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3.05am
27 August 2012
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Overall I think it is a great song and I prefer it over “Ticket To Ride ” what do you guys think?
3.12am
19 September 2010
Offline Honestly? That’s crazy. That Means A Lot , a throwaway, crappily performed song with horrible lyrics, over Ticket To Ride ?
As if it matters how a man falls down.'
'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.
3.33am
25 August 2012
Offline It all depends on what you’d have preferred to see: a Help ! consisting entirely of original songs, despite a couple of them not being up to par with the others (“That Means a Lot” and “If You’ve Got Trouble “) or the Help ! we got, which replaced those 2 tracks with… ahem… covers (albeit energetic ones). 
6.30am
27 August 2012
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It would have been an excellent addition to WTB
10.08am
27 February 2011
Offline I can’t stand the anthology version. I hate the “wall of sound” echo effect thing they had. Makes it un-listenable for me.
However some of the faster paced versions from the second set of sessions aren’t too bad. Give them a listen if you haven’t
Sundays on the phone to Monday, Tuesdays on the phone to me
11.59am
16 February 2011
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It’s horrible… Especially the lyrics… Paul must have thought them up 
… Really, if I heard it from the radio I would change the station
12.26pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline The ‘dry’ take 1 isnt as bad as the anthology mix but its still vastly inferior to Ticket To Ride . The later remakes (posted above) are only fun because they are so awful, the song was going nowhere and they were right to lumber PJ Proby with it instead of us who’d have to listen to it on Help !
Rejecting TMAL for Dizzy Miss Lizzy was the right choice as whilst DML doesnt fit into the Help ! album mood (is there a bigger clunker on a Beatles album (dont just mean Yesterday to DML but right from the off with Help !) as it really doesnt work?) it is a decent recording. Take it (Dizzy Miss Lizzy ) the same way as Bad Boy and its fine, a nice rock and roll track, and it was great live and on the bbc.
As for That Means A Lot being a track on With The Beatles i dread the thought. It would have been up or down there with Hold Me Tight – a pain in the neck to go anywhere near and a horrible feeling knowing it was coming up.
Act Naturally was the perfect song for Ringo on Help ! and it fits the movie theme (“they’re going to put me in the movies…”). Just because John and Paul wrote If You Got Trouble doesnt mean it was any good, it is an embarrassing blot on their songbook that was rightly shelved. Geoff Emerick found it to be so bad in 1985 when compiling Sessions that he edited the thing by lopping the first verse out, discovering the only way possible to make it even worse.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
1.01pm
25 August 2012
Offline meanmistermustard said
Act Naturally was the perfect song for Ringo on Help ! and it fits the movie theme (“they’re going to put me in the movies…”). Just because John and Paul wrote If You Got Trouble doesnt mean it was any good, it is an embarrassing blot on their songbook that was rightly shelved. Geoff Emerick found it to be so bad in 1985 when compiling Sessions that he edited the thing by lopping the first verse out, discovering the only way possible to make it even worse.
What a difference 18 months made. They went from being OK with simply giving Ringo one of their throwaway compositions to sing for his token vocal spot on an album (i.e. “I Wanna Be Your Man “) to believing that even the song Ringo sang had to be legitimately up to scratch. Honestly, I don’t give a crap about lyrics in a song (they’re just there to shape the tone of the voice, as far as I’m concerned — the tune/melody/arrangement/musical texture/timbre, etc. is far more important, IMO), so that may be why I have less of an issue with those 2 Help ! rejects than a lot of other people do. Nonetheless, they still would’ve been the 2 weakest tracks on that album if the guys’ ambitions hadn’t grown so quickly and would’ve settled for those being on the album.
1.01pm
10 August 2011
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I like the song – and I agree with Taxman ; the first version in this recording is better than the “echo version.” However, the versions without harmonies are inferior.
I could easily have seen TMAL on Beatles For Sale or Beatles ’65. (I’d take it hands down over “Mr. Moonlight” despite the great opening).
Stylistically, TMAL reminds me of “World Without Love” given by McCartney to nearly-brother-in-law Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon. And, oh yes, “World Without Love” was a #1 hit.
