7.01am
1 May 2019
Norwegian Dood said
I personally find “Help !” to be one of their best albums, I don’t know if that’s just personally but it includes not only some of their best known work, including the crowd favorite “Yesterday ” but has an extremely solid tracklist in general. Though you could argue that all of their albums before “Rubber Soul ” are underrated, something that is probably true, but I feel that this is one of the albums that I could easily see be just as appriciated as the others. So just to stop whining about the world not agreeing with me, I’ll conclude by saying that I love me some “Help !” and I hope others do as well, because that would be swell.
And I’ll try to post something soon rather than just create topics.
Help ! was the first Beatles album I ever bought for myself when I was 18 or 19, along with Carly Simon’s Greatest Hits. The record store owner told me about British “imports” and how the quality of the vinyl was better, but I also saw that there were more songs on the British version, but it didn’t cost double, so at that point I decided that when it came to the Beatles, I was going to go British imports, which the record dealer let me special order over about the next year and a half (at $12.99 apiece). It is still one of my favorites, although I would change the order. “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” just sounds odd or out of place after Yesterday plays.
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25 February 2020
jamessick said It is still one of my favorites, although I would change the order. “Dizzy Miss Lizzie” just sounds odd or out of place after Yesterday plays.
Yeah, always felt like that was out of place as a closer.
That said, Help ! is easily my favourite pre-Rubber Soul album.
5.06pm
28 February 2020
It has two of the worst songs the Beatles ever did in a row. You Like Me Too Much followed by Tell Me What You. As great as the two that follow (I’ve Just Seen A Face and Yesterday ) are momentum is stopped dead.
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5.54pm
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1 May 2011
I love ‘Tell Me What You See ‘, yes, it is complete filler with nothing at all to it but I have always loved it (he same can also be said for ‘It’s Only Love ‘). ‘YLMTM’ is a fun song with a cracking instrumental section and I love the way they get from the bridge (or whatever it’s called) back to the verse.
A lot of ‘Help !’ is filled with filler numbers and the album probably only gets less of a kicking than ‘BFS’ due to having more originals than actually being a better album on the whole and a few massive songs; the two singles and ‘Yesterday ‘. ‘DML’ is there but truly does not fit in the slightest and ‘Act Naturally ‘ is a Ringo number so almost automatically gets a shrug and folk go and mow the lawn for two and a half minutes.
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10.43pm
14 June 2016
Dingle Lad said
It has two of the worst songs the Beatles ever did in a row. You Like Me Too Much followed by Tell Me What You [See]. As great as the two that follow (I’ve Just Seen A Face and Yesterday ) are momentum is stopped dead.
I love both of those songs, especially the former of the two. Such a cute George track.
Here | There | Everywhere
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"Sometimes I wish I was just George Harrison" - John Lennon
9.15am
28 March 2014
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15 November 2018
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5.46pm
25 February 2020
50yearslate said
I’ve been thinking about it (and listening to it) and Help ! might just be my favorite Beatles album after all.(I listened to AHDN immediately afterwards and developed doubts almost instantly, but… whatever.)
I’m biased towards the 65-70 stuff, but those are two pretty good picks tbh
7.30pm
11 June 2015
Being a Yank, my impression of the Help ! album is a bit skewed. This was the track listing:
Side one
No. Title – Lead vocals – Length
1 “Help !” (preceded by an uncredited instrumental intro based on the “James Bond Theme”) Lennon 2:39
2 “The Night Before ” McCartney 2:36
3 “From Me To You Fantasy” (Lennon–McCartney; arranged by Thorne) instrumental 2:08
4 “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away ” Lennon 2:12
5 “I Need You ” (Harrison) Harrison 2:31
6 “In the Tyrol” (Ken Thorne) instrumental 2:26
Side two
No. – Title – Lead vocals – Length
1 “Another Girl ” McCartney 2:08
2 “Another Hard Day’s Night” (Lennon–McCartney; arranged by Thorne) instrumental 2:31
3 “Ticket To Ride ” Lennon 3:07
4 “The Bitter End/You Can’t Do That ” (Ken Thorne/Lennon–McCartney; arranged by Thorne) instrumental 2:26
5 “You’re Going To Lose That Girl ” Lennon 2:19
6 “The Chase” (Ken Thorne) instrumental 2:31
So… the entire focus was the Help ! soundtrack, which of course resulted in the songs taking on a lot more prestige and popularity. We didn’t get any new Beatle’s music from that summer (with the exception of the Yesterday /Act Naturally single) until December when Day Tripper /We Can Work It Out were released (and a few days later when the US version of Rubber Soul came out). So those 7 songs were played, enjoyed, danced to, and discussed consistently for those 4 or 5 months. When I hear the real Help ! and Rubber Soul albums now it is very disorienting. Back then, when I put the needle down for the first time on my brand new Rubber Soul album and heard Paul singing I’ve Just Seen A Face , the experience was fantastically!spiritually!emotionally! burned into my musical memory.I can never accept the songs placement on Side 2 of the Help ! album.
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12.41am
4 February 2021
In the canon of 13 Beatles albums I have placed Help ! at #6. I say of it: ” A sublime piece of pop mastery. Stunning songwriting with a nod to foundation rockers. All class.”
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