The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)

# The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)

## Abstract

The Last Man on Earth is a 1964 post-apocalyptic science fiction horror film based on the 1954 novel I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. The film was produced by Robert L. Lippert and directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, and stars Vincent Price and Franca Bettoia. The screenplay was written in part by Matheson, but he was dissatisfied with the result and chose to be credited as "Logan Swanson". William Leicester, Furio M. Monetti, and Ubaldo Ragona finished the script.

The Last Man on Earth was filmed in Rome, with scenes being completed at Esposizione Universale Roma. It was released in the United States by American International Pictures. In the 1980s, the film entered the public domain. MGM Home Video, the current owners of the AIP film catalog, released a digitally remastered widescreen version of the film on DVD in September 2005.

## Plot

It is 1968, and Dr. Robert Morgan lives in a world where everyone else has been infected by a plague that has turned them into undead, vampiric creatures that cannot stand sunlight, fear mirrors, and are repelled by garlic. They would kill Morgan if they could, but they are weak and unintelligent. Every day Morgan carries out the same routine: he wakes up, marks another day on the calendar, gathers his weapons, and then goes hunting for vampires, killing as many as he can and then burning the bodies to prevent them from coming back. At night, he locks himself inside his house.

A flashback sequence explains that, in December 1965, Morgan's wife Virginia and daughter Kathy had succumbed to the plague before it was widely known by the public that the dead would return to life. Instead of taking his wife to the same public burn pit used to dispose of his daughter's corpse, Morgan buried her without the knowledge of the authorities. When his wife returned to his home and attacked him, Morgan became aware of the need to kill the plague victims with a wooden stake. Morgan hypothesizes that he is immune to the bacteria from a bite by an infected vampire bat when he was stationed in Panama, which may have introduced a diluted form of the plague into his blood.

One day, a dog appears in the neighborhood. Desperate for companionship, Morgan chases after the dog but does not catch it. Sometime later the dog appears, wounded, at Morgan's doorstep. He takes the dog into his home and treats its wounds, looking forward to having company for the first time in three years. He quickly discovers, however, that it, too, has become infected with the plague. Morgan starts burying the dog which is now impaled with a wooden stake. He sinks further into depression and loneliness.

After burying the dog, Morgan spots a woman in the distance. The woman, Ruth, is terrified of Morgan at first sight and runs from him. Morgan convinces her to return to his home, but he is suspicious of her true nature. Ruth becomes ill when Morgan waves garlic in her face, but claims that she has a weak stomach. Morgan's suspicion that Ruth is infected is confirmed when he discovers her attempting to inject herself with a combination of blood and vaccine that holds the disease at bay. Ruth initially draws a gun on Morgan but ultimately surrenders it to him. She tells him that she is part of a group of people like her – infected, but under treatment – and was sent to spy on Morgan. The vaccine allows the people to function normally with the drug in the bloodstream, but once it wears off, the infection takes over the body again. Ruth explains that her people are planning to rebuild society as they destroy the remaining humans, and that many of the vampires Morgan killed were still alive. Ruth desperately urges Morgan to flee, but he inexplicably refuses.

While Ruth is asleep, Morgan transfuses his own blood into her. She is immediately cured, and Morgan sees hope that, together, they can cure the rest of her people. Moments later, however, Ruth's people attack. Morgan takes the gun and flees his home while the attackers kill the vampires gathered around Morgan's home. Ruth's people spot Morgan and chase him. He exchanges gunfire with them and picks up tear gas grenades from a police station armory along the way. While the tear gas delays his pursuers somewhat, Morgan is wounded by gunfire and retreats into a church. As he stands at the altar, one of his pursuers finally impales him with a thrown spear. In his final moments, Morgan denounces his pursuers as "freaks" and, as Ruth cradles him, declares that he is the last true man on Earth. As Ruth walks away from Morgan's body, she notices a baby crying and tries to assure the child that everyone is safe now.

## Cast

- Vincent Price as Dr. Robert Morgan

- Franca Bettoia as Ruth Collins

- Emma Danieli as Virginia Morgan

- Giacomo Rossi-Stuart as Ben Cortman

- Umberto Raho (billed as Umberto Rau) as Dr. Mercer

- Christi Courtland as Kathy Morgan

- Tony Corvi as the governor

- Hector Ribotta as the TV reporter

Note that Carolyn De Fonseca, uncredited, dubbed for Franca Bettoia's voice in the English release of the film.

## Production

### Development

Producer Anthony Hinds purchased the rights to Matheson's novel for Hammer Film Productions. Matheson wrote a script, and Hammer announced in 1958 that they would make it. However, British censors would not allow the film to be produced, so Hinds resold the script to American producer Robert L. Lippert.

Lippert had wanted to make a "last man on Earth"-type film for a while. In the late 1950s, Charles Marquis Warren and Robert Stabler optioned a novel by science fiction writer George R. Stewart called Earth Abides. Harry Spalding, who worked for Lippert, said the release of The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959) killed off plans for that project. Spalding then read Matheson's novel and suggested Lippert film that book instead. The project was announced in August 1962.

Lippert originally told Matheson that Fritz Lang would direct the film, and Matheson thought that would be "wonderful". Eventually, however, Sidney Salkow was chosen to direct. Matheson made the follow-up comment: "Well, there's a bit of a drop."

### Shooting

To save money, the film was shot in Italy with a predominantly Italian cast and crew. The climax was shot in San Pio X alla Balduina, a real Catholic church in Rome.

Matheson later said the film was the most faithful adaptation of his book, but he also called the result "inept" and used a pen name for his screenplay. (He later said he thought Harrison Ford as star and George Miller as director would have been the ideal creative combination".)

### Soundtrack

In 2024, Waxwork Records released the soundtrack as part of the Rob Zombie Presents series. It was pressed on coloured vinyl and housed in special packaging featuring artwork by Graham Humphreys.

## Differences from the novel

There are several differences between the film and the novel I Am Legend from which it is based:

- The protagonist of the novel is named Robert Neville, not Robert Morgan.

- The protagonist's profession is changed from a plant worker to scientist.

- The vampires are almost zombie -like, whereas in the novel, they are fast and capable of running and climbing.

- The dog that shows up on Neville's doorstep in the novel is timid and comes and goes as it pleases, in contrast to the dog in the film.

- In the novel the relationship with Ruth differs slightly, in that no transfusion takes place; a cure seems implausible, even as Neville hopes he will find one; and Ruth escapes after Neville discovers that she is infected.

- Neville is not captured in the novel until many months later; even then he barely fights back.

- The novel ends shortly before Neville is to be executed; Ruth returns to give him suicide pills and finds it ironic that he has become as much of a legend to the new society as vampires once were to Neville's world (hence the title).

- The novel implies that the vampire plague resulted from a biological disease, an origin echoed in The Last Man on Earth when scientist Morgan discusses a newspaper clipping that reads "Plague Claims Hundreds: Is Europe's Disease Carried On The Wind?"

## Release

Although the film was not considered a success upon its release, it later gained a more favorable reputation as a classic of the genre. As of March 2024, The Last Man on Earth holds a 79% rating at the film review aggregator Web site Rotten Tomatoes from 28 reviews. Phil Hall of Film Threat called The Last Man on Earth "the best Vincent Price movie ever made".

Among the less favorable reviews, Steve Biodrowski of Cinefantastique felt the film was "hampered by an obviously low budget and some poorly recorded, post-production dubbing that creates an amateurish feel, undermining the power of its story", while Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader remarked, "Some would consider this version better than the 1971 remake with Charlton Heston, The Omega Man, but that isn't much of an achievement".

Among the film's creators, Price "had a certain fondness for the film" and felt it was better than The Omega Man. Richard Matheson co-wrote the film's screenplay, but was unhappy with the results. To keep receiving residual income from the film, though, he had to be credited, so he used the name "Logan Swanson", a combination of his wife's mother's maiden name and his mother's maiden name. Matheson said: "I was disappointed in the film, even though they more or less followed my story. I think Vincent Price, whom I love in every one of his pictures that I wrote, was miscast. I also felt the direction was kind of poor. I just didn’t care for it."


The Last Sharknado: It's About Time

# The Last Sharknado: It's About Time

## Abstract

The Last Sharknado: It's About Time is a 2018 American made-for-television science fiction comedy disaster film and the sixth and final installment in the Sharknado film series. The film was directed by Anthony C. Ferrante with Ian Ziering, Tara Reid and Cassie Scerbo reprising their roles from the previous installments. In the film, Fin and his gang use time travel in order to prevent sharknadoes from ever happening.

## Plot

With the Earth completely devastated from the global sharknado swarm, Fin Shepard and his adult son Gil time travel to the Cretaceous period in a bid to change the future and undo the destruction. Gil vanishes upon arrival, and a hologram he recorded earlier reveals that due to the instability of the energy needed to time travel, any individual person can only travel back in time once, with any subsequent trips back erasing their existence. Fin joins forces with his friends Nova and Bryan, as well as the still-human version of his wife April, all of whom were saved from their original deaths by Gil and sent back to await Fin's arrival. The group destroy the sharknado that appears with the help of a pterodactylus tamed by April, and use a time capacitor built into Gil's flight badge to return home, believing they have erased the sharknadoes from history.

