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TL;DR:

  • Paul McCartney said a line from The Beatles’ Abbey Road just “popped out” of him.
  • He said the song in question wraps up his shows.
  • Abbey Road was a No. 1 hit in the United States and the United Kingdom.

One song from The Beatles‘ Abbey Road has a famous ending lyric. Paul McCartney has no memory of writing the song. Despite this, he was proud of the lyric in retrospect.

Paul McCartney felt a line from The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ has a good message

During a 2015 interview with Esquire, Paul was asked about the line “And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make” from Abbey Road‘s “The End.” The line has become a slogan for hippie attitudes, similar to the title of “All You Need Is Love.”

“That little one, it surprises me,” Paul said. “I don’t remember coming up with it. It just sort of popped out, like a lot of my stuff. People say to me, ‘How do you feel about The Beatles?’ I’m kind of proud of it, because it was generally a good message. Now it wraps up the show, and the interview. Come on, give it up man!”

Paul McCartney thinks he couldn’t write a new song with the impact of The Beatles’ hits

The interviewer said it might be impossible for him to write a new song that had the same impact as his old songs. “I think that’s true,” he said. “When you sit down to write a song it does cross your mind. You go, ‘This isn’t going to be like ‘Eleanor Rigby.’ Bob Dylan was asked why didn’t he write another ‘Tambourine Man’ and he goes, ‘Because I’m not that guy anymore.’ I think that’s the truth.”

Paul also said the reaction to his old songs were the result of the times. “Some of it is also to do with the circumstances,” he said. “Those songs were launched by The Beatles, the biggest band ever.” Paul said that if he wrote “Let It Be” today, it might be ignored. However, that doesn’t stop him from trying to write new Beatlesque albums.

Related

The 5 Best Songs From The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’

How ‘The End’ and ‘Abbey Road’ performed on the pop charts

“The End” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune’s parent album, Abbey Road, was a huge hit. It topped the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks. Abbey Road spent a total of 490 weeks on the chart, making it the Fab Four’s biggest studio album in the U.S.

The Official Charts Company reports “The End” did not chart in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand, Abbey Road reached No. 1 and remained on the chart for 97 weeks. The 1987 rerelease of the album peaked at No. 1 and stayed on the chart for 45 weeks, showing The Beatles were still relevant in the 1980s.

“The End” has some of the best lyrics on Abbey Road — even if Paul doesn’t remember writing them.

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