When The Beatles Crossed The Road

Rerun: Abbey Road was a street known only to North Londoners until The Beatles posed on the zebra crossing outside EMI Studios on 8th August, 1969. Photographer Iain MacMillan took just six snaps, one of which graced the front cover of their penultimate album, ‘Abbey Road’.
The image became instantly iconic, partly due to the decision not to name the band or the album on the front of LP. It even spurred a conspiracy theory that claimed that Paul McCartney was dead, and being played by a lookalike, attested to his by bare feet and the number plate on the vehicle behind him.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why the picture nearly didn’t happen in St John’s Wood at all, but in NEPAL; dive into the ‘Paul Is Dead’ conspiracy; and check out the live feed of hapless tourists approximating the picture…
Further Reading:
• ‘Obituary: Iain MacMillan’ (The Independent, 2006): www.independen...
• ‘Revisiting London's iconic album cover images’ (BBC News, 2008): www.bbc.co.uk/...
• ‘Beatles fans flock to Abbey Road for 44th anniversary’ (Telegraph, 2013): • Beatles fans flock to ...
‘Why am I hearing a rerun?’
Each Thursday and Friday we repeat stories from our archive of 800+ episodes, so we can maintain the quality of our independent podcast and bring you fresh, free content every Monday-Wednesday…
… But 🌴CLUB RETROSPECTORS🌴members get an additional full-length episode each Sunday! Join now with a free trial on Apple Podcasts (podcasts.apple...) or Patreon ( / retrospectors ) and support our show ❤️
The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.
Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Emma Corsham.
Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2024.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices (podcastchoices...)

[@johnorgan3]

My fave album ever of any genre since it came out in Sept '69.

[@koolkatfelix9500]

A great photograph!

[@PaulFormentos]

So many PID clues on here, and in the music on Abbey as well. forwards and reversed

[@gerhardprasent3358]

Even my family and I walked the crossing years ago 😄

[@azloii9781]

To get to the other side

[@rosep3933]

Rubber Soul and Revolver should have been the White Album.

[@HalLeath]

White Volkswagen? Stolen? Then sold at auction. Now at museum. Wow