special introductory paragraph!

1962 Live at the Star Club in Hamburg

Introducing The Beatles

The Early Beatles

With The Beatles

Meet The Beatles

Second Album

A Hard Day's Night (British)

Something New

The Beatles' Story

'65

VI

Help! (American)

Help! (British)

Fuck!

At The Hollywood Bowl

Rubber Soul (American)

Rubber Soul (British)

"Yesterday"...And Today

Revolver (American)

Revolver (British)

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Magical Mystery Tour

The Beatles

Peter Sellers Tape

White Album Demos

The Esher Tapes

Yellow Submarine

Let It Be

Get Back

Let It Be...Naked

The Complete Rooftop Concert

Hey Jude (The Beatles Again)

Rock And Roll Music Volume Two

Rarities

Abbey Road

The Christmas Album

Live At The BBC

Baby It's You 7"

Anthology I

Anthology II

Anthology III

Love

1962 Live at the Star Club in Hamburg - Walters 2000

The Young Lousy Beatles submit their poor Nazi audience to 23 endless, godless tracks, only THREE of which could be considered less than nauseating (catchy, sick "Hippy Hippy Shake," pretty "To Know Her Is To Love Her," wonderful classic "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby"). Worse yet, they don't even have any original material yet! What do they play here - two? A less-than-admirable attempt at "I Saw Her Standing There" and the ugly slow stinker "Ask Me Why"? Suck my ass it smells! That's my opinion.

Oh, I nearly forgot -- they also play "Hully Gully." Thanks Beatles, but if I wanted to listen to Chubby Checker's excited squealing, I'd hide a microphone in my ass and pretend to fall asleep at the urinal. Okay let's see what I wrote in my notes here. Just a few phrases to give you a 'Bird's Eye View' of what you're missing out on:

"Just a dull song"
"Repetitive as all hell"
"Lopey-dopey novelty-sounding crap"
"Why does he yell 'I'm a roadrunner, honey!' before they go into 'Twist & Shout'?"
"Yawn. Dull song. Generic early r'n'r (rotten'n'rancid)."
"Dull novelty bore. Who the hell's playing the saxophone? Did they dig up Stu?"
"Not for me!"
"More basic early boring r'n'r (rafts'n'ropeswing)"
"Endless guitar solo"
"Too happy. Assholes."
"More novelty shit. What are they, 'Weird Carl' Perkinsvic?"
"Yet again even more early interchangeable r'n'r (rape'n'regurgitation)"
"Ugly harmonica brapping."
"Does he think he's funny when he changes the 'Mr. Moonlight' lyric to 'Here I am on my NOSE'? Okay, he sorta is."
"Dullsville, baby!"
"Sappy ballad, filled with sap from the tree of love."
"Sounds like Buddy Holly sensitive pop to me. Pre-airplane, I mean."

To be fair, the horrible recording is probably the biggest culprit; I know it's unavoidable, but boy is this messy glasses-clinking wind noise hard to sit through for a full hour. Especially when so many of the songs sound the same with no discernible vocal hook. I hope these guys will get better over time, but I just can't see it happening.

Besides, the future of music lies in starring in dumb movies. Guitar music is on the way out.

Best,
Elvis Presley
Talent Scout
Decca Records

Now see, I guess you can say, "If the Beatles hadn't saved rock and roll, somebody else would have," but don't. Don't say that, because you have no documentation to back up your case. It was the popularity of the Beatles throughout their career that convinced other rockers to change their ways and try out new approaches and ideas and, oh you know, crap like that. If not the Beatles, then whom? Rock and roll may very well have just died without the Beatles! And then where the hell would we be??? There'd be no Dwarves, that's for sure!!!!

Now, about this album specifically, my only complaint is that half of the songs are covers. I guess you have to start somewhere, but the six originals are so darn incredible ("I Saw Her Standing There," "Misery," "Love Me Do," "P.S. I Love You," "Do You Want To Know A Secret," and "There's A Place") that it's hard to imagine that they really needed to resort to outside material. At least the covers are cool too. They always put their Beatles stamp on anything they did. In my opinion, the only throwaway track is "Boys," which is generic rock and roll of the sort that would probably have driven me, as a father in 1963, to announce that rock and roll is a big piece of crap.

Of course, if I'd been around in 1963, I probably would have formed DRI and ended the life of rock and roll in a heartbeat. Ha!

Reader Comments

normg@mail.halcyon.com (Norm Gregory)
I had to jump in to give my perspective on Introducing The Beatles. I was a 19 year old college student when the album was released and I was the first in the dorm to buy it. In fact, old dorm mates still remember me as the guy who they remember as first saying "these guys are going to be big."

But the album gave no indication that the group was going to be big and/or revolutionary. It was very typical of albums of the time: a hit or two and then filled out with covers. It was their choice of tunes that caught my attention. Many of them were among my favorites from the early '60s, great pop/R&B hits like the Shirelles "Baby It's You," The Cookies "Chains," The Isley's "Twist & Shout." And probably the strangest cut on the album, a cover of Lenny Welch's hit, from the previous year, "A Taste Of Honey."

At the time nobody knew much about the group. A couple months earlier I first heard the Beatles. Their "From Me To You" on the radio (but as I recall a version by Del Shannon got more airplay) . . I had no idea who they were or that they were British. You gotta remember groups from U.K. very rarely showed up on the U.S. charts at this time. At the time I can only remember two mentions in the general media. A short piece in Time magazine with a small photo ("What's with that hair!") and CBS-TV news did a short report . . . which I missed . . but it's credited as the first appearance of the group on American television.

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
From my early days I was addicted to the British Beatles' catalogue. So when I'm reading these reviews of their first records I'm getting all mixed up. The American catalogue is just HORRIBLE, Mark! It's a good thing the unification process chooses the British catalogue as a standard.

Let's see... this one is a bastard offspring of their REAL first LP, which was Please Please Me and did feature both "Please Please Me" and "Ask Me Why" which, as I understand, were left off this one. The other originals were the same as here. Do you mean they just cut off two songs in the States and released this vivisected LP? BASTARDS!

As for the rating... well, for me ALL of the Beatles' records deserve a 10, but I guess an 8 is probably what you have to get if you want to show this record did not quite stand up to their later standards. And I also love "Boys". I think it's very much Beatlish. I also see you're sometimes too hard on Ringo. Don't hit him so hard, Mark! After all, he did "Octopus's Garden", didn't he?

cliffnorth@localaccess.com (TAD)
"There's a Place" is a stone classic. & apparently a lot of Fab 4 fans have never heard it. It sorta sounds like a rewrite of the Beach Boys' "In My Room," but sheez is it gorgeous. Even if these guys had never done NEthing else, this 1 track woulda gotten em in2 the record books. Least, I think so. Helps that there's other great stuff on the album 2. U wouldn't wanna B without "Saw Her Standing There," "Please Please Me," "Twist and Shout" & "Misery"....

streb@mail.sssnet.com (Dan Streb)
Prindle, man. I am quoting DIRECTLY from your Beatles page:

"Now see I guess you can say, "If the Beatles hadn't saved rock and roll, somebody else would have..."".

What the hell was wrong with rock and roll in the first place?? Everybody says rock died from 1958-1963. And that's just wrong. I mean, sure Elvis was in the army, Little Richard went into a church and retired from music, Buddy Holly died and Chuck Berry was arrested, but there was still really cool music around. There was Lloyd Price's "Stagger Lee", Mark Dinning's "Teen Angel" (the saddest song I've ever heard in my life), Santo and Johnny's "Sleep Walk", Link Wray's "Rumble" (a growling instrumental and the dirtiest meanest guitar ever heard on a rock record, Ray Charles' "Hit the Road, Jack", and The Tornadoes' "Telstar" (one of the all-time greatest instrumentals and the first British number one song). And there was also the rise of girl groups, Motown and surf music. And that's bad rock and roll??

kenyon@mail.netnitco.net
This is one of my favorite Beatles albums. My dad was a Beatles freak, and I've been listening to them since I was born. A really fun thing to do (for me, anyway, I don't know about you) is to listen to the first song on this album and then get out Abbey Road and listen to The End. The difference in styles is amazing. It's like you're listening to two completely different bands. And by the way--if you'll let me brag for just a second, I'd like to share the fact that my copy of this album (vinyl) is a VERY rare edition worth a hell of a lot of money (but I'm not telling how much). :)

BtheW@aol.com
I'm just gonna add a few technical points. Indeed, Norm, Del Shannon did cover 'From Me To You,' and it was the first U.S. cover of a Lennon-McCartney song. It was also done way before anybody had heard of them (in the US, that is). Also, this album does indeed sport twelve tracks while the British album has fourteen. But there's more to it than just that. There were actually two versions of Introducing the Beatles.' The original had 'Love Me Do' and 'P.S. I Love You,' and then later, a different version came out that didn't have those two songs, but had 'Please Please Me' and 'Ask Me Why,' which had both been left off the original. This second version was actually more common, making the 'Love Me Do' version pretty valuable. Of course, this doesn't mean that everybody who has 'Love Me Do' on the album has a valuable album, since a relatively worthless pirate copy of this was on the shelves during the late seventies. That's the one I've got. One more point: Vee Jay may have been planning on releasing this album in July 1963 (the date listed in most books), but they ran into financial problems and shelved the project until Jan. 1964, about a week or so before Meet The Beatles. The second version came out at the beginning of Feb. 1964.

F
I suppose that this one can go for both this album and the later released by Capitol The Early Beatles, since they're essentially the same record (Introducing was also released with Ask Me Why and Please Please Me replacing Love Me Do and P.S. I Love You) and they're both pretty much Please Please Me from UK with the assholishness of the record companies leaving out either one out of the two masterpieces from the UK album--yes, these originals are, holy shit, awesome. People finding out nowadays that Love Me Do has traces of indian modal music! Either way, they write such awesome rockin pop songs, with so much perfection, that you, as a matter of fact, wonder about what's wrong with them Americans in 1963. The covers are the shit, too, man! It just doesn't stop on their awesome songs, but also stuff that they make their own--what about that Twist And Shout, eh? But there's no Please Please Me--the ultimate Roy Orbison tribute, if you ask me; this song is just so wonderful that if you can't enjoy it you better shoot yourself in the head--and no Love Me Do on the later versions of Introducing... and The Early Beatles, so I'll have to give it a seven. A low seven. Record company bastards.

davethefish42@gmail.com
(about the original Please Please Me UK release): Wow, the first Beatles album. I really don't know what to say. Soon after it was released (actually, with the release of their first single), the Beatles were immediately swept up in attention, and this captures the good-natured, clean cut sound they were famous for at the time. There's some rockabilly, R+B, girl group, and ballad work here, showing how eclectic they were from the start. Yeah, what's here is a little dated (how could it not be?) but it's a fun and compulsive listen, not just a historical document. In my opinion, ANY compilation attempting to comprehensively cover the Beatles work is incomplete without "I Saw her Standing There", "Please Please Me", and of course, the most famous single take of all time, "Twist and Shout". The band had one afternoon to record the album, and John's voice was completely shot by the end of the day. Still, they knocked out the cover and it became one of their biggest early hits. Such a great song to sing along to. There are some lesser tracks here too, but you blink and they're gone either way, which makes it perfect for repeated listenings.

