Abbey Road "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 design, a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing, was based on ideas sketched by McCartney, and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios in Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo whilst he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Macmillan took six photographs, which McCartney later examined with a magnifying glass before deciding which of
Abbey Road "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." While covering the Rolling Stones' 1969 American tour, Robert Christgau reported that although everyone had been "putting down "Abbey Road"", he and fellow journalist Ellen Willis had grown to love the record: "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." Many critics have since cited "Abbey