On October 20th and 22nd the first batch of downloadable content for The Beatles: Rock Band was released. The rest of the songs from the album “Abbey Road” that aren’t already in the game will be available for download.
Although Xbox 360 players have had “All You Need is Love” since the game came out on September 9, 2009, for Playstation 3 and Wii owners this is the first time any Beatle songs will be available for download. Harmonix (creators of Rock Band) and Microsoft (creators of Xbox 360) worked out a deal where “All You Need is Love” will be exclusive to Xbox 360 until the contract expires in December. So for Xbox 360 players this will be the second time that songs will be available for download.
“Abbey Road” was the final album recorded by The Beatles before they broke up. Although it was the second to last album released, it’s still considered by most fans to be the last album. After recording songs for an unfinished album named “Get Back” The Beatles were on each other’s last nerves. The recordings for the unfinished album didn’t go well so they abandoned the project and decided they wanted to end strong. So they went to the Abbey Road Studios where they usually recorded their albums to try to make a final album worthy of the greatness The Beatles put out before. The result was “Abbey Road”. Referred to as the masterpiece, this album did all that The Beatles hoped for and more.
“Abbey Road” had six songs originally featured on the disc: “Come Together”, “Something”, “Here Comes the Sun”, “I want you (She’s so Heavy)”, “Octopus’s Garden”, and “The End”; are all featured on the game. This means that “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, “Oh! Darling”, “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”, “Her Majesty” are being released for download.
“You Never Give Me Your Money” – “The End” are a series of unfinished songs blended together called “The Abbey Road Medley”. When using Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 you’re given the option to play all of the songs from “The Abbey Road Medley” as one continuous sixteen minute track if you buy the entire album.
When you don’t play the song as one continuous track, the medley songs are grouped together as when they were recorded. For example, “Sun King/Mean Mr. Mustard” is one continuous track on the game because it was recorded together as one continuous track. All the songs will take place in the Abbey Road Studios and evolve into a dreamscape, like the songs from the album already featured on the disc.
The biggest issue with the first batch of DLC has been the fact that the Abbey Road Medley, which was one of the huge draws for buying the full album, is only available for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 players. If you play on Wii, you have to play the song separately and there’s a loading in between songs like any normal playlist. The only good thing for Wii owners is that all the tracks are available to buy individually, where Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 owners only have the option of buying “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”, “Oh! Darling”, and “Because” as individual tracks. The only way for PS3 and 360 owners to get the songs from the Medley is to buy the full album.
“Abbey Road” is the first of three albums planned to be released by the end of the year. “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Rubber Soul” are being released in November and December respectively.
“Abbey Road” is out on Xbox 360 and Wii on October 20, 2009 and Playstation 3 October 22, 2009.
