The Beatles · from Abbey Road (1969) · closes the side-two medley
A study in a two-key finale, from blues trade to hymn cadence.
The band trades solos over a raw blues vamp in A, then the music lifts into C major for the medley's closing couplet and a plagal, hymn-like resolution.
This is the very last real song on Abbey Road, and it closes the big medley.
First there is a drum solo, then the guitar players take turns soloing over two bluesy chords.
Those two chords are the home chord and one neighbor, the plain bones of the blues.
Then the music jumps to a new key and turns gentle for the famous last lines.
The ending settles home with a soft, church-like finish called a plagal cadence.
To see the exact chords and keys, open Pollack or Isophonics.
The main body is in a as a blues, then the closing couplet lifts into a fresh C major without a smooth pivot.
That direct move from a raw blues key to a bright, hymn-like one is the harmonic drama of the finale.
The three lead guitars trade phrases over the barest blues harmony, the tonic and subdominant sevenths, A7 and D7 (1 and 4 as dominant sevenths).
Reducing the harmony to two chords throws all the attention onto the rotating solos and the groove.
Before the guitars trade, the track opens a rare unaccompanied drum solo, a rhythmic event rather than a harmonic one.
It works because the surrounding harmony is so simple, letting pure rhythm carry a whole section.
The coda arrives in C major and resolves with a plagal, subdominant-to-tonic motion, the “amen” cadence of hymns, under the famous closing line.
Choosing a plagal rather than a strong dominant close gives the ending its gentle, benedictory quality instead of a hard stop.
The piece runs three stages: a drum solo, a rotating three-guitar trade over the blues vamp, and a C-major coda that delivers the album's final couplet.
It is built as a deliberate finale, gathering energy and then releasing it into a quiet resolution.
| Degree | Chord | Nashville | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A7 | 1(7) | blues tonic |
| 4 | D7 | 4(7) | blues subdominant |
| — | C | 1 (coda) | new tonic in the C-major coda |
| — | F | 4 (coda) | plagal chord into the final C |
The solo-trade chords are sourced from a public transcription (in A); the coda's key and plagal close are documented, with its exact inner chords marked to confirm.
Reading the numbers: the trade numbers are scale degrees in A; the coda numbers are scale degrees in C. Plain = major, (7) = a dominant-seventh coloring. Here the trade is 1(7)–4(7) blues (A7–D7) and the coda closes plagal (F–C).
The blues-trade seventh chords are shown below (low E to high e; x = mute). The coda's C and F are plain open triads.
Prose analysis of the blues trade, the key shift, and the plagal coda.
Open Pollack mirror →Downloadable chord and key files: the exact chords and where the coda begins.
Open Isophonics →Roman-numeral function and melody for the trade and coda, if a community tab exists.
Open the Beatles index →