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
1.19pm
26 March 2012
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I really like That Means A Lot , even though it does come across as a McCartney-penned Ticket To Ride -lite. Especially fond of the “can’t you see, yeah” coda part.
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RichardSHUT UP - Paulie's talkin'
5.56pm
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline Ben Ramon said
I really like That Means A Lot , even though it does come across as a McCartney-penned Ticket To Ride -lite. Especially fond of the “can’t you see, yeah” coda part.
Agree.
No way I’d replace “Ticket To Ride “, though. It’s in my top 5.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
10.59pm
19 September 2010
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
Stylistically, TMAL reminds me of “World Without Love” given by McCartney to nearly-brother-in-law Peter Asher of Peter and Gordon. And, oh yes, “World Without Love” was a #1 hit.
And Strawberry Fields Forever /Penny Lane wasn’t. Having a song hit #1 doesn’t make it a good song.
As if it matters how a man falls down.'
'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.
12.43am
10 August 2011
Offline mr Sun King CT said, “And Strawberry Fields Forever /Penny Lane wasn’t. Having a song hit #1 doesn’t make it a good song.”
For sure; I think we’d all agree on that.
But if you have a song with hit potential – or at least the potential to please many people, do you bury it because it doesn’t meet your standards? Maybe. That’s a Sunday School discussion.
There IS a third option which is to give the song away as they did with “World Without Love”
Was TMAL not even worthy of being recorded by someone else?
Obviously, some here seriously dislike it and think not; I just happen to like it.
PS Though not in GB, Penny Lane /Strawberry Fields was #1 in the US
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
12.52am
19 September 2010
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
PS Though not in GB, Penny Lane /Strawberry Fields was #1 in the US
Sorry, just Penny Lane . SFF topped at #8
As if it matters how a man falls down.'
'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.
1.15am
10 August 2011
Offline mr. Sun king CT said, “Sorry, just Penny Lane . SFF topped at #8″
How could that be?
They’re the same single. You couldn’t buy one without the other!
"Into the Sky with Diamonds" (the Beatles and the Race to the Moon – a history)
2.17am
23 July 2012
Offline Into the Sky with Diamonds said
mr. Sun king CT said, “Sorry, just Penny Lane . SFF topped at #8″
How could that be?
They’re the same single. You couldn’t buy one without the other!
I’ve never understood that either! I found it confusing when I bought the “1” compilation album, and Penny Lane was on it, but Strawberry Fields wasn’t. Can somebody PLEASE explain?
“I was special. I always have been. Why didn't anyone notice me?"
-John Lennon
2.38am
26 March 2012
Offline FlyOn13 said
Into the Sky with Diamonds said
mr. Sun king CT said, “Sorry, just Penny Lane . SFF topped at #8″
How could that be?
They’re the same single. You couldn’t buy one without the other!
I’ve never understood that either! I found it confusing when I bought the “1” compilation album, and Penny Lane was on it, but Strawberry Fields wasn’t. Can somebody PLEASE explain?
That’s one of the things I’ve always hated about 1. If I’m not mistaken Yellow Submarine is on there without Eleanor Rigby as well. It aims to offer an accurate “run-through” of the Beatles’ career but it plays with the facts a bit- I would have liked to see both sides of the single.
SHUT UP - Paulie's talkin'
2.42am
14 February 2012
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“Eleanor Rigby ” is on 1, Ben. I think it’s the sixteenth song…
"I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know? I'm just one of those people."
2.47am
26 March 2012
Offline Dipsy said
“Eleanor Rigby ” is on 1, Ben. I think it’s the sixteenth song…
Argh, my bad! Knew that supposed “fact” was wrong. But, regardless of where the omissions are, I did feel a bit underwhelmed by the inclusions on 1.
SHUT UP - Paulie's talkin'
3.42am
19 September 2010
Offline In the USA before September 1969, they calculated sales of singles by which side people asked for. So both sides of the single were separate. That way, both sides of the single could chart. The fact that they changed it meant that Something was able to chart at Number 1 alongside Come Together – CT was #1, Something #2. Then they made it like the UK.
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BeatlebugAs if it matters how a man falls down.'
'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.
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