Conversely , Chris Welch wrote in '' Melody Maker '' : " the truth is , their latest LP is just a natural born gas , entirely free of pretension , deep meanings or symbolism … While production is simple compared to past intricacies , it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive . " Derek Jewell of '' The Sunday Times '' found the album " refreshingly terse and unpretentious " , and although he lamented the band 's " cod-1920s jokes ( Maxwell 's Silver Hammer ) and … Ringo 's obligatory nursery arias ( Octopus 's Garden ) " , he considered that '' Abbey Road '' " touches higher peaks than did their last album " . John Mendelsohn , writing for '' Rolling Stone '' , called it " breathtakingly recorded " and praised side two especially , equating it to " the whole of '' Sgt. Pepper '' " and stating , " That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite ... seems potent testimony that no , they 've far from lost it , and no , they have n't stopped trying . " While covering the Rolling Stones ' 1969 American tour for '' The Village Voice '' , Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that " opinion has shifted against the Beatles . Everyone is putting down '' Abbey Road '' . " Shortly afterwards , in Los Angeles , he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record , adding : " Damned if she is n't right – flawed but fine . Because the world is round it turns her on . Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too . " Many critics have since cited '' Abbey Road '' as the Beatles ' greatest album . In a retrospective review , Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it " an amazingly cohesive piece of music , innovative and timeless " . Mark Kemp of '' Paste '' viewed the album as being " among The Beatles ' finest works , even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s " . Neil McCormack of '' The Daily Telegraph '' dubbed it the Beatles ' " last love letter to the world " and praised its " big , modern sound " , calling it " lush , rich , smooth , epic , emotional and utterly gorgeous " . AllMusic 's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared '' Sgt. Pepper 's '' " faux-conceptual forms " , but had " stronger compositions " , and wrote of its standing in the band 's catalogue : " Whether '' Abbey Road '' is the Beatles ' best work is debatable , but it 's certainly the most immaculately produced ( with the possible exception of '' Sgt. Pepper '' ) and most tightly constructed . " Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album , noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously , and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two . He did , however , praise the production , particularly the sound of Starr 's bass drum
the Rolling Stones ' 1969 American tour
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1969
Abbey Road