< Meet the Beatles (Again) - A Hard Days Night | Main | Meet the Beatles (Again) - Past Masters >

Meet the Beatles (Again) - Help!

Posted at 2:11 AM on September 9, 2009 by The Current (2 Comments)
Filed under: Meet the Beatles (Again)

Help!
Originally released in 1965
By Christina Schmitt

Help The Beatles were fresh off the success of A Hard Day's Night when they took on their second film, Help! It was a transition period - the boys were still looking hot in their mod suits but were smoking bales of Mary Jane by this point. Money was pouring in, the band's popularity was out of control, so the film is what you might expect: a silly, self-indulgent movie shot in sexy places like the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas. The "plot" has something to do with a cult and a ruby ring on Ringo Starr, but it's a little too boring to get into. The parts showing the band on ski slopes while hits like "Ticket to Ride" played, however, are classic.

Help! the record is only half soundtrack to its companion film. Side A features the title track, plus "Ticket to Ride" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"-hits so omnipresent in our culture that they might as well be Silent Night at Christmas. It also features "The Night Before," a song I wish I heard more often, and George Harrison's excellent "I Need You."

Side B has songs that were never in the movie: "Yesterday" is the second to last track on this side. If they knew how many times that song would be heard at weddings and funerals throughout the intervening years, they might have given it a more respectable placement. As a whole, then, the record is a bit of a head scratcher. It doesn't seem to know what it wants to be-movie soundtrack or convenient home for the hits that just kept coming. The cover photo was supposed to show the Fab Four recreating a flag "semaphore," spelling out the letters H-E-L-P. They don't do that, either. But they sure look cute in their matching blue coats.

The remastered edition of Help! is both a chance to hear clearly some of the details of the hits I never really appreciated before-the lovely tambourine and flutes on "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," for instance--but also to hear the lesser known little jewels like Ringo Starr's country spoof, "Act Naturally."

But the most interesting thing to me about revisiting Help! the movie and record is for once I think I get why people were so upset when the Beatles disbanded in 1970. I always thought of their fans as a bunch of busy bodies who had nothing better to do than obsess about a band breaking up, a band that had clearly run its course (that Jesus look John Lennon was sporting toward the end should have been a huge sign to anyone they had to call it quits).

But when you watch the Beatles in the movie Help!, all opening doors to what looks like separate apartments but is really one big pad on the inside, and all the fun and cool music that ensued, who wants that to end? The Beatles couldn't stop before we were done with them, could they? Can't we watch Paul McCartney on a beach, strumming a woman in a bikini like a guitar? Who is going to take care of Ringo? Can't you treat me like you did the night before?

Christina Schmitt is the public relations manager for The Current. She can't hide her love away.

Comments (2)

Great review! It made me remember what a great album this is. I pulled it out and am playing it now. It's hard to beleive this was recorded in 1965. It still sounds fresh today.

Posted by Billy King | September 9, 2009 10:12 AM

WHEN THE MOVIE AND THE ALBUM CAME OUT IT WAS SUCH FUN AND SO FRESH TO ME. AFTER GROWING UP HEARING MY OLDER SISTERS LISTENING TO ELVIS (WHO WAS GREAT) AND PETER PAUL AND MARY, AND MANY OTHERS,THIS WAS CLEARLY MY BAND,AND WOULD REMAIN SO TO THIS DAY.

Posted by CINDY | September 17, 2009 8:57 PM

September 2009
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Master Archive