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TL;DR:

  • John Lennon said The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” features an instrument he couldn’t “face.”
  • He was asked about the band’s post-Abbey Road musical direction.
  • Abbey Road was a hit in the United Kingdom during the 1960s and again during the 1980s.

John Lennon said The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” features a “fantastic machine.” In addition, the instrument appears on other songs from Abbey Road. John felt George Harrison could have taken a lifetime to master the machine.

The Beatles’ ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ includes a state-of-the-art instrument

The Moog synthesizer is an early synthesizer invented by engineer Robert Moog. The Beatles helped popularize the instrument by using it on Abbey Road. The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations With John Lennon features an interview from 1969. In it, John explained why the band used a Moog.

“George ordered one when he was in the States, and he brought it back, and we used it as best we could,” John said. “He used it on a few tracks — ‘Maxwell[‘s Silver Hammer],’ ‘I Want You.’ At the end [of that song] we used the [makes sucking sound] into infinity thing. 

“I can’t remember what else we used it on,” he added. “That thing, it’s a fantastic machine. I couldn’t face it. George is gonna master it, and it will take him all his life.” For context, the Moog synthesizer appears on “Here Comes the Sun” and “Because” as well as “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.”

John Lennon was asked how The Beatles’ sound would evolve after ‘Abbey Road’

In the same interview, John was asked to discuss The Beatles’ next musical direction. “I can’t imagine, I can’t imagine at all,” he replied. “I don’t think of it in terms of Beatles music. It’s only Beatles music when it comes out under the name ‘Beatles.’

“There’s no limit to where anybody’s music can go, and I think Beatles stood still a bit too long after Pepper and they’ve got to freak out a bit more,” he said. “That’s where I’d push them.” Notably, after releasing Abbey Road, the band put out the blues-rock album Let It Be and broke up.

Related

Beatles: Why ‘Abbey Road’ Was Almost Called ‘Mount Everest’

How ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ performed on the pop charts

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune’s parent album, Abbey Road, was huge. That record was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks. It spent a total of 490 weeks on the chart.

The Official Charts Company reports “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” didn’t chart in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand, Abbey Road reached No. 1 there and stayed on the U.K. for 97 weeks. In 1987, Abbey Road reached No. 1 again and remained on the chart for another 45 weeks.

“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is a fantastic song and it wouldn’t be the same without a “fantastic machine.”

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