The Early Beatles - Capitol 1965.

Reader Comments

BtheW@aol.com
Yeah, this really illustrates the big mess that was the American albums. I had to go out and find the Oldies 45 copy of 'Twist And Shout' because it had 'There's A Place' on the b-side. And I couldn't get my hands on 'Misery' until that late '70s pirate copy of Introducing The Beatles came out. Part of the problem is that there was an industry standard in the U.S. that dictated that albums were to contain between 10 and 12 songs. The U.K. standard was 12 to 14. Here's an interesting fun fact for really hardcore Beatles fans: the mono version of this album actually contains reductions of the stereo mixes. They couldn't even get that right.

victorproserecords@comcast.net (Ryan Maffei)
I'll place my Please Please Me comments here, under its American equivalent. A weak album, but one with much promise and swagger, quite. The Beatles sound like young upstarts, albeit enjoyable ones, on this record. A 7, most likely, is my rating of choice at this particular hour (3:40 AM). Hm, yes.

With The Beatles - Vee Jay 1964.

Reader Comments

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
Maybe you're right about the strange running order of the songs, but on another point you're wrong: The British (and European) releases have always been considered the original ones. The songs couldn't STAY on Meet or Something new, since their original place was on With! Overall, I think it was quite nasty of the american record companies to release the records with fewer songs, thus being able to put in an extra record now and then, to suck up even more dollars from the american fans. Second Album, Something New, '65, VI and Yesterday and Today should never have been there. The original 14-song records gave more music for the money. (Not that I really have to care. I was born in Sweden in '69!)

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
Never mind the song order. Anyway, 'tis not a concept album, ain't it? As for me, I never knew another record but With The Beatles, and I wish it subsists and to all of you American fans (new ones, I mean): eschew the American bastardizations!

As for the album itself, it clearly shows that the Beatles were maturing as fast as they could, faster, indeed, than any other existing rock group - maybe that's what makes them so fantastic in the end!

BtheW@aol.com
I'm a little torn in this argument. While I definately resent the American labels (Capitol, Vee Jay and United Artists) slicing and dicing the UK albums, I still grew up with the US versions, and have a nostalgic fondness for them. Keep in mind that the vast majority of American Beatles fans thought that these were the actual albums. Oh, sure, we could tell that Something New was kind of thrown together, because half the songs were on A Hard Day's Night, but I was convinced that the Beatles went into the studio and recorded Beatles VI, for instance. As far as the song order on the UK album goes, it's fine with me. It seemed odd when I first bought it, but I soon got used to it. And just to nitpick: the British label was Parlophone - not Vee Jay.

erogozin@mtu-net.ru (Eric Rogozin)
Stick to original releases! As for the album itself, it's a great album like everything The Beatles had done. First four songs are the masterpieces, "Till There Was You" has a great vocal perfomance by Paul and great guitar solo by George. "Please Mister Postman", "Roll Over Beethoven" are marvellous covers; "Hold Me Tight", "You Really Got A Hold On Me", "Devil In Her Heart" are very good; "Not A Second Time" is brilliant; Ringo sings "I Wanna Be Your Man" with a big passion, so sings John "Money".

ian.moss@yale.edu (Ian Moss)
Some true classics on here: "It Won't Be Long" with its call-and-response in the chorus; "All My Lovin'," one of the catchiest songs ever written; "Money" with its bluesy cynicism and a great performance from John; and the timeless "You Really Got a Hold On Me." The highlight for me, though, has got to be their cover of "Please Mr. Postman"--what an incredible song!!! Great lyrics, vocal harmonies, and who can beat that "Mr. Po-wo-wostman" and "Deliver de letter, de sonner de better!"? I don't care that many of the best songs are covers, it's still good music right? George's first song, "Don't Bother Me," pretty much sums him up right there. Even the crappy songs like "Little Child" are wonderful in their own crappy way. I don't know, it's like everything the Peatles did somehow became about 50-75% better than it should have been, had it been recorded by any other band ever. How did they do it? And how did they all get so worthless the second the band broke up?

I give it a Beatles 7, a normal-people 9.

davethefish42@gmail.com
I guess you could consider this more of the same, but that means more lovely pop songs and ballads with exquisite vocal melodies, which is never a bad thing. One difference I noticed was the quality of the cover songs. On Please Please Me, the originals kicked the CRAP out of the covers, though both were pleasant. Here, while the originals are still the highlights, the covers are downright terrific, probably the best they ever recorded. It would have been nice to see more originals from the time period here, but that's just the way things were done at the time. If you could write a hit song, they'd whore you around the country for a while, then bring you in and cut an album in one day with half originals and half recognizable songs. Then, hopefully you'd be able to do it one more time before the Christmas season hits to get another product on the shelf in time. Business tactics aside, the songs here are on par with what was found on Please Please Me and there really isn't that great of a reason not to pick up these early records.

Meet The Beatles - Capitol 1964.

Screw '90s youth culture and its sultry ways. If you're looking for the start of diverse and worthwhile pop rock, don't write off these early Beatles records as "yeah yeah yeah" nonsense. They're NOT. Yes, the Beatles liked rockabilly a lot, but the majority of their original material, even at this early point in their career, goes far beyond anything that the rockabilly genre had seen before. At least, I think so. Honestly, I wasn't born until '73 so what the hell do I know? But see that? I'm a youth of today, and even I think these songs are forkin' fab over thirty years later! Stand-outs include "I Want To Hold Your Hand," "All My Loving," "Not A Second Time" and "Papa's Got A Big Fuckin' Bunion."

Reader Comments

mds+ID@netyp.com.au
Rick say's "all my loving" is good.

BtheW@aol.com
As far as the over-abundance of originals goes, the Beatles sure weren't behind this. When Capitol were picking songs for the album, they deliberately excluded those tracks from With The Beatles that were not written by them, because they had the mistaken notion that American teenagers wouldn't want to hear new versions of old hits. Also, if anybody needs another reason to pick up the British releases, here's one: A&R 'genius' Dave Dexter at Capitol thought the George Martin productions weren't good enough, so he 'enhanced' all of the tracks on this and subsequent albums (at least up through Beatles '65 or so). This mainly means that these early songs are swimming in reverb on the American releases - but not on the CDs.

F
Practically the same album as With The Beatles, but with a hit single--it's yer guess, buddy--I Saw Her Standing There and This Boy placed before the With The Beatles tracks. And the complaints--you'll see that very often in these reviews of mine--is the track order. Why leaving the songs from It Won't Be Long onwards exactly like With The Beatles, but without the covers? And Mark complains about the track order on With The Beatles? You're feckin outta your mind, Mark. The UK releases always end up greatly, but in this here release, we're left with Not A Second Time as the last song. More like "Not The Right Song To Finish An Album With" if you ask yours truly. Not a bad song, but not too memorable either considering other songs. Granted, With The Beatles have more cover songs than on this one, but they fit swell there. This album would get a six if not for the inclusion of This Boy. Have you heard that one? What a ballad. Hear these vocals! Heck, hear this album! These guys do their rock/pop deal so perfectly that it's hard to believe that they're humans. It takes listening to the stuff they did when they split to realize that. An obvious seven. They should have put some of the covers contained on With The Beatles and saved originals for the next one.

tnahpellee@yahoo.com.au (Brendan S. McCalmont)
I have this theory that music reviewing isn't just about the music. I think that music reviewing is also abotu understanding ourselves. And with this record I received a greater understanding of myself and human beings in general. I think the thing is there is an oversimplified view of music reviewing. I think that half of it is the music and half of it is the person who responds to it. If I got 80 year olds to review the AC/DC catalogue they'd bash it. If I got 20 year old men to review it it'd be passed of as brilliance.

But one thing I understand about most [but not all] people is we haev a longing for something that isn't part of the ordinary day. And that is why the Beatles succeeded, becuase here they offer an understanding of that. I know these are love songs but it's the way they are done that is impressive. Like 'There's a place', which has this spending time in an imaginary world you created to pretend she's there when she's not. Also, look at the lyrics to 'Ask me why'. "I can't believe this has happened to me", he sounds like some street person who's just been made Mr.Univerese. Then there's the title track, which deals with relationship problems. He is longing for what he never gets, longing fro something that isn't part of his everyday life. Even if it is just his girlfriend being nice to him. And the originality of the melodiesis unbelievable. My second favourite Beatles album this is (Please Please Me). They chose the covers well, too, they have original, unusual melodies.

I recently wathced a docco on John Lennon and he said he didn't know how to write music so he'd put words to 'already' songs and add these other bits in so he'd be original. It works wonders, John. Oh yeah, by the way, my favourite song is 'There's a place', my second favourite is 'Please Please Me' and my third favourite is 'Ask me why', a nice song with great lead guitar work from George.

bum - Capitol 1964.

Reader Comments

leonard@lyco.lycoming.edu (Brian Leonard)
Contrary to Mark, I think this is the best of the "American" versions of Beatles LPs. Each and every cover is amazingly good, especially if you don't know the originals: it may cause you to seek them out (as I did). And it closes with "She Loves You", which is not on any British LP (it's on the Past Masters Vol. 1 CD), and which is simply the greatest rock 'n' roll record ever. Well, I think so.

BtheW@aol.com
I always thought this album was a lot of fun. The avalanche of covers is, of course, due to the fact that they didn't show up on Meet The Beatles.

