The End (Lennon/McCartney)
A fitting last song for the end of the Beatles illustrious career, The End features instrumental solos by each of the Beatles. It starts with a drum solo by Ringo, the only drum solo recorded on a Beatles record. Then Paul, George, and John (in that order) each play 2 bars (roughly 4 seconds) each of a 36 second guitar solo. Ringo’s solo was recorded with guitars which were dropped out in the final mix; those guitars were restored for the Anthology mix.
Quotes
“That’s Paul again…He had a line in it, ‘And in the end, the love you get is equal to the love you give,’ which is a very cosmic, philosophical line. Which again proves that if he wants to, he can think.” – John
“There’s a nice little bit I played on Abbey Road. Paul gave us each a piece, a little break where Paul plays, George plays and I play.” – John
“The idea for guitar solos was very spontaneous and everybody said, ‘Yes! Definitely’ – well, except for George, who was a little apprehensive at first. But he saw how excited John and Paul were so he went along with it. Truthfully, I think they rather liked the idea of playing together, not really trying to outdo one another per se, but engaging in some real musical bonding. Yoko was about to go into the studio with John – this was commonplace by now – and he actually told her, ‘No, not now. Let me just do this. It’ll just take a minute.’ That surprised me a bit. Maybe he felt like he was returning to his roots with the boys – who knows? The order was Paul first, then George, then John, and they went back and forth. They ran down their ideas a few times and before you knew it, they were ready to go. Their amps were lined up together and we recorded their parts on one track. You could really see the joy in their faces as they played; it was like they were teenagers again. One take was all we needed. The musical telepathy between them was mind-boggling.” – Geoff Emerick
Personnel
- Paul McCartney – lead and backing vocals, bass guitar, piano, guitar solo
- John Lennon – harmony vocals, rhythm guitar, guitar solo
- George Harrison – harmony vocals, rhythm and lead guitar, guitar solo
- Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine
- Uncredited session musicians – 12 violins, 4 violas, 1 double-bass, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 1 trombone, 1 bass trombone
Release history
- Abbey Road (1969)
- Anthology 3 (1996) [Anthology mix]
- Tomorrow Never Knows (2012) [Anthology mix]
- Abbey Road Anniversary Edition (2019) [2019 mix]
- Abbey Road Anniversary Edition (2019) [take 3]
- Abbey Road Anniversary Edition (2019) [as part of “The Long One” trial edit]