Album by Album Thread featuring: The Beatles!

[Decker]

I agree with SM. Perhaps the only album in the Beatles cannon (with the possible exceptions of Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be) to feel like a step back instead of forward. Not terrible, but far from their best stuff. Really only one truly great song (Eight Days A Week) and three near-great ones.

[Suprmallet]

"No Reply" is definitely one of Lennon's best songs.

[Rocketdog2000]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

At the end of 1964 the quartet released Beatles For Sale, and it can be seen as nothing but a step back from the glorious triumph of A Hard Day's Night. For one thing, while A Hard Day's Night had been comprised entirely of Lennon/McCartney originals, Beatles For Sale went back to the formula of mixing originals and covers that the band used on their first two releases.

I agree with this portion of your review, and a couple of other points, but other than that, I'm more inclined to agree with Hokeyboy's review. (Although I will give you both kudos for your, yet again, extremely well thought out and written reviews. They're always a pleasure to read, even if I disagree.)

So yeah, the fact that reverting to doing a lot of covers again, as opposed to primarily all original material, does takes points away from Beatles For Sale for me. Barring "Rock & Roll Music" (another song the band made their own), I can do without all of them. But even with that, I still rate the album higher than Please Please Me or With The Beatles, and it's mainly because of the originals. "No Reply", "I'm a Loser", "I'll Follow the Sun", "Eight Days a Week", "Every Little Thing", "What You're Doing" and yes, even "Baby's in Black" are all great tunes to me. Yes, I quiet enjoy this album, too.

[Suprmallet]

I should point out that I still think even The Beatles worst album is better than most albums of the period. It's only in comparison to to the rest of their catalogue that I find Beatles For Sale deficient.

[GreenVulture]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

Beatles For Sale is the weakest Beatles album, not only for the uneven nature of the material, but also for the lack of energy displayed by the group on the recording.

Beyond incorrect. So what if they look worn out and pissed off on the front cover? "No Reply" is one of the great unsung Beatles tracks, with some of the best John & Paul vocal interplay in the group's entire discography, and I adore that use of a simultaneous cymbal/piano crash in the chorus, giving it some real dramatic weight. I love that weird, careening guitar sound in "Baby's in Black," the piano in "Every Little Thing," and George's heavenly guitar playing and Ringo's creative drumming on their cover of "Words of Love."

"I'll Follow the Sun" is Macca at his schmaltzy best, the band tear into their covers of "Rock and Roll Music," "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" and "Kansas City" with boundless enthusiasm, and if you don't at least crack a smile listening to Ringo's infectious singing on "Honey Don't," you just might have a heart of stone.

Seriously, this album is just great from beginning to end. If I had to make a complaint, it's that I would probably swap out "Mr. Moonlight" for their raccous cover of "Leave My Kitten Alone," recorded at the same time and found on Anthology I. "Moonlight" is certainly not as bad as people would have you believe (I particularly like the use of the organ), but it does sort of pale compared to the rest of the material here. Still, it's a minor quibble at worst.

Fantastic album, well worth your listening time.

[monkish]

While we're still in Beatles For Sale mode, here's a great video of George in 1985, singing "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" on a Cinemax special called Carl Perkins and Friends: A Rockabilly Session. His respect and admiration for Carl is readily apparent, his singing and guitar playing are so much more self-assured than on the Beatles' version (of course, this is twenty years later), and the band (Dave Edmunds and his group of the time) play up a storm.

(The special also included Ringo singing "Honey Don't", Eric Clapton, Rosanne Cash, and a couple of Stray Cats, among others. I must've watched this thing fifty times as a college student.)

[too much]

I just recently picked up the CD of Carl Perkins & Friends. I don't usually play a CD over and over, especially on the first night, but that concert is just amazing.

George in in top form. Ringo's take of "Honey Don't" is also very good. He does it again on (or at) The Concert for George.

As for Beatles for Sale, I agree with those that think it is a mixed bag. I love half of it. The rest is ok. I really don't understand all the hate for "Mr. Moonlight". Not great, but not the worst. Just 2 1/2 minutes. It is gone before you really have a chance to hate it (IMO).

[auto]

Help!

