As relevant as the Vietnam War: the Beatles' butcher cover 50 years later

This is the second in a series of features celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' landmark Revolver album.

In March 1966, two routine events set the stage for The Beatles' annus horribilis: John Lennon's fateful interview with The London Evening Standard's Maureen Cleave where he pronounced "the Beatles are bigger than Jesus," and a routine photo session with Robert Whitaker.

Only it wasn't routine. On March 25, the Australian-born photographer collected The Beatles in a studio in London's posh Chelsea to pose them for a conceptual art piece entitled, A Somnambulant Adventure.

"I felt The Beatles needed a new approach with their image," Whitaker explained in The Beatles: An Oral History. Whitaker got George to pretend to hammer nails into John's head, each of them to wear bird cages over their heads and all of them to hold a strand of sausages. Whitaker got more carnivorous by draping the band in white butcher smocks and throwing slabs of raw meat and dismembered plastic dolls over them.

Fifty years later, it's not entirely clear how the infamous butcher image wound up on the cover of Yesterday and Today, but it sounds like the band (probably except George who detested the images) submitted the butcher photos to EMI and Capitol to promote their next releases, including the June 10 Paperback Writer single in the UK.

This ad first appeared in the New Music Express in the last week of May 1966, then on June 4 in Disc and Music Echo ahead of the June 10 release of Paperback Writer/Rain. A week later, the same magazine printed a colour photo on its cover, an alternate image beneath the headline, "What a carve-up!" The image raised a few eyebrows in Britain, but nothing more.

However, when the first printing of Yesterday and Today hit American records stores on June 20, it unleashed a firestorm and we all know what happened next: a costly, massive recall that resulted in unknown quantities of a generic cover slapped over the offending butcher cover, thus instantly rendering those copies collector's items.

"The original cover concept never really materialized," explained Whitaker. "It was meant to be a double-folded album cover where the front showed the four Beatles holding sausages, which would have stood for an umbilical cord." The link of sausages would connect with a woman in the inside gatefold to symbolize the birth of the Beatles and "all kinds of surreal, far-out images."

Well, that would have been different. Regardless, Whitaker was surprised that the butcher cover wound up on the front of Yesterday and Today and wonders if The Beatles sent Capitol the butcher image as a dark joke for this "filler" album.

In the valley of the dolls. Robert Whittaker's fateful photo shoot with The Beatles begins.
It ends in either black humour, poor taste or a protest against Capitol Records.

If 1967 was the Summer of Love, then 1966 was the Summer of Hate. At least, for The Beatles. The year began pleasantly enough with the band getting an overdue rest after three non-stop years of work before recording Revolver in the spring. Three songs were pulled from the early sessions to pad out yet another hodgepodge that Capitol presented to Beatles' fans as their so-called "new" album.

Let's consider Yesterday and Today, which was released 50 years ago today. Sure, it's full of great songs, including Nowhere Man, Day Tripper, We Can Work It Out and the title song, but the collection is disjointed and ultimately unsatisfying. Stylistically, songs jump from the country-and-western Act Naturally and What Goes On to the psychedelic I'm Only Sleeping and the heavy guitars of And Your Bird Can Sing and Day Tripper. Yesterday and Today also suffers from an imbalance of voices: Paul sings lead on only three of the 11 songs, Ringo takes two, George gets one, and John the rest. If anything, Y&T is a survey of John Lennon's songwriting from 1965-6.

Capitol got away with this tawdry re-packaging in Something New and Beatles VI in 1964 and 1965 because the Beatlemania sound was homogenous over this period, but Y&T captures the Beatles in a period of rapid maturity. Only 12 months separate the releases of Help! and Revolver, but artistically The Beatles traveled light years in this time. Can you imagine Act Naturally on Revolver?

To be fair, every British Invasion group, including The Rolling Stones and Animals, suffered the same crass re-packaging of their music that routinely short-changed American fans (UK albums boasted 14 songs and no singles). Y&T was especially egregious. Yesterday, Act Naturally, We Can Work It Out, Day Tripper, Nowhere Man and What Goes On were already selling as 45s in American record shops when Y&T landed on June 20, 1966. That means that less than half of the album's music was actually new. Of course, Capitol didn't care. Y&T sold 500,000 copies in two weeks, and topped the charts for three weeks.

