THE MAKING OF THE BEATLES' SWAN SONG
Was there ever a doubt that there would an anniversary release of Abbey Road? Even before the 50th anniversary release of The Beatles (aka "The White Album") last year, producer Giles Martin had said the “door was open” for a remix of the last album The Beatles recorded, if not the last one actually released (that would be Let It Be). “If we do Abbey Road, I have to work out if I can actually make a difference to it before saying yes to it,” was his qualified answer to the New Musical Express about an Abbey Road remix, but elsewhere he indicated that he was already thinking about how he’d approach such a project. “Like the strings on ‘Golden Slumbers,’ they are mono, surprisingly,” he said in a YouTube interview the week "The White Album" was released. “So, what could I do with that?”
Now we’ll get to find out. On September 27, an Abbey Road remix will be reissued in numerous configurations: a single CD; a single vinyl album (both black vinyl and picture disc); a 2-CD edition, with 16 bonus tracks; a 3-LP edition; a Super Deluxe digital edition, with the songs in standard and ADM (Apple Digital Masters) formats and high resolution audio; and a Super Deluxe edition with three CDs, a Blu-ray with stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, and a 100-page book (the 3-LP, Super Deluxe digital edition, and Super Deluxe box all have 23 bonus tracks).
The line between and is a thin one. The Beatles opened 1969 by spending a month working on a proposed TV special that would show the group recording their next album, and rehearsing for the live performance that would provide the climax to the special. But over the course
