The Beatles – Help! (1965)
“Gather ’round all you clowns. Let me hear you say, ‘Hey, you’ve got to hide your love away.’”
Produced by: George Martin
1. HELP!
3. YOU’VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY
4. I NEED YOU
5. ANOTHER GIRL
6. YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE THAT GIRL
13. YESTERDAY
Another movie, another soundtrack. Luckily, it’s another great movie (although it’s much sillier than A Hard Day’s Night and not quite up to that standard) and it gets another great soundtrack (same as above). Once again the boys do a half and half album here: half soundtrack songs and half regular album tracks. (And, once again, Capitol screwed it up for us Americans.) This time, however, they had a new direction that had almost been sparked on the last album and would be the focus of the next one (Rubber Soul): folk rock. The songs are getting even more introspective and autobiographical (especially from John) and maybe even a little softer at times. They still know how to rock out, though.
What brought on this change? Well, partly it was just the change of the times. Bob Dylan and The Byrds were topping the charts and that made everyone stand up and take notice. The other thing was Dylan himself. He had met The Beatles late in 1964 and had introduced them to something that most musicians were already using at the time: Wacky Weed. Mary Jane. Tea.
That’s right, folks. Marijuana brought them to this. Kinda makes you think that legalizing it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. The effect would be more pronounced on Rubber Soul, but it’s felt here. And it was felt on the movie set. John would say something like, “Let’s go have a giggle” and they would be off to the bathroom. They would come out and be laughing their asses off, making it very difficult to get anything done. I believe that they even did it just before they got their prestigious MBE awards in Britain. As much as they tried to hide it, everyone knew.
The exhaustion of constant touring, filming and recording didn’t help things, either. They were tired. They were at the end of their ropes. They needed a break. Did they get one? Well, no. They just had to keep on trucking. And, while that’s good for us, it was pretty damn tough on them.
They were able to hide it a little bit in the music here, though. Not as downbeat as Beatles For Sale it, for the most part, doesn’t really deal with the “loser” side of the guys. And, while it’s not their most consistent or cohesive album, it does have some killer tracks on it. And there are only two covers this time out, so something was helping with the writing process.
And, no, the semaphores that the guys are doing on the cover do not spell out the title. They don’t actually spell anything. Too bad.
Once again, The Beatles start off their soundtrack with a bang. John’s most personal and autobiographical song yet gives them the title of the movie. (Originally it was going to be called Eight Arms To Hold You and “Eight Days A Week” was going to be the title track. Good for them for changing it.)
The way John envisioned it, though, was completely different. It was to be a slow, introspective song, very spare and thought-provoking. They tried it a couple of times, but it wasn’t working too well. Especially not if it was going to be the title to a hit movie! George Martin had them speed it up and the seeds of a hit were born. John learned that you could rock and still dig deep inside of yourself. An important lesson.
Check out Tina Turner’s cool version of the way she sees John’s original vision on her Private Dancer album. U2 also used to do this one in concert a lot.
LISTEN FOR: The explosion of sound at the very beginning. Ushering in a new era of Beatle songs.
Paul (who has a higher profile here than on previous albums) gets his first song. And now it’s his turn to be heartbroken. He’s just found out that the girl he loves has changed her mind. Can’t we just go back to the way it was yesterday? (Guess where this theme pops up again.)
LISTEN FOR: The shuffling break. “Last night is the night…” Everything changes for a couple of lines and then we’re back to the original time.
3. YOU’VE GOT TO HIDE YOUR LOVE AWAY
The first ballad of the collection is a classic. Some say it was John’s song to Brian Epstein, making it the first song in mainstream pop to address homosexuality. That could be, but taken at face value it’s a very poignant song about a guy who, for one reason or another, can’t tell the girl he loves how he truly feels. Maybe he told her before, but she didn’t believe him. Now he has to hide it and listen to everyone who can tell. It’s an old situation that has been written about millions of times, but never so perfectly.
LISTEN FOR: The flute at the end. This was The Beatles’ first guest musician. Too bad they didn’t think to name him. (That wouldn’t happen until Revolver.)
George’s first to two (!) compositions on the album shows that he’s come a long way since “Don’t Bother Me” just two years before. It’s a song of devotion and love lost that is almost as good as anything that John or Paul wrote on this album.
LISTEN FOR: George’s guitar stingers at the end of each line. Kind of slidish, but not quite. And then it almost stutters at the end. Pretty cool.
For some reason, this Paul song never really hit me as being very Beatley. I think it’s the Stonesish guitar. Good rocker that shows that Paul can do bluesy.
LISTEN FOR: That guitar. This time Paul is playing and emulates a master: (I think) Keith Richards.
6. YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE THAT GIRL
John brings us a song about a guy trying to warn a friend (I can only guess). You see, John is seeing an opening in his friend’s relationship and he’s about to take it. What a pal. Well, it’s dude’s fault for not treating her right.