In 2016, Yesterday and Today is largely a nostalgia piece for North American baby boomers and a curio for later generations. Yesterday and Today symbolizes a pop band that suddenly outgrew its teenybopper image and was rapidly reshaping music. The butcher images that promoted the album and Paperback Writer were meant to sever the band from their cute moptop image. Sgt. Pepper would accomplish that with more subtlety and imagination 12 months later.

In 1986, the butcher cover re-appeared on official vinyl as the B-side of the limited-edition Paperback Writer picture disc. In 1980, it graced the gatefold of the North American release of the Rarities LP.

On a more important level, the butcher cover was the first of several controversies in 1966 that culminated in The Beatles retreating from concert stages forever and retiring Beatlemania for good. The Beatles were never the same after the summer of 1966.

They were a sardonic, cynical bunch, and the symbolism of peeling back the innocuous moptop image of Yesterday and Today to reveal the hidden butcher cover beneath is obvious. The mood of the era was darkening, too. By 1966, America was falling deeper into the amoral Vietnam War while its Civil Rights Movement was growing bloodier with riots and demonstrations.

The butcher cover, sneered Lennon was "as relevant as Vietnam."

Rubber Soul 50 years later

The Doc and the Gov recently held a long-distance listening party to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this album. Here is their track by track discussion:

Drive My Car

Doc: It's the first Beatles song where the bass leads the song and remains its focus. George suggested the bass line from Otis Redding's Respect.

Guv: And the cowbell with the short piano fills all suggest Motown. Plus Drive my Car is, supposedly, black innuendo for sex. A great choice for an album opener, especially when the title puns "soul" music. During the recording of I'm Down, as we know, Paul called out 'Plastic Soul', which was a term he'd heard soul musicians use to describe Mick Jagger.

Doc: This is the fattest bass line that Paul laid down to date. I think the big take-away here is musical: The Beatles were starting to push studio limitations sonically. British pop records sounded thin in those days.

Guv: And this is where Paul started becoming melodic in his basslines.


Norwegian Wood

Doc: Another instrument leads this song, something truly exotic, the sitar. The perfect choice. Otherwise, it would have been acoustic guitars.

Guv: To teenage ears of 1965 it must truly have sounded otherworldly. It carries the song, give's it an identity. There are layers of texture. A light touch on bass after the thumping Drive My Car.  Deft footwork from Ringo, with the kick drum buried deep. This is a really nice mix.

Doc: Lyrically, it's actually a nasty anecdote about a guy spending the night with a girl, not scoring with her, but sleeping in the bathtub instead, then taking revenge in the morning by torching her flat. Musically and lyrically it packs a lot of ideas in 120 seconds. One of the album's best songs.


You Won't See Me

Guv: Two songs in a row lyrically about being rejected.

Doc: Paul was quarreling with Jane Asher at the time and his angst came out in this song and I'm Looking Through You. The tempo was inspired by the Four Tops' It's The Same Old Song, with the driving beat. Great song.

Guv: Both Paul and John deliver these songs in laconic, weary voices. They seem to drag behind a little. Both underplayed, particularly after Drive my Car. But where John was bitter and vengeful, Paul is just tired and saddened.  Paul's weariness is countered with the lightening 'Ooh La La' backing vocals, softening it.

Doc: Not praised enough, if you ask me. Sure, it's a boy-girl lyric, but Paul's anger gives it bite than anything he wrote before that.

Guv: Two songs about a quarrel with Jane Asher, both visual metaphors. I'm Looking Through You, and You Won't See Me.  Hmmm

Nowhere Man

Doc: The first non love, boy-girl lyric by the Beatles. Not a step forward, lyrically, but a running leap.The lyrical sophistication and the intricate three-part harmonies make this a special song.

Guv: Although we'd had three part harmony before, This Boy for example. Nowhere Man is the first indication they had something special. Almost a precursor to Because on Abbey Rd. And, famously, John singing about himself in the third person. A different take on himself, as compared to Help! Nice little guitar parts and solo from George, ending on a a harmonic which just rings through.

Doc: Clever arrangement by opening acapella. Catches your ear every time. A lesson in song structure here. Dylan covered this song in concert a few times, saying he always loved the lyric. Nowhere Man was a #1 single in both our countries and hit #3 in American Billboard in early 1966. That's important, because it signaled to the world that the Beatles were moving away from boy-girl teenybopper music to songs that were more mature and complex.

Guv: It was an EP here, but it was at a time when EPs were on their way out. It seems it might have been a single in the US because the Americans omitted it from Rubber Soul and held it over for Yesterday and Today.


