Mmm...mid-60s Beatles

Yeah, I prefer the mid-60s stuff. The early stuff was fresh and electrifying, and the late-60s albums contain some of the greatest pop music ever recorded...and quite a lot of filler as well.



To me, The Beatles' three mid-60s albums ("Help!", "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver") are their most cohesive, and "Help!" in particular is a tremendously strong album almost all the way through.

Opening with the musically upbeat and lyrically downbeat title track, it features all-time classics like John Lennon's Bob Dylan-esque "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "Ticket To Ride", a wonderful pop song which opens with the instantly recognizable circular guitar riff, and of course "Yesterday", the most covered pop song of all time.



The acoustic "Act Naturally" is an ideal showcase for Ringo Starr's amiable vocals, George Harrison contributes two numbers, and if most of Paul McCartney's songs are overshadowed by Lennon's on this particular album, he gets his own back with the ultimate pop ballad, "Yesterday".

Lennon, in fact, has written four of the best, most remarkable songs on the album (plus two more which are merely good): "Help!", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", the underrated "You're Going To Lose That Girl", and of course "Ticket To Ride", making "Help!" one of the two or three most "Lennon-centric" Beatles albums.



John Lennon also sings the larynx-shredding lead on a great, fiery cover of Larry Williams' "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", and even the filler on this album is generally very good, like McCartney's folkish "Tell Me What You See" and the jaunty "I've Just Seen A Face".

"Help!" is perhaps not as highly regarded as, say, "Revolver" or "Sgt Pepper" or "Abbey Road", but it is quite as good as anything the Beatles ever released, and if you're only ever going to buy a handful of Beatles records, make this one of them.

A fitting closer to the Beatlemania years

While this album can't be called their apex, the Beatles end the early years with a bang here and an album with really only 1 poorish cut on it ("It's Only Love"). The beginnings of their musical experimentation can be seen here with the confessional tone of John's lyrics flowering on the title tune and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" which are not only classics in the Beatles lexicon but in all of rock and roll. Paul adds his own classic with "Yesterday" (which I believe is STILL the most covered rock song ever). Musically, there aren't a whole lot of "breakthroughs" here in terms of structure, but as a primer on how to write perfect 2 1/2 minute pop songs there aren't many better CDs to study.



Highlights are the somber "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" with its wonderful flute solo, the charging pop of "Help!" (the perfect choice to open the album), the stately orchestral grace of "Yesterday"'s elegy to a love affair, "Ticket to Ride" is another melancholy ditty that's become a Beatles favourite, and underrated but fantastic "I've Just Seen a Face" as the classical guitarish intro gives way to a fast country shuffle. There are few hooks as infectious as the "falling" part of the tune, making it hard to believe it was allowed to languish as an album cut.



The bane of most of the early Beatles CDs is the cover tunes, but here Lennon turns in a jagged vocal on "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" and that, plus a "Hippy Hippy Shake" style George guitar, makes it a keeper if not a highlight.



BOTTOM LINE: Buying a "hits" CD for "Help!", "Ticket to Ride" and "Yesterday" isn't good enough. This isn't a track or two and some filler. Nearly every cut here is great. A must for every rock collection.

Quality Music from the Midpoint of the Beatles Career

I am not objective when it comes to the Beatles. For those of us who grew up in the 60s the Beatles revolutionized music. What came after would be forever changed and improved. The explosion of genres that came after the Beatles opened the door for experimentation. The Beatles may have had a lot of help, but they were out in front with music that seemed to be generally half a step ahead of everyone else, and sometimes much further.



This 1965 album can be considered to be the last of the albums from the frenzied era of Beatles popularity known as Beatlemania. Soon after would come "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver," which led to "Sgt. Pepper" and a whole new era of music. This album, which is a kind of soundtrack album for the movie of the same name, still retained the solid pop music that made the Beatles popular amongst teenagers around the world. With one exception, these songs are also short, in the two to three minute range, a pace that AM radio once demanded. The only thing I find amazing is that there were only three singles released from this album, because I have heard many more of these songs on the radio over the years.



This album begins with the frenzied and popular "Help." This song went to #1 on multiple charts as fans were buying nearly everything the Beatles released at this point. "The Night Before" follows, yet another short and peppy tune. This song has a middle portion that changes tempo and style makes this song much more interesting than it otherwise would be. There is also an abbreviated bridge a bit more than halfway through that uses a lead guitar to spice up the song a little.



