While I was unlocking content on The Beatles: Rock Band. I came across a story of how the Beatles came up with their album cover for Abbey Road
“At some point, the album was going to be titled Everest after the brand of cigarettes I used to smoke,” recalls Geoff Emerick. The idea included a cover photo in the Himalayas but by the time the group was to take the photo they decided to call it Abbey Road and take the photo outside the studio on 8 August 1969. The cover designer was Apple Records creative director Kosh. The cover photograph was taken by photographer Iain Macmillan. Macmillan was given only ten minutes around 11:30 that morning to take the photo on a zebra crossing on Abbey Road. That cover photograph has since become one of the most famous and most imitated album covers in recording history.
Eventually while planning our trip, I realized that Abbey Road studios is in London, so we added it to our itinerary. And lo-and-behold, the same zebra crosswalk is still there. I walked back and forth a few times, but of course could not duplicate the album cover because it was just one of me and they did not wear any backpacks. I think drivers who need to drive around this area must be super annoyed as random people will constantly stop traffic and cross the road here for no reason. I myself crossed it 3 times (4 if you count the time I jaywalked).
The studios themselves are unimpressive except for the wall out front. The wall is covered in writing where the numerous Beatles fans from around the world have arrived and written the song title of their favorite Beatles song. The wall we saw wasn’t as covered as in the link, but we noticed that all the dates were in the last 10 days! The wall was just repainted but was full of fanatic scribbles already.
And they are fanatics. We saw a gentleman arrive via taxi for the sole purpose of writing on the wall!
Hi! and welcome to the eclectic personal blog of Kevin Quan. Come in, stay awhile, peek into the nooks & crannies, and learn a bit about me and my interests.