Think For Yourself

Doc: Back to back non-love songs.

Guv: George's first foray into something deep. There are suggestions it's about Pete Best. Wikipedia certainly comments it was shortly after the Pete Best lawsuit.

Doc: Maybe it was about Pete Best, but I'm not convinced. The lyrics are a leap for George. I mean, he recorded I Need You before this.

Guv: Nor me. I suspect it's a general warning. At this time I think the Beatles were so famous they were being approached by charlatans and con-men from all directions, and so many untruths were being written about them in the media. Mostly I think it's a general anti-establishment/government warning to the youth. There are several songs on this album that indicate the future of hippy-ism. Two basslines, the fuzz and the regular. It's thick, full and rich, and works.


The Word

Guv: John starting to think about universal love as a concept, something he revisited with All You Need is Love.

Doc: Not the most memorable melody, but a solid lyric and performance. For me, the musical highlight is George Martin's harmonium solo near the end. That burst awakens the tune.

Guv: Interestingly, this is the first song they wrote while smoking pot.

Doc: That would explain the hippy vibe of the tune.


Michelle

Doc: This would've been a number one single. Unusual for a ballad to close side 1. Every album till then closed with a rocker.

Guv: I just read about the origins of this song in Lewisohn's book. John received some money for his birthday, so they took off to Paris for a holiday. George, in particular, was not impressed as they had to cancels gigs. Paul wrote this psuedo-French thing, mocking some of the people he'd met there on the left bank. Years later John suggested he rewrite it,because it had a pretty melody. It's delicate, recalls French chanson, without falling into a cliche or parody.

Doc: Beautiful. I have no complaints about it. Again, the bass gets the spotlight here.

Guv: Yes, light touch, great accents. Paul's playing is imaginative, and not just playing root notes or traditional lines. The guitar solo in the middle is bittersweet. Sad, yet loving.


What Goes On

Guv: Interesting. Recorded in nine hours, with some speculation it was mostly McCartney on overdubs - including backing vocals and drums.

Doc: To be honest, I replaced this with We Can Work It Out on my iPod. It was the b-side to the US Nowhere Man single and in my opinion should've stayed there. It's the token Ringo song.

Guv: Throwaway song, An album filler for Ringo. And his first co-writing credit, with a country feel. Listening to it on headphones, the guitar playing, while jagged, is a little sloppy.  Not much effort went into this one.

Doc: Sorry, Ringo.

Girl

Doc: Another love song, but the songwriting elevates it.

Guv: And it's another introspective song from John. Reading between the lines, John is already wanting to leave Cynthia, and sees himself as the victim.

Doc: I like the Greek guitar flourish at the end. Another exotic accent on an album that already features an Indian sitar, French lyrics and a Memphis bass line.

Guv: Along with the hidden jokes of the 'tit tit tit' backing vocals and the audio of toking. They were like schoolboys trying to get away with a prank. I can almost imagine them giggling, wondering when schoolmaster Martin would catch them out.

Doc: Naughty Beatles.


I'm Looking Through You

Guv: A wonder, beautiful song from Paul. Fantastic lyrics, melody and instrumentation. Some optimism, but honest and pained.

Doc: An overlooked Paul song. The rhythm propels it. Biting vocal by Paul. Both the early version and the final version are powerful yet vastly different. Definitely a deep cut.

Guv: Ringo has some unusual involvement here. He plays some percussion on his legs, and a matchbox, but also played the two note strikes in the chorus on a Hammond Organ.

Doc: Lastly, I consider the US mix with the extra notes in the intro, the true and complete version. The UK mix always sounds incomplete to my ears.

Guv: I guess it's what you grew up with. I found the US one to be interesting, but a bit of a novelty.

In My Life

Doc: What else is there to say about this song that hasn't been said? It's one of the finest songs by The Beatles or anybody.

Guv: It would have been a fine song with that melody regardless of the lyrics, but the final words truly lift it into something special and resonant.

Doc: As a test, sequence this song in the middle of any previous Beatles album. This song is light years ahead of anything they recorded before (like Nowhere Man).

Guv: There's nothing on there I would change. And it started out about memories of Liverpool, which ultimately led the way to Sgt Pepper. Lennon says McCartney contributed to the bridge. McCartney says the melody is entirely his, having taken John's lyrics to work with.

Doc: Me being me, I would remix it and reduce the wide panning, but more about that later.


