The Beatles’ Positioning on the ‘Abbey Road’ Album Cover Is Eerily Symbolic
Fans of The Beatles love to analyze every lyric and image of the band to find hidden, cryptic messages. While the Abbey Road cover is relatively simple, it might be the most analyzed image of The Beatles as fans have developed many theories based on this cover. One theory centers around the band’s positioning on the Abbey Road cover, as many believe it symbolizes the Beatles’ direction.
The ‘Abbey Road’ cover only took 15 minutes to make
While the band had several ideas regarding the cover and album name, the group decided to keep it simple and take a photograph outside Abbey Road Studios (called EMI at the time). The photo was taken by Iain Macmillan, who stood on a stepladder while police held up pedestrian traffic.
In an interview with BBC, Brian Southall, author of the history of Abbey Road Studios, said he was “given about 15 minutes.” Macmillan only took six photos of The Beatles walking back and forth across the zebra crosswalk. Paul McCartney looked at the images and decided that frame five was the best option.
The Beatles’ positioning on the ‘Abbey Road’ cover could be symbolic
While Let it Be was The Beatles’ last-released album in 1970, the music had been recorded over a year prior. Abbey Road is the final album recorded by The Beatles and was released in 1969. The last session where McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr recorded together was on August 20, 1969.
According to Radio.com, the positioning of the four members on the Abbey Road cover is symbolic as they are walking away from Abbey Road Studios. The studio is the white building on the left of the photo. The band is walking away from their famous recording place and each other, despite the band not making a formal announcement until 1970. Lennon is also in the front of the group, which is significant because he was the first of the Fab Four to leave.
The cover doesn’t include two notable features
The Abbey Road cover lacks two features in every other album cover for The Beatles. The image doesn’t have the name of the band or the name of the LP. There is no writing on the cover at all. According to the BBC, the reason is that John Kosh, creative director of Apple Corps at the time, believed it wasn’t necessary. EMI was furious, believing no one would buy the album. However, Kosh claims his reasoning was justified.
“I insisted we didn’t need to write the band’s name on the cover,” Kosh said. “They were the most famous band in the world after all – EMI said they’d never sell any albums if we didn’t say who the band was, but I got my way, and got away with it.”
Turns out Kosh was correct, as Abbey Road is one of The Beatles’ most successful albums commercially. It peaked at No. 1 on the charts in the U.K. and in the U.S. and continues to be a beloved album by many.