However, the time vortex instead leads to medieval Camelot, with Bryan turning into a woman due to a temporal alteration. They meet Merlin, who reveals he has been helping the past version of Gil research a way to use sharknadoes for time travel; as a consequence of Gil searching for his parents throughout time, the sharknadoes have been unleashed across history. A sharknado forms and heads to the castle, but Fin destroys it with Excalibur after the past Gil uses it to time jump. The group's next jump leads to the American Revolutionary War, where they destroy a sharknado with aid from George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. Bryan, who returned to his original form after leaving Camelot, chooses to stay behind as Fin, Nova and April continue their quest.

The trio use a stagecoach to make the next leap, which brings them to the Old West town of Santa Mira. Their arrival allows Billy the Kid to escape arrest by the local sheriff, who detains Fin as an accomplice to Billy's crimes. This threatens to cause a catastrophic shift in the timeline, as Billy was meant to break Gil out of prison so he could reach the next sharknado. Nova and April meet up with Fin's ex-girlfriend Skye, who was also saved from her original death by Gil and sent back to await the others in Santa Mira. Together, they rescue Fin and Gil and allow the latter to make his time jump in the sharknado before destroying it with the eye lasers of April's robot counterpart's head from the previous timeline.

The group next travel to a 1950s beach party beset by a sharknado, which they destroy with aid from younger versions of Fin's parents Gilbert and Raye. They acquire a prototype time capacitor from the pair and attempt to go to July 11, 2013, to stop the Los Angeles sharknado, but Nova sabotages the capacitor to lead them to 1997 instead. She hopes to save her grandfather from dying in the shark attack that traumatized her as a child and successfully does so despite Fin's warnings, but ends up getting herself and April killed instead, while Robot April's head is lost in the ocean. Fin and Skye attempt another jump to 2013, but end up in 20013 instead, where Robot April has conquered the ruined world with flying sharks and an army of clones. Robot April explains that after her head was found by a fishing boat, she felt abandoned and spent the next 20,000 years creating a stable time machine she could use to force Fin into her future so they could be together forever. She freezes Skye and tempts Fin with clones of their children and Nova, but Fin refuses. The human April, who Robot April preserved as a genetic base for the clones, wakes up and fights with her, buying time for Fin to use the time machine himself.

Fin arrives in 2013 and lands on Captain Santiago's shark poaching boat right as the first sharknado forms. He discovers that Santiago found Robot April's head and intervenes to prevent her from turning evil, then helps the captain battle the sharknado. Robot April's future self arrives and tries to steal the capacitor from Fin, and their struggle damages the device, releasing a pulse that tears the fabric of reality. Time begins collapsing, creating a "timenado" that begins destroying the universe as it strikes throughout history. Robot April's head helps Fin destroy her future self, and he triggers her nuclear failsafe, sacrificing their lives to destroy the sharknado and repair time, thus creating a new universe.

In the new, sharknado-free timeline, all of the Shepard family and friends are alive. Fin and April run the bar with Nova, who now likes sharks, while April is pregnant with Gil. A television commercial reveals that Skye has become a politician and is a leading presidential candidate. Fin's daughter Claudia delivers Fin a letter from his father, who is in space and has sent his flight insignia as a gift for Gil's birth. Fin, who plans to retire to Kansas with April and Gil, delivers an emotional farewell speech to his friends and family. April goes into labor, and everyone rushes out of the bar to head to the hospital. As they leave, the television plays a broadcast of The Today Show with Al Roker reporting that there are no clouds in the sky at all, an occurrence that will likely never happen again.

## Cast

### Principal cast

- Ian Ziering as Fin Shepard

- Tara Reid as April Wexler

- Cassie Scerbo as Nova Clarke Catarina Scerbo as young Nova

- Catarina Scerbo as young Nova

- Judah Friedlander as Bryan Debra Wilson as new Bryan

- Debra Wilson as new Bryan

- Vivica A. Fox as Skye

### Supporting cast

- Brendan Petrizzo as Hologram Gil

- M. Steven Felty as D. Brown and Voice of Hologram Gil

- Matie Moncea as Gil on Dinosaur

- T-Rex (Todd Rex) as T-Rex Operator

- Neil deGrasse Tyson as Merlin

- Alaska as Morgana

- Marina Sirtis as Winter

- Audrey Latt and Ana Maria Varty Mihail as Maidens

- Tiberiu Hansan as Medieval Gil

- Andrew Olteanu as Frodo

- Leslie Jordan as Benjamin Franklin

- Darrell Hammond as George Washington

- Ben Stein as Alexander Hamilton

- Roy Taylor as Jebediah Clarke

- Constantin Viscreanu as Paul Revere

- Dexter Holland as British Captain

- Ian Ridenhour, Kathrine Ridenhour and Chris Ridenhour as Townspeople

- Jonathan Bennett as Billy the Kid

- Dee Snider as Sheriff

- Chris Owen as 30-Year-Old Gil

- James Murray as Eastwood

- Kim Little as Cowgirl

- Brady Latt, Moise Latt, Aiden Cano and Zachary Cano as Cowboys

- Gilbert Gottfried as Rand McDonald, Ron McDonald's father

- Tori Spelling as Raye Martin

- Dean McDermott as Gilly Shepard

- Benjy Bronk as Connor Beale

- Robbie Rist as Quint Guitarist

- Anthony C. Ferrante as Quint Singer

- Joel Valder as Quint Drummer

- Thom Bowyer as Quint Bassist

- Raine Michaels as Yellow Polka Dot Bikini Girl

- Bob Ellis as Surfer Gil

- Erin Ziering as Beach Mom

- Mia Ziering and Penna Ziering as Beach Kids

- Ronanna Bina, Kacie Flower, Courtney Quod, Brandon Quod, Nick Grothe, Tammy Klein, Anna Rasmussen and Ana Florit as 1950s Dancers

- Christopher Knight as Grandpa Clarke

- Bernie Kopell as Charter Boat Captain

- Juliana Ferrante as Juliana

- Emma Neal as Emma

- Israel Sáez de Miguel as Captain Carlos Santiago

- Marcus Choi as Palmer

- Alexandre Ottoni de Menezes (aka Jovem Nerd) as Azzinaro

- La Toya Jackson as Cleopatra

- James Hong as Confucius

- Eileen Davidson as Marie Antoinette

- Shad Gaspard as Muhammad Ali

- Jayson Paul as Joe Louis

- Kato Kaelin as Viking King

- Patrick Labyorteaux as Julius Caesar

- Julia LaJuett as Amelia Earhart

- Paul Logan as Egyptian Guard

- Sharon Desiree as Joan of Arc

- Al Roker as himself

- Petunia as herself

- Thunder Levin as Bar Patron

- Chuck Hittinger as Matt Shepard

- Ryan Newman as Claudia Shepard

- Gary Busey as Wilford Wexler

- Bo Derek as May Wexler

- Mark McGrath as Martin Brody

- Masiela Lusha as Gemini

- John Heard as George (archive footage)

## Production

In February 2018, the film was confirmed to be released that summer to follow upon Sharknado 5 ' s premiere, Tara Reid, Ian Ziering and Cassie Scerbo were set to return. On March 28, 2018, Syfy confirmed the film will be the final installment of the series.

On May 25, the film's title, The Last Sharknado: It's About Time was revealed by a teaser trailer. A 30-second trailer was released on August 2. Vivica A. Fox, who had starred in Sharknado 2, also returned for the final installment.

Several other actors reprised their roles in cameos for the final scene of the movie, including Chuck Hittinger reappearing as Matt Shepard, replacing Cody Linley who had portrayed Matt in the fourth and fifth movies. Archival footage of John Heard, who portrayed George in the original film, was also used in tribute to the actor, who had passed away in July 2017.

## Reception

On Metacritic, the film has a score of 22 out of 100 based on reviews from 5 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". On Rotten Tomatoes it has a score of 27% based on reviews from 11 critics.


4-H

# 4-H

## Abstract

4-H is a U.S.-based network of youth organizations whose mission is "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development". Its name is a reference to the occurrence of the initial letter H four times in the organization's original motto head, heart, hands, and health, which was later incorporated into the fuller pledge officially adopted in 1927. In the United States, the organization is administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 4-H Canada is an independent non-profit organization overseeing the operation of branches throughout Canada. There are 4-H organizations in over 50 countries; the organization and administration varies from country to country.

The goal of 4-H is to develop citizenship, leadership, responsibility and life skills of youth through experiential learning programs and a positive youth development approach. Though typically thought of as an agriculturally focused organization as a result of its history, 4-H today focuses on citizenship, healthy living, science, engineering, and technology programs. Clubs in today's 4-H world consist of a wide range of options each allowing for personal growth and career success. The 4-H motto is "To make the best better", while its slogan is "Learn by doing" (sometimes written as "Learn to do by doing"). As of 2016, the organization had nearly 6 million active participants and more than 25 million alumni.

