Carry That Weight

Song infobox
Name = Carry That Weight


Artist = The Beatles
Album = Abbey Road
Released = 26 September 1969
track_no = 15
Recorded = 2 July-15 August 1969
Genre = Rock
Length = 1:36
Writer = Lennon/McCartney
Label = Apple Records
Producer = George Martin
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Abbey Road
Type = studio
Tracks = ;Side one
#"Come Together"
#"Something"
#"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
#"Oh! Darling"
#"Octopus's Garden"
#"I Want You (She's So Heavy)";Side two
#"Here Comes the Sun"
#"Because"
#"You Never Give Me Your Money"
#"Sun King"
#"Mean Mr. Mustard"
#"Polythene Pam"
#"She Came In Through the Bathroom Window"
#"Golden Slumbers"
#"Carry That Weight"
#"The End"
#"Her Majesty"

"Carry That Weight" is a song by The Beatles. Released on "Abbey Road" and part of the long, climactic medley that closes the album, it features vocals from all four of The Beatles (a rarity in their songs). It is preceded by "Golden Slumbers", and it segues into "The End".

The middle bridge, featuring brass instruments, electric guitar and vocals, reprises the beginning of "You Never Give Me Your Money", but with different lyrics. The ending also reprises the arpeggiated guitar motif from the end of that track, similar to the figure featured prominently in the George Harrison written tracks "Here Comes the Sun" and "Badge" (co-written by Harrison and Eric Clapton).

One interpretation is that the title (and main lyric) is a reference to two people, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. In McCartney's view, if Lennon allowed the Beatles to break up, he would be "carrying the weight" for that for the rest of his life. McCartney essentially blames Lennon and Yoko Ono for the decline in the band's relationship. The second reference, to McCartney himself, is about "carrying the weight" of the band by acting as the manager after the death of Brian Epstein. Until he took on the job, McCartney had never realized how much Epstein did for them, nor how difficult it was to manage the financial side of the Beatles. Similar sentiments are echoed in another of McCartney's "Abbey Road" songs, "You Never Give Me Your Money," and one line from "Oh! Darling". [Norman, Philip (1997). Shout: The Beatles in Their Generation. MJF Books. ISBN 1-56731-087-7.]

In his book "Revolution in the Head", Ian McDonald interprets this lyric as an acknowledgement by the group that nothing they would do as individual artists in the future would ever equal what they had achieved together as The Beatles. In other words, that they would always carry the weight of their Beatle past. In the film "", Lennon says that McCartney was "singing about all of us."

Credits

*Paul McCartney: lead and background vocals, bass and piano.
*George Harrison: lead guitar and background vocals.
*Ringo Starr: drums and background vocals.
*John Lennon: background vocals.
*Orchestra arranged and conducted by George Martin (with Paul McCartney)

Cover versions

*In 1976, The Bee Gees covered the song for the transitory musical documentary "All This and World War II". Two years later, they did the same for the movie version of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".

* Les Fradkin has an instrumental version included in his 2005 release "While My Guitar Only Plays".

Cultural references

*The last line of the anime "Cowboy Bebop" is "You're gonna carry that weight", in homage to this song.

*In 2006 a video began circulating the internet featuring comedian Chris Bliss juggling to "Golden Slumbers", "Carry That Weight", and "The End".

Notes