On Friday, August 8, 1969, 50 years ago today, the four members of The Beatles met outside EMI studios, where they were working on recording their new album, which at that time had the provisional title of Everest.
The objective was to take a photograph that would serve as the cover image and that, in the end, would become one of the most iconic images in the history of rock: that of the Beatles crossing the Abbey Road zebra crossing, in the neighborhood from St. John's Wood, North London.
The person in charge of carrying out the session was the Scottish photographer Ian McMillan, recommended by Yoko Ono, who finished her work in just 10 minutes, taking six unique photos.
To do this, it was decided that the four members would cross the zebra crossing in single file, an image that reflects the distance that existed at that time within the band, which broke up a few months later.
In fact, although chronologically Abbey Road was not their last album, since Let it Be would be released later, it was the last to be recorded and, for many critics, one of the musical peaks of the Liverpool quartet's career.
Different Interpretations
The police were in charge of blocking traffic on the street, but the session had to be done fairly quickly due to the traffic intensity in the area. The Beatles crossed the zebra crossing from left to right and vice versa, with the sole premise that they do not look at the camera. Meanwhile, McMillan, standing on a ladder in the middle of the street, immortalized the scene. The fifth snapshot was chosen, even though some curious people appear in the background looking at the scene.
Like everything that happens around the Beatle universe, the cover was scrutinized to the millimeter and interpreted from different perspectives. One of the aspects that most attracted attention was the clothing of the four members of the group: John Lennon leading the entourage, completely in white; behind him, Ringo Starr, in black, and Paul McCartney, who walks barefoot and with a changed step; and finally, George Harrison, in a shirt and jeans. Actually, it was the clothes with which the musicians had gone to the recording studio but which, as we will see, was the subject of crazy theories.
Another relevant element of the cover is the white Volkswagen that is up on the sidewalk to the left of the image and that, according to different versions, belonged to a neighbor of the study or to a worker there.
All these factors were used to support the conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney had actually died in a traffic accident in 1966 and that his place had been taken by a double. In this way, the cover would represent a funeral procession in which Lennon was the priest, Ringo Starr, the man who carries the coffin; McCartney -obviously-, the deceased; and Harrison, the undertaker.
Added to this was the alleged hidden message on the Volkswagen license plate, LMW 28IF, which theoretically indicates that McCartney would be 28 years old if he had not died.
An absurd theory in which the Beatles themselves sarcastically participated on occasion, such as when McCartney returned to photograph himself at the Abbey Road zebra crossing for his live album Paul Is Live in 1993.
