toots on Help!...

something has definitely happened now. they seem to have discovered the possibilities of the recording studio as not just a hit factory but as quasi-laboratory. songs overall seem to have a lot more space and ambient, lush sound with subtle notes of wurlitzer and great dual-layered guitar licks such as in The Night Before.

You've Got to Hide Your Love Away...a true gem with juicy layers of acoustic 12-string and a bitchin flute solo. it says all it needs to say in just over two minutes. every songwriter everywhere should take note.

I Need You...that weird volume-swell guitar thing in the right channel could be taken as distracting, but it strikes me as an important foreshadowing of the experimentation to follow.

You're Gonna Lose That Girl...sweet harmonies but Tito could chill out on the bongos a bit.

Ticket to Ride...this guitar sound will always compel me to buy a '62 Spitfire and paint a Union Jack on it.

Act Naturally...brits doing cowboy dancehall is not my thing.

It's Only Love...almost wrote this song off as proto-twee-throwaway until the effected-out guitar snuck in at the end. weird, dude!

You Like Me Too Much...Wurlitzer seems to be becoming the 5th Beatle. i like. song seems to want to go somewhere but tuckers out before it hits the finish line.

I've Just Seen A Face...i have never seen the Beatles like this. amazing guitar work here. vocals are tight and succinct. i'll probably be listening to this new nugget multiple times today.

Yesterday...not a big ballad man, but man this is a great ballad. well-deserving of its acclaim, even though the cello is flat at 1:26

Dizzy Miss Lizzy... wtf i have never heard this, nor the original. headbanging now.

overall, both production and songwriting have seemed to tightened up substantially, thus saving this record from the dusty Manfred bin. this will be the first of this set that i will repeat-play throughout the rest of the workaday.

game on

Oh yeah. This is the sound of a band getting its shit back together. Side one especially is a leap forward, but even side two holds "Yesterday". I totally loved listening to this album - it came as a breath of fresh air and got me excited to hear what came next. Beatles fans in the 60s must have spent the decade in an itchy state of high anticipation.

Help!
Not much to say about this song except that it's more bedrock. I can't imagine a time when this song wasn't around. It's nice to hear that guitar jangle so clearly in the mix.

The Night Before
Sweet guitar break in this one. They really do feel re-energized after the comparatively grim Beatles For Sale. Didn't take much of a rest either - little over 3 months between sessions.

You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
This is where the Dylan influence becomes pronounced. Love it.

I Need You
Wow. They sound so assured and confident here. In construction the song isn't that far removed from Please Please Me really, except that they're obviously playing their own game now instead of learning someone else's rules.

Another Girl
Ditto the above. And Harrison's leads are awesome.

You're Going To Lose That Girl
The harmonies on these songs are slaying me. Shit - more crazy Harrison guitar. I'm back to being in awe.

Ticket To Ride
Fuck me. Just... fuck me. And Ringo... holy shit.

Act Naturally
Ringo. Ringo Ringo Ringo. I was just talking you up and then you had to spoil everything. Stick to the sticks, or GET ORF MOY RECKORD.

It's Only Love
This is b material compared to what it's surrounded by. George does what he can, but ultimately it's high quality filler.

You Like Me Too Much
And ditto the above. Maybe a little better than filler, but not up to the standard set by side one.

Tell Me What You See
There's an interesting sound here, but not an interesting song. Or... I may be full of shit, puffed up fecally by the heights scaled by previous songs. This might've been good enough to be a highlight on, say, an album by the Zombies.

I've Just Seen A Face
Sweet mother of god, that opening guitar bidniss is sweet. The song itself is spending too much time teaching the young Paul Simon how to write a tune. Not my kind of thing at all, although it's reeking of a high level of craft.

Yesterday
Another of those songs where it's just impossible to conceive that someone actually had to write it. Like, you mean it didn't always exist? How did humans not discover it before? I can only imagine what it must feel like to create something like this where every perfect tab fits so perfectly into every perfect slot. This, like all the Beatles' best, just goes beyond any mundane declaration of liking or not liking... it'd be like offering an opinion on the sun. In a word: inevitable.

Dizzy Miss Lizzy
The same kind of obvious cover from the club days that pockmarked Beatles For Sale, but here performed with an absolute cocky strut. "Grab the rear bumper, bitches, we're about to take you for a ride."

I enjoyed that read Rads, my only quibble would be with "It's Only Love" which I think has a fantastic vocal performance from John. Maybe it's because it was the first CD I ever owned when I was just discovering crushes, but it's always slayed me.

Though the actual Beatles seem to agree that it is filler:

In 1980 Lennon told Playboy journalist David Sheff: "I always thought it was a lousy song. The lyrics were abysmal. I always hated that song."

