Ringo Starr Once Explained How the ‘Abbey Road’ Cover Was the Result of The Beatles Shooting Down Other Ideas
Depending on which fans you ask, The Beatles reached their high water mark with Abbey Road. The album remains a testament to the band’s prowess, even though it contains a mistake that made the final cut. The Fab Four turned the crosswalk near Abbey Road Studios into perhaps the most famous street crossing in the world for the album cover. Ringo Starr once explained the famous photo on the Abbey Road cover was a result of The Beatles shooting down several more ambitious ideas.
The ‘Abbey Road’ album cover fueled a massive Beatles conspiracy theory
Once The Beatles hung up their touring shoes to focus on their studio work, their album covers became more artistic statements.
Revolver’s stark and psychedelic artwork paved the way for unique cover art on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour, and Abbey Road. That last album spawned perhaps the craziest Beatles conspiracy theory that somehow lingered for years — that Paul McCartney was long dead when they made the album.
The way the band dressed and a barefoot Paul walking out of cadence while holding a cigarette in his right hand proved (to the conspiracy-minded set of fans) he was dead. But as Ringo Starr once said, that Abbey Road cover represented The Beatles settling after they shot down their more ambitious ideas.
Ringo Starr said the ‘Abbey Road’ cover happened after The Beatles shot down their other ideas
The religious connotations of the word abbey also helped fuel the Paul is dead theory, but The Beatles didn’t send any intentional message with the Abbey Road cover.
In fact, Abbey Road was almost called Mt. Everest. Ringo Starr once said the Fab Four discussed grandiose ideas for the cover to fit that title. Instead, they chucked those ideas and crossed the street instead, as he told the Australian Today show (via YouTube):
“This was incredible, the cover, because we’d sit around, not only for the ‘Abbey Road’ cover but for many covers, we’d sit around and say, ‘We’ve got to go up Everest and dive off, and they can shoot us.’ Or, ‘We’ve got to go to a volcano in Hawai’i,’ or, ‘We’ve got to go to the pyramids.’ ‘Oh, let’s walk across the road,’ and that’s what we did. We just got up in the morning, got dressed, and went. That’s how we were dressed.”
Ringo Starr explains how The Beatles came up with the Abbey Road cover
Ringo said The Beatles tossed around a few globetrotting ideas for what became the Abbey Road cover before just walking across the street. We’d love to hear the conspiracy theorists explain Paul’s status as he jumped off Mt. Everest, though.
Ringo and the Fab Four did some of their favorite work on their final album an actual quartet
The Beatles started splintering by the end of the 1960s, but they didn’t shatter completely until after Abbey Road. The album contains some of the band’s finest work.
Ringo’s drumming work shines on several Abbey Road tracks, especially the Side 2 medley, which he called his favorite album moment with The Beatles. One of Ringo’s signature beats happened on “Come Together,” which John Lennon said was one of his favorite compositions with the Fab Four.
And George Harrison, often relegated to being the third wheel, had his first No. 1 hit with The Beatles. “Something” topped the chart in the U.S. but wasn’t very popular in the United Kingdom.
The music is as memorable as the artwork, but Ringo Starr said the iconic Abbey Road cover happened only after The Beatles dumped all their other ideas.
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