Staying in Saint Johns Wood, London, this week, I realized I was only a few blocks from the legendary Abbey Road Music Studios, so I made a pilgrimage.
Sir Edward Elgar, Cliff Richard, the Zombies, Hollies, U2, The Red Hot Chili Peppers have recorded there. But what made it most famous was the Beatles recorded all their albums there and Pink Floyd recorded all of its major albums there. Although the Beatles released their Let It Be album later, their last recorded album was named Abbey Road and its cover photo [inset] made the pedestrian crossing in front of the studios famous.
Unlike Iain MacMillan, who in took the cover photo on 8 August, 1969, I couldn’t stand in the middle of Abbey Road due to heavy traffic. So I took the reverse shot (standing next to the nearby taxi stand you can see between Ringo Starr’s and John Lennon’s heads in the albumn cover).
There’s also a Web cam looking at the crossing.
In addition to popular music albums, Abbey Road Music Studios was where the musical scores for the Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and dozen of other films were recorded. Orchestral musicians were arriving for work while I was photographing.