Original Release Date: August 6, 1965

Tracklisting:

1 Help!
2 The Night Before
3 You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
4 I Need You
5 Another Girl
6 You're Going To Lose That Girl
7 Ticket to Ride
8 Act Naturally
9 It's Only Love
10 You Like Me Too Much
11 Tell Me What You See
12 I've Just Seen a Face
13 Yesterday
14 Dizzy Miss Lizzy



Original Credits:
Aaron Bremner Photo Research, Photo Editing
Wendy Day Project Manager
Kenneth Essex Viola
Robert Freeman Photography
Francisco Gabarro Cello
Tony Gilbert Violin
George Harrison Guitar, Vocals
Kevin Howlett Liner Notes, Historical Research
David Katz Violin
John Lennon Guitar, Piano (Electric), Tambourine, Vocals
Drew Lorimer Redesign
George Martin Piano, Producer
Guy Massey Remastering
Paul McCartney Bass, Guitar, Piano, Guitar (Bass), Piano (Electric), Vocals
Gavin ONeill Photo Retouching
Steve Rooke Remastering
Alan Rouse Liner Notes, Project Coordinator
Sidney Sax Violin
John Scott Flute
Ken Scott Assistant Engineer
Norman Smith Engineer
Ringo Starr Bongos, Drums, Marimba, Tambourine, Vocals, Claves

[Hokeyboy]

Ahhh now we're cooking with gas...

Help! kicks off a period of unparalled creativity, innovation, songwriting and musicianship in The Beatles' history. The dark, folky yearnings of the previous (and wholly underrated) "Beatles For Sale" has lead to more experimentation with Dylanesque folk, country, and balladeering, while not sacrificing the pure pop craftsmanship that has earmarked much of The Beatles sound up to this point.

1965 was in many ways 1964 Part Deux for The Beatles (Two albums! A worldwide tour! A hit movie! Rampaging Beatlemania everywhere!) but there was nothing but progression and evolution in their music.

The album opens with the title track, and Help! is one of their classics. And yet, while it's a great pop number it masks genuine yearning and insecurity on the part of Lennon (and by extension the group as a whole). The throwaway silliness of their last movie title number has given way to something deeper on this one, and it heralds a new driving expression in their music.

The Night Before continues the uptempo vibe with some cool electric keyboards, give-and-take choruses, and Paul's reverberating lament for a woman who used him for nookie. Not a great song, but a good one.

Much has been said about Lennon's descent into Dylan territory with You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. Rather than belabor that point, I will simply say that this is one of his best Beatles songs, period: short, to the point, painful, poetic, beautiful.

The pain continues with George's best song to date, I Need You. Everything about this song works: the processed guitarwork, George's vocal stylings accompanied by beautiful harmones from John and Paul, Ringo's tasteful use of cowbell, the works. An underrated and mostly overlooked cut from this album, it more than deserves another listen from the casual listener.

Another Girl is OK. I like the verses more than the chorus. Good lyrics, finally a break from four songs of woe-is-meism -- too bad it's the weakest song so far! I'm also not a big fan of the rockabilly vibe that drives this tune.... perhaps another arrangement might have improved the song for me?

You're Gonna Lose That Girl is absolute pop perfection. More give-and-take on the verses and chorus. Everything about this song is perfect; I think I might like the bridge best "I'll make a point / I'm taking here away from you... (watch what you do) yeah...".

Keep it going! Ticket To Ride is another perfect song, sweet harmonious pop with an underlying rock backbone. The 12-string Rick jangle, Ringo's pulsating beat, and Lennon and McCartney harmonizing like no one else. YES! This is better than fruitcup!!

Act Naturally... oy. Not a bad song, and Ringo brings his A-game to this rockabilly/country cover. I remember back on the US vinyl "Yesterday... And Today" album, this song came immediately after "Yesterday" and destroyed... no, it absolutely DEMOLISHED that song's particular afterglow. Oh well. Not my thing, but not a bad song.

It's Only Love is Lennon at his balladeering best, with some nice flourishes like the rolling rr's on the word "bright" in the second verse. I really like this song, another overlooked gem in The Beatles' catalog. A nice Roy Orbison vibe here.

You Like Me Too Much is filler... sort of generic-sounding. George sounds more confident in both his vocals and songwriting, but the song has never done much for me.

Tell Me What You See is another overlooked pop nicety, with a breezy acoustic beat that drives simple tune. Not a classic, but a good song regardless. Paul's dives into a deeper vocal register here, and I like the switch from his usual higher range.

I've Just Seen A Face is another classic, a folk number with country overtones that Paul just absolutely nails. The song is perfect from soup to nuts: lyrically, musically, sonically, it just delivers on every level. Even George's straightforward solo is tasteful and wonderfully situated; it doesn't come crashing into the song clumsily (my only flaw in the otherwise perfect "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party") and highlights the song's beautiful driving melody.

Yesterday.... yeah...

Dizzy Miss Lizzy is a nice rocker to end the album with. Repetitious to a fault, it benefits from Lennon's assured vocal delivery and a killer rock vibe. A cover, but a decent one.