## History

The foundations of 4-H began in 1902 with the work of several people in different parts of the United States. The focal point of 4-H has been the idea of practical and hands-on learning, which came from the desire to make public school education more connected to rural life. Early programs incorporated both public and private resources. 4-H was founded with the purpose of instructing rural youth in improved farming and farm-homemaking practices. By the 1970s, it was broadening its goals to cover a full range of youth, including minorities, and a wide range of life experiences.

During this time, researchers at experiment stations of the land-grant universities and USDA saw that adults in the farming community did not readily accept new agricultural discoveries. However, educators found that youth would experiment with these new ideas and then share their experiences and successes with the adults. As a result rural youth programs became a way to introduce new agriculture technology to the adults.

Club work began wherever a public-spirited person did something to give rural children respect for themselves and their ways of life and it is very difficult to credit one sole individual. Instances of work with rural boys and girls can be found all throughout the 19th century. In the spring of 1882, Delaware College announced a statewide corn contest for boys, in which each boy was to plant a quarter of an acre, according to instructions sent out from the college, and cash prizes, certificates, and subscriptions to the American Agriculturalist were rewarded.

In 1892, in an effort to improve the Kewaunee County Fair, Ransom Asa Moore, the president of the Kewaunee Fair, the Agricultural Society, and Superintendent of the Kewaunee County Schools in Wisconsin, organized a "youth movement", which he called "Young People's Contest Clubs", in which he solicited the support of 6,000 young farm folks to produce and exhibit fruits, vegetables, and livestock. The fairs were quite successful. In 1904, while working for the University of Wisconsin–Madison and trying to repeat what he had accomplished in Kewaunee County over a decade before but with different intentions, "Daddy" R.A. Moore convinced R.H. Burns, then Superintendent of Schools of Richland County, Wisconsin, to have the Richland County Boys and Girls organize and assist in a corn-project activity to help market and distribute improved seeds to the farmers in the state of Wisconsin (and beyond).

A. B. Graham began one of the youth programs in Clark County, Ohio, in 1902, which is also considered one of the births of the 4-H program in the United States. The first club was called "The Tomato Club" or the "Corn Growing Club". T.A. "Dad" Erickson of Douglas County, Minnesota, started local agricultural after-school clubs and fairs also in 1902. Jessie Field Shambaugh developed the clover pin with an H on each leaf in 1910, and, by 1912, they were called 4-H clubs. Early 4-H programs in Colorado began with youth instruction offered by college agricultural agents as early as 1910, as part of the outreach mission of the Colorado land grant institutions.

The national 4-H organization was formed in 1914, when the United States Congress created the Cooperative Extension Service of the USDA by passage of the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, it included within the CES charter the work of various boys' and girls' clubs involved with agriculture, home economics and related subjects. The Smith-Lever Act formalized the 4-H programs and clubs that began in the midwestern region of the United States. Although different activities were emphasized for boys and girls, 4-H was one of the first youth organizations to give equal attention to both genders (cf., erstwhile Boys Clubs of America). The first appearance of the term "4-H Club" in a federal document was in "Organization and Results of Boys' and Girls' Club Work," by Oscar Herman Benson (1875–1951) and Gertrude L. Warren, in 1920. By 1924, the clubs were organized as 4-H clubs, and the clover emblem was adopted. Warren expanded the scope of girls' activities under the program (promoting garment making, room decorating, and hot lunches), and wrote extensive training materials.

The first 4-H camp was held in Randolph County, West Virginia. Originally, these camps were for what was referred to as "Corn Clubs". Campers slept in corn fields in tents, only to wake up and work almost the entirety of each day. Superintendent of Schools G. C. Adams began a boys' corn club in Newton County, Georgia, in 1904.

4-H membership hit an all-time high in 1974 as a result of its popular educational program about nutrition, Mulligan Stew, shown in schools and on television across the country. Today, 4-H clubs and activities are no longer focused primarily on agricultural activities, instead emphasizing personal growth and preparation for lifelong learning. Participation is greatest during the elementary school years, with enrollment in programs and activities peaking in the 4th grade.

In the southern United States during the mid-1960s 4-H began to broaden its programming to cover life experiences unrelated to agriculture. It merged its segregated AfricanAmerican and white programs, but full-fledged integration proved elusive. 4-H was successful in removing gender-based restrictions on participation.

The organization is funded by the USDA and by state and local governments. The National 4-H Council's programs are also supported by a number of corporations including Google, Verizon, Microsoft, Land O'Lakes Inc., and Tractor Supply Co.

Past Honorary Chairmen of Council have included U.S. Presidents Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton.

## Pledge

The 4-H pledge is:

I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.

Otis E. Hall wrote the original pledge of Kansas in 1918. Some California 4-H clubs add either "As a true 4-H member" or "As a loyal 4-H member" at the beginning of the pledge. Minnesota and Maine 4-H clubs add "for my family" to the last line of the pledge. Initially, the pledge ended in "and my country," but in 1973, "and my world" was added.

It is a common practice to involve hand motions to accompany these spoken words. While reciting the first line of the pledge, the speaker points to their head with both of their hands. As the speaker recites the second line, they place their right hand over their heart much like during the Pledge of Allegiance. For the third line, the speaker presents their hands, palm side up, before them. For the fourth line, the speaker motions to their body down their sides. For the final line, the speaker usually places their right hand out for the club, left hand for the community, brings them together for the country, and then brings their hands upwards in a circle representing the world.

## Emblem

The official 4-H emblem is a green four-leaf clover with a white H on each leaf standing for Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. The stem of the clover always points to the right.

The idea of using the four-leaf clover as an emblem for the 4-H program is credited to Oscar Herman Benson (1875–1951) of Wright County, Iowa. He awarded three-leaf and four-leaf clover pennants and pins for students' agricultural and domestic science exhibits at school fairs.

The 4-H name and emblem had U.S. federal protection, previous under federal code 18 U.S.C. 707. The federal protection made it a mark unto and of itself with protection that supersedes the limited authorities of both a trademark and a copyright. The Secretary of Agriculture is given responsibility and stewardship for the 4-H name and emblem, at the direct request of the U.S. Congress. These protections placed the 4-H emblem in a unique category of protected emblems, also along with the U.S. Presidential Seal, Red Cross, Smokey Bear, and the Olympic rings. Protections for the 4-H emblem were repealed by Title XI of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.

## Youth development research

Through the program's tie to land-grant institutions of higher education, 4-H academic staff are responsible for advancing the field of youth development. Professional academic staff are committed to innovation, the creation of new knowledge, and the dissemination of new forms of program practice and research on topics like University of California 's study of thriving in young people. Youth development research is undertaken in a variety of forms including program evaluation, applied research, and introduction of new programs.

## Volunteers

Over 540,000 volunteer leaders help to coordinate the 4-H program at the county level. Volunteers plan and conduct 4-H related activities, develop and maintain educational programs, or assist in fundraising. Activities include youth development programs, project groups, camps, conferences, or animal shows. The volunteers' goal is to help youth achieve greater self-confidence and self-responsibility, learn new skills, and build relationships.

Volunteers are directed by 4-H's professional staff.

The National 4-H Hall of Fame honors 4-H volunteers, extension professionals and staff employees, donors and others, according to a criterion of "significant impact on the 4-H program and/or 4-H members through the contribution of time, energy, financial resources, etc.". The hall of fame was established in 2002 by the National Association of Extension 4-H Youth Development Professionals (NAE4-HYDP).

## Additional programs

### After-school

4-H Afterschool helps 4-H and other youth-serving organizations create and improve programs for students in communities across the U.S. 4-H Afterschool is an extension-enhanced program that:

- Offers youth a safe, healthy, caring and enriching environment.

- Engages youth in long-term, structured learning in partnership with adults.

- Addresses the interests of youth and their physical, cognitive, social and emotional needs.

4-H Afterschool programs utilize experimental and cooperative learning activities and provide interaction with competent adults. Results of retrospective pre/post-surveys indicate that children enrolled in the program showed life skill gain over time, and that gains on specific life skills differed as a function of age, gender, and ethnicity.

The life skills gained through 4-H Afterschool give children the tools they need for perceiving and responding to diverse life situations and achieving their personal goals. Participation in these quality programs which use experiential and cooperative learning have all been found to contribute to children's social development and academic success.

### Camping

Each state runs its own camping program. The world's first 4-H camp was held in July 1915 on the Crouch family farm along the Tygart Valley River near Elkwater, West Virginia. The youth in attendance named the location "Camp Good Luck."

The first state 4-H camp was held at Jackson's Mill outside of Weston, West Virginia. 4-H camping programs in most states are run through land-grant institutions, such as Washington State University, which runs the Washington program, and Pennsylvania State University runs Pennsylvania's. The Georgia 4-H camping program has the largest youth center in the world, called Rock Eagle.