F
But sometimes the track order gets good. And the excess of cover tunes? They rule, so what's not to like? The 5 cover tunes from With The Beatles--great beginning with Roll Over Beethoven, by the way--two songs from the Long Tall Sally ep from UK, and before the said ep was released, a b-side that ended up on the UK version of Hard Days Night, another b-side, starting the trilogy of songs about You Jenkins, as mentioned by Mark, and finishing the album, the last two songs from that trilogy, I'll Get You and She Loves You, respectively the b-side and a-side from another UK single. It feels weird to have You Can't Do That on the album given its selection of tunes, but you gotta dig this one, mister; great rockin song with those awesome call and response vocals from the boys in the chorus, finishing side one. Four covers and two originals on side one, indeed--you can't help it if you're gonna pick songs from here and there in the UK catalogue, but hey, even with more covers than Meet The Beatles, it's just great--and look what they do with those covers, man! They make em their own, that's what they do. Such is the case with Money, or the side two opener, Long Tall Sally--can that Paul Mc Cartney sing or not? And I love I'll Call Your Name--simple tune, but it feels good to listen to. With a total of two cover tunes on side two, and the aforementioned I Call Your Name, they do the kickass job of putting I'll Get You and the greatest hit of the album, She Loves You. It shows what those guys can do great cover tunes, and delivers you some originals--and what originals! I'll go forward with an 8 and a statement: it's a lot better than Meet The Beatles, and you won't help but want to bang your head to that stuff.

Nicolafrood@aol.com
john wrote ill get you, thank you girl and she loves you:FACT!!!

A Hard Day's Night (British) - Capitol 1964.

Reader Comments

arnoldnicholas@hotmail.com
If you are going to buy any Beatles' album make sure it is the british version and not the bastardized American versions. This way you can hear the Fab Four the way they were meant to be heard and the way they recorded their music. Sorry, this doesn't really fit in with A Hard Day's Night (Good early Beatles!) but it is a good general rule.

gstarst@freestamp.com (George Starostin)
Strange enough, my first acquaintance with this record was in its American form. So I still pity the now unavailable instrumental parts, especially one - "Ringo's Theme", which is an excellent instrumental version of "This Boy". Sure it has little to do with the Beatles, but still... quite interesting.

By the way, some of the releases of this album for some reason lack "When I Get Home". So did the Russian version, for example, and probably other ones. A puzzle for me. The song's not the best one here, but this ain't no reason to discard it none.

You forget to mention that this record was a MAJOR breakthrough for the band - with not even a single cover tune. This really starts the seriously self-assured Beatles for the whole world.

hutchilj@aramco.com.sa
My favourite Beatles album, but I still wouldn't give it more than '7'. Of course, I know the British copy rather than the American - 13 songs - and Side A is all good, especially "If I Fell". Side B finishes strongly on "I'll Be Back", but most of the rest of Side 2 is rather ordinary.

kenyon@mail.netnitco.net
If I Fell is an absolutely beautiful song, and in my opinion one of their best. Sure, it's kinda cheesy, but most love songs are. Compare it to any of Paul McCartney's solo crap and it's the greatest love song ever written. (Of course, compared with Paul McCartney's solo crap, "Purple People Eater" is the greatest love song ever written.)

bgreenstein@nctimes.net (Ben Greenstein)
Excellant! The best of their early records (pre-Rubber Soul) by far. But it's really John Lennon's record, don't you think? I mean, he wrote ten out of thirteen songs, and they're all killer! They hover between insecure ballads ("If I Fell" and "I'll Be Back"), bitter, spiteful things ("You Can't Do That" and "Tell Me Why"), and sarcastic naivite ("I Should Have Known Better"). Lyrically, it's so direct, and a real precursor to a lot of his solo work. And I'll agree that "When I Get Home" is the only thing close to filler, but wouldn't you say that "Any Time At All" sounds a little too much like "It Won't Be Long"? Anyway, a nine.

stoo@imsa.edu (John McFerrin
Y'know, it wierd; as I move further back into The Beatles' catalogue, I approach each successive purchase with more and more apprehension, with fears that all the crap I'd always been told and had always thought about the early Beatles stuff, that it's just generic yeah yeah yeah type of stuff, will rear their ugly head, and put a black mark in my mind for what had heretofore been the greatest pop group I had ever heard. And every single time, I listen to my new purchase with absolutely no friggin clue why I had these fears before. Take A Hard Day's Night. DEAR GEORGE HARRISION, THIS ALBUM RULES. Gorgeous ballads, fantastic harmonies, and hooks EVERYWHERE. I give this a 9 with no hesitation at all.

ian.moss@yale.edu
My parents have the American version of this album on vinyl, so I copied it onto tape when I was about 12. It's pretty good--the instrumentals don't add too much to the experience, unfortunately, but they kept a good mix of actual songs on the record. In particular, "And I Love Her" is haunting, and "If I Fell" already shows the maturity that would characterize their later work ("And I know that love is more / than just holding hands"). I also love the ridiculous teeny-bopper "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You". Some of the rest of it does approach mediocrity, especially "Tell Me Why," and even "Can't Buy Me Love" grates on me after a while. Overall, I'd give it a 7.

BtheW@aol.com
Well, here's one where the American release (on United Artists; reissued around 1980 on Capitol) cannot possibly compete with the British (on Parlophone, but released in the US on Capitol in the '80s). You either get 13 Beatles songs, or you get 8. It's that simple. And the George Martin instrumentals cannot hope to make a big enough difference to change one's mind. Here's another fun fact for really hardcore Beatles fans: the stereo version of this is all in fake stereo (high end in one speaker; low end in the other), because United Artists only had mono mixes of these songs. The instrumentals were in true stereo, however. Also, 'I'll Cry Instead' has an extra verse not heard anywhere else. The mix of 'And I Love Her' is also unique to this release.

richbunnell@home.com
They were of course still just British Invasion superstars at this point, but the creme de la creme of their peers. Lots of really great harmonies on this one; not really much else to say. I even like "When I Get Home," pegged by some as the worst Beatles song ever. And why do people peg "Can't Buy Me Love" as a "generic rocker"? The verse melody's too distinctive. 9/10

WebCat1@webtv.net (Robyn)
I have the original(U.S release) album(as in vinyl)of H.D.N and while I was kind of thrilled to get it,listening to it was rather disappointing;to many instrumentals,and they weren't even by the band itself! But I recently purchased the British release(CD) and wow! What a difference,this one rocks! Capitol,you ought to be ashamed of themselves. Just a warning to you all,buy UK Version!

erogozin@mtu-net.ru (Eric Rogozin)
This album rules! It surely deserves a 10 as a record rating! The best songs from here are "I Should Have Known Better", "And I Love Her" and "Can't Buy Me Love". These songs are true Beatles classics. While "I Should Have Known Better" shows the beauty and depth of Lennon's vocal, "And I Love Her" shows the beauty and depth of McCartney's vocal and both of them show beauty and depth of Beatles perfomance. Well, all songs on it show that. What else to say? The songwriting has developed and this album sums up the first two. There are no covers here and it's a true rock'n'roll. "Tell Me Why" is a little worse than others (but not a bad song), but that doesn't change the fact, that this album is marvellous great!

Jcjh20@aol.com
Amazing record. Probably the best pre-Rubber Soul album, but Help! comes close. But theres no covers! Only all Lennon/Mccartney compositions and that could never go wrong. Songs like the title track, "If I Fell", "I'll Be Back", "And I Love Her", "Cant Buy Me Love" are some amazing material from here. "Anytime At All" and "When I Get Home" are songs that are usually shunned, but how the hell can you shun a Beatles song? These songs are amazing fun, even if they are inferior to the other tracks. 9/10.

uglytruth@hotmail.com (Hossein Nayebagha)
It is a good album, but you seem to have missed out on what's really good on the album. You're right on "I'll Be Back", but the other good ones are the title track and "Tell Me Why". Also "You Can't Do That", but that one isn't strong enough to last.

And someone else already pointed out that the british versions were released on Parlophone and not on Capitol or VeeJay, how can you miss that!

bdoleac@wesleyan.edu
I second your opinion, dude - easily the best early Beatles album, and chiefly because it's ALL Lennon/McCartney tunes - sure they had flair for outside material, but their own work beats hell out of most others' anyway. This is an essential record, and since I can't say I agree with your system of awarding only one 10/10 to each band this gets a perfect score from me, even if it can't compete with "Rubber Soul" (which is beyond perfection). A rock-and-roll touchstone, and proof that great albums were made before "Rubber Soul" made the album-rock era a reality. It may be only 30 minutes long, but if you don't have "A Hard Day's Night" you're cheating yourself - I defy you to find another record this solid that's NOT by the Beatles....Excepting "Nevermind", of course. Oh, and "Pet Sounds". Fucking essential.

steve.robey@mindspring.com
I was just listening to "I'll Be Back" and I just noticed something extremely cool and clever about it. It's the way it keeps shifting back and forth between major and minor modes IN THE SAME LINE, and these shifts also reflect the upset/hopeful dichotomy in the lyrics. The song opens on an A-major chord for a couple of bars, then for the first line of lyrics "You know/If you break my heart I'll go" it's in A-minor. But then for the line "But I'll be back again" it shifts to a major mode (E major > A major). Then back to minor for the next line, and so forth. It's like there's an internal dialogue going on in the song - a confused guy who just can't make up his mind about this cruel yet irresistable chick. THAT is the kind of thing that goes on in so many Beatles songs that never fails to blow my mind, and that's what makes them so great and unique.

Something New - Capitol 1964.

Were other bands putting out albums full of songs this consistently memorable back in '64? If so, who? The Stones were still doing pretty much all covers, weren't they? Man overboard. So anyway, five of these tracks were from the A Hard Day's Night movie, but unfortunately the fantastic theme song from that movie didn't make the cut for some reason. Hmm. See, I wish there were more superlatives I could use to describe the feeling of joy that enters my soul when I listen to these songs. Understand, will you, that I can be really bitchy when it comes to rock and roll music. I've just heard so darn much of it in my life that when something new comes along, if it doesn't immediately impress me, I usually just say "screw it," and look for something else. Bad attitude? Of course, but life's too short to waste it on mediocrity.

Anyway, so bearing that in mind, let me now point out that up until about five years ago, I didn't own any Beatles albums earlier than '65. See, I'd always heard that their early work, though groundbreaking at the time, just doesn't sound all that great thirty years later. Well, I hope that whoever told me that lie has a canker sore right now as punishment for keeping me away from such wonderful music for so many years. If the three remaining Beatles were to reform next week and release this album, I swear to you that I would be raving about how age has only made them stronger. Oh sure, there are no strings or acid fantasies or bouncy little piano tunes - this is rock and roll! But oh, sir, oh what rock and roll it is.

Don't hold me to that, though. You might hate it, for some reason.