There's so much I love about this album, it easily ranks as one of The Beatles' best albums. Leading directly into Rubber Soul and Revolver, Help is the beginning of what I (and many, I'd imagine) consider to be the finest period in The Beatles entire career. Half this album consists of great tunes, another 4 really good ones, 2 OKs and 1 filler. On a Beatles scale, Help! readily earns its 4.5 / 5. Yay!

[Hokeyboy]

Current rankings:

Please Please Me - 3 / 5
With The Beatles - 3.5 / 5
A Hard Day's Night - 4.5 / 5
Beatles For Sale - 4 / 5
Help! - 4.5 / 5

[Hokeyboy]

Where has everybody gone?

[Suprmallet]

Sorry, I was a little too busy to do a write-up.

After the fatigue of Beatles For Sale, The Beatles took a much needed Christmas back and then continued with their hectic schedule, including shooting another film, Help! Now in color and featuring an absurd (but often hilarious) plot involving one of Ringo's rings, Help! was another box office hit, although it didn't garner the critical acclaim of its predecessor. Lennon would later dismiss it, but I think it holds up as a silly 60's comedy.

While the movie may have been less than stellar, the accompanying album certainly was not. The title track is another Beatles classic from Lennon, and one of the band's most recognizable tunes. The fact that the song was a real cry for help from the overburdened Beatle does nothing to diminish its ability to entertain. McCartney feels a little lovelorn with "The Night Before," coming up with the plot to Grease almost 10 years in advance. Lennon then knocks it out of the park again with the Dylanesque "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," with an aching vocal and melody that haunts the listener long after the song is done.

In fact, both Lennon and McCartney are in rare form, and almost all of their songs are unhappy ones. "You're Going To Lose That Girl" and "Ticket To Ride" are both about relationships gone sour (in the case of the former, it's the titular girl's relationship with her current beau, whom Lennon is threatening to move in on, and in the latter it's Lennon himself who finds himself on the losing end). "It's Only Love" finds Lennon aching over a girl he may or may not be able to connect with. McCartney matches him song for song, with "Another Girl," a notice to his current girlfriend that her services are no longer required, and then gets a little more upbeat for "I've Just Seen A Face," one of the few truly upbeat songs on the album.

George's contributions are generally seen as the start of his maturing songwriting skills, but honestly neither "I Need You" nor "You Like Me Too Much" stand out much from the pack, especially amongst all the Lennon/McCartney gems on the album. Ringo's cover, "Act Naturally," fits him like a glove and works better in the context of the overall album.

And then there's the heavyweight: "Yesterday." Coming up with the melody in a dream, McCartney was at first terrified that he had unconsciously plagarized the tune from somewhere else (something that Harrison would eventually do for "My Sweet Lord"). Upon discovering that the tune was no one's but his own, he began working on it under the title "Scrambled Eggs." This was actually back in 1964, and McCartney worked on it for so long that the song became a joke amongst The Beatles, especially with the silly title. But then, during a tour in 1965, McCartney worked out the lyrics, played it out on a guitar, and he had it. "Yesterday" was the first Beatles song to feature only one Beatle, backed by strings supplied by George Martin. The song quietly tells of a lost love, and how everything was better before she left. "Yesterday/All my troubles seemed so far away/Now it looks as though they're here to stay/Oh I believe in yesterday," McCartney sang, and everyone who hears it feels the emotion behind the words.

While not released as a UK single (until 1976 anyway), the song was released as a single in America and shot to the top of the charts, becoming the most played song on American radio for 8 years. It's also the most covered song in history, with over 3,000 covers and counting. "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the century by a BBC Poll, and the #1 pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone. According to BMI, "Yesterday" is the third most played song in the history of American and British radio.

Help! then winds down with "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," another raucous Lennon cover, but it feels out of place after the intimate beauty of "Yesterday."

Help! debuted at number one on the British charts (first time in history this happened, apparently), and spent 9 weeks at the top. In America, the album was at number one from September 11, 1965 till the 12th of November, finally unseated by the soundtrack to The Sound of Music.

Despite its few faults, Help! was The Beatles last great pure-pop masterpiece, and the rate at which their musical creativity and experimentation exploded afterwards is truly remarkable.

[monkish]

Help! (or, as the semaphore hand signals on the cover actually spell out, Nujv!) provides solid and often-brilliant evidence of the Beatles' rapid maturation, while also showing the imperfections of being a padded-out soundtrack album; only the first seven songs were actually in the movie; the rest are unrelated songs from the same recording sessions, including a couple of songs that director Richard Lester rejected for use in the film.