On July 8, 2015, to mark the centennial of 4-H camping, youth from Randolph County, West Virginia traveled back to the original Camp Good Luck site for a special commemoration and campfire program. A stone marker honoring Camp Good Luck had been placed adjacent to US 219 near the site, but was moved to a spot off of Bell Crouch Rd. for greater safety and accessibility through the efforts of Randolph County 4-H volunteers and the West Virginia Division of Highways.

### Five- to eight-year-old youth

Some states offer programs for youth in grades K-2 called Cloverbuds, Cloverkids, 4-H Adventurers, Primary Members, or Mini 4-H. Some states prohibit this age group from competition due to research in child development demonstrating that competition is unhealthy for youth ages five to eight.

### Collegiate

Many colleges and universities have collegiate 4-H clubs. Usually members are students who are 4-H alumni and want to continue a connection to 4-H, but any interested students are welcome. Clubs provide service and support to their local and state 4-H programs, such as serving as judges and conducting training workshops. They are also a service and social group for campus students. The first collegiate 4-H club started in 1916 on the Oklahoma State University - Stillwater campus.

### All Stars

Finding its roots in the early 4-H movement in West Virginia, the 4-H All-Star program strives to recognize and challenge 4-H members and volunteers. State 4-H Club Leader William H. "Teepi" Kendrick sought to develop youth to "be yourself at your best" and to "make the best better" through a fourfold personal development pattern involving the head, hands, heart, and, at that time, hustle. It was with this philosophy, in collaboration with others, that the 4-H emblem was born. In an attempt to harbor further individual growth, Kendrick recognized excellence with pins bearing one, two, three, and four H's. Recognition for outstanding participation was rewarded from 1917 to 1921 with trips to a Prize Winner's Course at West Virginia University. Members who demonstrated outstanding qualities at these courses were awarded five-pointed red pins with five H's, with this additional H to symbolize honor. The recipients of these pins were referred to by Kendrick as "All Stars". It was following the pin consecration ceremony in 1919 that the official West Virginia 4-H All Stars organization was chartered, becoming the Alpha Chapter of the nationwide 4-H honorary.

The symbol of the All Stars is a red star enveloping a gemstone chip over the 4-H emblem. Each point of the star represents a pillar of character: "Beauty, Fortitude, Service, Truth, and Love".

Many states have All Star programs, although All Star programs vary from state to state. Selection as a 4-H All Star is a recognition of achievement. In California for example, it is the highest achievement award at the county level and is a position awarded annually. Similarly, the capstone award in Texas 4-H is the Gold Star Award, which is given to Seniors who have shown outstanding leadership and proficiency in their project areas.

In Virginia, on the other hand, All-Stars are not simply those who have achieved an All-Star award, but are those who have gained membership into the Virginia All-Stars organization. After reaching the age of 15, 4-H members are eligible to apply for membership into the All-Stars organization, which promotes the continuation of 4-H principles.

## Conferences

Many conferences are held at various levels of the 4-H program for youth and adults. The National 4-H Conference, which was held at the National 4-H Youth Conference Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, until it was sold in 2021, is the USDA Secretary's premier youth development opportunity to engage youth in developing recommendations for the 4-H Youth Development Program. The Conference still meets annually in and around Washington, DC. The 2024 National 4-H Conference will be held in Arlington, VA.

The National 4-H Congress is an annual educational conference that brings together 4-H delegates between the ages of 14 and 19 from across America to share cultural experiences and discuss important issues facing youth. This five-day event is typically held during the weekend of Thanksgiving and has been hosted in Atlanta, since 1998. Throughout the conference, 4-H delegates attend numerous workshops, participate in community service activities, and listen to speakers in an effort to develop compassion and increase social awareness.

Citizenship Washington Focus is a week-long conference offered for high school-aged students. At the conference, students have the opportunity to learn how to be citizen leaders in their communities. Throughout the week in Washington, D.C, participants visit monuments, meet with members of Congress, and develop communication, leadership and citizenship skills.

The following national conferences are held yearly, and are focused on specific activities inside of 4-H:

- National 4-H Dairy Conference

- Eastern National 4-H Horse Roundup

- Western National 4-H Horse Roundup

- National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational Match

- National 4-H True Leaders in Equity Institute

- National 4-H Youth Summit Series STEM Summit Healthy Living Summit Agri-science Summit

- STEM Summit

- Healthy Living Summit

- Agri-science Summit

Other conferences are held by regional and state entities for youth, for volunteer development, or for professional development for staff.

## Use of Native American terminology

For many years, use of Native American names and certain themed activities was part of the summer camping programs of some eastern states. However, the practice was considered to be offensive and protests were raised. A complaint to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Civil Rights in 2002 and an ensuing investigation that threatened to cut off funds to the state's program prompted the West Virginia University Extension Service to abandon offensive and stereotypic practices such as face-painting, and use of imagery not a part of the culture of local Native people, such as tepees and totem poles. They also eliminated the practice of having children wear feather headdresses, and stopped having campers engage in "stereotypical motions and dances," including chanting "Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!". However, the state program deemed the dividing of campers into groups, called "tribes" named after actual Indian Nations, to be respectful and acceptable. In the same year, the Virginia Extension Service removed all references to symbols or camp "traditions" related to Native Americans, including the decades-long practice of dividing campers into "tribes" using names of nations considered native to Virginia, replacing the group names with animal names.

## Alumni

Some 4-H alumni credit the program with helping them in later life.

In 2021, Minnesota-based photographer R. J. Kern, along with writer Alison Nordström, published, "The Unchosen Ones: Portraits of an American Pastoral." The book highlights portraits of dozens of youth, who spent a year raising and training their animal and then entered into a 4-H livestock competition, but were unsuccessful in winning the top award in their competitions, then revisits the same youth four years later, and asked the young subjects what they had carried forward from their previous experience.


Limnocythere inopinata

# Limnocythere inopinata

## Abstract

Limnocythere inopinata is a species of crustacean belonging to the family Limnocytheridae.

It has cosmopolitan distribution.


Abbey Road

# Abbey Road

## Abstract

Abbey Road is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 26 September 1969, by Apple Records. It is the last album the group recorded, although Let It Be (1970) was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly recorded in April, July, and August 1969, and topped the record charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom. A double A-side single from the album, " Something " / " Come Together ", was released in October, which also topped the charts in the US.

Abbey Road incorporates styles such as rock, pop, blues, and progressive rock, and makes prominent use of the Moog synthesiser and guitar played through a Leslie speaker unit. It is also notable for having a long medley of songs on side two that have subsequently been covered as one suite by other notable artists. The album was recorded in a more collegial atmosphere than the Get Back / Let It Be sessions earlier in the year, but there were still significant confrontations within the band, particularly over Paul McCartney 's song " Maxwell's Silver Hammer ", and John Lennon did not perform on several tracks. By the time the album was released, Lennon had left the group, though this was not publicly announced until McCartney also quit the following year.

Although Abbey Road was an instant commercial success, it received mixed reviews upon release. Some critics found its music inauthentic and criticised the production's artificial effects. By contrast, critics today view the album as one of the Beatles' best and one of the greatest albums of all time. George Harrison 's two songs on the album, "Something" and " Here Comes the Sun ", are considered among the best he wrote for the group. The album's cover, featuring the Beatles walking across the zebra crossing outside of Abbey Road Studios (then officially named EMI Studios), is one of the most famous and imitated of all time.

## Background

After the recording sessions for the proposed Get Back album, Paul McCartney suggested to producer George Martin that the group get together and make an album "the way we used to do it", free of the conflict that had begun during sessions for The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). Martin agreed, but on the strict condition that all the group—particularly John Lennon—allow him to produce the record in the same manner as earlier albums and that discipline would be adhered to. No one was sure that the work would be the group's last, though George Harrison later recalled that "it felt as if we were reaching the end of the line".

## Production

### Recording history

The first sessions for Abbey Road began on 22 February 1969, only three weeks after the Get Back sessions, in Trident Studios. There, the group recorded a backing track for " I Want You (She's So Heavy) " with Billy Preston accompanying them on Hammond organ. No further group recording occurred until April because of Ringo Starr 's commitments on the film The Magic Christian. After a small amount of work that month and a session for " You Never Give Me Your Money " on 6 May, the group took an eight-week break before recommencing on 2 July. Recording continued through July and August, and the last backing track, for " Because ", was taped on 1 August. Overdubs continued through the month, with the final sequencing of the album coming together on 20 August – the last time all four Beatles were present in a studio together.

McCartney, Starr and Martin have reported positive recollections of the sessions, while Harrison said, "we did actually perform like musicians again". Lennon and McCartney had enjoyed working together on the non-album single " The Ballad of John and Yoko " in April, sharing friendly banter between takes, and some of this camaraderie carried over to the Abbey Road sessions. Nevertheless, there was a significant amount of tension in the group. According to Ian MacDonald, McCartney had an acrimonious argument with Lennon during the sessions. Lennon's wife Yoko Ono had become a permanent presence at Beatles recordings, and clashed with other members. Halfway through recording in June, Lennon and Ono were involved in a car accident. A doctor told Ono to rest in bed, so Lennon had one installed in the studio so she could observe the recording process from there.

