at a glance...

Hometown: Liverpool, England
Year Formed: 1957

Members:
Paul McCartney -vocals, bass, piano
Ringo Starr -drums, bongos, tambourine, backing vocals, percussion
John Lennon -vocals, rhythm guitar, piano
George Harrison -lead guitar, vocals

Notes:
The Beatles...well, you know the story. Liverpudlian roustabouts in love with American rock 'n' roll pick up guitars, move to Hamburg to learn to play, figure out how to write pop songs and save the world for teenagers. How did they do it? They invented history's greatest hairdo (for men and women). They wrote four-chord pop and symphonic mood music without claiming one's superiority over the other. They were political, sexual, comical and emotional. They were smart, classy and stoned. Without The Beatles...well, it just doesn't bear thinking about, does it?

For anyone who’s seen the movie, it may be hard to separate the impish, fun-loving image of the Beatles from the music. While Help! does have those fantastic melodies and ringing guitars that keep up the light-hearted pop facade, it reflects the toll that being the most popular band in the world was taking on The Beatles. But in the fashion of all the great ones, The Beatles turn their pain into some of their finest work.

"Night Before" and "Another Girl" would be unremarkable without the George’s killer guitar work, and his own composition, "I Need You" starts to show him as an established writer, but it’s Lennon’s desperate state of mind that drives this album. "You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away," supposedly written about Beatle manager Brian Epstein’s homosexuality, is an acoustic number so tender, it hurts just to think about it. The dragging beat of "Ticket to Ride" adds perfectly to the lyrics’ tortured confusion and the title track itself is one of his most earnest and painful pleas for emotional salvation. What’s good about the soundtrack though, is that there are a few groovy instrumentals here to lighten up the mood. Several poppy Beatles songs are transformed into what sounds like a mega-cool soundtrack for some Eastern European action spy flick. And as a side note, my copy of Help! is the original Capitol US soundtrack, which does not include "Yesterday" and "Tell Me What You See" so don’t go thinking I’m an idiot for overlooking them.

Every Beatles album could be a greatest hits record. They all have songs that you absolutely need. Help! is no exception, and I’d tell you to get it if you don’t have it already, but who am I kidding? You’ve probably had it for years. It’s the Beatles.

If you like The Beatles, check out:
The Beatles Beatles For Sale
The Beatles A Hard Day's Night
The Beatles Abbey Road
The Beatles Revolver
The Beatles Rubber Soul
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Beatles The Beatles
The Zombies The Singles Collection
King Biscuit Time No Style
The Beta Band The Three EPs
Cornershop When I Was Born for the 7th Time
Wilco Summer Teeth

-- Lori Latimer

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