In his 1994 biography Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, McCartney said of the song: "Sometimes we didn't fight it if the lyric came out rather bland on some of those filler songs like 'It's Only Love'. If a lyric was really bad we'd edit it, but we weren't that fussy about it, because it's only a rock 'n' roll song. I mean, this is not literature.

Is there a technical term for what they do with the harmonies on the song "Help!" how instead of echoing the lyrics, they sing the harmony before the main lyric? You don't hear that much, and it sounds so good.

guitar lick at 1:04 is possibly the best, most concise thing i've heard since my 20s

1. Help!
I think I read that John was quoted as saying this was literally a cry for help. People thought it was just another random song topic but he was frazzled and lonely and unhappy and was fairly serious about needing help. It changed how I heard the song a bit. It keeps alive the trend of starting albums off with a bang. Favorite Part: Paul's foreshadowing lyrics in the backgrounds of the verses. Another great touch out of nowhere. If they were stealing touches like this, then the theft was so good that I don't care.

2. The Night Before
Not crazy about those keys. Something about the rhythm sounds dated now. Nothing earth shattering here but it's solid. Call and response is effective. Also Paul sounds kinda old here, especially on "makes me wanna CRRYYYYYY." Doubled guitar solo - those are 2 tracks.

3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
So this is the Dylan love. Another big sonic departure / first. "Ah Ah Ah-- Hold up a minute there Ringo, get off that drum set - here's a tamborine and some maracas." Flute solo. Different, effective.

4. I Need You
Sounds like we get a volume pedal on the guitar? It's really sparse with the instruments - that makes 2 in a row now, I guess they were really putting some distance on the chirpy stadium sound. Again a solid enough song but nothing amazing. Sounds tired, especially the backing vocals.

5. Another Girl
George does the Country Bendy guitar work again. If it weren't for the chorus I would probably really not like this song. And the chorus is short.

6. You're Going To Lose That Girl
1987: Kyle, sitting in 6th grade class, filling out a class survey about shit like "your favorite show, your favorite song" etc, answers "You're Going To Lose That Girl." I guess that month it was this song. I remember her being a little surprised but man oh man this song did it for me back then. The key changes, the harmonies, I donno what it was/is but I do still enjoy it a lot. It's a step backwards on this album in some ways but it's pleasant. Least Favorite Part: Bongos. It's like they raided the studio's Percussion Room and tossed something onto every track.

7. Ticket To Ride
Mmm 12 string. Take note, Roger McGuinn. Whatever the song origin it's a great song. After the title track, this is the song I think of when I think of this album.

8. Act Naturally
No. Chorus on the guitar and a MUCH better job of copying that twang work can't save it. I literally never fail to skip this. It's the way he sings "MOOOvies." Oh shit and he's got either a baritone guitar or just detuned a lot. Huh. Still.

9. It's Only Love
Fuck what a great track. The energy level has gone waaay down from the last albums - not much to scream and throw panties at here - but the lyrics are getting more serious and worthwhile. John's syrupy delivery here is fucking great. Why did I think Paul was the best beatle? At this pre-Yoko/Heroin stage, it's John by a mile. Favorite Part: "makes my time Brrrrrite"

10. You Like Me Too Much
Zzzzz. PaulBot2000. That chorus is straight-up TIRED. edit: not PaulBot, but George doing his damnest. Makes sense.

11. Tell Me What You See
Where the fuck is the bass? God it's buried. Everything on this album has been brought down 3 notches. Guess they're done with the screaming girls, and I can't say I blame them. Favorite Part: "Tellll Meee Whaaat Yooou See" harmonies. Still, on the verses, I can hear the joyless frown on Paul's face. That Patton Oswalt bit about the angry magician hate-fuck the crowd with magic - it's almost in that territory, "Oh KAY?! OH Kay."

12. I've Just Seen A Face
Show-stealer. I'm a sucker for that beat, and shit this squarely hits the bullseye he was aiming at. No missteps. Love the quick 12 string accoustic solo, love the 2-part harmonies. Favorite Part: that Paul can't contain himself on vocal track 2 from quiet little mumbled harmonies on parts where he's not really singing. A hint of joy sneaks through.

13. Yesterday
It's all been said. What Paul's going to eventually be good at (like it or hate it) shows up here bigtime. Shit is goddam pretty, that's for sure.

14. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
Because, you know, we have to end albums with rollicking covers. Right? So completely different sounding than the rest of the album it's jarring. John trots out the pipes admirably but I could do without it.

There's a lot to like admittedly, but I just don't like that kind of song. This, along with "Yesterday", portends the Paul that would really start to assert himself on Rubber Soul and, subsequently, begin the era of Beatles albums that contain songs I absolutely HATE.

and I love that kind of song. Agreed on the future though - there's a schmaltz storm brewing.

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High Five?

