Added Scans: 1st PCSO-7088 October 1969 "blood stain"/"blood red" Australian LP The Beatles – Abbey Road pressing: a) Sleeve has "blood stain" between Ringo and John and an overall pinkish hue.
b) Apple on rear of sleeve is misaligned under track listing.
c) No mention of "Her Majesty" on either label or sleeve.
d) Record B-side label track B1 credits "Northern Songs" and track B2 title is spread over two lines.
e) 33 1/3 is italicised on both labels.
Interesting history around this LP. It marked a return to the studio by the Beatles after indefinite shelving of the Let It Be sessions which started in 1968. Technically, this was THE FINAL album to be completed by the group - from first session through to final packaging and release in 1969. Meanwhile, the Let It Be tapes were still on the shelf awaiting mix-down and the controversial choice of Phil Spector to finish the product, pushing George Martin aside(and even robbing him of label credit for the work he'd already done). To say he'd have been "miffed" would be the mother of all understatements! He'd have been really hacked off about it, as he should've been. The finally-completed Let It Be album usurped Abbey Road's claim to be the Beatles' "swansong" LP. Also, the VW in the cover photo shows the rego plate with 28 IF as its number. Paul McCartney barefoot. this continued the myth of McCartney's "death", the reference in the plate was, he'd have been 28 years old IF he'd lived. But of course, Paul is very much alive, but sadly it's George and John who we lost.
got this album for my fourteenth birthday back in February 1981 and their other album Help about three months later as you can see when I got this album it still had the Apple label as for Help the orange parlophone label it wasn't until 1982 all their record releases were under one label parlophone