The ‘Abbey Road’ medley: What is the meaning behind The Beatles’ final studio moments?

We all know the conspiracies behind Abbey Road: that The Beatles were all dead, that the album cover actually depicted a funeral procession, that the car registration in the background represented John Lennon’s age if he had supposedly lived to see the record’s release. These stories may all just be myths, but they did hold some level of symbolic significance in signalling the end of the road for the Fab Four, becoming their penultimate album and, indeed, final studio recordings.

The first side of Abbey Road is home to Beatles classics that everyone knows and loves, from ‘Come Together’ and ‘Something’ to ‘Octopus’s Garden’. As far as Fab Four standards go, that’s all pretty self-explanatory, but it’s on the second side where things really start to get interesting. It starts out fairly straight-laced with ‘Here Comes the Sun’ and ‘Because’ – and then we reach the medley, and a whole new sonic trapdoor opens to reveal The Beatles’ underground world.

Spanning 16 minutes and eight tracks, the medley is quite simply like nothing the band had ever produced before. For a four-piece who, by this stage, were so deeply embroiled in experimentation and psychedelia, that’s really saying something. But the point is that the medley was the culmination of everything – Beatlemania, insanity, conspiracy – until it reached fever pitch, and then it was time to say goodbye.

Naturally, this raises a lot of questions. Why did The Beatles choose to end their album – notwithstanding the hidden track ‘Her Majesty’ – in such a surrealist way they had never explored before in their discography? Not only this, but what exactly was the message it sent? If you have ever pondered the answers, then look no further, as your definitive guide to the Abbey Road medley is right here.

So, what inspired Abbey Road medley?

Although the medley is somewhat of a departure from the Fab Four’s stereotypical sonics, there was a good reason behind this. The genesis of the idea was taken from snippets of recordings ranging from The White Album to the completed but not yet released Let It Be, brought together in a brainwave by Paul McCartney – but producer George Martin also had a significant role to play, as he liked to make more than clear.

He previously told Rolling Stone: “I wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music,” as “Paul was all for experimenting like that,” and as such, the motive became clear. The medley was The Beatles’ symphony, their farewell magnum opus, which represented seven years as a band, but left an indelible imprint on the world for the rest of time.

…and what message did The Beatles want to send?

In many ways, you could interpret the meaning behind the medley as the explanation of the reasons why the band had to come to an end. The effects of their manic fame had made them selfish, absorbed, obsessed with money, and forgetful of what really granted them their lavish lifestyles in the first place – the music, and the way they created it together.

This was reflected most overtly in its opening track ‘You Never Give Me the Money’, but continued as a motif throughout in the likes of ‘Mean Mr Mustard’ and ‘Carry That Weight’. There’s also the toxic impacts of fame to contend with, when a fan intruded on McCartney’s home in ‘She Came in Through the Bathroom Window’, and the dream for simpler pleasures in ‘Golden Slumbers’.

Aptly concluding with ‘The End’, what’s the resolution? The truth is that there may not be one, as the band sign off on the sentiment of: “In the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.” Fame is a self-indulgent circle, and especially in The Beatles’ case, it was basically impossible to keep your head above water when things got so manic. They may have made irreconcilable mistakes along the way, but would they regret a second of it? Absolutely not.