Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

Help! will always been an intriguing entry in the Beatles back catalogue. This album is so very important in so many different ways, and yet it is so oft overlooked for many of the same reason that make it so important in the first place. First of all, this was the last of the Beatles conventional pop records, this was the end of their power pop touring act stage. This was the last album before the Beatles became musically legends. After Help! the Beatles would release Rubber Soul, Revolver, Srg. Peppers, The Beatles & Abbey Road, a five album spell of unparalleled genius. No band before or after has strung together a collection of five stone cold classic in a row. So Help! is in an awkward position, this was the Beatles the world's greatest pop act, one album before they would gain critical recognition as once in a lifetime trailblazers. Help! was the spin off album from the Beatles second motion picture, the movie, while fun and good humoured, didn't have the same vibe as A Hard Day's Night the Beatles had outgrown their childish characters and as we saw on Meet The Beatles they'd out grown the early Beatles formula. The Beatles had to evolve, it was truly now or never, because the world didn't need the Beatles anymore, The Stones, The Kinks, The Beach Boys & Dylan were already to take their mantle. Help! was awkward, it wasn't a revolutionary record, it wasn't that next step but it was one finale reminder that if they wanted to The Beatles could make better Pop Music than any other band on the face of planet earth.

So when we look back on Help! we don't really take it overly seriously, it's not Revolver but it's not Beatles For Sale either. So as Mike Patton famously asked what is it? Well Help! is simple a joy, it's one big slap of experimental fun. This is the natural successor to A Hard Day's Night this record sounds like the Beatles, there's only two covers but it's still not quite there yet. This was the final transition, this is the sound of the Beatles deciding to push things forward, their bashing away at the creative door but their not quite ready to smash through yet. So what does Help! have to offer? Well first of all it contains three of the Beatles biggest singles and timeless number ones. The title track showed that Lennon's purple patch developed on Beatles For Sale was here to stay. It feels almost impossible to say something new about Help! perhaps the ultimate compliment you can pay the track is that still to this day it's played in indie clubs across the nation. Not to thirty year olds, or people who listen to radio two, but 18 year old scenesters who read NME. Why Help! why not Helter Skelter or Back In The USSR? Well Help! treads the ground between charming pop and visceral rage perfectly. Lennon's not going to scream, it's not rageful, but this is a desperate plea for help. It's easy to mistake the early Beatles records for soft pop sentiment but after I'm A Loser we know that their is true honesty behind Lennon's words. Oh and did I mention it's danceable as all hell.

Ticket To Ride the album second unstoppable single is perhaps the clearest indicator of where the band was headed. It has a real eastern feel to it, Harrison's guitar twangs gorgeously with great subtly, and the track feels like it's swirling inwards, it has a powerful pull. It was the combination of the gorgeous melodies that made The Beatles the unstoppable pop monster and dense well layered musical craftsmanship that would define their later works. It feels Innocent and yet mature, in many ways it sums up the entire album, it's 3/4 quarters of the way there. The final of the three number one singles need absolutely no introduction, Yesterday is the most covered song in the history of music. Paul had really come into his own as a balladeer on the last two records and Yesterday was his then pinnacle. He brought a sweeping yet subtle string arrangement to the table and he croons beautifully over a delicately plucked acoustic guitar. Paul would begin to take the backseat for the next few LPs but he was already setting himself aside as the greatest balladeer of his generation.

So Help! has a really unique feel, it's fun with sprinkles of genius, but I think there's a knowing edge to everything on Help! Act Naturally feels like an admission of guilt, a cheeky cover, naturally it's sung by Ringo and it has the feel of a frank admission "The Biggest Fool That Ever Hit The Big Time, And I'll Had To Do Was Act Naturally". The goofy Beatles knew they had more to offer than spoof parodies of spy movies and they were letting us know with a cheeky parody, naturally. Elsewhere Lennon is beginning to become more depressed and disillusioned, the beautiful You've Got To Hide Your Love Away is clear standout. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that Lennon had been listening to Dylan records, as the chord selection and intonation are heavily endebted but the lyrics are thoroughly Lennon;

This was as dark and gloomy as the Beatles had been so far, and Lennon's misery is pouring off this record at every turn. George Harrison is getting in on the act to with I Need You an equally depressed ballad that sees George torn and broken hearted ("When You Told Me You Don't Want My Loving Anymore, That's When It Hurt Me, And Feeling Like This I Just Can't Go On Anymore"). Combine this bleak lyricism with McCartney's Yesterday and you have by far and away the Beatles most soulful record to date. Yet bizarrely Help! never feels sombre, the record is undoubtedly an emotional cry for help from four young men but the record never feels dark.

Musically Help! is brimming with evolution, You're Going To Lose That Girl again sees Ringo playing around with the bongos and it produces the most distinctive rhythm of the Beatles career so far. Elsewhere George Harrison's guitar is gaining more and more prominence whether it's the subtle work on Yesterday, the Indian vibe on Ticket To Ride or the gorgeous work plucking to open I've Just Seen Your Face. That track in particular stands out, it feels so fresh and vibrant with so many moods and it serves a real refreshing change of pace and quite frankly could have been made in any decade, it feels ahead of it's time. On Harrison's You Like Me Too Much you can hear the Beatles burgeoning interest in show tunes and across the record as a whole, theirs an experimental feel, the Beatles are messing around with their arrangements, and having fun and that is what makes Help! so unique.

Help! really stands out in the Beatles back catalogue, it's not loved like their other records, it's not a classic, but it's not far short. It's the sound of a band determined to evolve, their stretching their wings, embracing new influences, trying new mediums and mixing up the arrangements. There is something really joyous about this experimentation that gives Help! an X-factor. It should be a miserable record, Lennon is at his gloomiest, McCartney offers his most emotive ballad to date, and even Harrison is dealing with themes of deep rejection, yet the fun of exploring new sounds, and messing around in the studio prevails and you can't help but smile listening to this record. You can really hear the ideas as the form, occasionally you'll hear half a drum beat and then suddenly it'll revert back to formula, they're just one step away from brilliance, and I think they knew it. So Help! is the sound of the world's most famous band, growing, experimenting and learning, for most bands this would be an awkward messy transition, but this is the Beatles! So of course Help! is stacked to the brim with irresistible tracks and number one singles. All in all Help! is a human record, the Beatles feel mortal, they feel like their finding themselves, and ultimately their growing up and little did the world know that they were just one step away from immortality.