“The End” was the 16th track of The Beatles’ final recorded album, Abbey Road, and features at least one solo from every Beatle in the 2:21 that the song lasts. It was their final track they recorded together as a group of four, and it didn’t feature many lyrics.
“I am the foundation, and then I put a bit of glow here and there … If there’s a gap, I want to be good enough to fill it,” (Ringo Starr, early 2000s)
This track is the only time Ringo Starr had ever performed a drum solo for the band, and was only convinced once told it was needed for a transition. The reason that Ringo never did drum solos was because he, like the other members, hated the flashiness and extended drum solos that most rock drummers were doing around that time – Ringo’s interest was to keep the time and make a steady foundation for the band to play off, and he still manages to do that job even after performing the drum solo.
In Anthology 3 of The End, McCartney’s guitar is playing distorted notes that reveals Ringo’s ‘solo’ was merely just him playing to the song and playing fills (shown in the video below).
The most prominent chords in The Beatles’ legacy has been 7th chords, which are used to create a bluesy feel for alot of the songs that they created. After all, they were a blues/rock band. I feel like the use of the dominant 7th chord in The End creates a chord that has tension and a clear emotion to it, which gives blues songs their unique feel, because of all the colour behind the chord. I am unsure whether I can hear this chord or not in this song, as I am not a guitar player, so I will have to do some searching for said involvement of the chord.
After 5 minutes of looking, I don’t seem to be able to find this dominant 7th chord in the website I am using. That, or I am stupid.
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Bibliography
Golsen, T. (2021). The Only Beatles Song to Feature a Drum Solo . [online] faroutmagazine.co.uk. Available at: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/the-only-beatles-song-to-feature-a-drum-solo/ [Accessed 21 Nov. 2023].
Heimbauer, G. (2022). 7th Chords and the Blues. [online] EarthQuaker Devices. Available at: https://www.earthquakerdevices.com/blog-posts/7th-chords-and-the-blues [Accessed 21 Nov. 2023].
tabs.ultimate-guitar.com. (n.d.). The Beatles – The End (Chords). [online] Available at: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/the-beatles/the-end-chords-733992 [Accessed 12 Dec. 2023].