George Harrison’s favourite song from The Beatles album ‘Abbey Road’
When The Beatles finally parted ways in 1970, the media jumped right in to sensationalise palpable tension between the members. That said, there were notable power struggles within the group during the recording sessions for the band’s final two albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be. Chiefly, a gulf widened between George Harrison and Paul McCartney in the closing months of the band’s time together.
Following the untimely death of their beloved manager, Brian Epstein, in August 1967, Paul McCartney assumed the vacant managerial role by default, at least in a de facto capacity. As seen in Peter Jackson’s revealing 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back, McCartney was seen as the leading creative force throughout the final two albums. Meanwhile, John Lennon’s focus shifted increasingly towards his romantic attachment to Yoko Ono.
Creatively, the major rift encountered on 1969’s Abbey Road surrounded McCartney’s brainchild ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’. All three of the songwriter’s bandmates subsequently dismissed the track as a misguided attempt at listenable music. “Sometimes Paul would make us do these really fruity songs,” Harrison told Crawdaddy in the 1970s. “I mean, my God, ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was so fruity.”
“The worst session ever was ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’,” Ringo Starr added on the track, speaking to Rolling Stone. “It was the worst track we ever had to record. It went on for fucking weeks. I thought it was mad.”
One song the whole band seemed rather pleased with, however, was ‘Because’, one of Lennon’s contributions that appeared on Side Two just before the famous Abbey Road medley.
“‘Because’ is one of the most beautiful tunes,” Harrison once said of the track. “It’s three-part harmony; John, Paul and George all sing it together. John wrote this tune. The backing is a bit like Beethoven. And three-part harmony right throughout. Paul usually writes the sweeter tunes, and John writes the sort of, more the rave-up things, or the freakier things”.
“But John’s getting to where he doesn’t want to,” he added. “He just wants to write twelve-bars. But you can’t deny it, I think this is possibly my favourite one on the album. The lyrics are so simple. The harmony was pretty difficult to sing. We had to really learn it. But I think that’s one of the tunes that will impress most people. It’s really good.”
As Harrison pointed out, ‘Because’ indeed has a Beethoven quality about it. This is most likely because its progression is actually based on the German classical legend’s ‘Moonlight Sonata’.
“Yoko was playing ‘Moonlight Sonata’ on the piano,” Lennon recalled of the song’s conception in David Sheff’s All We Are Saying. “She was classically trained. I said, ‘Can you play those chords backwards?’ and wrote ‘Because’ around them. The lyrics speak for themselves; they’re clear. No bullshit. No imagery. No obscure references.”
Listen to the classic late Beatles track below.
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