Reader Comments

jnw@iglobal.net (Jim Hull)
Truly an awesome record, and I'm speaking of A Hard Day's Night, which I suppose Something New is...kinda sorta...I, too, got into the Beatles at a "late" stage...by constantly being pestered by a friend of mine who was completely absorbed by them...and also by retraceing steps backward through songs by my beloved Ramones and Cheap Trick, among others...you always hear stuff like "every sound you hear on a record today has a precedent in some Beatles recording"...I used to think that was horseshit, but dang if I haven't been able to disprove it...such a great album...

BtheW@aol.com
This album wouldn't have even come out in America if Capitol hadn't lost the Hard Day's Night soundtrack to United Artists. They were free to release the songs, as long as they didn't release them all on one record. So they scrambled to get something 'new' on the market. And this album got stuck at number two behind the UA album. Of course, it's the Beatles, so when you look at it song-for-song, it's really pretty good - but I always preferred The Beatles' Second Album. For non-US citizens of the world who aren't familiar, you can find all but three of these songs on the British Hard Day's Night - and those three are 'Slow Down,' 'Matchbox,' and 'Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand.' But you can't get 'A Hard Day's Night,' 'I Should Have Known Better,' 'Can't Buy Me Love,' 'You Can't Do That' or 'I'll Be Back' on this one. Now which album do you prefer?

F
So this is where the remainder of the Long Tall Sally ep ended up, and, ah-hah!--the songs from A Hard Days Night in UK, but damn, no Hard Days Night! Granted, now we have two covers, and here you can see the originals starting to make things pale in comparison to the originals. You can't help but stay in awe when listening to stuff like Things We've Said Today and If I Fell. Man, what a bunch of great songs. Nice track order too, but no Hard Days Night and Can't Buy Me Love? Screw you, Capitol (or United Artists, which I suspect that are the ones to blame for such a travesty). And I'll Be Back should be here, instead of on '65. More cooler than cool songs? The great ballad And I Love Her. The great--man, here comes those vocals again!--Tell Me Why. Heck, Slow Down is pretty darn good too. All the songs in here rule. But no Hard--aw what the fuck, I won't repeat that again. Oh yeah, What about I Should've Known Better? Don't the US releases always rely on hit singles? So what about From Me To You? From Me To You! A fuckin' masterpiece! This could've gotten an eight because all the originals are great and that german version of I Wanna Hold Your Hand finishing the album is hilarious! But the lack of the songs--especially From Me To You, which took years to appear in a US album--that I've mentioned, whether in here or in any other record before or after, accounts for making this and other albums weaker than they should be. A seven.

The Beatles' Story - Capitol 1964.

Nah, just kidding. It's actually like spending a very overblown and silly evening with a couple of big-voiced radio announcers attempting to explain the phenomenon of Beatlemania in as dull a manner as possible. It's still great fun for an evening's listen, though. Why? Because it's SO dated. Hilariously dated. Paul wants to invest in his brother's hairdressing business? Ringo is the quiet Beatle who never smiles? George is the happy-go-lucky one? John isn't whipping out his pecker for a crappy solo album? Whatever, John Babcock!

Hee hee. "Pecker." Heee!

There are a few majestic moments - the delirious crying teenage girls at the beginning, the bitter old father referring to Beatles fans as "a bunch of monkeys!", the band's repeated claims that they want to make no political or social statement whatsoever - but it's still a weak excuse for a documentary. There's very few soundbites from the actual Beatles, and those that are here are almost impossible to understand because of poor recording. Plus, the album doesn't really say anything at ALL about the band. It's just a document for dopey fans like me. But it's still a great visit into yesteryear, and a real gas to dig, knowing what we now know about how important The Beatles were to the history of Western art and whatnot.

Reader Comments

BtheW@aol.com
I forgot all about this one! This is one of the funniest records without trying to be that ever came out. I think the best parts are when Roger Christian quotes John Lennon. Instead of hearing John's voice, of course, we hear Roger, who's about the cheesiest white-bread American this side of John Tesh. There is one important musical reason to own this album, though. The live excerpt of 'Twist And Shout' is from the 1964 Hollywood Bowl concert. This differs from the version on the Hollywood Bowl album, which is from the '65 show. The instrumental music, incidentally, is by the Hollyridge Strings, who recorded an album (plus several sequels) called The Beatles Song Book, which is advertised, along with the rest of the Beatles' catalogue, on the back covers of their Capitol albums.

'65 - Capitol 1965.

Nah. As you probably know, "I Feel Fine" boasts the first recorded pop guitar feedback intro in history (as well as one of the most wonderfully magical pop riffs of all time, right up there with the Stones' "The Last Time," which was most likely just a ripoff of "I Feel Fine," unless it was recorded before "I Feel Fine," which would be a very easy fact for me to check, but I'm simply not in the mood to do it right now. Would you mind checking for me?), and "She's A Woman" sounds strangely like an industrial machine trying to play a reggae song (you'd really have to hear it to understand what I mean). Still four cover tunes (four too many, if you ask me), but life goes on. No reason to sit here and bitch about it. But seriously, the greatest songwriters in the world should not have been condescending to covering anybody's songs. Except maybe the Atlanta Rhythm Section. But I guess that goes without saying.

Reader Comments

jnw@iglobal.net (Jim Hull)
You know what? I've always kind of disagreed with that "I Feel Fine" feedback thing. It always sounded to me like Paul plucked a note on his bass and lightly touched his pick to the vibrating roundwound before they charged in.

I dunno. "I Feel Fine" is one of my top 5 Beatles songs in the whole wide world. The harmonies alone just grab my shoulders and kick my ass repeatedly while asking through grit teeth: "You...want...some...MORE?!?...HUH!!??!!"

And man, I do!! I do!!

nbrandt@wyoming.com (Nathan Brandt)
I checked out that "Last Time" thing. "I feel fine" was released on fall of 64 and "Last Time" was released in spring of 65. So yeah, sounds to me like a complete rip off of the solo in "i feel fine".

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
Hey man, I had this record! A few years ago. Then I dropped it and it broke. Still, I'm not too sad about it. As far as I can remember, the track listing was almost identical to their REAL fourth British LP - Beatles For Sale, 'cept that "I Feel Fine" was a single, backed with "She's A Woman", and "I'll Be Back" was on the British release of Hard Day's Night.

As for the actual songs... No comment. Great as usual. By the way, there is yet another interesting thing about "I Feel Fine" (and never mind the feedback: somewhere else on this site Tim Eimiller was saying it was Pete Townshend who discovered the feedback, and I believe him): right near the end, during the fade-out, you can hear a dog barking! Now THIS is real innovation! Leads straight off into Pepper's "Good Morning".

cliffnorth@localaccess.com (TAD)
I think the Fabs' cover of "Everybody's Trying to be My Baby" is an absolute scream -- these guys were great & they damn well knew it! That's why they got modest ol George up there singin about how the women just can't keep their hands off him. What a laugh!

Plus they sing their asses off all over this record. "I'll Be Back" & "I'm A Loser" are essential (is "No Reply" on this record, or is that somewhere else?), & I'm a sucker 4 "I'll Follow the Sun." Can they get NE better? Oh yeah....

bgreenstein@nctimes.net (Ben Greenstein)
I've got the original brit version, called Beatles For Sale. It rules!

The covers are back, but they're also much better. "Rock An Roll Music" and "Mr. Moonlight," for example, are songs that I seem to hear everywhere, and I really dig Carl Perkins, so I like the two versions of his songs. And the originals! "Every Little Thing" and "What You're Doing," near the end of the album, are every bit as catchy as the great songs that you named. And "No Reply"? That has got to be the definetive Beatles song! What a great sound!

"I Feel Fine" isn't on my version - however, I agree with the above comments about how it is the best song ever. And about the feedback - if I'm not mistaken, The Who didn't do any recording before '65, which would make the song the first recorded use of feedback. So the Beatles win this one, though I'm sure Townshend was the first to use it on purpose.

ian.moss@yale.edu
I'm sorry, but this "early Beatles" is just a little bit TOO early for my tastes. The album does certainly have some classics on it, especially "I'll Follow the Sun" and "I Feel Fine," but the rest of it is a little flaccid, don't you think? I mean, "Honey Don't"? Come on. And "No Reply," "Baby's In Black" and "I'll Be Back" would be fine as one song, but as three variations of the same song they don't work quite as well. That said, the song that used to annoy me the most, "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby," has grown on me considerably in the last few years, for some reason. Anyway, I'd give the whole thing a 6.

BtheW@aol.com
Okay, I'm gonna nitpick a little more. Even though the title says '65, it actually came out at the end of '64. It was definately before 'The Last Time.'

'I Feel Fine' and 'She's A Woman' represent the most blatant examples of Dave Dexter's 'enhancement' of the George Martin productions. Simply put, it's the difference between hearing the Beatles in an empty auditorium, or having them there in your living room with you. And just in case anybody outside the US is keeping count, there are only 11 songs on this. Two were on a single, and 'I'll Be Back' was left over from the British Hard Day's Night. That means a whopping six songs from Beatles For Sale were left off of this.

On the feedback issue: I'm pretty sure the initial pluck is from John's acoustic guitar, which was feeding back because they were using one of those mikes that attaches to the guitar. In the middle solo section, after George does his first few licks, the band stops playing, and there's another guitar playing the riff. This is John's acoustic guitar, surprisingly enough, which is getting an overdriven signal from the miking technique, making it sound electric. How's that for innovation?

KevinMartinell@aol.com
Someone mentioned this earlier on, and I thought I was the only one who noticed it... For those of you who have the stereo versions of the U.S. LP's, listen to the sound quality in these songs:

*"I Want to Hold Your Hand," "This Boy," "She Loves You," "I'll Get You," "You Can't Do That," "Ticket to Ride," and "Yes it Is" ...

It is unusual that all of these songs featured extra "echo" and "reverb" to the vocals and instrumentation. Even if you sat between your two stereo speakers, or put headphones on, you can hear some kind of "synthetic stereo" quality, or to quote from the notes on the back of the U.S. "Rarities" album cover, "fake stereo," to these songs! I look at this issue two ways. The cool thing about it is that the songs have sort of a "live" feel to them, most notably "She's A Woman," and the sound is very powerful. All the same, after hearing the true stereo and/or original mono mixes of these songs, which appear on later releases and CD versions, it's hard to go back to the "synthetic stereo" remixes, on the U.S. compilations. The singles and CD versions feature the way these actual recordings are supposed to sound like. I remember reading somewhere that producer George Martin hadn't mixed some of these songs for stereo until around 1966, when the record company was getting ready to release the "A Collection of Beatles Oldies" compilation, in the U.K. I was lucky to find the stereo version of that one on vinyl. There are good stereo mixes of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Feel Fine," on that one (the stereo mixes which appear on the CDs). The sound quality sounds perfectly fine, and the sound is not enhanced by any echo or overdubbing at all. Some of these songs never appeared in true stereo, because they weren't mixed for stereo before, until later years. This seemed to be the case with mostly the single releases, which were all released in mono, until 1969.