"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" is a song that continues to get a lot of air play yet today. This song could have been a single as it as interesting and well crafted as most of the released singles. Another song that could have been a single is the beautiful George Harrison song "I Need You." George Harrison may have been a distant third in terms of output, but his quality was always very high.



A change of pace happens with "Another Girl." This song is faster and simpler than the previous two songs. "You're Going to Lose that Girl" is another similarly paced song with a similar simplicity. Both are average songs from the viewpoint of the Beatles' catalog.



The song that follows has been covered by many artists. "Ticket to Ride" was a #1 hit for the Beatles. The pace of the song, the beat, the changes in tempo and the lyrics all come together to make this song, the longest on this CD, a solid entry in the Beatles hit inventory.



"Act Naturally" is a country-sounding song with Ringo doing very well in the lead vocal role. This song was one of two covers on this album. The Beatles did fewer covers as their career progressed, with this cover being one of the last released on an original album. The other cover on this album is "Dizzy Miss Lizzie." This song is fast paced, raucous and styled somewhat similar to Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode." I seem to appreciate this style of song from the Beatles more as I get older, and enjoy the few they did.



"It's Only Love" is a relatively average song that has an interesting guitar chord that appears several times throughout the song. Some have called this song filler because the quality of the song is lower than is average for the Beatles. However, a listener must consider that average for the Beatles in the 60s was better than the best for many artists. Thus, the song is above average for its era, just one of the lesser songs in the Beatles catalog.



"You Like Me too Much" has an unusual piano introduction that leads into another fair song. A piano is used in several places in this song, which at the time was a rarity for the Beatles. The comments regarding the quality of "It's Only Love" generally apply to this song as well.



The following song is a mellow ballad with catchy music. The lyrics of "Tell Me What You See" are relatively simple. This song is average for the Beatles. The next song, "I've Just Seen a Face," sounds like a template for some of the Monkees' later songs.



The next to the last song is the best song on this album, one of the best Beatles songs, and one of the best songs of all time. Some have complained that "Yesterday" was not a Beatles song given that it was Paul McCartney on guitar with a string quartet backing him. The song is still counted as one of the Beatles' number one hits and this song has established its place in music history, being one of the most covered songs of modern times. The simplicity of the music and music, and Paul McCartney's emotional vocal prove that great music can be created in relatively simple ways.



This album came near the end of the era of Beatlemania. The group was beginning to dislike the downside of fame. The individual members had also grown significantly as musicians and were focusing more on their music than on media and frequently berserk fans. This album may have been the last time we could see the Beatles as a highly talented boy band capable of regularly churning out pop hits. Their next albums would establish the Beatles as the most influential rock group of all time, and mark a new era in rock music.

Help tunes and then some

This is my first review. As one who was 12 when "Meet the Beatles" first appeared in the record stores and who has every Beatles album on vinal, let me clear up a few misconceptions about this so called "Help" album. Songs like "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" and "You Like Me too much" actually appeared on an earlier album entitled "Beatles VI"(6) ...at least they did here in the States. Songs like "Ive Just Seen a Face" and "Its Only Love" were released on the Rubber Soul album. This could explain why many folks keep calling "Help" a "transition" album for the Beatles. Actually, it was no such thing. All of the actual "Help" music is indeed pretty much the same style and sound. (As a "purist" when it comes to the Beatles, it is very frustrating to me that it is not possible to get CD versions of all the old recordings as they originally appeared on the albums of the sixties. Dizzy Miss Lizzy on the Help album? Bah!....Humbug!).



For what my humble oppinion is worth, Rubber Soul was the Beatles last "great" album. Starting with Revolver, the music was always still interesting and creative (sometimes overly so) but was lacking in what the Beatles always did best - namely, write and perform simple and catchy pop/rock love songs with a style and sound that was (and still is) just SO DAMN FUN to listen to! I'll take songs like "You Cant Do That" and "Youre Gonna Loose that Girl" over "She Said She Said" (Revolver) and "Everybodys Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" (White Album) anyday of the week, thank you very much.



Actually, ....there is no such thing as a bad Beatles album. Some are just better than others.... and the "Help" tunes on this CD are amoung their VERY best.

