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The Story of the Beatles' Last Song
When The Beatles began to record one of their longest songs, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, they didn’t know it would be their last. Nor did the world. How was it possible that the 1960s’ most revered foursome could come to an end? But shortly after work on the track was completed, in August 1969, just that happened: John Lennon left the band. He, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr never met at EMI’s Abbey Road studios again.
This book tells the extraordinary story of how the track was made. No Beatles song had taken so long - eight months - to put together, though of course many other extraordinary things were going on in and around the group at the same time. Not the least of these was the making of their last LP, Abbey Road.
Yet track six on it was and still is a big ask for fans. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is fierce, minimalist - and huge. James Woodall argues that had circumstances for the quartet in 1969 been otherwise, this is the kind of music The Beatles might have gone on to make. He also shows how the challenges swirling around the band at the time - a management crisis, chaotic finances, hard drugs, the constant presence of a woman who believed herself to be the “fifth” - can be heard on and behind the track.
Built on extensive scholarship, The Story of The Beatles’ Last Song tells one of the most compelling, and at times saddest, tales in the history of entertainment.
The Author:
James Woodall (born 1960) is a writer and editor, based in Cambridge UK. His first book, In Search of the Firedance, was published in 1992; his second, a biography of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, in 1996. His third, A Simple Brazilian Song (1997), was an autobiographical account of time spent in the 1990s in Rio de Janeiro and of his friendship with one of Brazil’s greatest singer-songwriters - turned novelist - Chico Buarque. It is now available as an updated digital book from Hachette and on Amazon.
Living for over a decade in Berlin from his mid-thirties, James wrote a book there for the publishers Rowohlt about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It was translated into over a dozen languages. This Kindle Single is an entirely new narrative.
This book tells the extraordinary story of how the track was made. No Beatles song had taken so long - eight months - to put together, though of course many other extraordinary things were going on in and around the group at the same time. Not the least of these was the making of their last LP, Abbey Road.
Yet track six on it was and still is a big ask for fans. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is fierce, minimalist - and huge. James Woodall argues that had circumstances for the quartet in 1969 been otherwise, this is the kind of music The Beatles might have gone on to make. He also shows how the challenges swirling around the band at the time - a management crisis, chaotic finances, hard drugs, the constant presence of a woman who believed herself to be the “fifth” - can be heard on and behind the track.
Built on extensive scholarship, The Story of The Beatles’ Last Song tells one of the most compelling, and at times saddest, tales in the history of entertainment.
The Author:
James Woodall (born 1960) is a writer and editor, based in Cambridge UK. His first book, In Search of the Firedance, was published in 1992; his second, a biography of Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, in 1996. His third, A Simple Brazilian Song (1997), was an autobiographical account of time spent in the 1990s in Rio de Janeiro and of his friendship with one of Brazil’s greatest singer-songwriters - turned novelist - Chico Buarque. It is now available as an updated digital book from Hachette and on Amazon.
Living for over a decade in Berlin from his mid-thirties, James wrote a book there for the publishers Rowohlt about John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It was translated into over a dozen languages. This Kindle Single is an entirely new narrative.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
90 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 14, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 21, 2014
At the end of Side One of “Abbey Road,” is the last song the Beatles recorded, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” It was a song that Lennon apparently wanted to end the album as a whole – despite the fact that the Medley was the obvious choice – as, despite his belittling of the Beatles at that time, he still wanted to have the last word, and the final track on the last Beatles album. Although it has been said that many involved had no idea that this was to be the final album (even if “Let It Be” was released later, though recorded before “Abbey Road”), others have suggested that most of the major participants were aware that this was to be their swan song.
This, then, looks at the Beatles – and John Lennon in particular – in 1969. The author states that post-White Album, Lennon was disinterested in the Beatles and had a, “self destructive concentration on Ono-fuelled activities.” This is not a book that intends to ‘Ono-bash,’ but simply tells the truth when it says that Lennon had the “half-witted” idea that he could make better music with Ono than the Beatles. He never did.
Of course, the Beatles - even in 1969 – were pretty much untouchable. By 1983, poet Philip Larkin would write, “when you get to the top, there is nowhere to go but down. But the Beatles could not get down. There they remain, unreachable, frozen, fabulous.” Indeed, nobody has ever managed to achieve the heights the Beatles reached and, in these days where entertainment is so specific – where people download the track they like and not whole albums, and where people’s experience of watching the same television shows as others is limited by the amount of choice – it is unlikely that it will ever happen again. Seventy three million people watched the Ed Sullivan Show when the Beatles first appeared on it – what act could hope for that amount of public exposure again?
