Last week, fellow Blogcritic Brad Laidman started a discussion on the best and worst Beatles' covers. With so many such covers out there, some of the respondents came up with some really interesting ones. (For what it's worth, the most creative one I've heard recently was Josh Roseman's avant-reggae rendition of "I Should Have Known Better.")
And then there's that jazz guitarist George Benson's long-forgotten but unique approach to covering the Fab Four, The Other Side Of Abbey Road.
If you’ve heard any Benson records produced by Creed Taylor, the sound of this set should be very familiar to you: plenty of room to show off those famous guitar chops, orchestration by Don Sebesky and a jaw dropping list of supporting musicians (Freddie Hubbard, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Hubert Laws, Bob James, Sonny Fortune, Idris). Even the engineer is top drawer (Rudy Van Gelder). But what makes this record a bit more special than the other Creed/Benson albums is obviously the source of the material.
It wasn’t uncommon at all for Beatles songs to be covered by the time the Beatles themselves were on the verge of breakup. Taylor and Benson went whole hog and devoted an entire album to one specific Beatles' album. And, they commenced work on this project a mere 26 days after the original Abbey Road was released. In doing so, we get an interpretation unaffected by how history ultimately judged the record.
There were some other unusual facets to their approach, like making a mini medley to all but one of the five tracks; giving a total of ten compositions covered here. Furthermore, Benson sings on these tracks; that may not sound so strange today, but before Breezin’, his guitar playing was showcased much more; in fact this was his last album that he sang on until that commercial breakthrough more than six years later.
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