During the sessions, Lennon expressed a desire to have all of his songs on one side of the album, and McCartney's on the other. The album's two halves represented a compromise: Lennon wanted a traditional release with distinct and unrelated songs, while McCartney and Martin wanted to continue their thematic approach from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by incorporating a medley. Lennon ultimately said that he disliked Abbey Road as a whole and felt that it lacked authenticity, calling McCartney's contributions " for the grannies to dig" and not "real songs", and describing the medley as "junk... just bits of songs thrown together".

### Technical aspects

Abbey Road was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape machines rather than the four-track machines that were used for earlier Beatles albums such as Sgt Pepper, and was the first Beatles album not to be issued in mono anywhere in the world. The album makes prominent use of guitar played through a Leslie speaker, and of the Moog synthesiser. The Moog is not merely used as a background effect but sometimes plays a central role, as in "Because", where it is used for the middle eight. It is also prominent on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and "Here Comes the Sun". The synthesiser was introduced to the band by Harrison, who acquired one in November 1968 and used it to create his album Electronic Sound. Starr made more prominent use of the tom-toms on Abbey Road, later saying the album was "tom-tom madness... I went nuts on the toms."

Abbey Road was also the first and only Beatles album to be entirely recorded through a solid-state transistor mixing desk, the TG12345 Mk I, as opposed to earlier tube (thermionic valve)-based REDD desks. The TG console also allowed better support for eight-track recording, facilitating the Beatles' considerable use of overdubbing. Emerick recalls that the TG desk used to record the album had individual limiters and compressors on each audio channel and noted that the overall sound was "softer" than the earlier tube (valve) desks. In his study of the role of the TG12345 in the Beatles' sound on Abbey Road, the music historian Kenneth Womack observes that "the expansive sound palette and mixing capabilities of the TG12345 enabled George Martin and Geoff Emerick to imbue the Beatles' sound with greater definition and clarity. The warmth of solid-state recording also afforded their music with brighter tonalities and a deeper low end that distinguished Abbey Road from the rest of their corpus, providing listeners with an abiding sense that the Beatles' final long-player was markedly different."

Alan Parsons worked as an assistant engineer on the album. He later went on to engineer Pink Floyd 's landmark album The Dark Side of the Moon and produce many popular albums himself with the Alan Parsons Project. John Kurlander also assisted on many of the sessions, and went on to become a successful engineer and producer, most noteworthy for his success on the scores for the Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

## Songs

### Side one

#### "Come Together"

"Come Together" was an expansion of "Let's Get It Together", a song Lennon originally wrote for Timothy Leary 's California gubernatorial campaign against Ronald Reagan. A rough version of the lyrics for "Come Together" was written at Lennon's and Ono's second bed-in event in Montreal.

The biographer Jonathan Gould suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait". MacDonald has suggested that the "juju eyeballs" has been claimed to refer to Dr John and "spinal cracker" to Ono. The song was later the subject of a lawsuit brought against Lennon by Morris Levy because the opening line in "Come Together" – "Here come old flat-top" – was admittedly lifted from a line in Chuck Berry 's " You Can't Catch Me ". A settlement was reached in 1973 in which Lennon promised to record three songs from Levy's publishing catalogue for his next album.

"Come Together" was later released as a double A-side single with "Something". In the liner notes to the compilation album Love, Martin described the track as "a simple song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers".

#### "Something"

Harrison was inspired to write "Something" during sessions for the White Album by listening to his label-mate James Taylor 's " Something in the Way She Moves " from his album James Taylor. After the lyrics were refined during the Let It Be sessions (tapes reveal Lennon giving Harrison some songwriting advice during its composition), the song was initially given to Joe Cocker, but was subsequently recorded for Abbey Road. Cocker's version appeared on his album Joe Cocker! that November.

"Something" was Lennon's favourite song on the album, and McCartney considered it the best song Harrison had written. Though the song was written by Harrison, Frank Sinatra once commented that it was his favourite Lennon–McCartney composition and "the greatest love song ever written". Lennon contributed piano to the recording and while most of the part was removed, traces of it remain in the final cut, notably on the middle eight, before Harrison's guitar solo.

The song was issued as a double A-side single with "Come Together" in October 1969 and topped the US charts for one week, becoming the Beatles' first number-one single that was not a Lennon–McCartney composition. It was also the first Beatles single from an album already released in the UK. Apple's Neil Aspinall filmed a promotional video, which combined separate footage of the Beatles and their wives.

#### "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer", McCartney's first song on the album, was first performed by the Beatles during the Let It Be sessions (as seen in the film). He wrote the song after the group's trip to India in 1968 and wanted to record it for the White Album, but it was rejected by the others as "too complicated".

The recording was fraught with tension between band members, as McCartney annoyed others by insisting on a perfect performance. The track was the first Lennon was invited to work on following his car accident, but he hated it and declined to do so. According to engineer Geoff Emerick, Lennon said it was "more of Paul's granny music" and left the session. He spent the next two weeks with Ono and did not return to the studio until the backing track for "Come Together" was laid down on 21 July. Harrison was also tired of the song, saying "we had to play it over and over again until Paul liked it. It was a real drag". Starr was more sympathetic to the song. "It was granny music", he admitted, "but we needed stuff like that on our album so other people would listen to it". Longtime roadie Mal Evans played the anvil sound in the chorus. This track also makes use of Harrison's Moog synthesiser, played by McCartney.

#### "Oh! Darling"

"Oh! Darling" was written by McCartney in a doo-wop style, like contemporary work by Frank Zappa. It was tried at the Get Back sessions, and a version appears on Anthology 3. It was subsequently re-recorded in April, with overdubs in July and August.

McCartney attempted recording the lead vocal only once a day. He said: "I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." Lennon thought he should have sung it, remarking that it was more his style.

#### "Octopus's Garden"

As was the case with most of the Beatles' albums, Starr sang lead vocal on one track. "Octopus's Garden" is his second and last solo composition released on any album by the band. It was inspired by a trip with his family to Sardinia aboard Peter Sellers 's yacht after Starr left the band for two weeks during the sessions for the White Album. Starr received a full songwriting credit and composed most of the lyrics, although the song's melodic structure was partly written in the studio by Harrison. The pair would later collaborate as writers on Starr's solo singles " It Don't Come Easy ", " Back Off Boogaloo " and " Photograph ".

#### "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"

"I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was written by Lennon about his relationship with Ono, and he made a deliberate choice to keep the lyrics simple and concise. Author Tom Maginnis writes that the song had a progressive rock influence, with its unusual length and structure, repeating guitar riff, and white noise effects, though he noted the "I Want You" section has a straightforward blues structure.

The finished song is a combination of two different recording attempts. The first attempt occurred in February 1969, almost immediately after the Get Back / Let It Be sessions with Billy Preston. This was subsequently combined with a second version made during the Abbey Road sessions proper in April. The two sections together ran to nearly eight minutes, making it the Beatles' second-longest released track. Lennon used Harrison's Moog synthesiser with a white noise setting to create a "wind" effect that was overdubbed on the second half of the track. During the final edit, Lennon told Emerick to "cut it right there" at 7 minutes and 44 seconds, creating a sudden, jarring silence that concludes the first side of Abbey Road (the recording tape would have run out within 20 seconds as it was). The final mixing and editing of the track occurred on 20 August 1969, the last day on which all four Beatles were together in the studio.

### Side two

#### "Here Comes the Sun"

"Here Comes the Sun" was written by Harrison in Eric Clapton 's garden in Surrey during a break from stressful band business meetings. The basic track was recorded on 7 July 1969. Harrison sang lead and played acoustic guitar, McCartney provided backing vocals and played bass, and Starr played the drums. Lennon was still recovering from his car accident and did not perform on the track. Martin provided an orchestral arrangement in collaboration with Harrison, who overdubbed a Moog synthesiser part on 19 August, immediately before the final mix.

Though not released as a single, the song attracted attention and critical praise, and was included on the compilation 1967–1970. It has been featured several times on BBC Radio 4 's Desert Island Discs, having been chosen by Sandie Shaw, Jerry Springer, Boris Johnson and Elaine Paige. The Daily Telegraph ' s Martin Chilton said it was "almost impossible not to sing along to". Since digital downloads have become eligible to chart, it reached number 56 in 2010 after the Beatles' back catalogue was released on iTunes.

Harrison recorded a guitar solo for this track that did not appear in the final mix. It was rediscovered in 2012, and footage of Martin and Harrison's son Dhani listening to it in the studio was released on the DVD of Living in the Material World.

#### "Because"

"Because" was inspired by Lennon listening to Ono playing Ludwig van Beethoven 's " Moonlight Sonata " on the piano. He recalled he was "lying on the sofa in our house, listening to Yoko play... Suddenly, I said, 'Can you play those chords backward?' She did, and I wrote 'Because' around them." The track features three-part harmonies by Lennon, McCartney and Harrison, which were then triple-tracked to give nine voices in the final mix. The group considered the vocals to be some of the hardest and most complex they attempted. Harrison played the Moog synthesiser, and Martin played the harpsichord that opens the track.