As far as Beatles '65 goes, "I'll Follow the Sun" has to be one of my favorite Beatles ballads. -If I had to choose one, this would probably be my favorite ballad. I'm glad it reappears on the "Love Songs" compilation! I also like the rock & roll cover versions, "Rock and Roll Music," "Kansas City," and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby!" They really rock, and it's cool that they also appear on the "Rock and Roll Music" compilation! Notice that the stereo version of "Kansas City" lasts a few seconds longer than the mono version, before the song fades out! :) (Beatles for Sale or Beatles '65, these are some of my most favorite songs (and cover versions) from The Beatles! :)

Jcjh20@aol.com
I dont know if Beatles For Sale has the same tracklisting as this one, but ill go on reviewing Beatles For Sale, assuming they are similar anyway. This is a incredibly underappreciated record. The guys were tired from touring and just being a band and everything and they had to whip out another album full of material, with pressure from the record company. And it goes to show you how ingenious these Beatles are, cuz the originals on this album are masterful. Hard to believe this was just a last minute type record. "Im A Loser" is a awesome Dylan-esque number, "No Reply", "Babys In Black", "I'll Follow The Sun", "Every Little Thing", "What Your Doing" and the classic "8 Days A Week" are all great as well. There are also covers on here, cuz, it being a last minute album and all, they needed material! So they put together wonderful covers such as "Everybodys Trying To Be My Baby", "Words Of Love" (man is that guitar sound beautiful), "Honey Don't" and despite what many people think, "Mr. Moonlight" is pretty good. Ohh and i dont wanna forget "Dont Wanna Spoil The Party" either. Great self-pitying song. The rest i can honestly care less about though. Ohh and "I Feel Fine" is an obvious classic! That riff and that melody and those harmonys are so infectious. A definate 9/10.

F
Pretty much Beatles For Sale, their Christmas/New Year's album--and it's, as you'd expect, freakin great whether it's a cover tune or an original, only that now the originals start making the cover tunes pale in comparison to the point that they're almost pointless--with a punch in yer face beginning of No Reply, I'm A Loser and Baby's In Black (man, I love this one. Look at those vocals again!), Rock'n'Roll Music seems pretty weak coming right after. Strangely, once again, they put another UK Hard Days Night tune in the middle of it, plus the single I Feel Fine--ain't that one a dang hoot? Plus, She's A Woman--and what about that one?! Man, those guys rule. Even so, the songs don't flow as well as on Second Album and Something New, so I'll give it a seven. Even with She's A Woman and I Feel Fine? Sure, cos Capitol has managed to come with such an amount of reverb on these--and on I'll Be Back too, I suspect--that it's not even funny. They sound as if you had your stereo inside a bathroom, for chrissake!)

davethefish42@gmail.com
(about Beatles For Sale): Beatlemania couldn't last forever, I suppose. This album has been subsequently deemed the weakest of all Beatles work (except by Let It Be critics), but at the time it was just another hit record. All the signs are here. Some people forget that the band were releasing 2+ albums a year, and that doesn't include the endless stream of singles, live performances, interviews, and trips halfway around the world to get it all done. Even the cover shows how weary the band was. Please Please Me showed the group smiling, looking down from a balcony, but here the cover shot is was taken in a bleak, rainy courtyard without a hint of a smile from any of the members. Soon enough the band would take a cover shot for an American release that pictured them all in butcher coats, smiling with doll limbs scattered all about, an unsubtle attempt to show how they felt about their fame. The title, Beatles for Sale, is also an indication, as well as the fact that there are six covers here, a step down from the all-original A Hard Day's Night. There were pretty lazily chosen as well, very basic Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly covers, and two from Carl Perkins which is very perplexing as the covers were usually expertly performed. Most of the original material is lacking the pizzazz of their earlier albums, as the Lennon piece entitled "I'm a Loser" shows. It's not bad work, just surprising to see such a sharp change. There IS some peppier stuff here, mostly through Paul's writing ("Eight Days a Week"), but not even close to the extent of the others. "I know love will never die" might be the lyric, but the flat delivery suggest otherwise. It comes as no surprise that the Beatles would decide to stop touring soon enough, which would give them more time to write (John found Dylan and folk rock around this time, and they were all growing as writers). Soon enough they would enter an entirely new phase of their lives, and their careers, which meant so would the rest of the world.

VI - Capitol 1965.

All of which only serves to make the cover tunes sound even stupider and more out of place than they did before. Oh, okay, "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" is a cool enough rocker to pass for an original, and the Fab Seven totally recreated Buddy Holly's "Words Of Love" in their own image with some absotively stunning voice harmony mmmms, but "Kansas City" and "Bad Boy" kinda blow. Whoosh! There they go! Catch them, Bing! Jim Hull doesn't like "Tell Me What You See" too much, but I think it's the tops. You don't recognize any of these song titles at all, do you? Isn't that nuts? These songs are honestly among the catchiest and most well-performed guitar pop tunes I will ever hear, and they never ever EVER play them on the radio! Why??? Why, goddammit, why???? Oh yeah, it has "Eight Days A Week," too. You've probably heard that one. Like many other similar Beatles songs, it fucking rules, if I may curse out of sheer admiration and slight jealousy for a moment.

Reader Comments

gstarst@rsuh.ru (George Starostin)
This one I have still. Gathering dust somewhere, I reckon. Most of the songs are from Beatles For Sale ("Kansas City", "What You're Doing", "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party", "Every Little Thing", "Eight Days A Week", "Words Of Love"), some from Help ("Tell Me What You See", "You Like Me Too Much"), some from singles ("Yes It Is"), and one was an American-only release, namely, "Bad Boy". Thanks God, they've all been sorted out now on British CD's. The album cover was cool, though. And "Kansas City" does not blow, since Paul's singing is good, and "Bad Boy" does not blow, since John's singing is even better. Good old rockers. Fine. Don't you like old rockers when 'em Beetles sing 'em?

TecmoFiend@aol.com (Jason Penick)
I agree with your assessments of "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party," "What You're Doing," "Yes It Is," "Tell Me What You See," and "Every Little Thing"... In my opinion the five greatest songs the band did in the pre-Rubber Soul era-- especially "Tell Me" and "Every Little", absolutely gorgeous. To bad they didn't include "No Reply", "I'll Be Back" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" on Beatles VI. An album with those 8 songs along with their version of "Words of Love", and maybe "I'm a Loser", "Ticket to Ride" and "Baby's in Black" to fill it out-- man, that might just make the most perfect album of all time... superlatave, even, to Revolver, Pet Sounds or Days of Future Passed. As it is you need to buy Help and Beatles for Sale (or the American versions of Help, Beatles '65 and Beatles VI) if you want to make a mix tape of these tracks... I did! Oh, and tell your friend that doesn't like "Tell Me What You See" to get his ears cleaned out, eh!?

BtheW@aol.com
I'll just throw in my two cents on behalf of 'Bad Boy,' which I think rocks better than virtually anything else from 1965. And you sure as hell can't beat that voice.

F
You know, I'm starting to get these US albums, and the conclusion is that most of em, if compared to the UK versions, do suck. On the other hand, Capitol is smart enough to put tracks out of singles on them, which makes em fun to hear. But this one has just a b-side of a single. And it had songs specially recorded for it, so them four fabs were aware of their US ablums. This one packs the remaining songs from Beatles For Sale with songs that ended up in the UK version of Help--but the Help songs came out before the UK version of the said album. Mark is right in pointing out that this can be called the "vocal harmony" album, cos here you have em a lot, but the good thing here is that along with the slow ones, they put on some great rockers, giving the whole album some nice contrast. I'd call this actually the "man, those guys can sing" album, cos the delivery on Kansas City by Paul and Bad Boy and Dizzy Miss Lizzie by John shows that these two could really tear when they wanted to, in regards to good ole rock'n'roll. My complaints? One complaint, actually: the track order is pretty weird. It starts great, but then it ends with Every Little Thing? Why not Dizzy Miss Lizzie? I suppose that I'm too used to listen to the UK Help. Oh well.

With other US versions, I'd give em a seven or eight, but this one gets a nine.

By the way, the songs that ended up on the UK Help came out firstly in here, not there. This is about the other reason for it to get a nine; it has involvement of the Beatles here. My guess is that they've recorded You Like Me Too Much, Dizzy Miss Lizzie, Bad Boy, and Tell Me What You See as fillers for the album--but go figure, there's no such thing as fillers on Beatles albums.

Help! (American) - Capitol 1965.

And sure I don't often call my grandmother in the middle of the night to extol the virtues of "I Need You" or "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" (I prefer The Ramones' "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You" and "You're Gonna Kill That Girl"), but they're aight. Don't bring down the party or nothin'.

Do I seem too Republican when I urge good citizens to set rapists on fire? I don't mean to sound Republican. I just love the idea of revenge. Too bad it's so hard to tell whether someone's guilty or innocent. Oh, for a gentler God. And regarding the Beatles, up until this point, they'd mined the same gold time and time again. It was great gold, too, but I guess they felt it was time to move on. So they started smokin' reefer and dreaming up new ways to challenge themselves and their audiences. Slowly, but surely. Starting with the next record coming up there in a second on my list.

Reader Comments

leonard@lyco.lycoming.edu (Brian Leonard)
Obviously, the British version of Help! is much better since it leaves off the instrumentals. However, those instrumentals (by Ken Thorne) aren't too awful, and one of them--"The Chase"--is pretty lively and was responsible for introducing George Harrison to the sitar (for better AND worse). I used to annoy the hell out of my mother and brother by playing it. Now--since it's not available on CD--it's a rarity!

ddamiani@liberty.uc.wlu.edu (David J. Damiani)
"You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" is my second favorite Beatles song behind "Get Back," and by itself it is almost worth the cost of this album. If anything, the Help! album is far above the experimental garbage of the Apple Records years.

mds+ID@netyp.com.au
"ticket to ride" is great(rick say's) it's Noel Gallagher's favourite tune.

ian.moss@yale.edu
This album represents an interesting middle ground between the early Beatles sound heard on Hard Day's Night et al., and the mature Beatles sound starting with Rubber Soul. We get songs like "Dizzy Miss Lizzie," "You're Going to Lose that Girl," and "Act Naturally," representing the old-school Beatles, and songs like "I Need You," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," and "It's Only Love" looking more forward. Lots of classics, still a few mediocre selections--overall an 8 from me. Unfortunately, my tape copy turned out to be very sketchy and messes up quite a few songs...so I can't really enjoy this one properly. :-(

That movie was a hoot, though, huh?

BtheW@aol.com
One of those records where I used to repeatedly get up to lift the needle. For some reason, this one was always a favorite of mine when I was young. It's probably the connection to the film, but it also seems to have an intangible summer feeling to it. It's a happy record. I never, by the way, skipped over the James Bond theme that starts off the album - that one's pretty cool.

richbunnell@home.com
Relative to other Beatles albums this gets an 8, on its own merits it gets a 9. It's a bunch of pop songs as usual, but -every one of them- is magnificent. The title track, "The Night Before," "Ticket To Ride," "Another Girl," "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," even George's two songs. Why does everyone hate George's songs? And his voice? He has that really nifty slinky, sly voice that Paul couldn't pull off even on his best days (as great as Paul's voice was) and at this moment I can't think of a song he wrote with the band that I don't like. I don't seem to have very many innovative things to say, so....great album. Very good. Good good good.

erogozin@mtu-net.ru (Eric Rogozin)
Magnificent album! The title track is one of my favourite songs ever!

Jcjh20@aol.com
Man, i love this early Beatles era. These songs are so amazingly good, no other band can ever hit me the way some of these songs do. "Help!", "Yesterday", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "Ticket To Ride" for instance. "Tell Me What You See" ive been really addicted to lately as well. And what about that "Ive Just Seen A Face"? Man what a song! That acoustic guitar and that Mccartney vocal really turns me on. I agree with Prindle that "I Need You" or "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" dont infect you with the same feeling as the rest of the songs on here, but that rockin' ass "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" makes up for it. A 9 from me.

(a couple weeks later)

Damn what was i thinking! "I Need You" is a great song! I like it way more then i thought i did. Same with "You're Gonna Lose That Girl". But man "If You Got Trouble" or "That Means A Lot", which were outtakes for this album, would of been better on the album then "Act Naturally", but overall this is just an incredible album! I dont get anyones gripe with it either here or at Georges site, these songs are great! Once again, a 9!

Xspex27@aol.com (James Mohr)
"You're Gonna Lose that Girl" and "I Need You" are 2 of my favorite songs on the record and as unlikely as it seems I swear I'm not being spiteful. Those songs are both fantastic!!!

uglytruth@hotmail.com (Hossein Nayebagha)
I was saying, that with the possible exception of "Yesterday", all the good stuff were on both the british and american version. That I can definitely see what you're saying about those two McCartney tunes. But it's funny that while you, regarding "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", mentioned the Ramones' "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You", you didn't seem to notice that the intro of that song really reminds one of the intro to "The Night Before".

NMcpherson@fac.unc.edu (Earl McPherson)
The Wagner piece that was used as some of the background music was catchy to me. Probably my favorite song is "You're Gonna Lose That Girl". The movie had some pretty good funny Lennon parts in it but the rest of the movie was silly as Hell. An eight.

victorproserecords@comcast.net (Ryan Maffei)
Fixing the American Versions of Albums Up, Vol. 1 by Ryan Maffei
******************************************************************************
First off, the American versions are all well and dandy, expecially if you're an American. But for the records that are hindered with symphonic material, the cure is simple and accessible. If you're burning your own CDs of the American versions just for old time's sake, or merely because you're an obsessive individual like myself, simply add some original EPs to the Beatles discography, instead of those cheap 4-song repackagings that America used to have. And, in order to get "A Hard Day's Night" onto an album, merely add it to the start of the Hey Jude LP along with the other "A Hard Day's Night Symphonic Album" exclusives. Finally, cut out that shitty "Beatles' Story" record, drop "Hey Jude"'s stupid-ass subtitle ("The Beatles Again"), and voila. Your revised American discography should look a little like this, with the Prindle Ratings Guide scores to the right of them.

1. Meet the Beatles! (* * * * * * * * *)
2. The Beatles' Second Album (* * * * * * * *)
3. Something New (* * * * * * * * *)
4. Beatles '65 (* * * * * * * * *)
5. The Early Beatles (* * * * * * * *)
6. Beatles VI (* * * * * * * * *)
7. Help! EP (* * * * * * * * *)
8. Rubber Soul (* * * * * * * * *)
9. Yesterday and Today (* * * * * * * * *)
10. Revolver (* * * * * * * * *)
11. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (* * * * * * * * *)
12. Magical Mystery Tour (* * * * * * * * *)
13. The Beatles (* * * * * * * * * *)
14. Abbey Road (* * * * * * * * *)
15. Hey Jude (* * * * * * * * *)
16. Let It Be (* * * * * * * * *)

Wow. Impressive lineup, and all 9-star records except the one with too many covers and the one with all the early stuff. Oh, and the White Album, which kicks my ass. And don't you forget it! OK. Class dismissed.

F
Oh no, this one won't do. Just like the US Hard Days Night ablum--not reviewed in here, by the way, Mark; aren't you reviewing the US albums? So review that one too! And give it a low grade: side one of the UK Hard Days Night--in stinkin rechanneled stereo--with those instrumentals; at least those by Ken Thorne on this one are a bit more interesting, but they ruin the whole thing, especially when you're mixing them up with greatness such as Help, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away and Ticket To Ride. Come to think of it, the songs from VI that ended up on the UK Help weren't just fillers after all--except for Bad Boy, which they've purpotedly, as it's known, recorded for VI. As Mark pointed out, two out of the UK release of Help went to Rubber Soul--not a good idea--Yesterday and Today in the next year, and the rest was on VI. I still enjoy them on VI, but I certainly don't enjoy them scattered around the two albums following this US version of Help. Since this one is one half of the UK version, and given those instrumentals, I'll give it a seven. Damn these fools at Capitol. I should give it a six, but hey, did you notice a certain lyrical and melodical change at VI and on this one? Yes, them boys are progressing, and watch out for what's to come.

Help! (British) - EMI 1965

First of all, is my dick turning green or was Paul the least creative bass player in the world at this point in their career? Every goddamned line he plays is a variation on the same exact silly little up-down up-down piece of shit! So that's the first thing I noticed. I also noticed that there are a lot of sexy percussion instruments in these songs that I'd never heard before. A cowbell and assloads of cymbal crashing in "Dizzy Miss Lizzie"! A shaky egg thing in "I've Just Seen A Face"! Not only a clackity wood stick but also a "eeeeck-ick-ick eeeck-ick-ick" scrapy wooden fish in "Tell Me What You See"! Tap dance-style drumstick tapping in "Act Naturally"! Latin rhythm bongos in "You're Gonna Lose That Girl"! The only percussion I'd ever heard on my vinyl American releases was a hep little "kiiiihhhhhh" crackling noise through every song. Granted, it was bitchass, but this stuff is even BUTTER!

I imagine I'd noticed this aspect before too, but had just never paid much attention to it -- George sure does like to dick around on lead guitar, doesn't he? Just playing bullshitty stinging licks left and right over the acoustic and electric rhythm guitars. Sometimes melodic, but sometimes just yeech! I think Paul played lead guitar on a few of these though, so don't blame the late Mr. Harrison for all of his mistakes. Elsewise, I of course couldn't help but notice the lads' always gorgeous vocal harmonies, used in nine of these fourteen tracks. And vocal melodies? CHRIST the vocal melodies! "We said our goodbyyy-yy-y--y--yyyes! Love was in your eyy-yy-yy--yyyes!" You know? "Here I stand, head in hand, turn my face to the wall..." You know? "I know you'll never leave me and it's true - 'Cuz you like me too much and I like you!" You know? Uno? Pizza Uno? I eat there a few times a week! Ask for me by name! They call me "The Peanut Man." Well, the guy who got fired for getting drunk during his shift did.

I'm 31 now though, and was ready and geared to hate ANYTHING on this CD that I didn't honestly enjoy for anything but nostalgic reasons. This only happened three times though! I've honestly NEVER been particularly thrilled with George's ugly volume-pedal cocksuckery in "I Need You" (though the middle eight is very lovely) or John's cutesy girl group homage "You're Gonna Lose That Girl," but what I found REALLY surprising was my early-twenty-first-century discovery that "Yesterday" is one boring as shit ballad! Does the government know about this? How on Earth did that thing become the "most covered song in rock and roll history"? Because it was lush and bland enough for Beatles' fans' parents to enjoy? It's just so middle-of-the-road and nondescript! Okay, the middle eight is quite pretty, but the basic motif comes across as emotionless as "Here, There and Everywhere" or "The Long And Winding Road." And where are the blastbeats?

POSTSCRIPT FROM SEVERAL, SEVERAL DAYS LATER: I just listened to Paul McCartney's re-recording of "Yesterday" on the Give My Regards To Broad Street soundtrack and actually found it quite lovely. It must just be the original Beatles recording and George Martin orchestration that I find bland after all these years. So ignore the whole bit about your parents' blastbeats.

So that's my "as of this moment" opinion of the actual as-intended British Help!. I find eleven of the tracks almost ass-blindingly fantastic (did I mention that wicked spy-surf guitar arpeggiation behind the "Won't you please please help me?" lyric? MAN! Somebody should loop that over and over for five minutes and write an insane song about being insane! Or how about that brilliant classical guitar interplay intro to the hardcore folk punker "I've Just Seen A Face"? Where the hell did THAT come from!? And did you notice that the guitar solo in that song just imitates the vocal melody? That's because they were directly plagiarizing "Smells Like Teen Spirit"). And that's my review. Good night!

No wait! One other thing: I hereby declare "You Like Me Too Much" (featuring electric piano and Steinway) to be the most wonderful bubblegum pop song ever written by George Harrison. I don't really have the authority to make declarations like that though, so it's pretty much meaningless.

Oh! One other thing I noticed for the first time -- that wickedass bass+rhythm guitar drone smacking on the root note during the verse of "Ticket To Ride." And what's up with that crazy clunk-clunk-clunk beat Ringo's playing? Was he looking for his cat? Oh, The Beatles. Even today in their old age, they still have so much to offer when you hear them again for the first time!

Reader Comments

the_unofficials@hotmail.com
First off, what's this "middle eight" thing you refer to twice in the review?

Help! is great, but after track 7-8 (is "Act Naturally" as good as the first 7 or is it just really funny? I'm assuming it's about Ringo playing his gloomy self in the A Hard Days Night movie while having a hangover) the whole things goes down a bit... I like "Tell Me What You See", but the rest is kinda boring, at least for being Beatles. "Yesterday", I'll agree on that, but then again I've never been too crazy about it.

No clue who wrote this. I seem to have forgotten to write down their email address.
Don't know how I found it on the Net, but I ended up with an official version (Parlophone label, whatever that is) of Help! from Russia.

Didn't even get screwed using the credit card (which I wondered about when I received the mailer with the Russian script on it).

The first set of tracks are the British version. The second set of tracks are the US/movie version! It also has several Help! (the song) creation tracks and an alternate version of Ticket To Ride.

I had the album growing up, and I was very disappointed when I bought the cd a few years ago, and it was the British version (which started my search for the missing instrumentals).

Crank up the chase music (Introducing Wagner's Overture to Act III of "Lohengrin" Beatles Style) !!!

In a couple of weeks, Capitol Records will issue Volume 2 (1965) of the next 4 US Beatles albums. The movie version of Help! will be on it.

Fuck! - Bootleg.

Reader Comments

BtheW@aol.com
Don't have this one, but have you ever come across The Beatles Vs. Don Ho? It's a parody of a shameless Vee Jay album called The Beatles Vs. The Four Seasons. There's only one Don Ho song, though. There's also a track by the Residents called 'Beyond The Valley Of A Day In The Life' where they make a collage out of little snippets of Beatles songs and bits of their Christmas records. Sort of in the style of 'Revolution 9' but much more entertaining (and not nearly as long).

monkee5th@yahoo.com (Dave Chase)
I can't believe there is someone else with this bootleg. When I saw it I had to buy it. Woooow!!! What a great parody, they went as far as to spell fuck in semaphore, plus the Beatles being naked except for the long scarf to cover their shmeckilas. I too laughed my ass off. Wow again, but the stuff on the album was mediocre at best.

3dsunglasses@gmail.com
i looked up this bootleg and found some interesting info...

Some bootleggers have made a point of making their releases look as legitimate as possible. One bootlegger in particular, a fan from New Zealand, Leon Throf, designed each of his bootlegs to look like legitimate Apple Records releases. Also, each of the elaborate covers parodied the cover of an official Beatles album. Throf's titles include "Reintroducing The Beatles", "Please Release Me", "Withered Beatles", "A Knight's Hard Day", "Beatles For Auction", "Fuck!", "Rabbi Saul", "Revolting", "Dr.Pepper", "Tragical History Tour", "The Little Red Album", "Mellow Yellow", "Broad Road", "Hey Julian", "Let It End", "Lifting Material From The World", "A Nightmare Is Also A Dream" and "Grave Posts".

At The Hollywood Bowl - Capitol 1977.

Reader Comments

BtheW@aol.com
I remember listening to the radio when one of these songs ('Roll Over Beethoven'?) came on the radio. I couldn't believe my ears. Previously unreleased Beatles music? And in concert to boot! People take it for granted now with all the Anthology stuff, but it had been seven years since any new Beatles stuff had come out. The album's not perfect, but it does what it sets out to do. The crowd puts on a great show.

So like I was getting around to saying at some point, Paul's songs on here are really bouncy and poppy, but only in the greatest possible way. John, on my other hand, approached the record with a Priestleyload of bitterness, expressed beautifully and hatefully in the tracks "Girl" (which features a desperate sigh as an integral part of its refrain), "Norwegian Wood" (in which he burns down a girl's house because she wouldn't have sex with him -- incidentally, Paul claims that this ending was his idea, but who knows), and "Run For Your Life," which is nothing but a two and a half minute threat of violence set to music. So whatever. I'd always heard smokin' the devil's weed made you peaceful and calm, but I guess ol' Jim Lennon was an anomaly. Either that or a complete misogynist. Some people call this the finest Beatles moment, and I don't begrudge those people a nudge. Melodies are notch of the top from start to end, and both "Michelle" and "In My Life" are smooth and silky enough to win over even a hateful old son of a bitch waving his cane at your car. Fuckin' cock.

Douche.

Reader Comments

jnw@iglobal.net (Jim Hull)
Goddamn the pusher man...this is a great album. This and Revolver are albums to give one pause...then you would have to put a bullet in your head, because they both just make any rock musician say..."Hell...this is it...why even try..." Get it, get it , get it...Cool cover too...

jay44@webtv.net (Jesse McClung)
Their first true masterpiece, really no duds at all in this collection, don't forget "Day Tripper" and "We Can Work It Out" as well. Those were released separately; nowadays all singles are off the album and the artists are lucky to have decent tracks other than their singles.

This record just grows on me more and more every time I listen to it. Does it get any better? Well maybe Revolver even though I feel "Love You To" shouldn't have been included, but Jesus H. Christ there isn't any dead weight here. "Michelle" may be a bit schmaltzy but it's still catchy as hell and "In My Life" is damn near their best work. An essential album for any music fan; if you don't have it you better not WAIT any longer, so RUN FOR YOUR LIFE to get it. Thank you.

mattias@diariodopovo.com.br (Alexandre Linhares Matias)
Even the jacket Noel Gallagher wears is the same Lennon is using on the cover of this album. This is "the" perfect pop album, something that Elton John, The Carpenters and even Oasis have always tried to do, but never beaten. Since the faking "real rock" introduction of "Drive My Car" to the everything-belongs-in-Elvis-country'n'western-guts of "Run For Your Life", Rubber Soul rules!

Justyn909@aol.com (Justyn Dillingham)
This is probably the single best rock album made up to that point, although it was topped by other albums that came in the following year. Also, the British version opens with the ultra-cool "Drive My Car", and includes one of Lennon's best songs "Nowhere Man".

Glenn.Wiener@entex.com
A major step forward for the Fab Gang. The emphasis on the acoustic guitars specifically on "I've Just Seen A Face" and "Norwegian Wood" show some major artistic growth. The songs just keep on getting better!

gclavio@indiana.edu (Galen Clavio)
I always thought "Norwegian Wood" was about a guy who had sex with a girl, then found out she was a lesbian, then smoked a joint in her living room. Just an idea.

rsuarez@bellsouth.net (Randy Suarez)
Pure pop rock doesn't get any better than this. Period. Even the non-hits are terrific. (Paul's "I'm Looking Through You", with it's great acoustic guitar work and organ being a real stand out.)

Nine and a half out of ten because "Run For Your Life" is only okay, (Lennon said in many interviews that he always felt that was one of the worst songs he ever composed) and doesn't make the best use of being the last song on the CD. "In My Life" would have been a master stroke of sequencing there. Shrug.

daniel@fhsk.skurup.se (Daniel Reichberg)
"I've Just Seen A Face" and "It's Only Love" on Rubber Soul??!! Their place is on Help! Do you see what I mean? By making the records shorter and shifting songs with no regard of artistic values, the American record companies sucked extra money from the fans. A record should be released as the artist wants it, simply because it is a piece of art. What would George Orwell think if a chapter of 1984 was cut out and glued into Animal Farm? OK, a silly comparison, but think about it! Long live the original British releases!

arnoldnicholas@hotmail.com
Here is a response to gclavio. "Norwegian Wood" is actually about a guy who goes to this girl's apartment to get laid and then finds out she was just leading him on. When he wakes in the morning he torches the place ("So, I lit a fire. . "). At least according to John. Rubber Soul marks the transition of the Beatles from the bubblegum rockers (albeit good ones) they were prior to '65 to the mind expanding, social conscience musicians they were to become (especially on Revolver and Sgt. Pepper). The cover shot shows a longer haired four in a kind of psychedelic fish-eyed lens shot. Very cool.

hutchilj@aramco.com.sa
What is so great about Rubber Soul??? Mark gives it a '9' - I'd say '6.5'. John's "In My Life", "Girl", "Norwegian Wood", and "Nowhere Man" are very good - I can't get excited about the others.

bish24@erols.com (John Bishop)
The generally accepted story about "Norwegian Wood", according to legend: John was having an affair on his first wife, Cynthia, and this song describes an evenin' of sex, in which 'Ol Johnny torches up a doobie the next morning. I can neither confirm nor deny Glen Clavio's lesbian theory, nor your "John-as-rapist/arsonist" theory, however. Ain't that what it's all about - all good art is open to many interpretations, I guess.

emerald@wolfshire.com (Joe Sadalte)
I always did wonder why "In My Life" wasn't the last song on the record, go fig.

kenyon@mail.netnitco.net
This is definitely one of my favorite Beatles albums. On almost every CD I own, there are a few tracks I skip over, but there aren't any of those on this one. I listen to every single song and love it. :) "In My Life" is a beautiful song, and Joni Mitchell (I think--one of those female folk singers, anyway, possibly Joan Baez) did a really good remake of it. That one and Earth, Wind, and Fire's version of "Got to Get You Into My Life" are the only remakes of Beatles songs I can listen to without wanting to murder the people responsible.

Kevman0001@aol.com
Like every Beatles album from their first to Abbey Road (cutting out Yellow Submarine and certain parts of Let It Be), a masterpiece from start to finish. "Drive My Car" a pop stunner, "Norweigian Wood" a piece of poetry (in fact the lyrics were later used in a British poetry class), "You Won't See Me" a study in perfect timing (what with the cymbals and piano crashing at the same time), "Nowhere Man" a great bitchy comment on the price of fame, "Think For Yourself" an awesome piece of work with the first appearence of a fuzz bass. "The Word" a nice piece of hippie nonsense and "Michelle" a lovely ballad (though it would have sounded better on Help!).

"What Goes On" is a classic piece of country (despite Mark's comments about it in Yesterday and Today), "Girl" is a great Dylan imitation by Lennon (love that "tit, tit, tit, tit background singing), "I"m Looking Through You" is classic Paul; one of my all-time faves, "In My Life" a beautiful, all-too-short masterpiece, "Wait" a nice, if overlooked, gem, "If I Needed Someone" another brilliant contribution from Harrison and "Run For Your Life" a menacing folk song. Essential in any CD collection.

avsouza@webtv.net (Tony Souza)
In the book about McCartney Many Years From Now Paul says it was he who came up with the idea of burnng down the house. He says (in the book) that Lennon came up with the first stanza and then he "picked it up at the second verse". At that time, people decorated their paces in cheap pine, called Norwegian wood and that in Lennon's point of view it was based on an affair he had.

fiber_optiq@yahoo.com (Alex Temple)
I think the American version of Rubber Soul is actually *better* than the British. _It's Only Love_ is too good for Help! And I never liked Drive My Car anyway.

