the long & winding one. If you were a Beatles fan, it was a day of mixed emotions 54 years ago. One the one hand, a brand new album of theirs came out – Let It Be. But on the other hand, they’d already officially announced they had broken up and this was going to be it for them. The 1970 album contained their final North American #1 hit, “The Long & Winding Road”, and some gems like “Across the Universe” and “Get Back”, one of several recorded at their famous rooftop concert in January, 1969. So, a new album’s worth of song would ease the diehard fans pain a little, but the consensus at the time was that it was a rather underwhelming finale. Ironically, most of Let It Be had been recorded before they began their penultimate album, Abbey Road which had come out eight months prior. They put out Abbey Road quickly, and dawdled and argued over the production of Let it Be, with Phil Spector eventually taking over from George Martin. Perhaps if the Fab Four had been thinking ahead, they would have kept one of the Abbey Road songs back… because it really was the final word from them.
“The End” was the final bit of the Abbey Road “Medley” that finished that great album, coming in after “Carry That Weight”. The astute listener, when listening to Abbey Road for the first time, probably picked up on the unavoidable fact that “The End” was in fact, The Beatles saying goodbye. Indeed rumors had been swirling around before the album came out that they had broken up; rumors that were true but wouldn’t be confirmed for a few months to come.
Recorded in a couple of sessions during the late summer ’69, it was an appropriate sign-off. Impactful but brief. It was credited to Lennon & McCartney, as was the majority of their entire catalog, but by that time, the two could at times hardly stand being in the same room, let alone work on new music together. In fact, Paul wrote it and John confirmed that a few years later : “that’s Paul again…he had a line in it, ‘and in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give” (trivia buffs might note John got the lyrics slightly wrong, it was “love you take is equal to the love you make” he got the gist right!)” He continued, it was “a very cosmic, philosophical line, which again proves if he wants to, he can think!” Anyone surprised that partnership broke up?
Each one of the four got to play a solo on the song, the only time in their history Ringo had a drum solo. He doesn’t like to show off with them, and apparently they even told him they’d fill it in with other instruments later to make him more agreeable to it! Sound engineer Geoff Emerick said of the recording, “John, Paul and George looked like they had gone back in time, like they were kids again, playing for the sheer enjoyment of it… there was no animosity.” George Martin brought in a 30-piece orchestra to finish it.
John was right about Paul’s words – “in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make” remains one of their quintessential lyrics and appears on many a shirt, coffee mug and even gravestone. Certainly a more positive ending than the Doors song of the same title!
Among other times the song’s been played, at least four American radio stations played it as their very last song before going off-air or changing formats.