#### Medley

The remainder of side two consists of a 16-minute medley of eight tracks consisting of a number of short songs and song fragments (known during the recording sessions as "The Long One"), recorded over July and August and blended into a suite by McCartney and Martin. Some songs were written (and originally recorded in demo form) during sessions for the White Album and Get Back / Let It Be, which later appeared on Anthology 3. While the idea for the medley was McCartney's, Martin claims credit for some structure, adding he "wanted to get John and Paul to think more seriously about their music".

The first track recorded for the medley was the opening number, " You Never Give Me Your Money ". McCartney has said the band's dispute over Allen Klein and what McCartney viewed as Klein's empty promises were the inspiration for the song's lyrics. However, MacDonald doubts this, given that the backing track, recorded on 6 May at Olympic Studios, predated the worst altercations between Klein and McCartney. The track is a suite of varying styles, ranging from a piano-led ballad at the start to arpeggiated guitars at the end. Both Harrison and Lennon provided guitar solos, with Lennon playing the solos at the end of the track.

This song transitions into Lennon's " Sun King " which, like "Because", showcases Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's triple-tracked harmonies. Following it are Lennon's " Mean Mr. Mustard " (written during the Beatles' 1968 trip to India) and " Polythene Pam ". These in turn are followed by four McCartney songs, " She Came In Through the Bathroom Window " (written after a fan entered McCartney's residence via his bathroom window), " Golden Slumbers " (based on Thomas Dekker 's 17th-century poem set to new music), " Carry That Weight " (reprising elements from "You Never Give Me Your Money", and featuring chorus vocals from all four Beatles), and closing with " The End ".

"The End" features Starr's only drum solo in the Beatles' catalogue (the drums are mixed across two tracks in "true stereo", unlike most releases at that time where they were hard-panned left or right). Fifty-four seconds into the song are 18 bars of lead guitar: the first two bars are played by McCartney, the second two by Harrison, and the third two by Lennon, and the sequence is repeated two more times. Harrison suggested the idea of a guitar solo in the track, Lennon decided they should trade solos and McCartney elected to go first. The solos were cut live against the existing backing track in one take. Immediately after Lennon's third and final solo, the piano chords of the final part of the song begin. The song ends with the memorable final line, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". This section was taped separately from the first and required the piano to be re-recorded by McCartney, which was done on 18 August. An alternative version of the song, with Harrison's lead guitar solo played against McCartney's (and Starr's drum solo heard in the background), appears on the Anthology 3 album and the 2012 digital-only compilation album Tomorrow Never Knows.

Musicologist Walter Everett interprets that most of the lyrics on side two's medley deal with "selfishness and self-gratification – the financial complaints in 'You Never Give Me Your Money,' the miserliness of Mr. Mustard, the holding back of the pillow in 'Carry That Weight,' the desire that some second person will visit the singer's dreams – perhaps the 'one sweet dream' of 'You Never Give Me Your Money'? – in 'The End. ' " Everett adds that the medley's "selfish moments" are played in the context of the tonal centre of A, while "generosity" is expressed in songs where C major is central. The medley concludes with a "great compromise in the 'negotiations ' " in "The End", which serves as a structurally balanced coda. In response to the repeated A-major choruses of "love you", McCartney sings in realisation that there is as much self-gratifying love ("the love you take") as there is of the generous love ("the love you make"), in A major and C major, respectively.

#### "Her Majesty"

"Her Majesty" was recorded by McCartney on 2 July when he arrived before the rest of the group at Abbey Road. It was originally included in a rough mix of the side two medley (and officially available in this form for the first time on the album's 3CD Super Deluxe edition box set), appearing between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam". McCartney disliked the way the medley sounded when it included "Her Majesty", so he asked for it to be cut. The second engineer, John Kurlander, had been instructed by George Martin not to throw out anything, so after McCartney left, he attached the track to the end of the master tape after 20 seconds of silence. The tape box bore an instruction to leave "Her Majesty" off the final product, but the next day when mastering engineer Malcolm Davies received the tape, he (also trained not to throw anything away) cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence, including "Her Majesty". The Beatles liked this effect and included it on the album.

"Her Majesty" opens with the final, crashing chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard", while the final note remained buried in the mix of "Polythene Pam", as a result of being snipped off the reel during a rough mix of the medley on 30 July. The medley was subsequently mixed again from scratch although the song was not touched again and still appears in its rough mix on the album.

Original US and UK pressings of Abbey Road do not list "Her Majesty" on the album's cover nor on the record label, making it a hidden track. The song title appears on the inlay card and disc of the 1987 remastered CD reissue, as track 17. It also appears on the sleeve, booklet and disc of the 2009 remastered CD reissue, but not on the cover or record label of the 2012 vinyl reissue or the 2019 remix of the album.

### Unreleased material

Three days after the session for "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", Harrison recorded solo demos of " All Things Must Pass " (which became the title track of his 1970 triple album), " Something " and " Old Brown Shoe ". The latter was re-recorded by the Beatles in April 1969 and issued as the B-side of "The Ballad of John and Yoko" the following month. All three of these Harrison demos were later featured on Anthology 3.

During the sessions for the medley, McCartney recorded " Come and Get It ", playing all the instruments. It was assumed to be a demo recording for another artist but McCartney later said that he originally intended to put it on Abbey Road. It was instead covered by Badfinger, while McCartney's original recording appeared on Anthology 3.

The original backing track to "Something", featuring a piano-led coda, and "You Never Give Me Your Money", which leads into a fast rock-n-roll jam session, have appeared on bootlegs.

## Cover photo

Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh's idea, despite EMI saying the record would not sell without this information. He later explained that "we didn't need to write the band's name on the cover They were the most famous band in the world". The front cover was a photograph of the group walking on a zebra crossing, based on ideas that McCartney sketched, and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which would be used on the album sleeve.

In the image selected by McCartney, the group walk across the street in single file from left to right, with Lennon leading, followed by Starr, McCartney and Harrison. McCartney is barefoot and out of step with the others. Except for Harrison, the group are wearing suits designed by Tommy Nutter. A white Volkswagen Beetle is to the left of the picture, parked next to the zebra crossing, which belonged to one of the people living in the block of flats across from the recording studio. After the album was released, the number plate (LMW 281F) was repeatedly stolen from the car. In 2004, news sources published a claim made by retired American salesman Paul Cole that he was the man standing on the pavement to the right of the picture.

## Release

In mid-1969, Lennon formed a new group, the Plastic Ono Band, in part because the Beatles had rejected his song " Cold Turkey ". While Harrison worked with such artists as Leon Russell, Doris Troy, Preston and Delaney & Bonnie through to the end of the year, McCartney took a hiatus from the group after his daughter Mary was born on 28 August. On 20 September, six days before Abbey Road was released, Lennon told McCartney, Starr, and business manager Allen Klein (Harrison was not present) that he "wanted a divorce" from the group. Apple released "Something" backed with "Come Together" in the US on 6 October 1969. Release of the single in the UK followed on 31 October, while Lennon released the Plastic Ono Band's "Cold Turkey" the same month.

The Beatles did little promotion of Abbey Road directly, and no public announcement was made of the band's split until McCartney announced he was leaving the group in April 1970. By this time, the Get Back project (by now retitled Let It Be) had been re-examined, with overdubs and mixing sessions continuing into 1970. Therefore, Let It Be became the last album to be finished and released by the Beatles, although its recording had begun before Abbey Road.

Abbey Road sold four million copies in its first two months of release. In the UK, the album debuted at number one, where it remained for 11 weeks before being displaced for one week by the Rolling Stones ' Let It Bleed. The following week (which was Christmas), Abbey Road returned to the top for another six weeks (completing a total of 17 weeks) before being replaced by Led Zeppelin II. Altogether, it spent 81 weeks on the UK albums chart. Reaction overseas was similar. In the US, the album spent 11 weeks at number one on the Billboard Top LPs chart. It was the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) best-selling album of 1969. In Japan, it was one of the longest-charting albums to date, remaining in the top 100 for 298 weeks during the 1970s.

## Critical reception

### Contemporary

Abbey Road initially received mixed reviews from music critics, who criticised the production's artificial sounds and viewed its music as inauthentic. William Mann of The Times said that the album will "be called gimmicky by people who want a record to sound exactly like a live performance", although he considered it to be "teem with musical invention" and added: "Nice as 'Come Together' and Harrison's 'Something' are – they are minor pleasures in the context of the whole disc... Side Two is marvellous..." Ed Ward of Rolling Stone called the album "complicated instead of complex" and felt that the Moog synthesiser "disembodies and artificializes" the band's sound, adding that they "create a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio". While he found the medley on side two to be their "most impressive music" since Rubber Soul, Nik Cohn of The New York Times said that, "individually", the album's songs are "nothing special". Albert Goldman of Life magazine wrote that Abbey Road "is not one of the Beatles' great albums" and, despite some "lovely" phrases and "stirring" segues, side two's suite "seems symbolic of the Beatles' latest phase, which might be described as the round-the-clock production of disposable music effects". John Gabree of the magazine High Fidelity wrote, of the album, "what's to say? If you like the Beatles, you'll like the record. If you have your doubts, this will do nothing to allay them. Of course, as someone just said, they do have 'something.'"

