Pop culture has many great qualities, but the greatest has got to be its ability to endlessly surprise us. Wildly inventive stories, fresh interpretations, layers of questions, rich mystery. I have posted before about how important icons are to Lovemarks. At their best, they sum up brilliantly what it is we love about our Lovemarks, and I’ve been sent an example of the best of the best. A fantastic sixties icon that continues to compel and excite decades later.
Let’s start at beginning with one of the most instantly recognizable, often imitated, album covers ever. Yes, Abbey Road. Named by Rolling Stone as number 14 in their list of the ‘500 Greatest Albums of All Time’, Abbey Road is an enduring icon. There they are. John, Ringo, Paul, and George striding (in that order) across the zebra crossing on Abbey Road. It’s dynamic, it’s sharp, and since it first hit stores in 1969, this image has been pored over for secret messages and stories. Why isn’t Paul wearing shoes? Why is he out of step with the others? What did John’s white suit mean? Is this cover telling us that Paul is really dead? Etc. In the ten minutes the Fab Four could spare him to pose, photographer Iain Macmillan certainly created an enduring icon.
Forty years later, hundreds of Beatles fans still do “the walk” across Abbey Road and (most importantly) photograph each other – myself included. Watch this wonderful snatch of reality that beautifully captures an icon at work below. This is a day in the life of the most famous pedestrian crossing in the world. What the guy who drops his trousers was hoping to bring to the party is anybody’s guess, but it’s all part of the experience of Abbey Road. If you ever doubted the power of icons, this video will sweep them away. By the way, if you want to take this icon obsession to its ultimate, check out the Abbey Road webcam. A street, a crossing, and people making memories 24 hours a day!