(And yes, before anyone says anything: I realize that A Hard Day's Night was constructed in the same way. But, that album was top-to-bottom awesome, while Help! isn't quite. Anyway...)

Beatles For Sale provided the first glimpses of John opening up his songwriting into new and confessional territory, but Help! is where this more personal style starts to really flower. The two prime examples are the Dylanesque "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", and the title track (John later said he wished the group had recorded "Help!" at a slower tempo, but I don't -- I think the released version powerfully communicates Lennon's desperation and stress).

John also contributes the classic "Ticket To Ride", which he later called "one of the earliest heavy metal records" (in tribute to Ringo's marvelous drumming), and "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", which features some wonderful interplay between the melody and background vocals.

Paul's most notable contribution to the album is, of course, "Yesterday". I'm on the side of those who find the song lovely and affecting rather than mawkish, largely thanks to the use of a subdued string quartet (can you imagine the song with a Spectorish orchestra? Yipes.) I'm also a big fan of the jaunty "I've Just Seen A Face" (one of a select group of songs that Paul revived when he started performing Beatles tunes again in the mid-70's), and I think "The Night Before" is one of the group's most underrated rockers.

Meanwhile, "Act Naturally" is a truly perfect fit for Ringo (and he sings it pretty much as well as Buck Owens ever did). I think it's his best showcase so far.

So... that's the prime stuff. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is just ordinary at best. "Another Girl", "Tell Me What You See", and "You Like Me Too Much" all have very pedestrian melodies, while "I Need You" is merely pleasant and nothing more (I don't think the song would be much remembered if it weren't for the cool volume swell guitar). "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" has that damned guitar riff that becomes like a dentist's drill after a while -- they really needed to shut that thing up while John was singing. And "It's Only Love"... well, John himself called the lyric "abysmal", and I fully agree. It's a rare occasion when I can make it past the whole "I get high my oh my butterflies" opening verse... blech. It's a shame, 'cause I like the song's chord progression.

Anyhow... **** out of *****.

[auto]

Sorry, been traveling for work. Just when we got to the really good stuff too:



Rubber Soul

Original Release Date: December 3, 1965

Tracklisting:

1 Drive My Car
2 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3 You Won't See Me
4 Nowhere Man
5 Think For Yourself
6 The Word
7 Michelle
8 What Goes On
9 Girl
10 I'm Looking Through You
11 In My Life
12 Wait
13 If I Needed Someone
14 Run For Your Life



Original Credits:
Aaron Bremner Photo Research, Photo Editing
Wendy Day Project Manager
Mal Evans Organ (Hammond)
Robert Freeman Photography
George Harrison Guitar, Sitar, Tambourine, Vocals
Kevin Howlett Liner Notes, Historical Research
John Lennon Guitar, Guitar (Rhythm), Tambourine, Vocals
Drew Lorimer Redesign
George Martin Piano, Harmonium, Tambourine, Producer
Guy Massey Remastering
Paul McCartney Bass, Guitar, Piano, Guitar (Bass), Vocals, Fuzz Bass
Gavin ONeill Photo Retouching
Steve Rooke Remastering
Alan Rouse Liner Notes, Project Coordinator
Ken Scott Assistant Engineer
Norman Smith Engineer
Ringo Starr Drums, Organ (Hammond), Tambourine, Vocals

[SkullOrchard]

Rubber Soul is GOD.

[Imail724]

Rubber Soul is the earliest Beatles record I own. I love it. Drive My Car is one of my favorite Beatles songs.

[jmu878]

My second favorite album after Abbey Road...absolutely brilliant.

[wm lopez]

Originally Posted by Suprmallet

Yes, Mr. Moonlight is easily the most unanimously maligned Beatles track.

Instead of REVOLUTION #9?

[Decker]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Rubber Soul is a VERY good record album.

[Suprmallet]

Originally Posted by wm lopez

Instead of REVOLUTION #9?

I think Revolution #9 causes too much confusion to really allow for the consensus of opinion that has formed around Mr. Moonlight.

[Hokeyboy]

Every time I start to do a write-up, I can't finish it. Everything I type seems so damn trite. I'll try to it again later. Suffice to say, this is a * * * * * Beatles album, and their second best to....

[Suprmallet]

I'm in the same boat. This is a five star album and contains some of the band's best songs, especially "I'm Looking Through You" and "In My Life." Will type up more later.

[Quake1028]

Would it be OK if I used this thread to chronicle my thoughts on the set, being that I've never heard a Beatles album in my life?

[Suprmallet]

Yes, go for it!

[Quake1028]

OK! Expect some Please Please Me impressions tonight .