It's SO EASY to have hindsight of course....(Like The Titanic slowing down a bit...)
After the Fractured but Brilliant "White Album" they SHOULD have taken a GOOD REST from each other...and gone off to do their respective "Own things"....that way they COULD have, er, "Come Together" again later...when each was ready to work as "The Beatles" again.... in hindsight !
Instead they in retrospect unwisely DIVED straight into the Abortive "Get Back" project....(Later aka "Le it Be")....and effectively the strain heightened previously controlled longtime simmering issues....plus Yoko's quiet ever-presence...that was DEAFENING...and thus they "Broke up" in front of the rolling cameras..
The decision was then made to go on on a HIGH (thanks Lads !) ....EACH Knew "Abbey Road" was the Band's Swansong....it even actually closes with: "The End" - & NOT originally "Her Majesty"....which was later put on the "run out groove" section prior to issue.
John was influenced.... by Chuck Berry in bringing in "Old Flat Top" from "You Can't Catch Me" for "Come Together"...Later John did an "off the cuff" playout version of "Ya Ya" (with young Julian on Drums) on "Walls and Bridges" to pay off royalties to the Copyrite owners of that AND the Berry song...as a settlement when they objected to use of Chuck's character old "Flatty" !
George MUST have heard James Taylor's APPLE recording: "Something in The Way She Moves"....one Hell of a Co-incidence if not.....the song WAS original tho'....and at long last...George got the SINGLE off a Beatles album..
Overall of course they were original....indeed 10c.c.'s 1972 hit "Oh Donna" owes a good bit to Paul's "Oh Darling"...yes ?
Badfinger's excellent 1975 song "Timeless"....clearly owes a debt to John's "She's So Heavy" riff excercise...
They WERE Writing independantly by this stage tho'....most of the side two material - the collage - consisted of unfinished song ideas begun in India in 1968 - these never were completed as indvidual songs ....but flowed together quite magnificently....
There is a poignant moment in the 1971 Film "Imagine" where a (That time a "Friendly fan"....unlike in 1980
) gate- crashes John's home....just to say how MUCH his song "Carry That Weight" touched his soul and he could identify with it........
John answers; "...It was PAUL who wrote that...!" (- Er...WRONG Mr. Fan !!
)
Paul's "She Came in Through The Bathroom Window"...refers to a 1965 incident at a Moody Blues party that the "in Pop crowd" incl The Fab Four all attended....when a persistant Girl fan shimmied up the drainpipe....got in via the open bathroom window...and climbed into Moodie Ray Thomas' bed...!
Paul also refers to a USA Yellow Cab driver he & Linda met in "You Never Give Me Your Money"
George & Eric Clapton actually co-wrote "Here Comes The Sun" & Cream's "Badge" together on a boosy sunny afternoon in Eric's garden...Eric later refused a songwriting credit on the Beatle song...while George duly played rhythm guitar as "L'Angelo Mysterioso" on the Cream song...of which George was writing the Lyrics on a pice of paper....he put BRIDGE for the instrumental portion....Clapton looking at it upside down, from across the table, asked George Why he put "BADGE" in the middle of the lyrics....hence the song's name !
George co-wrote "Octopus' Garden" with Ringo...knocking it into shape instrumentally ...again NOT taking a songwriting credit.
The "Abbey Road" album saw the Fab Four putting aside their personal frictions to "Finsh on a High"....knowing it was the Finale...thus purely as Musicians they were able to "Gell" as a Unit....performing as a Band - note NO totally "Solo Paul" or "Solo John" efforts here...(aside from the jokey "Her Majesty") ....the others are always notably in attendance...often as backing vocalists, several tracks feature close Lennon-McCartney-Harrison vocal harmonies......certainly as instrumentalists....thus there is a sense of Band unity often absent on the preceeding few Beatles albums....note how on "the End" George, John, & Paul take alternating guitar solos....then Ringo gets a rare drumming solo....it's their Encore number.
In a way the Belated issue of "Let it Be" - with the ONE final Beatles track...cut only by George, Paul, & Ringo ("I Me Mine") ....has obscured the True Importance of "Abbey Road" as the Beatles Swansong....