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Rating:
The soundtrack of the second, bizarre, inconsistent, and monotonous Beatles film, "Help!" represents a wonderful collection of typical mid-Sixties pop music. As with the brilliant "A Hard Day's Night", the tracks featured in the film were placed on the first side of the album, while the second was reserved for other songs.
In this record, released on August 6, 1965, the Beatles change recording methods, and the first interesting signs of sophistication emerge. Here, among the grooves of this seminal work, the first musical history standards are born. There are quite a few noteworthy titles: the Lennon-penned title track, a confessional and autobiographical song filled with that inexplicable and eternal Beatles magic, the superb and intense "Ticket To Ride", and the two memorable ballads "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", inspired by Dylan's poetics, and the dreamlike and much-performed "Yesterday", featuring a neoclassical string quartet. "The Night Before" and "Another Girl", two intriguing easy rock tracks by Paul McCartney, the fresh and choral "You're Going To Lose That Girl", and the hasty folk of "I've Just Seen A Face", which would later be part of the Wings' concert repertoire, are interesting, enjoyable, and absolutely successful. George Harrison, in some passages replaced on lead guitar by Paul, contributes to the work with two songs: "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much", both inspired by his relationship with Patty Boyd. Despite the excellent and surprising use of the guitar volume pedal in the first track, his two compositional efforts cannot hide the immaturity in the content of Harrison’s lyrics at the time.
The series of author covers is further enriched with the old and dear "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" by Larry Williams and "Act Naturally", a country'n'western number delivered by Ringo, originally made famous by Buck Owens. Worth mentioning are also the delicate "It's Only Love", hated and later repudiated by Lennon due to its sugary lyrics but still made interesting by the lively refrain and the Leslie effect applied to Harrison's guitar, and the simple "Tell Me What You See" with its particularly compressed arrangement. "Help!" is essentially a transitional work, a bridge from the healthy, amphetamine-fueled, carefree vitality of the early years to the more realistic and melancholic references of everyday life. The music is also more refined and opens up to new and colorful musical and cultural influences. "Help!" is also the first Beatles album to finally be accepted by the adult public. Finally, the story of "Yesterday" is curious – the song that would become more famous over the years and at the time, in England, was not even considered worthy of a single. According to the author Paul McCartney, the music came to him entirely in a dream and the next morning the melody was already ready in his head.
From this moment on, the artistic and human history of the Beatles enters a new era. John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the two musical minds of the group, are increasingly separated, yet they manage to create a magical and fantastic balance where sweet sentiment, restlessness, and harsh reality coexist perfectly in a remarkable artistic marriage that is absolutely inimitable. The great creative frenzy is around the corner.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Help! (02:21)
(Help!) I need somebody
(Help!) Not just anybody
(Help!) You know I need someone
(Help!)
When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone
I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've changed my mind
I've opened up the doors
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me
And now my life has changed in oh, so many ways
My independence seems to vanish in the haze
But every now and then I feel so insecure
I know that I just need you like
I've never done before
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me
When I was younger, so much younger than today
I never needed anybody's help in any way
But now these days are gone
I'm not so self assured
Now I find I've changed my mind
I've opened up the doors
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being 'round
Help me get my feet back on the ground
Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me, oooo
07 Ticket to Ride (03:12)
I think I'm gonna be sad, I think it's today, Yeah
The girl that's driving me mad is going away
She's got a ticket to ride
She's got a ticket to ride
She's got a ticket to ride
But she don't care
She said that living with me is bringing her down, yeah
For she would never be free when I was around
She's got a ticket to ride
She's got a ticket to ride
She's got a ticket to ride
But she don't care
I don't know why she's riding so high
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
Before she gets to saying goodbye
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
I think I'm gonna be sad, I think it's today, Yeah
The girl that's driving me mad is going away, yeah, oh
She's got a ticket to ride
She's got a ticket to ride
She's got a ticket to ride
But she don't care
I don't know why she's riding so high
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
Before she gets to saying goodbye
She ought to think twice
She ought to do right by me
She said that living with me is bringing her down, yeah
For she would never be free when I was around
She's got a ticket to ride
She's got a ticket to ride
She's got a ticket to ride
But she don't care
My baby don't care
My baby don't care
My baby don't care
My baby don't care
My baby don't care
08 Act Naturally (02:33)
They're gonna put me in the movies
They're gonna make a big star out of me
We'll make a film about a man that's sad and lonely
And all I gotta do is act naturally
Well, I'll bet you I'm gonna be a big star
Might win an Oscar you can never tell
The movies gonna make me a big star
'Cause I can play the part so well
Well I hope you come and see me in the movies
Then I know that you will plainly see
The biggest fool that ever hit the big time
And all I gotta do is act naturally
We'll make the scene about a man that's sad and lonely
And beggin down upon his bended knee
I'll play the part but I won't need rehearsal
All I gotta do is act naturally
Well, I'll bet you I'm gonna be a big star
Might win an Oscar you can never tell
The movies gonna make me a big star
'Cause I can play the part so well
Well I hope you come and see me in the movies
Then I know that you will plainly see
The biggest fool that ever hit the big time
And all I gotta do is act naturally
13 Yesterday (02:07)
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it look as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in yesterday
Suddenly I'm not half the man I used to be
There's a shadow hanging over me
Oh, yesterday came suddenly
Why she had to go
I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong
Now I long for yesterday
Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday
Why she had to go
I don't know, she wouldn't say
I said something wrong
Now I long for yesterday
Yesterday, love was such an easy game to play
Now I need a place to hide away
Oh, I believe in yesterday.
14 Dizzy Miss Lizzy (02:54)
You make me dizzy Miss Lizzy
The way you rock and roll
You make me dizzy Miss Lizzy
When we do the stroll
Come on Miss Lizzy
Love me 'fore I grow too old
Come on, give me fever
Put your little hand in mine
You make me dizzy dizzy Lizzy
Oh, girl you look so fine
Just a rocking and a rolling
Girl I said I wish you were mine, ah
Ooh, ah
You make me dizzy Miss Lizzy
When you call my name
Ooo, baby
Say you're driving me insane
Come on, come on, come on, come on baby
I want to be your loving man, Ah
Run and tell your mama
I want you be my bride
Run and tell your brother
Baby don't run and hide
You make me dizzy Miss Lizzy
Girl I want to marry you
Come on, give me fever
Put your little hand in mine, girl
You make me dizzy dizzy Lizzy
Girl you look so fine
You're just a rocking and a rolling
Ooo I said I wish you were mine, ah
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Other reviews
By lucio mazzi
"Some things are born perfect like an egg: without a crack, without an imperfection."
"It's entirely [George Martin's] credit if what was simply a 'good song' became something immortal."
By Rax
In that song, I was literally crying out for help. Look at me in the images of the time and in the film: I was fat, insecure, and I had completely lost myself.
This record could certainly have been better than it is.
