As Jon Landau, Bruce Springsteen’s Manager and former music journalist for US music magazine “Rolling Stone”, once said: „I find the biggest problem with rock criticism is the lack of any criticism of the criticism.“ There you go. For instance: In the November 15, 1969 issue of “Rolling Stone” the renowned music critic Ed Ward published a scathing, contemptuous review of The Beatles new album Abbey Road. Starting with the verdict that he doesn’t like the album at all, he continues that he has a problem with The Beatles in general and that Abbey Road “…does tread a rather tenuous line between boredom, Beatledom and bubblegum.” So far, not good.
Further on Ward blames Side two of Abbey Road being “… a disaster… The slump begins with Because, which is a rather nothing song… the biggest bomb on the album is Sun King, which overflows with sixth and ninth chords and finally degenerates into a Muzak-sounding thing with Italian lyrics. It is probably the worst thing the Beatles have done since they changed drummers. This leads into the „Suite“ which finishes up the side. There are six little songs, each slightly under two minutes long, all of which are so heavily overproduced that they are hard to listen to…”.
The 50th Anniversary edition of Abbey Road is released this Friday, containing a new remaster and a bulk of outtakes giving an insight into the creation of the album. Despite the Rolling Stone’s depreciative verdict, Abbey Road has stood the test of time – it’s not only one of the best Beatles albums, but one of the best albums in the history of pop and rock music. Hard to listen to? Nice try, but Ed Ward got it wrong.
Klaus Winningers Beat 