Music Notes: The Beatles, Help!
After the dull Beatles For Sale, the Beatles returned to fine form with Help!, a soundtrack to the identically-titled action-adventure Bond parody movie. It’s worth noting some of the album’s best songs (Yesterday) failed to appear in the movie.
Only two covers appear: Act Naturally and Dizzy Miss Lizzy — the songwriting team of Lennon / McCartney could now produce enough gems to populate a full album, their songs stretching into new musical directions.
Help!
= 5 stars
Still evokes chills under the right circumstances. John’s actual cry for help under the crushing burden of Beatlemania. Adding to the pressure are a complicated, chromatic, descending guitar line from George, intense, too close for comfort, answering backing vocals, and the high note on “help!” resulting in a tightly charged, tense experience. The last verse where the band drops out leaving Lennon alone with acoustic guitar is musical history.
The Night Before
= 3 stars
Nice beat and pleasant background vocals, but nothing stellar.
You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
= 5 stars
Lennon channeling Dylan, having so much to say the lyrics come to the foreground. The simple imagery is also odd and and a bit surreal. I love the line “feeling two foot small.”
I Need You
= 3 stars
George contributes a solid but slow-moving song, featuring an unusual “fade in-out” guitar, some moaning backup vocals, and more cowbell.
Another Girl
= 3 stars
Goofy, jumpy Paul tries to write another Can’t Buy Me Love. Nice harmonies on the middle.
You’re Gonna Lose That Girl
= 4 stars
Another great example of Paul and George contributing expert background harmonies that echo John’s lyrical phrases so closely that the song is nearly a duet or trio. John has one sparkling, high note on “lose,” and on one particular iteration, leads us into the middle, featuring an unusual key change. How this section casually sinks back into the key of the verse (or guitar solo) was a revelation when I first heard it. So why four stars? I guess because Help! is an even better example of those call-and-answer background harmonies.
Ticket To Ride
= 5 stars
Several ingredients combine to make this perfect song — off-kilter drums, Byrds-ian chiming guitars, a tambourine on the middle, high harmonies, a killer pause under the “ri-hi-ide”, and the coda goofing around with “my baby don’t care.” A band could base an entire career on the sound created here.
Act Naturally
= 2 stars
Country Ringo jokingly observes that the Beatles have become movie stars. Not as witty as it likely seemed at the time.
It’s Only Love
= 2 stars
Pretty, but the twangy, flangy guitar always breaks my heart. Suffers in comparison with John’s other, superior contributions on this album.
You Like Me Too Much
= 1 stars
The first Beatles song I entirely dislike. Beyond corny, and the middle’s strange resolution to the verse still sounds wrong no matter how many times I hear it. Plus, there’s that wimpy pseudo-ragtime piano trading licks with the guitar in a much too obvious manner (one goes up, the other goes down).
Tell Me What You See
= 3 stars
Divine song with an interesting electric piano hook and nice harmonies, but by Beatle standards, undeniably average — plus the next two amazing songs essentially obliterate it.
I’ve Just Seen A Face
= 4 stars
The first of the Paul’s “show” songs (where he seems determined to write a Broadway show tune) but its hook-ridden melody makes for an amazing folk guitar number. The melody builds naturally, adding excitement and worry that someone will run into a wall and hurt themselves with a splintered guitar.
Yesterday
= 5 stars
Wish I had an extra star for this song that can make me tear up in the right environment. So much perfect: the string quartet, the patient guitar strums, the emotionally tugging lyrics paired with an arcing melody. Regret, lost love, and resignation that no matter what, she isn’t coming back. From this point forward, the Beatles’ bar was raised far above anything that had come before.
Dizzy Miss Lizzy
= 1 stars
After Yesterday, we really don’t have the patience for this kind of stuff anymore.
Wikipedia: Help
Next Album: Rubber Soul
Previous Album: Beatles For Sale
iTunes Store Link: Help! — The Beatles
My only beef with you on this album is that It’s Only Love surely rates higher than a measly 2 stars. A solid John song. It’s not Hide Your Love Away, but it’s solid. It’s a 4-star in my book.
One other thought: Yesterday is the first song that you’ve reviewed that I’d consider as a 5-star ICONIC Beatles tune. Almost as if it was a 6-star song. I’m looking ahead to Rubber Soul and Nowhere Man also has that status for me.
Also — thinking about iconic Beatles songs, are you gonna hit all the singles too at some point?
Can’t wait to see the star situations for Rubber Soul and Revolver. Those will be bountiful.
Sorry about that John song… I might revisit some of these rankings…
Well, there will certainly be more 5 or 5+ songs… As kind of a sneaky preview, I’ve already gone through and ranked everything in iTunes. I ended up with around 60+ five star songs
The singles are handled through the Past Master discs. I guess I should post #1 because I think that one chronologically fits in around this album.
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[…] like a Rubber Soul / Revolver outtake, with Help! style background vocals. Actually, the guitar lick sounds like If I Needed […]
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“You like to much” 1 star? oh come on!! deserves 3 at least…