In this book, the author cleverly takes one track to tell the story of the final death throes of the Beatles. It tells of the rot of Apple, the influence of Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman, the tortuous studio sessions, which still made good music, the direction the Beatles might have gone in, had they stayed together, Allen Klein and Lennon’s increased use of heroin. Of all the periods in Beatles history, there are always less about the band’s ending. Authors tend to concentrate on the beginning; when they can be more optimistic and they can concentrate on a time period the fans prefer. However, this is a brave and interesting book. Yes, some of it is sad, but this explains a lot about where Lennon stood at the brink of the Seventies.
This, then, looks at the Beatles – and John Lennon in particular – in 1969. The author states that post-White Album, Lennon was disinterested in the Beatles and had a, “self destructive concentration on Ono-fuelled activities.” This is not a book that intends to ‘Ono-bash,’ but simply tells the truth when it says that Lennon had the “half-witted” idea that he could make better music with Ono than the Beatles. He never did.
Of course, the Beatles - even in 1969 – were pretty much untouchable. By 1983, poet Philip Larkin would write, “when you get to the top, there is nowhere to go but down. But the Beatles could not get down. There they remain, unreachable, frozen, fabulous.” Indeed, nobody has ever managed to achieve the heights the Beatles reached and, in these days where entertainment is so specific – where people download the track they like and not whole albums, and where people’s experience of watching the same television shows as others is limited by the amount of choice – it is unlikely that it will ever happen again. Seventy three million people watched the Ed Sullivan Show when the Beatles first appeared on it – what act could hope for that amount of public exposure again?
In this book, the author cleverly takes one track to tell the story of the final death throes of the Beatles. It tells of the rot of Apple, the influence of Yoko Ono and Linda Eastman, the tortuous studio sessions, which still made good music, the direction the Beatles might have gone in, had they stayed together, Allen Klein and Lennon’s increased use of heroin. Of all the periods in Beatles history, there are always less about the band’s ending. Authors tend to concentrate on the beginning; when they can be more optimistic and they can concentrate on a time period the fans prefer. However, this is a brave and interesting book. Yes, some of it is sad, but this explains a lot about where Lennon stood at the brink of the Seventies.
March 21, 2015
Abbey Road was The Beatles’ last record and arguably their best. After recording a patchy album in Let It Be, the Fab Four joined producer George Martin at Abbey Road for the final time together and went out superbly with some of their best music ever (though Let It Be would be released after Abbey Road because of Phil Spector’s elaborate, time-consuming production).
I didn’t realise I Want You (She’s So Heavy), the sixth track on the record, was the last Beatles recording as a group (it was originally planned to close the album - in the end it only closed out Side 1) and I expected James Woodall’s account of singling out this song to be a bit more meaningful and illuminating than it was. As it is, Woodall uses the song as a jumping off point to discuss The Beatles’ last year together and John and Yoko’s relationship, none of which is especially new or unique ground to cover.
If you already know a bit about The Beatles last years, there’s not a whole lot here that’ll be new to you. John and Yoko did heroin a lot, produced a lot of crap avant-garde art including unlistenable music, posed naked on an album cover, stayed in bed protesting the Vietnam war. Meanwhile their company Apple was a mess financially and there were squabbles over who their management was (it was five years post-break-up before all of the legalities were resolved).
As for the recording of Abbey Road, there’s not a whole lot to it. It seemed to go more or less smoothly, a lot better than the Let It Be sessions, and everyone was producing good work, hard drugs and crazy partners aside. What’s there to say about the song itself, I Want You? It’s about Yoko, it’s a bit avant-garde (all that hiss and distortion that makes up the second half of the song), and possibly indicates the bold and exciting music The Beatles would have made had they stayed together and continued to make music. Possibly.
Woodall’s writing is competent for the most part but his sentences are sometimes quite clumsily constructed. For example:
“While no one in the wider world knew what, apart from recording and releasing records - with the green-skin outside of a Granny Smith apple on the A-side, its sliced white interior on the B-side - The Beatles were really doing (starting to fight), they, the band, knew intuitively how much real music they could still make.”
The Story of The Beatles’ Last Song doesn’t contain a whole lot that’s original or insightful for those who already know about The Beatles’ breakup. But, for the more casual fan, it’s a sometimes compelling piece about the greatest band’s last gasp put to tape. Helluva haunting riff too!