Conversely, Chris Welch wrote in Melody Maker: "the truth is, their latest LP is just a natural born gas, entirely free of pretension, deep meanings or symbolism... While production is simple compared to past intricacies, it is still extremely sophisticated and inventive." Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times found the album "refreshingly terse and unpretentious", and although he lamented the band's "cod-1920s jokes (Maxwell's Silver Hammer) and... Ringo's obligatory nursery arias (Octopus's Garden)", he considered that Abbey Road "touches higher peaks than did their last album". John Mendelsohn, writing for Rolling Stone, called it "breathtakingly recorded" and praised side two especially, equating it to "the whole of Sgt. Pepper " and stating, "That the Beatles can unify seemingly countless musical fragments and lyrical doodlings into a uniformly wonderful suite... seems potent testimony that no, they've far from lost it, and no, they haven't stopped trying." Don Heckman of Stereo Review named the album one of the "Best Recordings of the Month" of January 1970, remarking that it was "better than ' The Beatles ' or ' Magical Mystery Tour,' and probably the equal of ' Sgt. Pepper '", adding, "I suppose I haven't really come up with any new compliments for the Beatles-not that they need them. But I hope I have at least persuaded you to hear 'Abbey Road.' You'll find it a happy experience."

While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau reported from a meeting with Greil Marcus in Berkeley that "opinion has shifted against the Beatles. Everyone is putting down Abbey Road." Shortly afterwards, in Los Angeles, he wrote that his colleague Ellen Willis had grown to love the record, adding: "Damned if she isn't right – flawed but fine. Because the world is round it turns her on. Charlie Watts tells us he likes it too."

### Retrospective

Many critics have since cited Abbey Road as the Beatles' greatest album. In a retrospective review, Nicole Pensiero of PopMatters called it "an amazingly cohesive piece of music, innovative and timeless". Mark Kemp of Paste viewed the album as being "among the Beatles' finest works, even if it foreshadows the cigarette-lighter-waving arena rock that technically skilled but critically maligned artists from Journey to Meatloaf would belabor throughout the '70s and '80s". Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph dubbed it the Beatles' "last love letter to the world" and praised its "big, modern sound", calling it "lush, rich, smooth, epic, emotional and utterly gorgeous".

AllMusic 's Richie Unterberger felt that the album shared Sgt. Pepper ' s "faux-conceptual forms", but had "stronger compositions", and wrote of its standing in the band's catalogue: "Whether Abbey Road is the Beatles' best work is debatable, but it's certainly the most immaculately produced (with the possible exception of Sgt. Pepper) and most tightly constructed." Ian MacDonald gave a mixed opinion of the album, noting that several tracks had been written at least a year previously, and would possibly have been unsuitable without being integrated into the medley on side two. He did, however, praise the production, particularly the sound of Starr's bass drum.

Abbey Road received high rankings in several "best albums in history" polls by critics and publications. It was voted number 8 in the third edition of Colin Larkin 's book All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). Time included it in their 2006 list of the All-Time 100 Albums. In 2009, readers of Rolling Stone named Abbey Road the greatest Beatles album. In 2020, the magazine ranked the album at number 5 on its list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest Beatles record on the list; a previous version of the list from 2012 had ranked it at number 14. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

## Legacy

### Abbey Road crossing and "Paul is dead"

The image of the Beatles on the Abbey Road crossing has become one of the most famous and imitated in recording history. The crossing is a popular destination for Beatles fans, and a webcam has operated there since 2011. In December 2010, the crossing was given grade II listed status for its "cultural and historical importance"; the Abbey Road studios themselves had been given similar status earlier in the year.

Shortly after the album's release, the cover became part of the " Paul is dead " theory that was spreading across college campuses in the US. According to followers of the rumour, the cover depicted the Beatles walking out of a cemetery in a funeral procession. The procession was led by Lennon dressed in white as a religious figure; Starr was dressed in black as the undertaker; McCartney, out of step with the others, was a barefoot corpse; and Harrison dressed in denim was the gravedigger. The left-handed McCartney is holding a cigarette in his right hand, indicating that he is an impostor, and part of the number plate on the Volkswagen parked on the street is 281F (misread as 28IF), meaning that McCartney would have been 28 if he had lived – despite the fact that he was only 27 at the time of the photo and subsequent release of the record. The escalation of the "Paul is dead" rumour became the subject of intense analysis on mainstream radio and contributed to Abbey Road ' s commercial success in the US. Lennon was interviewed in London by New York's WMCA, and he ridiculed the rumour but conceded that it was invaluable publicity for the album.

The cover image has been parodied on several occasions, including by Booker T. & the M.G.'s McLemore Avenue (1970), Kanye West 's Late Orchestration (2006) and by McCartney on his 1993 live album Paul Is Live. On the cover of its October 1977 issue, the satirical magazine National Lampoon depicted the four Beatles flattened along the zebra crossing, with a road roller driving away up the street. The Red Hot Chili Peppers ' The Abbey Road E.P. parodies the cover, with the band walking near-naked across a similar zebra crossing. In 2003, several US poster companies airbrushed McCartney's cigarette out of the image without permission from Apple or McCartney. In 2013, Kolkata Police launched a traffic safety awareness advertisement against jaywalking, using the cover and a caption that read: "If they can, why can't you?"

### Cover versions and influence

The songs on Abbey Road have been covered many times and the album itself has been covered in its entirety. One month after Abbey Road ' s release, George Benson recorded a cover version of the album called The Other Side of Abbey Road. Later in 1969 Booker T. & the M.G.'s recorded McLemore Avenue (the location in Memphis of Stax Records) which covered the Abbey Road songs and had a similar cover photo.

While matching albums such as Sgt. Pepper in terms of popularity, Abbey Road failed to repeat the Beatles' earlier achievements in galvanising their rivals to imitate them. In author Peter Doggett 's description, "Too contrived for the rock underground to copy, too complex for the bubblegum pop brigade to copy, the album influenced no one – except ", who spent years trying to emulate its scope in his solo career. Writing for Classic Rock in 2014, Jon Anderson of the progressive rock band Yes said his group were constantly influenced by the Beatles from Revolver onwards, but it was the feeling that side two was "one complete idea" that inspired him to create long-form pieces of music.

Several artists have covered some or all of the side-two medley, including Phil Collins (for the Martin/Beatles tribute album In My Life), The String Cheese Incident, Transatlantic and Tenacious D (who performed the medley with Phish keyboardist Page McConnell). Furthur, a jam band including former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh, played the entire Abbey Road album during its Spring Tour 2011. It began with a "Come Together" opener at Boston on 4 March and ended with the entire medley in New York City on 15 March, including "Her Majesty" as an encore.

### Continued sales and reissues

In June 1970, Allen Klein reported that Abbey Road was the Beatles' best-selling album in the US with sales of about five million. By 1992, Abbey Road had sold nine million copies. The album became the ninth-most downloaded on the iTunes Store a week after it was released there on 16 November 2010. A CNN report stated it was the best-selling vinyl album of 2011. It is the first album from the 1960s to sell over five million albums since 1991 when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales. In the US, the album had sold 7,177,797 copies by the end of the 1970s. As of 2011, the album had sold over 31 million copies worldwide and is one of the band's best-selling albums. In October 2019, Abbey Road re-entered the UK charts, again hitting number one.

Abbey Road has remained in print since its first release in 1969. The original album was released on 26 September in the UK and 1 October in the US on Apple Records. It was reissued as a limited edition picture disc on vinyl in the US by Capitol on 27 December 1978, while a CD reissue of the album was released in 1987, with a remastered version appearing in 2009. The remaster included additional photographs with additional liner notes and the first, limited edition, run also included a short documentary about the making of the album.

In 2001, Abbey Road was certified 12× platinum by the RIAA. The album continues to be reissued on vinyl. It was included as part of the Beatles' Collector's Crate series in September 2009 and saw a remastered LP release on 180-gram vinyl in 2012.

A super deluxe version of the album, which featured new mixes by Giles Martin, was released in September 2019 to celebrate the original album's 50th anniversary.

As of October 2019, Abbey Road has sold 2,240,608 pure sales in United Kingdom and overall all consumed sales stand at 2,327,230 units. Post 1994 sales stand at 827,329.

## Track listing

All tracks are written by Lennon–McCartney, except where noted

Notes

- "Her Majesty" appears as a hidden track after "The End" and 14 seconds of silence. Later releases of the album included the song on the track listing, except some vinyl editions.

