The Beatles had such huge success in 1964. They arrived in America in February 1964, and Beatlemania reached such heights as never seen before. They made a movie, Hard Day's Night which acquired the praise of both fans and critics, the soundtrack just as successful. Now, in 1965 let's see if The Beatles are up to the challenge of duplicating, or continuing their success. They release another movie, Help! and a soundtrack of course to accompany the film of the same name. One road The Beatles had taken, either purposely or accidentally, had reinvented their song writing style and emerged with a totally different genre of music when compared to the year before.
Especially songs from John Lennon such as Help!, Ticket To Ride, and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away are radical change when compared to earlier songs like It Won't Be Long or I Want To Hold Your Hand. George Harrison as well really leaped a few levels as he accomplishes a song like I Need You.
First thing I would notice, if I were to compare the two soundtracks is that not all the songs on Help! are Beatles originals, as it was the case on Hard Day's Night. Two songs out of the fourteen here are covers.
But as we look at this album on its own merits, we see that like all Beatles records, this one of course stands on its own easily.
The opening and title track, Help! is a John Lennon masterpiece. It begins with such urgency, the first thing you hear is a loud abrupt three part harmony screaming for help. The song has a high energy as the tempo doesn't let up. John Lennon, in later interviews, stated that the song's lyrics were an actual cry for help. I'm not sure how true that actually is; he has been known to embellish the truth retrospectively at times.
Some of The Beatles music produced here wasn't the best they have put forth (Cough! thanks Paul, Clears throat). For instance, Paul's two contributions for the film, Another Girl and The Night Before. The other 60s supergroup, The Monkees seemed to have lifted the look of The Beatles from this 1965 era, their antics and comedy from this film, and their style of music from songs like these. Paul's efforts here seem much labored in the attempt to write a certain style or genre. The music seems a little busy, and the lyrical melody line is flat and uninspiring. They are basically the same song, a bluesy upbeat number. One was reworked with a slight improvement for The Night Before, but not that much of an improvement could really be detected. Having said that, the two other songs Paul has recorded for this album are stellar.
I've Just Seen a Face is one of Paul's best ever. This song has a wonderful unplugged feel, a big acoustic strum fest to a great melody that is so fun to sing along to. Paul really showcases his different style to guitar, and his mastery of the acoustic.
Also perhaps Paul's most famous song, Yesterday is found on this CD. Reportedly this gentle acoustic guitar ballad is the most covered song in history. Paul's lyrics are some of his best, although no praise would be given from Lennon retrospectively. He claims that the lyrics go nowhere as there is no ending or outcome. In my view, the lyrics here do not need an outcome or ending. The story behind the lyrics is clear. This is about a relationship disaster that took place because of something said. These lyrics are sung almost like a prayer, asking for the day to be done over, go back to yesterday and fix what went wrong. This could not happen as it’s impossible, but that doesn't mean that all of us have never wished this at one point or another.
This song also features only Beatle, Paul, as with producer George Martin's suggestion for a string quartet perform behind Paul and his acoustic guitar. Paul also sings solo with no backup help from the other Beatles. It's sort of like Paul's first solo appearance. Yoko still collects royalties on this song.
Before this release, George Harrison's single songwriting contribution had been the sub par effort Don't Bother Me from the With The Beatles LP. George Harrison has now offered two songs for this release, the first was a slight improvement on his earlier effort with You Like Me Too Much. The song is slightly less boring than Don't Bother Me; the vocal harmonies provided by John & Paul and the short spasms of the bluesy piano make this song a bit more interesting.
George hit the mark with his other song, I Need You. He still has that tone of the usual double track recording of his lead vocal that makes his other two songs sounding very sterile, but here the melody is too catchy to not let the musical colors through. George's use of the tone pedal which makes his guitar sound almost keyboard like add to the song's charisma.
John Lennon is the star of this album. Just as he was on the previous soundtrack release, A Hard Days Night, John's songwriting genius is the driving force of The Beatles back in these early days. In addition to Help!, John wrote four more great tunes. I'll start with the Dyaln-influenced You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. The song is the first in such a radical departure from whom and what The Beatles were the previous releases. The lyrics, the heavy acoustic guitar, no drums just a tambourine, the recorder and no harmonies from Paul are all formula breaking turning points. The Beatles Bush was beginning to blossom beautiful flowers on this album. This is also a highlight for me in the film.
John again shows how multi-dimensional he could make his band become, breaks the old Beatle formula with a new and different rock sound with his amazing Ticket To Ride.
John's new idea stemmed from an odd guitar riff that starts the song and stays throughout most of the song. It's a gentle picking of the lighter strings but then contrasted by a slow and heavy beat conjured up from Ringo. The bridge changes tempo to a faster beat and it's seamless. Even John's vocal seems to produce a new sound; it's quite melodic yet with a monotone drone underneath. Ringo's drumming was a major factor with the song's charm and success. The song was a number 1 hit, by the way. The song was used in a comical way in the film which undoubtedly influenced the formulation of The Monkees.
John retrospectively claimed to hate his song, It's Only Love, but it remains a favorite for many Beatle fans. It has such a hook within the chorus. The lyrics flow like the waves of the calm ocean, and they sound filled with emotion and soul. The song is the shortest on the album, as it doesn't even break the 2 minute mark. This song was not featured in the film.
You're Going To Lose That Girl is another Lennon gem. John delivers a powerful vocal, and contrasted against the relentless backing vocals which answer just about every line that John sings give the song charm. It's an acoustic sounding rocker with a great performance from Ringo on the bongos as well as his usual great drum track. The film shows The Beatles recording in the studio.
The Ringo track is the country influenced Act Naturally, a cover written by Morrison/Russell. The hook for me is the harmony between Ringo and Paul during the chorus.
The other cover song on this album is a loud rocker that The Beatles performed in their early days, Dizzy Miss Lizzie. This is one of my favorite songs that The Beatles covered, especially since the movie Backbeat.
This album marks the last to feature cover songs, all of the remaining albums are filled with Beatle compositions.
The next album The Beatles released later in the year of 1965 was Rubber Soul, and it just goes to show how rapid was the transformations of themselves since the beginning. Help! in my opinion is the first major musical change as a whole. From here on in, the transformations only get vaster, and more exciting.
Musicians:
John Lennon ~~~~ lead & backing vocals, guitar, electric piano
Paul McCartney ~ lead & backing vocals, bass, piano, lead guitar (Another Girl), electric piano, acoustic guitar
George Harrison ~ lead guitars, lead & backing vocals, guitars, tambourine
Ringo Starr ~~~~~ drums, lead vocals on Act Naturally
George Martin ~~~ piano
Session musicians provide flutes on You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, and there is a string quartet on Yesterday.
Songs
1. Help
2. Night Before, The
3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
4. I Need You
5. Another Girl
6. You're Going To Lose That Girl
7. Ticket To Ride
8. Act Naturally
9. It's Only Love
10. You Like Me Too Much
11. Tell Me What You See
12. I've Just Seen A Face
13. Yesterday
14. Dizzy Miss Lizzie
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