Beatle Blog: Help!

I like to split the Beatles albums (they made 12 - not counting the Yellow Submarine soundtrack, which they barely contributed to - 12 albums in seven years!) into early albums and later albums. Since 12 is a good even number, I split them between their sixth album, "Rubber Soul," and their seventh album, "Revolver." The early albums, while still mostly excellent, reflected the current musical thinking of the time, namely that, rather than the main focus of the band, albums were things that you put out in between tours. It seems odd now, but that's basically what albums were back then: catchy promotional material.

Perhaps "Help!" was even more of a promotional album, considering that half of the songs from the album were from the Beatles' movie of the same name. The movie is pretty funny, basing much of its comedy on what made their first movie so popular: Ringo Starr both looks and sounds funny. This apparently never bothered him, and jokes about his nose appear in both flicks (their next movie was the critically-panned "Magical Mystery Tour").

Even so, for promotional material, no one was better than the Beatles. This is one of my favorite albums from their early work.

The album is influenced a bit by the songwriting and musical stylings of Bob Dylan. While I don't really like Bob ("HA duz eet feeull?") because of his absolutely horrendous singing voice, he is a good musician and an ok songwriter, so the influences are welcome on this album. It should be noted that Dylan also introduced the band to pot, which led to all sorts of other drugs (not to mention caused them to often forget their lines during the filming of the Help! movie).

The album opens with the title track, which has a very energetic beginning with some strong bass notes before getting into the rest of the song, which is upbeat folk-rock in nature. This characterizes a lot of Help!, actually, as it often contains jangly tambourine percussion and upbeat acoustic guitar, laced with some subtle vocal harmonies in the chorus. It also contains some of John's best songwriting. The title track is an autobiographical song about John losing control of his life, and he bangs out a few other good tunes on this album as well.

The beginning of the album really is great, as track two is "The Night Before" by Paul McCartney. Paul's vocal range really is astounding at times, and this song showcases it well. This song is also very upbeat, with an energetic bassline and a small electric guitar solo by George.

John is up again with the Dylanesque "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," which is mostly just John playing the guitar with a tambourine in the background. It's very good, however, with John making his voice a bit more forlorn and shouting "Hey!" into the mic during every chorus. This one will get stuck in your head.

The Beatles, while sometimes behaving like jerks to outsiders, usually protected each other and made musical concessions to all of the members. As such, on most of their early albums, John and Paul would let George write and sing a few songs (even though they didn't think much of his songwriting ability), and they would write or pick a song for Ringo to sing. Ringo has an odd nasally sounding voice, but it usually suits the music he sings. Not so on Help!, as he sings lead on a cover of "Act Naturally." This song forced Ringo to go a lot higher than he usually does, resulting in a slightly off-key, shrill sounding song (as much as a nasally deep voice can be shrill). George's first lyrical contribution is also not too great on this album, with "I Need You" feeling slow and unoriginal.

I Need You is followed by "Another Girl," an catchy enough song by Paul with just enough flourish on the electric guitar to keep it interesting.

One interesting facet of the Beatles' early work is that, while they do show skill in their instrumentation, the instrumentation often takes a back seat to their vocal abilities, which are very, very good (this swung the opposite way once they made "Revolver"). This album often shows symptoms of this, with electric guitar flourishes and vocal acrobatics being the only "finishing touches" put on a basic rhythm track, like on Lennon's "You're Going to Lose that Girl." However, the vocals are so good that the song is still fun to hear.

After the aforementioned song, one of the Beatles' #1 singles, "Ticket to Ride," is on the docket. While not one of my favorite singles, it has a fun bass line and it's catchy.

After a few rather inconsequential songs, the back end of the album really shines. First, there is the obviously folk-influenced "Tell Me What You See," with some fun electric piano fills. There is also some really neat extra percussion used in this song. Then, well...

Sometimes, when I listen to a Beatles album, I am overcome by an "Oh-my-gosh-Paul-McCartney-is-so-awesome" moment. This happens every time I hear "I've Just Seen a Face," one of Paul's best compositions. It's a pretty simple track, containing just minimal percussion and three acoustic guitars (George's was a 12-string, but I'll save discussion of that for "Hard Day's Night"). But simplicity in this case is musical genius, as Paul expresses his excitement over falling for a new girl. He speeds through the lyrics and the guitars run along with him, giving the track an enthusiastic optimism that one is hard pressed to find anywhere in music.

After this song, well, there's this little ballad that is probably the most popular song in the entire world, ever. And no, I'm not exaggerating. According to wikipedia, Paul's "Yesterday" is the most covered song in the entire world, boasting over 3,000 different recordings. Read that again. Three. Thousand. Recordings. The song was the most played song on American radio for eight years. Possibly the most ironic thing is that the other Beatles didn't really like the song, feeling that a sentimental ballad went against their style. The song is quite beautiful, consisting solely of Paul playing a melancholy acoustic guitar and singing, with his beautiful voice, about the girl who left him. He is accompanied by a string quartet.

The album finishes up with a fun cover, "Dizzy Miss Lizzie."

Analysis: Overall, this album is the Beatles' fun, catchy tribute to folk-rock. It also contains a lot of their iconic early years material. The cohesive style holds the rollicking, sunny album together, and the tunes will surely be fighting for space in your head. Definitely check this one out.

What it did for the Beatles: Well, since "Yesterday" gained prominence as a single, not as a song on this album, this album mostly served to promote their movie and their new single, Help!

What it did for the music world: Folk was not a very popular genre in the early 60s (this album came out in 1965), which is not unsurprising when you consider that the king of folk at the time was Bob Dylan, who people enjoy now but honestly sounds as if a cheese grater is being yanked over his vocal cords. Groups like The Lovin' Spoonful; Peter, Paul, and Mary; the Mamas and the Papas and (with this album) the Beatles helped to make folk more palatable to the public.

Album Highlights: Help!, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, I've Just Seen a Face, Yesterday

Ryan's Beatle ranking: #7 out of 12

Next on Blogging the Beatles: Revolver