Take Me Home, Abbey Road

Though the London tour clearly rounded out the Beatles experience as this is where they spent most of their later years together, it still felt a little bittersweet as I know my trip was coming to an end.  The places that we were able to see were so important to the Beatles, and I feel honored that I was able to visit them.

We began our tour at the famous MPL building.  The MPL stands for McCartney Productions Limited and Paul can still be spotted there on a lucky day (unfortunately not our lucky day but what can you do?).  It is still a premier music publisher.

We visited Carnaby Street which was and still is the most exclusive shopping district in London.  This is where the Beatles and other celebrities would buy trendy clothes that the general public tried to imitate.  On Carnaby Street there is a breath taking mural on one of the buildings that closely resembles the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  It is called the “Spirit of Soho” and is quite a site.  There are all types of people and places put together in this great collage and it truly shows the influence the Beatles had on England and London in particular.

Another memorable landmark was the “Gentlemen’s” bathroom where John Lennon really showed his smarts and sense of humor.  The story goes that John was denied entrance into a popular club for celebrities and other elites called the Ad Lib Club.  Apparently one needed a have a tie to enter such an exclusive club and John was not wearing one.  He retaliated by dressing up in “gentlemen’s” clothing and posing outside of the restroom aforementioned.  While many celebrities would throw a fit if they were denied entrance into their favorite club, John handled the situation with class putting the joke on the club.

Next we visited Trident Sound Studios where the Beatles recorded many of their most famous songs.  The songs they recorded there had deeper meaning than some of their earlier songs and showed just how much the Beatles had matured as a band.  Other popular musicians recorded there as well including Elton John, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Queen, Carly Simon, Lou Reed, James Taylor, George Harrison (as a solo artist) and Ringo Starr (as a solo artist).

We stopped at 3 Savile Road to see the Apple Corps Studio where the Beatles had their last live performance on the roof of the building.  This is one of the most important land marks of the Beatles and to this day people still go there to see the place where the Beatles performed together last.

Abbey Road was my favorite place to visit on the London walking tour.  Out of all the other places I knew about this one the most and had always wanted to reenact the famous Beatles album cover that was shot there.  It was pretty incredible to walk in the footsteps of a view of the most famous people to walk the planet.  As my group attempted to do the crossing of Abbey Road I insisted on being John Lennon every time.  The funny part was that I was trying way too hard to walk just like the Beatles had and ended up looking like I was doing the robot across Abbey Road.  We did however manage to take a view pretty good pictures with my robot dancing and all.

The London walk helped me realize that Liverpool was not the only place in England that was important to the growth of the Beatles.  In fact I would argue that London was far more important than Liverpool in the bands later years.  Though it was sad to know my trip was coming to an end, the London tour was the perfect ending to our journey.