A masterpiece

Help!. The Beatles fifth studio album, and the soundtrack to the film of the same name.

In 1964, if you recall correctly, The Beatles released their first full-length feature film - A Hard Day's Night. In 1965, they wanted to follow up on its success with a color film - entitled Help!. Once again, the band would release the soundtrack of the film as a full-length studio album. Accordingly, the soundtrack to Help! became their fifth studio album. Read on for my review of the album.

Help! - The title track has become one of the band's best-known songs, and with good reason. This is John at his best - no questions asked.

The Night Before - Another excellent track, this one seems like a slightly more mature version of their earlier hit, Tell Me Why. Once again, they don't fail to please.

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away - One of the most underrated songs on the album. This is a slow and melodic track, but not quite a ballad. Oddly enough, a tambourine is the only source of percussion. A hidden gem of a song.

I Need You - The first of two George Harrison songs to appear on the album. For this track, George gives us an excellent ballad - which rivals the quality of those written by other members of the band.

Another Girl - A blues-based rocker. Since The Beatles were a pop-rock band, I am surprised to see how well they handled blues-oriented tracks.

You're Going To Lose That Girl - A melodic pop-rocker. This is one of John's finest songs with the band - is there anything else that needs to be said of this one?

Ticket To Ride - Another John song, this one is also (arguably) the biggest hit to come off of the album. This is sixties pop-rock at its very best. Paul's bass line is especially excellent.

Act Naturally - Though Ringo didn't write this song, he sings on it. This is a bluesy little track with some obvious country/western influence. Ringo was fascinated by the genre, and his attempt at it is nothing short of excellent.

It's Only Love - Another one of the album's hidden gems. This is a short but sweet love song with sone very inventive lyrics. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT skip this track.

You Like Me Too Much - The second of two George Harrison songs to appear on the album. This is a pop-rocker reminiscent of John's I Don't Want To Spoil The Party from the previous album, Beatles For Sale. That's a GOOD thing, making this one of Harrison's finest Beatles songs.

Tell Me What You See - One of the most underrated Beatles songs ever. It was never a popular song, but that doesn't mean it's a bad one by any means. Don't skip it!

I've Just Seen A Face - Ditto.

Yesterday - McCartney's masterpiece. This song is entirely acoustic, and it features a backing orchestra. Paul is probably my least favorite Beatle - but I think this is an excellent song nonetheless.

Dizzy Miss Lizzie - The final cover song to ever appear on a Beatles studio album (if I'm not mistaken.) This is fast-paced bluesy sixties rock at its best - a good album closer!

Help! isn't the Beatles' best album by any means, but there is no denying that it is worthy of Amazon's highest score possible - five out of five. After this album, the band would start to change itself - and in my opinion, for the better. Still, this stands as one of the strongest albums from the band's earlier era, and it's worth checking out, even if you're just a casual fan.

The last of the Beatles' albums from the "early" years

I was listening to the CDS for both "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!" when I suddenly realized that once again the Beatles were probably innovators ahead of their time. "Help," as with the album from the first Beatles' movie, has songs from the film only on "Side 1." Today we take for granted that soundtrack albums are filled with songs that never appear in movies or are at best "inspired" by a film. Well, the Beatles were doing that way back in 1965. Here is a "soundtrack" where one of the leftovers only happens to be the most recorded song in the history of human existence (it would be #13 on the play list for those of you who need a look before you go "duh").

"Help!" is the final album of what in retrospect are the early Beatles. Next comes the short middle period of "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" before the "Sgt. Pepper" period. Lennon & McCartney have 10 solid songs on this collection; their least impressive songs, "Another Girl" and "Tell Me What You See," are still as good as anything else any other group was doing in the mid-Sixties. The title song and "Ticket to Ride" are biggies and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "I've Just Seen a Face" are just a step below. The album earns only four stars because George gets two tracks on this album are they are both lesser examples of his work (he does much better next time out). Then add (subtract) the fact that is the last Beatles album in which the group covers songs written by others and neither "Act Naturally" nor "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" was worth the effort. Even with those caveats this is not a Beatles album you would exclude from your music library. Actually, no such animal exists; even the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack has a couple of solid songs beyond what we have already heard elsewhere.