I just put it on. The first three songs just slay me. I have a particular massive love for 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away'.

I too have always dug that one

our loosely convergent opinions were fun while it lasted, however shortlived...


bring on the day-glo

I'm just warning you now about the rant coming when The Long And Winding Road hits my ears. Mushroom cloud.

ok, that song sucks

i'll give you that

Yeah, I just unwrapped Rubber Soul filled with excitement. It started great, then dives into some of the stuff that I'll just never appreciate. Jumping ahead though - I'm saving my rants for tomorrow.

<dusts off thesaurus>

locked and loaded...bring it

the track by track reviews had me wanting to listen to help! but i apparently left it at home. bummer.

just listened to revolver, on magical mystery tour now.

..you mean Monday, right? I can't do this shit on the wife's clock.

This shee is gonna be hard to keep up during christmess. If I wait til Monday I probably won't get another album in until after the 26th.

We may all have to go rogue.

Missed the last few albums due to being busy most of the week so it's on to 'Help!'

1: 'Help!' - Has misery ever sounded such fun? Musically most songs are like a jigsaw, a few pieces put together to create a bigger picture. This is more like a Cartier watch -a whole different level of craft, expertise and precision was involved. Lyrically this songs is also interesting and a million miles away from the generic love lyrics of 'She Loves You' etc. It's not just about the tune anymore...

2: 'The Night Before' - Organ is the lead instrument suggesting the band are moving away from the three guitars and a drum format. The music is obviously becoming more dense than the very early albums. The song itself is OK but sounds like a slightly experimental TV theme tune.

3: 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away' - Again Lennon shares his woes adding a completely different dimension to the music by using his own tortured psycology as a sort of additional instrument. Worthy of its obvious influence, in fact it has an emotional resonance that Dylan never really achieved outside of 'Blood on the Tracks'.

4: 'I Need You' - Another downbeat song, in fact the more you listen to it the more you realise it's desperately sad song; however McCartney being the man that he is/was tries to keep a lid on his misery unlike the more emotionally open Lennon. I love the weird, jittery guitar on this, again another example of their increasingly experimental air.

5: 'Another Girl' - The first of several C&W influenced tracks on the album. Nice guitar work from Harrison who is really coming into is own by developing a very unique style that always improves the song and yet is not flash or intrusive. In fact Harrison's guitar is almost uniformly excellent across this whole album.

6: 'You Are Going To Lose That Girl' - One of my favourites from this period of the group. Great tune, great harmonies, rather eccentric bongo playing and while there aren't many notes in that guitar solo it is one of the best in terms of effect.

7: 'Ticket To Ride' - Stamp it with red ink 'genius'. It was songs like this that transformed popular music, its literally perfect and note the lyrics 'my baby don't care'. Sounds like someone has broken free of the Neru jackets and will be doing their own thing regardless of the social constraints...

8: 'Act Naturally' - The thigh slapping Ringo number. Like 'Another Girl' C&W influenced, probably out stays its welcome by a minute or so but taken for what it is, a comedy vaudeville number, it's fine.

9: 'It's Only Love' - Messy and unfocused, you can imagine this was tossed off quite quickly.

10: 'You Like Me Too Much' - Again led by Paul's (I assume) organ. Sounds a little vapid.

11: 'Tell Me What You See' - Like a lot of the second half of this album it's the Beatles on cruise control.

12: 'I've Just Seen A Face' - Nice little ditty, typical of McCartney.

13: 'Yesterday' - This performance has since been surpassed by the Daffy Duck cover however the use of strings is the sound of a quite revolution going on.

14: 'Dizzy Miss Lizzy' - After generally what is either downbeat or hastily recorded 'bump it up to album length filler' material, this is a nice change, retrogressive sure, but a reminder of the bands history. The guitar is great and sounds absolutely filthy and Lennon can belt these rock n' roll numbers like no one else.

I think because of the holiday time table we should just go all out, rogue wave this sucker.

shit yeah, Tuesday on I'll be on the road christmasing it up in the hinterlands of north carolina. Well, either it goes on scheduled hiatus until that next week, or it goes pear-shaped.

Couldn't you just wait until Monday to pick up this thread where you left off?

Keep in mind, that album that song is on was pieced together from shelved sessions that weren't supposed to see the light of day.

Order of events.

1. Abbey Road kicks the universe's ass.
2. Long drawn out breakup over management/trying to get control of their publishing/apple going down the tubes
3. official breakup sort of
4. Oh shit, no more beatles albums
5. Phil Spector wipes his ass with some 2 inch tape.
6. You hear the long and winding road
7. mushroom cloud

Also, I'm down with whatever schedule you all go with.

I'm fucking loving this thread, i'd hate for it to end to soon, but that's better than it dying because of jesus, family, and commercialism.