The ‘fifth Beatle’: How the Fab Four played out a pun on the Abbey Road album cover
No, there never actually was a fifth member of The Beatles. Or was there? It’s been joked about for years that anyone could be a Beatle because there seemed to be this alternating roster of individuals who, at one point or another, were dubbed the ‘fifth Beatle’. The joke originated with a comment made by American DJ Murray the K during the early days of Beatlemania because he gave the group so much airtime on his station. Since then, the title has passed from person to person.
At one point, it was given to the band’s manager from 1962 to 1967, Brian Epstein, and at another to producer George Martin. As it is, no one is the sole owner of the label, and it’s a faux title with no real authority or presence.
Well, unless we consider visual representations of a ‘fifth Beatle’. Recall the album art for Abbey Road. It’s one of the most recognisable images, especially for audiophiles, of all time. It’s become a real-life tourist hotspot just outside the renowned Abbey Road Studios and has attracted several conspiracies.
Most notable is the one that suggested Paul McCartney was dead and had been replaced by a look-alike. Anyway, as far as the idea of the ‘fifth Beatle’ is concerned, we need to look to the left-hand side of the artwork, where, pictured just behind George Harrison is a white Volkswagen Beetle.
Get it? Beetle. Beatle. The Fab Four have always been clever and exceptionally witty; thus, it should come as no surprise that they’ve seemingly snuck a pun of their name into the artwork of one of their most acclaimed albums. It’s especially grin-inducing when you consider the car’s placement in the image, just slightly ahead of Harrison and lagging slightly behind McCartney, making it a part of the lad’s line.
To add to this, it’s not placed in some way throwaway manner, just tagged on at either end of the line. The car is instead immersed within the group dynamic and meant to draw the eye. As far as composition and colour are concerned, the white of the car mirrors the white of John Lennon’s suit, consequently balancing out the image.
From an aesthetic standpoint, the attention to detail concerning the car and its impact on the image seems far too purposeful to be a fluke of inconsequence. The cheeky nature of the band only adds to the spectacle and the almost obvious obligation for the band to have made this sly move.
Whether it was a definite, purposeful move on their part to utilise their nomenclature pun in conjunction with the ‘fifth Beatle’ joke in the Abbey Road artwork may never be revealed. But it’s an amusing thought regardless, and all the more credit to the genius of The Beatles.