And note to the original commentator: who cares if Lennon is bitter? His music's damn good anyway.

Awake600@aol.com
I've only heard the American version of this album, so I have yet to hear "Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "What Goes On" and "If I Needed Someone", but they probably kick serious ass like most of the others do. Man, "Norwegian Wood" and "You Won't See Me" have to be two of the most phenomenal pop songs I've ever heard. I LOVE those melodies! "I'm Looking Through You", "In My Life" and "Girl" are more examples of damn classic songwriting here. I used to be irritated by "Michelle" but like most McCartney stuff that seems incredibly dumb at first, it redeems itself with a priceless melody, and I end up loving it! Everything here is great, even the two "Help" tracks that ain't supposed to be there. I'm pretty much just getting into the Beatles (I've only heard 3 of their other albums), but I already recognize their genius.

ian.moss@yale.edu
Oh my God, this album is so good! How the hell could the boys come up with stuff like this in 1965? Does anyone realize just how many YEARS ahead of the game they were at this point? This is when the Fab Four made the transition from the fab but imperfect band of "Love Me Do" to the best pop group in recorded history. It blows my mind that they could produce an album this good that WASN'T EVEN THEIR BEST ALBUM!!! Anyway, enough superlatives, on to the actual songs: every single one of them, with the possible exception of "What Goes On," is a trancendental experience. I don't even have any faves, really, because every few times I listen I fall in love with a new song or three. Even so, I guess I've always been partial to "You Won't See Me," "Nowhere Man," "Wait," "Girl," and "The Word," among others...aww hell, I can't choose!

It's music like this that makes music worth making. Fuckin' A.

BtheW@aol.com
Even though I strongly feel that the British track listing is the way the album should be, I have to say that 'I've Just Seen A Face' fits in perfectly with the style of this album, and even makes a great opener. And, of course, if you were an American back in the '60s and '70s, you thought that this really was the album. It actually seemed natural. This is one of the first Beatles albums I owned (I think I was about seven), so it has a lot of nostalgic value for me. Not that it needs to, because even without nostalgia, it would still be great.

jason_a@earthlink.net (Jason Adams)
As this page isn't quite a mile long, it's clear that everyone can benefit from my brilliant critique of the Beatles. I know the majority of you won't give them a chance because of their long hair (not a visible ear on the cover of this album except Paul's), and because they invaded our country and took all our groupies. But give this album a chance, I beg of you. They use acoustic guitars here, not unlike Burl Ives! And "In My Life" is about as good as music can possibly get.

Gnabbusate@hotmail.com
silly thing is... sgt. peppers isn't even the best beatles album... Rubber Soul is, because it's the first album on which they started freaking out for a bit... I totaly agree on 'todays active lifestile'... It's one of my favorite albums ever. Don't know why... It touches me more than the first Pavement album, which is about my favorite 90's guitar album...

richbunnell@home.com
This one supposedly contains a load of radio classics, so it comes as a surprise to me that the only song off of here that I hear on the radio somewhat regularly is "Drive My Car," and only during traffic report bumpers. I dunno, I guess I just live in a Sgt. Pepper-obsessed area. That said, great album!! But that goes without saying, because it's a Beatles album. Great Beatles album!! It doesn't quite strike the balance between the earlier "yeah yeah" Beatles and later artsy Beatles that Revolver does, but that's a moot point in the presence of songs like "Nowhere Man," "Run For Your Life" and "If I Needed Someone"(further proof that George rules). I'm not too fond of "What Goes On" or "Michelle," but considering that the other twelve songs are prime Beatles material, they're overshadowed very, very heavily. A pop music 10/10, and a Beatles 9/10. So I'm jumping on the "Beatles were gods" bandwagon. Well, they WERE.

erogozin@mtu-net.ru (Eric Rogozin)
Yeah, it's resplendent great like everything The Beatles did. "Girl" is eternal song, yeah, it's great! The whole album is superb! A must for any good music lover.

Jcjh20@aol.com
Classic album. The epitome of great pop music like this. Great poppy rockers like "Drive My Car", "You Wont See Me", "The Word"... damn just so many great great songs on this record, i love it. "Norwegian Wood" has that nice sounding sitar and great acoustic guitar in it, "Michelle" is very beautiful, "Girl", gotta love those inhales by John, "If i needed someone" great George song. Just great songs. I love the whole thing. Most people think "Wait" is filler, since its a leftover from Help! but i still really like it, and "What Goes On" is an old song that was culled in for lack of songs as well, but its a catchy sing-a-long-able countryish tune that works well. Id love to give this one a ten, but i cant just shrug off Magical Mystery Tour, The White Album, or Abbey Road like that. So a 9 it gets.

fedefer@fibertel.com.ar (Federico Fernández)
I have the British version, which is the one everybody should stick to (Come on, "It's only love" on here???) I love this album. It is just awesome god-crafted pop-rock. I just love it. And for me it is only the fifth best Beatles album so figure out...

Some disagreements though.

George has got a nice voice. He's not Lennon but he sure can sing very well.

Paul is NOT POPPY. When are we all going to stop with all this bullshit eh Mark? I mean; He sure wrote lots of pop songs but that's not any bad, specially when those pop songs are melodic, catchy beyond words like "The Night Before", "You Won't See Me", "For No One" etc. Besides, I think that "Drive my car" and "I'm looking through you" (to name only his cotributions to Rubber Soul) are not just "poppy bouncy, sissy" songs but rocking, awesome pop songs. And don't forget that Paul's contributions are not "poppier" than Lennon's "In my life", "Wait", "Nowhere man", "Run for your life", "If I fell", "This boy", "Please please me", "Eight days a week", "I feel fine"... well I can go on forever. And please note that some of Paul numbers are pretty rocking too: "I saw her standing there", "Paperback writer", "I'm down", "Oh darling!", "Helter skelter", "Back In the USSR", "Get back" and well, many of them. Please stop with all those irritatingly stupid stereotypes. This same commentary can go below the Revolver review where you also fall in the same mistake.

On the other hand this album is excellent. EACH and EVERY song except "What goes on" is a MAJOR highlight. Simply excellent.

uglytruth@hotmail.com (Hossein Nayebagha)
I was saying how it's a shame that "Drive My Car" was excluded from the version that you're reviewing.

I hadn't heard it for a while when I got this CD recently, and I put it in with my eyes on the cover...and then comes that badass rock riff that could as well have been from a band like the Stooges, on the album by a band that has a "wuss" tag over it. And "If I Needed Someone" has THAT melodic riff. "The Word","In My Life","Norwegian Wood" are all great, but why is not "You Won't See Me" considered to be a classic? So this is considered to be the album where the interesting stuff start to happen, while I was thinking how musically it's not a giant step forward from what they were doing on Help! british Rubber Soul: 8/10

moraeusse@epm.net.co
rubber soul is the best beatle album. is very ironic that prindle says that paul is poppy here , when in fact the most rockin track of this album is drive my car a mccartney song. im agree with federico fernadez , prindle stop that stupid stereotype about paul.although im agree with federico fernandez, he made two mistakes,and im gonna correct that. wait and eight days a week are mainly mccartney 's songs not lennon. according to paul he wrote wait in the bahamas during filming(help) and that the late Brandon de Wilde, the child star of "shane", had watched as he composed it. ps:paul also the main vocalist in this song.if you didnt notice paul and john sing together the verses and chorus, and paul sings the middle eight.

john said 1980 that eight days a week was written by paul as a potential title track for the beatles folllow up film to A hard day's night.

victorproserecords@comcast.net (Ryan Maffei)
My opinion is split on whether the American wersion is better than the British wersion or wice wersa. The UK fella might be a little bit weaker just for the fact that it contains "What Goes On". And, surprising as it may sound, I prefer BOTH Help! tracks to the pleasant but anticlimactic Byrdsian meandering of "If I Needed Someone"--"I've Just Seen A Face" proves that Paul had a peerless songwriting sense before he lost his mind over Sgt. Pepper etc., while "It's Only Love" is a heart-wrenching, flawed-yet-misunderstood mini-masterpiece, like, I dunno, a lesser Robert Altman film. Was that clear enough? Maybe. Anyway, my opinion is NOT split as to whether either version is one of the greatest LPs in rock and roll. A 9 or 10, because it's not as good as Revolver but I'm not sure if that constitutes a 10 or not...hm.

Has anyone told the Joni Mitchell guy that he was thinking of Judy Collins' "In My Life"?

F
Capitol records can be very annoying, if you ask me. Two songs from the UK release of Help as side openers? And four songs--three of them darn great masterpieces--removed? Whatever, man. But you can't help being in darned awe, if I may repeat myself, to what the Beatles pulled out on this one. There is Bob Dylan and pot all over it--two examples would be, as a matter of fact, I've Just Seen A Face and The Word. Acoustic guitars. Fuzz basses. Organs. Sitar! All part of a whole that's a lot more refined than your standard Beatles rockers and ballads. But the main thing here is that besides the more refined--or as Mark says, sissy--pop ditties from McCartney (and they're good), is the acoustic guitar use. It's a folky kinda album, but there are some electric ones here and there. And three of em were removed. And It's Only Love just won't fit when you have something like In My Life in the same album. But it's impossible not to give it a nine. And come on, Mark, there's nothing to forgive about George in regards to the three geniuses that you can recognize stretching their chops in here. And they even manage to do their individual thing in a mutual kinda way. What an album. What a douchebag record company. But read on to my next review.

gag05@bigpond.com.au (Louise Gagliardi)
“drive my car”, “norwegian wood”, “michelle”, “in my life” awwwww man the awesome melodies never fukin end on this album, “nowhere man” has got the best vocal harmonies ever recorded on this earth… end of story 10/10

MatthewByrd@hotmail.com
Yeah, this is the only Bealtes album that I'm not totally sick of at this moment. I really like it and give it a 10.

themightygreegor@yahoo.com
I did a two-hour class today with my acoustic guitar. This is a little embarrassing, but the Beatles are pretty well-known here (China). It's the Beatles, the Carpenters and the Eagles' "Hotel California". NICE. So anyway, we did songs, and I helped some 16-year-old Chinese high school students tear apart "Norwegian Wood" until they realized that A) he wanted to fuck the chick, B)he didn't get to, and so C) he torched her place. That was a funny class. The kids thought it was a riot. These kids had heard the song, but had never listened to it THAT close. And their regular teacher was shocked as well. I MAY actually get in a little bit of trouble for that. HA!