And in the end, the love you take
Is equal to the love you make
It’s one of the greatest lyrical couplets in rock history, all the more remarkable because they stand alone as the final lyrics of the final track on the final album the Beatles ever recorded.
Even the name of the song (if we can call it a song) conveys finality: The End.
So we can’t fault the fans who hear the last lines of Abbey Road as a farewell from one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time.
It wasn’t, though. The Beatles hadn’t intended for “The End” to close out the album (let alone their career) at the time they recorded it, and by all accounts Paul was simply looking for a satisfying way to cap off the medley. He took his inspiration from The Bard, who liked to close his plays with a standalone couplet.
“The End” comes at, well, the end of a sixteen-minute medley of short or incomplete Lennon-McCartney songs that never made it to vinyl in final form.
Bookended by brief lyrical snippets, the track is essentially an instrumental jam, with Paul, John, and George trading off three rounds of two-bar guitar solos and featuring Ringo’s only drum solo on a Beatles track.
The guitar jam is the track’s highlight. Even without reading interviews confirming it, we can hear the infectious abandon and friendly competition between the three guitar-wielding Beatles.
It puts aspiring artists on notice: if you’re going to perform “The End” live in concert, you better have three hot-shot guitarists on hand to do it justice.
Even if you’re Paul McCartney.
Luckily for Sir Paul, when he was asked to close out the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012 with “The End,” he had an array of stellar guitar talent on hand to choose from.
In the end, he had six guitar heroes on stage: besides himself and his two outstanding touring guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, McCartney invited Dave Grohl, Joe Walsh, and Bruce Springsteen to join the epic televised jam.
Bruce easily held his own against that formidable line-up, and in the clip below we can clearly see him having the time of his life.
For a kid who grew up idolizing The Beatles, the chance to support McCartney on stage like that even once would be a bucket list dream.
A decade later, however, Springsteen had the chance to do it again. Twice.
Bruce had already been on stage for a couple of songs (including his own “Glory Days“) earlier in the set at McCartney’s 80th birthday show at MetLife Stadium in 2022. He came back out for the final encore, joining McCartney, Anderson and Ray for the show-closing “The End.”
With only four guitarists at the fore for an extra-long jam, Bruce had even more at-bats than he did at The Grammys, and the hometown crowd went wild for it.
Just nine days later, Bruce reprised his guest appearance at McCartney’s headlining gig across the pond at Glastonbury.
That appearance was actually a promise kept: McCartney had asked Bruce to join him for the gig two years earlier… in 2020.
Springsteen agreed, but a global pandemic forced the festival to punt the gig two years down the road. Bruce remembered his promise, however, and showed up for his songwriting idol. This time, Dave Grohl was there too, lending some extra guitar power to the final number.
Time will tell if we ever get a chance to see McCartney and Springsteen share a stage again, but if we don’t their 2022 performances of “The End” certainly serve as fitting final team-ups.
The End
First performed: February 12, 2012 (Los Angeles, CA)
Last performed: June 25, 2022 (Pilton, England)
This is great! Thanks for the education–He took his inspiration from The Bard, who liked to close his plays with a standalone couplet–and for putting those “final” Beatles’ lyrics in “rock history” perspective.
hey ken, are we gonna get a BITUSA album overview? we’ve gotten an article on all the tracks
Yes, I haven’t forgotten about it, just not quite in the zone for writing it yet. I’m in more of a High Hopes mood, so look for a RotD from that album next. But I’ll get back around to the BITUSA wrap-up sometime this summer, I hope.