One year with The Beatles (Part five)

Help!

“I think I’m gonna be sad, I think it’s today.”

The album Help! is a turning point, according to many. We think it's just a new face of the same process that transformed the music from what was to what it is today.

The title track is a song in which the sum of the elements offers much more than what it should: from the vocals to the form itself of the song, who knows what impact to hearing it then! Each of their brand new releases was an abrupt steering imposed on the whole pop movement, the four were always a step or two ahead. Not to mention "Ticket To Ride"or "Yesterday " if the decline of Beatles For Sale appeared like a ghost, nothing better than a disc packed with masterpieces could avert it.

We continue the game started months ago, it’s too funny, and we are going to form a new lineup for this album, putting on it the pieces published only on 45 and maybe cut a couple of covers, let's see what happens:

• Help!  (Lennon, McCartney)
• The Night Before  (Lennon, McCartney)
• You've Got to Hide Your Love Away  (Lennon, McCartney)
• I Need You   (Harrison)
• Another Girl   (Lennon, McCartney)
• You're Going to Lose That Girl   (Lennon, McCartney)
• Ticket to Ride   (Lennon, McCartney)
• Yes It Is (Lennon, McCartney)
• It's Only Love  (Lennon, McCartney)
• You Like Me Too Much  (Harrison)
• Tell Me What You See  (Lennon, McCartney)
• I've Just Seen a Face  (Lennon, McCartney)
• Yesterday  (Lennon, McCartney)
• I’m Down   (Lennon, McCartney)

It appears immediately evident as George is gaining more personal space: his participation as an author is now of two songs, innovation to understand, if you consider who was writing the rest!

Life in the studio, unlike the road, gives them more time to write, arrange, experiment with new solutions, and also started collaborations with new musicians. For the first time we find a flute on "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and a string quartet on "Yesterday", to complete the masterpiece for what will be the song most reinterpreted by others and transmitted by radios around the globe, in history.

The turning point can be found in the compositions, more mature and sophisticated, and in the arrangements, always less "live" and more curated, and in the fact that Help! is perhaps their most acoustic work so far.

Many tracks have a strong "unplugged" connotation: songs as "I've Just Seen A Face" and "Yesterday" are entirely acoustic, while the dylanish "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" is actually the first song played entirely with non-electric instruments in their discography.

News are also guitaristics: Paul playing the lead on "Ticket To Ride", George using a volume pedal and - unbelievable but true - a whawha, way before Jimi Hendrix made its appearance on the British scene!

In fact, the four did not leave home rock'n'roll: some of the interpretations in those recording sessions are among the best produced by them.

Yes, because "I'm Down, " "Bad Boy" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (the latter two written by Larry Williams, honored in the past with "Slow Down "), are proof that good habits are never lost! And we know today that "I'm Down", screamed as only Paul colud, was the prelude to the recording of "Yesterday". Let’s talk about versatility!

And "You're Going To Lose That Girl" so blatantly in the first-period beat style, would not disfigured on a previous album.

Only for Laster

The descending arpeggio that Harrison plays on "Help!" has made more than a guitarist crazy, it was so hidden in the mix that was very complicated to understand, this show how the parts played by the four, although remaining in non-virtuosity, were becoming more precious.

The real news is that Paul begins to pick up the guitar more often, and not just the acoustic: we find his electric on "Another Girl, " "Ticket To Ride" and maybe also on "The Night Before" he almost plays more than George!

Which shows an enviable country "twang" on "Act Naturally" and plays one of his distinctive solos on "You're Going To Lose That Girl ", as well as show off, as mentioned above, volume and wah-wah pedals really innovative for its time.

On "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" he just plays the original version’s riff, with a few more notes as a response to the voice, however, their version is more rock than that of Larry Williams, Lennon hoarse as he loved to do and the whole band plays with groove, giving the song a touch of originality which is not bad at all.

(read the rest on fingerpicking.net)

Winston's Thoughts

by Davide Canazza

With Help! you feel that something has changed. Compositional maturity is added to the discovery of new sounds and new musical instruments. And, with the exception of George Martin, for the first time there are external musicians playing in a Beatles album: Johnnie Scott plays the flute on "You've got to hide your love away and a string quartet on "Yesterday".

But also the gear of the quartet of Liverpool get richer. Paul recently rediscovered the guitar, and by the end of '64 is the proud owner of two Epiphone guitars: a Texan acoustic and a hollow body Casino with Bigsby tremolo.

Finally the kids can afford even a Fender, and two 1961 sonic blue Strats enters in John's and George's equipmement.
John is always very focused on acoustic guitar playing and for this session introduces a new 12-string guitar, a Framus Hootenanny. He pleys it on "Help", "You've got to hide your love away" and "It's Only Love."

Finally, even an electric piano and an organ are played on the recordings made in the spring of 1965: the first one is the Honer Pianet , played by Paul and John on several tracks on the album, the second is the famous Vox Continental Portable Organ (Do you remember The Doors?) played by John on "I'm down."