- Some cassette tape versions in the UK and US had "Come Together" and "Here Comes the Sun" swapped to even out the playing time of each side.

## Personnel

According to Mark Lewisohn, Ian MacDonald, Barry Miles, Kevin Howlett, and Geoff Emerick.

## Charts

## Certifications and sales

BPI certification awarded only for sales since 1994.


Joe Farrell

# Joe Farrell

## Abstract

Joseph Carl Firrantello (December 16, 1937 – January 10, 1986), known as Joe Farrell, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who primarily performed as a saxophonist and flutist. He is best known for a series of albums under his own name on the CTI record label and for playing in the initial incarnation of Chick Corea 's Return to Forever.

## Early life and education

Farrell was born in Chicago Heights, Illinois. As a child, Farrell began playing the flute and clarinet. After graduating from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1959, he moved to New York City to work as a freelance musician.

## Career

He joined the Ralph Marterie Band in 1957 and later played with Maynard Ferguson and The Thad Jones/ Mel Lewis Orchestra. He also recorded with Charles Mingus, Andrew Hill, Jaki Byard, Players Association and Elvin Jones. After the death of John Coltrane, Elvin Jones formed a pianoless trio with Jimmy Garrison and Farrell, recording two albums for Blue Note in 1968.

In the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Farrell performed with Chick Corea and Return to Forever. He is the flutist on the original recording of the Corea-penned jazz standard " Spain."

He did numerous sessions and contributed a flute solo to Aretha Franklin 's 1973 hit " Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do) ". The Santana track "When I Look into Your Eyes" (from Welcome) includes prominent flute solos from Farrell. During this period, he also contributed tenor saxophone and oboe solos to Hall & Oates ' Abandoned Luncheonette (1973). Some of the most famous funk singles of James Brown feature Farrell as a part of the horn section.

In 1976, Joe recorded a duo album with George Benson called Benson & Farrell on CTI Records.

Farrell recorded Flute Talk with Sam Most in 1979, which was billed as a duet of the world's two greatest jazz flutists.

Farrell performs with Brazilian percussionist Airto and Airto's wife Flora Purim on the album Three-Way Mirror. A message on the CD jacket dedicates the 1987 album to Farrell and states it contains his final recordings.

## Death

Farrell died of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in Duarte, California, on January 10, 1986, at the age of 48.

## Legacy

In 2008, Farrell's daughter Kathleen Firrantello filed a lawsuit against rappers Kanye West, Method Man, Redman and Common, and their respective record labels, for allegedly using portions of Farrell's 1974 musical composition "Upon This Rock" in their songs without approval. Firrantello was seeking punitive damages of at least US$ 1 million and asked that no further copies of the songs be made, sold or performed.

## Discography

### As leader

- 1967: Jazz for a Sunday Afternoon (Live at the Village Vanguard) with Chick Corea, others (Solid State)

- 1970: Joe Farrell Quartet with Chick Corea, John McLaughlin (CTI)

- 1971: Outback (CTI)

- 1972: Moon Germs (CTI)

- 1973: Penny Arcade (CTI)

- 1974: Upon This Rock (CTI)

- 1975: Canned Funk (CTI)

- 1976: Benson & Farrell with George Benson (CTI)

- 1977: La Catedral Y El Toro (Warner Bros.)

- 1978: Night Dancing (Warner Bros.)

- 1979: Skate Board Park (Xanadu)

- 1980: Sonic Text (Contemporary)

- 1980: Farrell's Inferno (Contemporary)

- 1982: Darn That Dream (Quartet/Quintet with Art Pepper, George Cables, Tony Dumas, John Dentz) (Real Time; reissue: Drive Archive)

- 1983: Vim 'n' Vigor with Louis Hayes (Timeless)

- 1985: Clark Woodard and Joe Farrell with Clark Woodard (BCS)

- 1985: Three-Way Mirror with Airto Moreira, Flora Purim (Reference Recordings)

### As sideman

With Mose Allison

- Hello There, Universe (Atlantic, 1970)

- Your Mind Is on Vacation (Atlantic, 1976)

With Patti Austin

- End of a Rainbow (CTI, 1976)

With Average White Band

- AWB (Atlantic, 1974)

With The Band

- Rock of Ages (Capitol, 1972)

With Ray Barreto

- La Cuna (CTI, 1979)

With the Bee Gees

- Main Course (RSO, 1975)

With George Benson

- Tell It Like It Is (A&M/CTI, 1969)

- Good King Bad (CTI, 1975)

With Willie Bobo

- Bobo's Beat (Roulette, 1962)

With Frank Butler

- Wheelin' and Dealin' (Xanadu, 1978)

With Jaki Byard

- Jaki Byard Quartet Live! (Prestige, 1965)

- The Last from Lennie's (Prestige, 1965)

With George Cables

- Circle (Contemporary, 1979)

With Billy Cobham

- Spectrum (Atlantic, 1973)

With Chick Corea

- Tones for Joan's Bones (Vortex, 1966)

- The Leprechaun (Polydor, 1976)

- The Mad Hatter (Polydor, 1978)

- Secret Agent (Polydor, 1978)

- Friends (Polydor, 1978)

- Tap Step (Warner Bros., 1980)

With Return to Forever

- Return to Forever (ECM, 1972)

- Light as a Feather (Polydor, 1972)

- Musicmagic (Columbia, 1977)

- Live (Columbia, 1977)

With Lou Donaldson

- Sophisticated Lou (Blue Note, 1973)

With Maynard Ferguson

- Newport Suite (Roulette, 1960)

- Let's Face the Music and Dance (Roulette, 1960)

- Maynard '61 (Roulette, 1961)

- Double Exposure with Chris Connor (Atlantic, 1961)

- Two's Company with Chris Connor (Roulette, 1961)

- Maynard '64 (Roulette, 1959–1962) note: 1 track only

- Primal Scream (Columbia, 1976)

- Conquistador (Columbia, 1977)

With Aretha Franklin

- Let Me in Your Life (Atlantic, 1973)

With Fuse One

- Fuse One (CTI, 1980)

With Grant Green

- The Main Attraction (Kudu, 1976)

With Urbie Green

- The Fox (CTI, 1976)

- Creole Cookin' (Verve, 1967)

With Slide Hampton

- Explosion! The Sound of Slide Hampton (Atlantic, 1962)

With Andrew Hill

- Dance with Death (Blue Note, 1968)

- Passing Ships (Blue Note, 1969)

With Johnny Hodges

- 3 Shades of Blue (Flying Dutchman, 1970)

With Jackie and Roy

- A Wilder Alias (CTI, 1973)

With Antônio Carlos Jobim

- Stone Flower (CTI, 1970)

- Tide (A&M, 1970)

- Urubu (Warner Bros., 1976)

With Elvin Jones

- Puttin' It Together (Blue Note, 1968)

- The Ultimate (Blue Note, 1968)

- Poly-Currents (Blue Note, 1970)

- Genesis (Blue Note, 1971)

- Merry-Go-Round (Blue Note, 1971)

- New Agenda (Vanguard, 1975)

With The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra

- Presenting Thad Jones/Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (Solid State, 1966)

- Live at the Village Vanguard (Solid State, 1967)

- Monday Night (Solid State, 1968)

- Central Park North (Solid State, 1969)

- Consummation (Solid State, 1970)

With Rufus Jones

- Five on Eight (Cameo, 1964)

With Lee Konitz

- Chicago 'n All That Jazz (Groove Merchant, 1975)

With John Larkin

- John Larkin (Transition, 1986)

With Jeff Lorber Fusion

- Soft Space (Inner City, 1978)

- Water Sign (Arista, 1979)

With Arif Mardin

- Journey (Atlantic, 1974)

With Pat Martino

- Strings! (Prestige, 1967)

With Jack McDuff

- The Fourth Dimension (Cadet, 1974)

- Sophisticated Funk (Chess, 1976)

With Charles Mingus

- Pre-Bird (aka Mingus Revisited) (Mercury, 1960)

With Mingus Dynasty

- Chair in the Sky (Elektra, 1979)

- Live at Montreux (Atlantic, 1980)

With Blue Mitchell

- Many Shades of Blue (Mainstream, 1974)

With James Moody

- The Blues and Other Colors (Milestone, 1969)

With Airto Moreira

- Free (CTI, 1972)

With Laura Nyro

- Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (Columbia, 1968)

- Christmas and the Beads of Sweat (Columbia, 1970)

With Dizzy Reece

- Asia Minor (Prestige, 1962)

With Sal Salvador

- You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet! (Dauntless, 1963)

With Santana

- Welcome (Columbia, 1973)

With Lalo Schifrin

- Black Widow (CTI, 1976)

- Towering Toccata (CTI, 1976)

With Don Sebesky

- Giant Box (CTI, 1973)

With Dakota Staton

- I Want a Country Man (Groove Merchant, 1973)

With Bobby Timmons

- Got to Get It! (Milestone, 1967)

With Allen Vizzutti

- Allen Vizzutti (Headfirst, 1981)

- Skyrocket (Summit, 1995)