I didn’t realise I Want You (She’s So Heavy), the sixth track on the record, was the last Beatles recording as a group (it was originally planned to close the album - in the end it only closed out Side 1) and I expected James Woodall’s account of singling out this song to be a bit more meaningful and illuminating than it was. As it is, Woodall uses the song as a jumping off point to discuss The Beatles’ last year together and John and Yoko’s relationship, none of which is especially new or unique ground to cover.
If you already know a bit about The Beatles last years, there’s not a whole lot here that’ll be new to you. John and Yoko did heroin a lot, produced a lot of crap avant-garde art including unlistenable music, posed naked on an album cover, stayed in bed protesting the Vietnam war. Meanwhile their company Apple was a mess financially and there were squabbles over who their management was (it was five years post-break-up before all of the legalities were resolved).
As for the recording of Abbey Road, there’s not a whole lot to it. It seemed to go more or less smoothly, a lot better than the Let It Be sessions, and everyone was producing good work, hard drugs and crazy partners aside. What’s there to say about the song itself, I Want You? It’s about Yoko, it’s a bit avant-garde (all that hiss and distortion that makes up the second half of the song), and possibly indicates the bold and exciting music The Beatles would have made had they stayed together and continued to make music. Possibly.
Woodall’s writing is competent for the most part but his sentences are sometimes quite clumsily constructed. For example:
“While no one in the wider world knew what, apart from recording and releasing records - with the green-skin outside of a Granny Smith apple on the A-side, its sliced white interior on the B-side - The Beatles were really doing (starting to fight), they, the band, knew intuitively how much real music they could still make.”
The Story of The Beatles’ Last Song doesn’t contain a whole lot that’s original or insightful for those who already know about The Beatles’ breakup. But, for the more casual fan, it’s a sometimes compelling piece about the greatest band’s last gasp put to tape. Helluva haunting riff too!
January 26, 2018
Despite some interesting tidbits, the short book feels cobbled together. The song in the title is only about 10% of the book. And much of the rest of the book discusses some particularly harsh gossip about Paul McCartney and especially John Lennon/Yoko Ono. Disappointing.
August 21, 2016
Nothing new here. The book is mainly a regurgitation of what others have written about the last days of the Beatles: Apple was rotting from the core, 3/4 of the Fabs preferred Allen Klein, filming 'Let It Be' was a disaster, JohnandYoko became focus of John's life, 'Abbey Road' was their last album, the group was falling apart at the seams, etc., etc.
The author spends more time recounting the meeting, courtship, marriage and exploits of John and Yoko than on the title of the book which, in itself, covers about three pages - telling me what I'm hearing and have heard every time that I play the song. There's no insight into the either the writing of the song or the recording of it other than it was the last time the four Fabs were in the recording studio together.
The author spends more time recounting the meeting, courtship, marriage and exploits of John and Yoko than on the title of the book which, in itself, covers about three pages - telling me what I'm hearing and have heard every time that I play the song. There's no insight into the either the writing of the song or the recording of it other than it was the last time the four Fabs were in the recording studio together.
January 9, 2015
An account of the final days of The Beatles with particular attention to the role that Yoko Ono played in their demise. It concentrates on the recording of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" from the Abbey Road Album and Yoko as Lennon's muse during the sessions. Strangely though the book title suggests that this is the last track the Beatles recorded which it then contradicts in the Appendices where it states "I, Me, Mine" as the last recording. Revolution In The Head by Ian Macdonald, the definitive treatise on the Beatles chronology, also gives "I, Me, Mine" as the final recording. So why?
April 9, 2023
The song itself is an underappreciated masterpiece. Being the last song the four Beatles worked on together, it's a fitting full stop on their recording career. And also a tantalising hint of what may have been, if things had turned out differently.
The book certainly does the song justice. It gives nice overviews of how The Beatles arrived at this point; both musically and personally. There are excellent insights into John and Yoko's relationship.
I was slightly disappointed to finish the book - because it was such an entertaining and informative read.
The book certainly does the song justice. It gives nice overviews of how The Beatles arrived at this point; both musically and personally. There are excellent insights into John and Yoko's relationship.
I was slightly disappointed to finish the book - because it was such an entertaining and informative read.
March 18, 2015
More a Beatles Breakup 101 book than about the song itself. Also scratching my head at the author´s contention that the Beatles would have become Led Zeppelin and/or Tangerine Dream if they'd stayed together (???).
January 6, 2015
Doesn't really add anything to the pile - beyond more words about The Beatles. A good idea, but in the end the analysis is non-existent.
Read
April 3, 2017Good research and history. The only mistake I noticed is too much opinion: everybody forms their own opinions. Almost nobody likes being force-fed another opinion.
And - of course - that's just my opinion.
And - of course - that's just my opinion.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews