Help!

The movie’s title song is fragmented, with a key that deliberately shifts around, avoiding commitment, until the first verse hits with a ringing A. But the lyrics are a paean to uncertainty. Lennon continues the self loathing theme he first started exploring on Beatles for Sale: No Reply, I’m a Loser, I’ll be Back. Not exactly typical fodder for a pop song. The song is perversely peppy, a hyped-up admission of Lennon’s own depression in the face of unheard of pop stardom and adulation. Listen to the desperation in his voice, tucked into the folds of a 2:20 single. They even end with a cheesy sixth chord vocal harmony. Brilliant.

The Night Before

I am not a fan of Reverb or Echo on vocals. Except on this song. Paul’s lead vocal is drenched in a very natural, very complex-sounding chamber echo. To me it is the hook of the song, along with George and John’s “Ahhh, the night before” answer backs on the verse. The basic track is a wurlitzer or electric piano with Paul’s ompah bass and Ringo’s charmingly rushed tom fills, nary a guitar in sight, until George’s strangely double tracked octave solo, with clunky bends and no sustain. The lyrics are forgettable, but the track’s sound and mood is the star.

You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNMhPQoEbJE

Luckily, the film footage clearly shows Lennon’s unusual rhythm guitar fingerings. I devoured this as a kid, the way his “drone G” has a tough-to-play fretted D note at the top, and he keeps shifting the same ‘G-B’ fingering base up the circle of fourths in the low end. More self-loathing in the lyrics, supposedly Dylan’s pot-fueled influence on John. Ringo smacks a tambourine on the two and four, and plays the ride eighths on a maraca in the chorus. I’m not a fan of the flute solo at the end, but it’s mercifully brief. The hook here for me is Lennon’s Dsus, D, Dsecond, D rhythm figure in the chorus.

I Need You

Not the greatest George composition, but serviceable. The hook sound is a volume pedal, available to country pedal steel players of the day, but played a little timidly on this track. Luckily the background vocals are godhead, and Ringo works the claves in the bridge.

Another Girl

More clunky bends from George, all the way through the damn song, distracting from Paul’s slightly misogynist ode to womanizing. Somewhere Ernie Ball heard this track and invented the slinky uncoated string as a service to humanity. The song ends, but George continues before skidding to an abrupt halt. Weird.

You’re Going to Lose That Girl

Backgrounds kill on this song. John hits a little cool falsetto in the chorus, more clunky-bendy from George, and Ringo gets a little carried away on the bongos. Lyrics are: “You treat your girl like shit, so shape up or I’ll steal her ’cause I can. I’m a damn Beatle.”

Ticket to Ride

So many cool things about this track. Foremost is the start-stop drum figure, supposedly dreamed up by Paul and taught to Ringo, who nevertheless swings it like crazy against the steady and simple tambourine. George hits a beautiful picky 12 string hook, pealing like churchbells, no doubt making Roger (then Jim) McGuinn of the Byrds take notice in Los Angeles. The bridge and ending kick it double-time, bringing relief and contrast against the main rhythm hook.

Next: Back to the album, then more from “Help!”