COVER OF THE WEEK

Cover # 28 is Abbey Road, the last album that The Beatles recorded.

First they were going to call the album Everest after the brand of cigarettes the engineer used to smoke but the lads didn't want to travel the long way to Himalaya just to take a proper photo for the album cover so instead they decided to name it after the EMI recording studio on Abbey Road in London.

The photo session took place on a hot day on the street so Paul slipped out of his sandals. Maybe he wouldn't have if he had known that this would be yet another detail for the "Paul is dead" hoax. The rumour said that Paul had died in a car accident a couple of years earlier and that he had been replaced by a lookalike.

Secret clues were supposed to be given by the remaining members of the group on the album covers and in the music. One such would be the Abbey Road photo: Paul in his bare feet and having his eyes shut...Both symbols of death. And every hard core fan probably know the letters and numbers of the license plate on the VW shown on the cover photo...LMW 28IF...which was supposed to mean that Linda McCartney weeps and that Paul should have been 28 if he had been alive.

How bizarre! Anyway, it's amazing that The Beatles, a group already fallen apart, managed to make such a strong album at the very end of its carreer. The medley at the end is a masterpiece.
By the way, did you know that the short piece at the very end (Her Majesty) first was supposed to be the link between Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam? RadioDupree has made a special edit so you can hear how it initially was meant to be.

S.H.