LISTEN FOR: The first time that John is actually taking someone away from someone else. Usually it’s the other way around. And another cool solo from George. Just after it John gets almost tender with his vocals. Only for one line, though. Then he’s back to his cynical self.
The longest song on the album is luckily one of the best. Yeah, it’s only a little over three minutes, but the rest are much shorter.
Now John is back where he usually is, the losing end of a relationship. This girl has every chance in the world with him, but “she don’t care.”
John once called this the first heavy metal song. Um, not sure about that, but it certainly is one of their most complex songs to date. Lots of time and key changes and all around mood changes. A perfect song.
LISTEN FOR: The last thirty seconds or so (“My baby don’t care”). It sounds as if John is crying to the sky about his heartbreak.
8. ACT NATURALLY (Morrison/Russell)
And Ringo gets a cover. This time it’s an old Buck Owens country song about how he’s going to be a big movie star if only he can act naturally. It shouldn’t be a problem because, like the character in the movie, he’s sad and lonely.
This song is kind of appropriate for Ringo since he’s had the best movie career. Of course, everything’s relative. Not a bad cover, though.
LISTEN FOR: Paul’s harmony vocals. If anyone can harmonize with Ringo it would be Paul.
John puts up another song with the same kind of theme as the title track: I’m too insecure to do anything about what I need to do. He and his girl fight all the time, but he loves her more than anything.
Here they show their first bit of Indian influence. George’s guitar is tuned to Eastern keys and it works pretty damn well.
John never liked this song, but I’m not really sure why. I love it.
LISTEN FOR: “Why am I so shy when I’m inside you?” Uh, what was that, John? That’s about the last moment you should be shy. How did some of this get past the censors?
10. YOU LIKE ME TOO MUCH (Harrison)
George gets his second song on here. Not quite as good as “I Need You,” but it’s still pretty good. It’s full of all kinds of hubris. “You’ll never leave me and you know it’s true. ‘Cause you like me too much and I like you.” But he counteracts that little ego boost with “‘Cause I couldn’t really stand it, I’ll admit that I was wrong.” So I guess it all balances out. I guess.
LISTEN FOR: John’s jazzy electric piano solos. Paul and George Martin are playing on a Steinway, but it’s John that we all hear.
Paul brings up another great one that’s been lost in the shuffle. The eyes are truly the window to the soul. “Look into these eyes now. Tell me what you see. It is no surprise now. What you see is me.”
LISTEN FOR: Paul and John’s harmonies. Awesome.
Often called the song that would have been a mega-hit if “Yesterday” hadn’t come around, this is one of my favorites of his on this album. Love at first sight does exist. He saw her on the street and realizes that if he had just made a different turn he never would have seen her. But now he’s in love and he wants the whole world to know. One of Paul’s sweetest songs.
LISTEN FOR: The opening guitar riff. Great stuff.
It came to him in a dream and he almost thought that he didn’t write it. After weeks of asking people if they had heard it before he was finally satisfied that he actually could write something this good.
Then he came up with the lyrics: “Scrambled eggs. Oh my darling how I love your legs.”
Ok, Byron he ain’t. But those were just temporary, of course. He ended up writing a story of a man who has screwed up in his life and just wants to go back and make things right with the woman he loves.
Suddenly he’s better than Byron. The lyrics are some of the greatest lost love lyrics ever written. Even John couldn’t write this one. He once said that he wouldn’t have wanted to. And he didn’t mean that in a snide, John-like way. He meant that it was Paul’s baby and he was happy for him to have written it.
Then came the decision to record it without the rest of The Beatles. Just Paul and a string quartet. Not a very popular decision with the rest of them, but it worked out just fine. (And it supplies us with the first Beatles’ solo song. Sort of.)
This is still the most covered and most played song in history. Everyone from Elvis to Frank Sinatra, from Burl Ives to Liberace, from The Supremes to (shudder) Michael Bolton. It seems that everyone has covered “Yesterday.” Sometimes good (as in the case of Mr. Sinatra) and sometimes horribly, horribly wrong (as I’m sure is the case with Mr. Bolton).
It may be a little over-rated (and over-played), but it is a great song and deserves to be counted among the greatest. It’s just a fact that is inborn into all of us.
LISTEN FOR: The whole damn song! But Paul’s vocals are great here. He pulls a John and throws all the hurt and pain into his performance that he can muster.
14. DIZZY MISS LIZZIE (Williams)
In one of the most jarring track orders in music history, the boys close the album with a cover of an old Larry Williams rocker. And this one sure does rock. Not one of John’s better ones, though. It’s good, but I could almost skip it after listening to the rest of the album and not really notice. Kind of a mediocre effort. But even their mediocre efforts are better than most group’s great efforts.
LISTEN FOR: George’s rockin’ solo. The best part of the whole song.