Wait

Doc: Going from In My Life to Wait is a slight let-down, like eating steak to a Big Mac. Definitely album filler and an anachronism, since it was written during Help!

Guv: An apt simile, and definitely filler. Recorded during Help!, with overdubs added so it was sonically similar to the other Rubber Soul tracks. It's not a terrible song, it's just that in comparison to the other songs on the album, it's lacklustre.

If I Needed Someone

Guv: Another fine and worthy contribution from George, He even played this during his 1992 Japan concerts.

Doc: Definitely it cops The Byrds' Bells Of Rhymney, which itself is an English folk tune about miners, but it works for me.

Guv: Harrison sent a tape of it to McGuinn prior to release. But yes, he riffs off the Byrds, who based their entire career on George.


Run For Your Life

Doc: Another nasty-to-girls lyric by John, like You Can't Do That. But this is filler.

Guv: This song has had some bad press over the past few years. A couple of radio stations have banned it due to it's suggestions of domestic violence. John based this on an Elvis song, Baby Let's Play House. It simply doesn't come up to par. And it's a weak ending for such a strong album

Doc: I'd rather listen to take 5 of this song off Mythology. If you think the released version smells of domestic violence, take 5's vocal is pathological.

Watch out for Part Two of this conversation, coming soon!

13 Beatles Deep Cuts

The Urban Dictionary defines a deep cut as as: "A song by an artist that only true fans of said artist will enjoy/know. True gems that are found later in an album, a b-side. Rarely if ever played on the radio."

The Beatles are perhaps the most widely played band of all time. Yet, there exists a handful of songs, buried on albums and B-sides that are hardly ever played on the radio nor appear on compilations--but should be. We at Rowboat Syndicate unearth these gems here: 


 
IT WON'T BE LONG (With The Beatles)
John's charging vocals set against a breakneck tempo launch the album that heralded Beatlemania. The "yeah yeah" backing vocals of Paul and George echo She Loves You which, along with moptops and collarless jackets, were hallmarks of Beatlemania. Indeed, With The Beatles was recorded in the summer of 1963 while She Loves You was riding atop the British charts. It Won't Be Long is the perfect album opener, bursting with infectious energy, a galloping backbeat and exuberant harmonies. This is the sound of a hot, confident band on the rise--and knows it.


THINGS WE SAID TODAY (A Hard Day's Night)
John was white-hot during the first flush of international Beatlemania, being the lead writer of 10 of the 13 songs on the album, A Hard Day's Night, but Paul made up for his lack of quantity with quality. Buried on side two of the original UK LP, and relegated to the B-side of the UK single of AHDN, Things We Said Today is an uptempo ballad marked by a strong guitar riff which grounds the song. Paul's vocal is cool yet assured, while the arrangement (vaguely Latin) runs against the typical love song and amounts to sounding like nothing else in the early Beatles period or this era for that matter.




I'M A LOSER (Beatles For Sale)
 Much has been said about the lyrics of this song, marking a maturity in Lennon's songwriting (as inspired by Bob Dylan), and deservedly so. It's the best song on Beatles For Sale, the band's weakest album, but I'm A Loser foreshadows the introspection found in the following summer's Help! single. While Rock and Roll Music and Eight Days A Week have appeared on compilations, the album's best song, I'm A Loser remains solely on Beatles for Sale.


YOU WON'T SEE ME
I'M LOOKING THROUGH YOU
(Rubber Soul)
The Beatles could have released half the songs off this album as singles, including these two anti-love songs. Paul wrote them during a difficult patch with then-girlfriend, actress Jane Asher. They're both upbeat, rythmic numbers, the former inspired by the Temptations, which only underlies the anguish of the lyrics. "When I call you up, your line's engaged / I have had enough, so act your age," sings Paul in You Won't See Me while in I'm Looking Through You, Paul declares that, "Love has a nasty habit of disappearing overnight." Solid vocals, catchy melodies and lyrics with bite make these two album tracks highlights on an album bursting with masterpieces.



 
SHE SAID SHE SAID
TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS
(Revolver)
Revolver boasts such depth of songwriting, arrangment and performance that several of its songs qualify as deep cuts. How to choose? These two Lennon tracks, which close side A and B respectively on the original long-player, showcase a new direction in Lennon's songwriting. The songs reflect on mortality and mysticism. Also, they were directly shaped by acid trips.

