Musical Mystery Files 001
Her Majesty - The Beatles (Blast from the Past Sunday)
Today I’m launching the first installment of what I hope will be a series, a set of posts where I focus on musical mysteries; songs or albums or occurrences that have haunted me for years, things that I really feel the need to talk about. This inaugural piece is about a song that I’ve been trying to investigate for years, a tune that was the subject of some of my first stabs at music journalism way back when. The track? None other than “Her Majesty” by The Beatles, a twenty-six second Paul McCartney acoustic song that closes out Abbey Road.
I like to imagine how it was to listen to the full album on original vinyl, keeping a diligent eye on the track list as each song passed, expecting the song titled “The End” to be, well, the end. That’s how it was marketed too — “Her Majesty” wasn’t listed at the time, making it a hidden track (one of my absolute FAVORITE things musicians can do). Either way, “The End” culminates beautifully, with a chord that sounds like finalization. I can see the listener getting up to flip the record over, excited to listen again, when fourteen seconds of silence is interrupted by a loud extra chord and suddenly there’s Paul, singing sweetly along with his guitar.
While I think “Her Majesty” is a nice little tune, the question of WHY has stuck in my head for years now. Due to jumbled up recording dates and studio switches, Abbey Road and Let It Be were finished at a similar time, making it a toss up of which one is truly The Beatles’ last album. I (albeit a little selfishly) opt to think of Abbey Road as the end of The Beatles’ career, as I think it has a bit of a happier background to it than Let It Be. (Although Peter Jackson has done a lovely job of turning that notion on its head lately!) Plus, I like “The End” as a closer WAYY better than “Get Back”. Sorry to all the “Get Back” lovers, but its just not my thing. Anyways, the big thing that comes up with that is that “The End” is NOT the end, “Her Majesty” is! So do I get behind this track ending the golden era of The Beatles, or should I switch my fondness to Let It Be?
Here’s another thing to note — I have recently reckoned with the truth that I am a Paul girl. While I always enjoyed John’s songs, admired George’s tunes, and loved Ringo’s drumming, I have gravitated toward the McCartney-led tracks the most. Maybe it’s the sincerity he can display in a single word. Maybe it’s his seemingly effortless understanding of a crazy amount of instruments. Maybe I’m amazed at the way you … you get the point. I like “Her Majesty” because it provides comfort, an acoustic tune that sounds a little like a lullaby, no doubt calming the fans who freaked out over a song called “The End” looking to be the last on the album. I used to think “Her Majesty” was just Paul’s way of getting the last word, something that I feel is fitting to his character. But now I think it was his way of providing comfort to himself, a heartfelt quick one to assure himself by assuring the world that everything will be alright in the end, and I can certainly get behind that. Case closed.
Got something I should hear? Let me know here!
Follow Ear Bites on Instagram here!
Follow Ear Bites on Spotify here!
Listen to my weekly radio show on Fridays from 9:30-11:30pm EST here! This week is all duets!!