Only for Laster

Paul rediscovers himself as an electric guitar player and he begins immediately as a lead guitar player! He plays the blues style fills on "Another Girl", and its final notes' vibrato are the trademark of a true left-handed guitar-player! McCartney plays always the closing phrases of the two middle eight of "Ticket to Ride".

As anticipated, the early days of recording sessions for Help! coincide with the arrival of the two Sonic Blue Stratocasters (see article on Laster). In particular, John may have already used his own one on "Ticket to Ride" (February 15, 1965). Surely George uses his Strat on "Yes it is" the next day: the introductory notes seem more due to the action on the guitar volume pot rather than a volume pedal as it happens on "I need you ".

For the remaining songs the guitars used by the Beatles are the historical ones: Rickenbacker 325 for Lennon, GretschTenessean for Harrison. George uses his first Rickenbacker 360/12 for the last time on "Ticket to ride", waiting for the new model that will arrive shortly thereafter.

The amplifiers are always and exclusively VOX AC100 (AC30 is exhumed for an organ), but three brand new Fender amps are about to head in the Abbey Road studios... But we'll talk about it the next episode!

(read the rest on fingerpicking.net)

I Saw The Beatles Live

By Dennis Conroy

To give some background to my memories of seeing The Beatles performing live, it would help if you understood what the world, or more importantly, what my world was like “BB” (what does BB mean?), Before Beatles. The Beatles first appeared at The Cavern in February 1961, when I would have been 14 years and 4 months old.

I’d been passionate about music for as long as I can remember, but the family piano was a piece of furniture in our house with  far too many white keys to sort out and, sinister looking black keys daring you to strike them. My Mother, Father, Brother and Sister would each take turns at the instrument during the many parties and get-togethers that took place regularly in our house. Their level of ability is rated in order of mention, starting at the very basic playing of my Mother to the highly accomplished skills of my Sister, Maureen.

Maureen, or our Mo, had been sent to piano and tap lessons.  She could busk along with the elders’ favourites as well as playing adeptly from sheet music! My favourites were, “In A Persian Market” and “The Black And White Rag”. My Brother Les went on to play professionally but found the accordion to be his preferred instrument. I know we won’t fall out over my rating our Mo as, not only the best pianist in the family but also the best musician, but she never pursued her talents professionally.

The family piano did however, as I discovered, create some fabulous sounds. I found I could play the riffs of “Raunchy” by Bill Justis and, eventually, “What’d I Say”, but get those two hands playing together, no, humanly impossible. But anyway, “Raunchy” needed to be played on a guitar. The guitar had fascinated me since a friend of my brother had left one in our house while he went out to the pub with our Les. It was a Hofner, so shiny, shapely and made a fantastic sound when I twanged the strings. I wanted one.

I got a plastic four string Elvis Presley guitar for Christmas 1956 or 7 and progressed rapidly to a nylon strung Spanish guitar and on to borrowed electric guitars until, I owned a Rosetti Lucky Seven, which I must have had when I first saw The Beatles. Prior to knowing The Beatles existed I formed a group with some older guys and we performed at youth clubs, small rock venues and at any parties our parents could get us a booking for.

Our program was made up of rock‘n’roll standards, Little Richard being my favourite, closely followed by Chuck Berry, Elvis, Eddie Cochran and any cool American rockers. Unfortunately at that time the artists I loved struggled, with the exception of Elvis, to make the charts in the UK, which were a peculiar mixture bland pop, novelty songs and very bad covers of great American music.

Our group was guilty of trying to please all audiences by playing a cross section of these charts. We did however play quite a lot of instrumentals, the largest number being covers of The Shadows hits featuring me on lead guitar and echo chamber. Beguiled by how professional the echo chamber made my guitar sound we invested in one for our vocals. NB this is a quite significant event in relation to The Beatles.

I was a very cocky and confident guitarist and my burning love for music consumed my life. Playing semi-professionally while still at school did little to help with my expected academic progress but did wonders for my ego, which convinced me it was only a matter of time before I’d be topping our bland UK charts with my little combo, and echo chamber.

Life changed dramatically when I joined a dancing school aged about twelve and a half. I’d moved school at eleven and my friends from my first school persuaded me to go to a dancing school with them because, you got to hold girls bodies close to yours. This seemed like a good idea.

At the dancing school we were given partners to dance with and mine was the school beauty.  It turned at her mother’s family and my mother’s family lived in the same house when they were young girls in Liverpool - a common occurrence then. My mum and grandma (Big Nan) had us married off but, alas it was not to be. However the beautiful and lovely Clare Kennedy did change my young life forever one night at the dancing school when she asked me this seismic force question.

“HAVE YOU SEEN THE BEATLES”?

(to be continued)

Daniele Bazzani