One of the songs from The Beatles‘ Abbey Road blew a 1990s rock star away. He said the song has “no lead guitars and things, it’s just grinding away at this series of chords.” The tune in question is one of several examples of The Beatles’ harder rock songs.
A star said 1 song from The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ encapsulates John Lennon’s style
Wayne Coyne of the psychedelic rock band The Flaming Lips. During a 2014 interview with Newsweek, he discussed being a massive fan of The Beatles. In it, he said “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is one of his favorite Beatles tunes.
“Again, here’s a guy that writes these songs that are so expressive and so musical, and here’s just this very strange riff,” Coyne said. “At the end of it, there’s this chord sequence that’s a completely John Lennon-esque chord sequence. You’re like, ‘F***, who would come up with that?’”
Wayne Coyne praised the ‘Abbey Road’ track for being repetitive
Coyne praised a repetitive part of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy).” “And it just repeats over and over and over. It’s like this giant metallic wind is blowing through it, little by little, getting louder, louder, louder,” he said. “And they just jam on this thing. There’s no melody, there’s no lead guitars and things, it’s just grinding away at this series of chords.
“For musicians, it’s like, ‘Why the f*** would they do that!’” he added. “Because your mind gets very preoccupied with lyrics and melodies and arrangements, and suddenly it’s like, they just play this chord sequence over and over! It’s f**** mind-blowing. A lot of their music is really impressionistic. It makes you think this is happening. But actually something else is really happening.”
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” is one of The Beatles’ most metallic songs. Other tunes such as “Yer Blues,” “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?,” and “Helter Skelter” show the band could delve into harder rock, even if it was not their general style. We can only imagine what would have happened if the band embraced their more metallic side for an entire record.
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. It might have been a little too strange for the pop charts anyway. The tune’s parent album, Abbey Road, conquered the world. It topped the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks, staying on the chart for 490 weeks. It is still the Fab Four’s biggest album in the United States.
According to The Official Charts Company, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” did not chart in the United Kingdom either. Abbey Road reached No. 1 there for 17 weeks, staying on the chart for 97 weeks on the chart. Upon a rerelease in the 1980s, the record hit No. 1 again for one of its 45 weeks on the chart.
“I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” was never a hit, but Coyne is in awe of it.
