scapp70's Full Review: Please Please Me by The Beatles
and now a word from Scapp70 straight from his Beatles Soap Box
Are you a Beatles fan? Are you a Beatles nut? Are you insane for The Beatles? No? Yes? Well, I am - I'm not sure if you noticed. One of the duties of being a Beatles fan, which should really be a non-existent duty, is defending The Beatles. The Beatles were and are the greatest band in history, yet oddly not everybody knows that. The people that do not know that The Beatles are the greatest will more likely than not, argue that they aren't. It is the same thing as debating politics with a person who is not informed of the arguments, yet they passionately will tell you how you're wrong. Does that mean that any person who argues that The Beatles are not musical god-men, that they do not have all the albums and therefore do not know the position and the reasons why The Beatles are the greatest? Yes, I say to you - YES!
If you as a Beatle fan have to argue that an album like say The White Album or Abbey Road are not five star albums, just sit and be quiet and let them talk. They will soon give hints of their Beatle un-savviness. For example, they may say that Sgt Pepper is a concept album, does any real thinking Beatles fan think that? They may say something as silly as Paul McCartney's bass playing ability is any less than stellar, or even worse...mediocre. Do we have ears? What are we comparing The Beatles to? Phish? U2? '90s College Music? What or who is out there who is better? The Beatles are not kings of the musical hill, they are an island unto themselves.
So far no one has been able to come close to what The Beatles have accomplished. The Beatles were not just pioneers with each new release, The Beatles were amazing songwriters, fine musicians, forward thinkers and they are pretty funny too. Any other musician or musical group who would wish to accomplish the magnitude of what The Beatles had done in just six years would need a magical pocket watch that stops time. Six short years includes thirteen albums, four movies, and three world tours, enough singles to fill up two CDs and not to mention they changed the face of pop rock with each new release.
When the Beatles broke up, each member had varied success, some more than another. No matter how successful The Beatles were individually in the 70s and 80s, and no matter how great the songs were during these times, it was apparent that the four guys still needed one another in order to change the world every six months as they did in the sixties. So even if the uniformed debater tries to come across as musically intellectual by praising dopey bands from the 90s that no one has ever heard of, just remember theyre still just uninformed. They try to mask their unsavvy musical taste by pointing to pointless music that you had never heard of.
and now… the music that changed pop culture
Sorry about that above, I have just been reading a lot of negative things about The Beatles in print and online lately. It’s just so wild, but I guess when you are as big as The Beatles, there is bound to be some negativity out there.
The album Please Please Me was recorded pretty much in just a few hours. Please Please Me is made up of two singles which were both recorded at the tail end of 1962, and then a 15 hour recording session on February 11th, 1963 that provided the remaining eight songs. The British were still recording in mono, while the US had stereo capabilities, so that's why the first couple of Beatle recordings were mono.
1-2-3-4! The album kicks off with an energetic rocker from Paul McCartney called I Saw Her Standing There. This song is possibly the one that stood the test of time most successfully. Although the song can be considered derivitive of Chuck Berry, it still sounds fresh today.
Misery is written mainly by John Lennon. The song reflects some of the bands at the time, and has a Mowtown feel. The song is the shortest on the LP lasting only 1:47. The covers included on this LP were some of the ones that The Beatles had been performing live. Anna (Go To Him) was written by Arthur Alexander. The song sounds like the 50s Doo Wop.
George Harrison sings lead on Chains, another cover that was originally performed by The Cookies only months before, a record released in November of 1962. It surprises me that this Mowtown-style song was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin. It seems like they have been writing songs for artists forever. Carole was 20 years old when The Beatles covered one of her songs, that's amazing. Boys has drummer Ringo Starr on lead vocals now for yet another cover song that was originally performed by The Shirelles. It's one of the heavier songs off the album, yet it still contains Mowtown overtones, especially inside the chorus when John, Paul & George sing the vocals that answer back to Ringo's lead.
Three cover songs in a row, finally we have another Beatles original with Ask Me Why, written mainly by John Lennon who takes lead vocal duties. This song originally was released as the flip side to Please Please Me in January of 1963. The song was not groundbreaking, and in fact echoed a sound already established by other artists at the time. On the other hand, the next song is the A-side, Please Please Me, and this song showcased a new sound at the time, and the new beginnings of the new Beatles movement called Beatlemania. The song's hook that caused the hysteria is in the chorus where John would sing ôCome onô, and George and Paul would answer back ôcome onô, and you could just picture them shaking their mop tops as they sang it too. Lennon says he came with the idea to call it Please Please Me with that double 'please' in there from a Roy Orbison song. This song is also the first Beatles song covered by another artist when that same year Petula Clark released a French version of the song.
The band's first single ever was Love Me Do, released in October of 1962. The song was written by Paul & John, and both sing most of the song with McCartney slightly to the fore, but solo on the harmonica breaks that John is performing. This version is different than the single version. On the hit single Ringo played drums, but George Martin had to make his "producer" suggestions and hired a session drummer named Andy White to play drums on the track while Ringo played tambourine. Love Me Do had some early elements of Beatles brand of pop rock, but not one of their strongest singles. Incidentally, the song hit #1 in the States almost two years after it was recorded. P.S. I Love You was the flip side of Love Me Do. It's a love song written by Paul McCartney, and it has it's moments of schmaltz. Ringo is on maracas and it gives the song a bit of Latin flavor.
Baby It's You is a song written by Burt Bacharach, and here we have yet another cover song of a Shirelles song, but this time dipping all the way back to 1961. George Harrison again takes over the lead vocal position for Lennon's Do You Want To Know A Secret. The song sort of falls into the Doo Wop genre. It's said that The Beatles were forced into performing A Taste of Honey for their German audiences because the song had been so popular at one point. It's also said that The Beatles weren't particularly fond of that song. It is unlikely that The Beatles hated it, why would they include A Taste of Honey on their first album if they hated it. It is odd though that they would decide to include a pop standard on their album. The song is such a departure from their brand of pop that it seems out of place. Having said that, it is a nice song, and it's cool that it's included somewhere.
The last original song on Please Please Me is There's A Place, an upbeat pop rock song with cool harmonies, a distant harmonica and one of the only songs that isn't about girls or love. The band close out the CD with their best cover ever, and that's Twist and Shout. This song was sort of new, like most of their other choices for songs to cover, originally released in 1961 by a band called The Top Notes. The Isley Brothers had already covered the song in 1962 as well. The song is the heaviest song on the album and lest there should be any doubts that The Beatles were a rock and roll band they have this song right from the beginning of their career. The song was used very effectively in the 1986 American Comedy film, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
The album was a good debut, but having said that it may not be the favorite of many Beatle fans. There are way too many cover songs to swallow, although Twist and Shout is among them. Also, four of the songs were already available previously from single releases. There are some great moments on this album, but there are too many uses of the skip button to merit anything more than three stars. Of course this grade is on a higher standard that we'll call the Beatle curve. This is a great album when measured against other bands, but when measured against themselves it sounds mediocre.
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Their first historical album, The Beatles were raw, rough, and all rock & roll. John, Paul, Ringo, and George hit the music stage with Please Please M...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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