand,” McCartney recalled in Many Years From Now. “I was flicking through it and I came to ‘Golden Slumbers’. I can’t read music and I couldn’t remember the old tune, so I just started playing my own tune to it.”
Carry That Weight
“Golden Slumbers” is seamlessly followed by “Carry That Weight”. All 4 Beatles sing in the chorus, which is a Beatles rarity. The meaning of the song is ambiguous, but generally addresses the turmoil going on within the Beatles at the time.
The End
“The End” is the climactic end of the “Abbey Road Medley”. All 4 Beatles have a solo on the song, including the only drum solo by Ringo Starr in the entire Beatles catalog. The recording marked the last session involving all four Beatles, which is fitting to the song’s title. “The End” famously ends with the closing lyrics “And in the end/The love you take/Is equal to the love you make”. It is essentially a farewell from the Beatles.
“The End” was supposed to be the closing track of Abbey Road, but is the penultimate song because of the hidden track “Her Majesty”. “Her Majesty” was supposed to be on the “Abbey Road Medley” but was omitted.
The Legacy of The Abbey Road Medley
Some people try to draw a general meaning out of the entire “Abbey Road Medley”. But the reality is, there isn’t one, much to the dislike of John Lennon. It’s just a collection of (mainly) unfinished songs.
“Abbey Road was really unfinished songs all stuck together. Everybody praises the album so much, but none of the songs had anything to do with each other, no thread at all, only the fact that we stuck them together,” Lennon told David Sheff.
Despise the criticism, John Lennon helped with the medley. Most people involved with the medley were proud of it, including George Martin, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr, who called it ‘one of the finest pieces we put together’.
Many agree with Ringo, as the “Abbey Road Medley” is often considered one of the greatest feats by the Beatles. The medley is, after all, the climactic end of the most exciting musical act of all time.