She Said She Said is a direct lift from Peter Fonda recounting a near-death experience he has as a boy when he shot himself. He imparted this George to guide him through a rough LSD trip, while The Beatles were visiting Los Angeles in the summer of 1965. Lennon overheard Fonda's morbid anecdote and was repulsed by it. In other words, Peter Fonda is the "she" in She Said She Said. However, there's a melancholy in the song's "middle-eight" that anticipates the childhood retrospection of Strawberry Fields Forever: "When I was a boy / Everything was right." It's a mystery why Paul didn't play on this track, apart from having an arguing (over what?) and storming out of Abbey Road, but the remaining three Beatles play marvellously on this track. I personally consider Ringo's drumming on this song his best among all the Beatles recordings.

Tomorrow Never Knows is, of course, the album closer that paved the way to Sgt. Pepper. It's a song built on one chord and coloured with sound effects galore. The Beatles were infiltrating pop music with the avant-garde. The song stunned many at the time, but has never aged.

It astounds me that neither song has been included on various greatest hits compilations over the years, namely 1962-66. You will find them only on Revolver, arguably the band's greatest album.



 
RAIN (B-side, Past Masters 2)
To my ears, Rain and Paperback Writer are a double-sided single that rivals their previous and forthcoming UK singles, but Rain has never received the attention paid to its more popular flipside. Rain sounded too experimental for the pop charts of 1966, particularly its brilliant backwards coda. Paul's deep bass, Ringo's stuttered drumming and John's distorted vocals blend into a multicolour pastiche that shimmers whenever you listen to it. Rain is an amazing audio experience and remains as fresh as the day it was released in mid-1966. Until the CD age, Rain was available only on the Paperback Writer single. Again, why the hell wasn't it included on 1962-66 or the Hey Jude compilation of 1970? 


 
DEAR PRUDENCE
BLACKBIRD
HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN
LONG LONG LONG
(The Beatles)
Let's face it: The White Album is one long deep cut. By decreee, none of its 30 tracks was released as a single in the U.S. or U.K. (though Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da was paired with While My Guitar Gently Weeps in a few smaller markets). The quality of album's songs varies wildly, but a handful stand above the others.  

Dear Prudence is a ballad, like Hey Jude, that builds in tempo and dynamics until it climaxes into a burst of sound and emotion. Both Prudence and Blackbird feature the debut of fingerpicking guitar-playing that Donovan taught the Beatles in India in early-1968. Blackbird is Paul's ode to the black Civil Rights Movement. Remember, this was the year Martin Luther King was assassinated and American cities were rioting. Featuring just Paul on acoustic, Blackbird is simple, direct and transcendent.

By contrast, Happiness Is A Warm Gun is one of The Beatles' most complex songs, featuring another abstract Lennon lyric ("lying with his eyes while his hands are busy working overtime"), three distinct sections and several changes in tempo and instrumentation, all remarkably done in 160 seconds. The other Beatles nominated this the best song on the White Album and I wouldn't argue with that.

George began to blossom as a songwriter during this period. While My Guitar Gently Weeps gets all the attention, but this hymn-like ballad that closes the boistrous third side is moving. He could be singing about a lover, but really George is talking to God. He's finding spiritual peace and opening doors to higher levels of consciousness without being preachy (as he was in his solo career). This added layer gives Long Long Long a powerful, yet understated depth.


 
BECAUSE (Abbey Road)

Though Paul dominates Abbey Road, John contributes some key moments. Because is one of them. It's really a reworking of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, but the song's spare, hypnotic arrangement and intricate three-way harmonies by John, Paul and George elevate it into a masterpiece. The spare lyrics, directly influenced by Yoko Ono, read like Zen philosophy and perfectly suit the spare arrangement: "Love is old, love is new / Love is old, love is you."

The 10 best Beatles basslines

Nobody wanted to play bass in The Beatles. John, Paul and George wanted to play lead or rhythm guitar. Bass wasn't sexy. You couldn't "pull the birds" plucking a bass. So, in the early days in Hamburg, Stuart Sutcliffe (below with George) was stuck with the instrument after his bandmates urged the gifted painter to spend his winnings from an art competition to purchase a Hofner 333.

 After all, somebody needed to provide the band with a bottom end as they rocked the stages of the Kaiserkeller and the Top 10. After Stuart left The Beatles in July 1961, he passed his Hofner to a reluctant Paul who eventually bought his own bass.

 Today, we identify Paul with his violin-shaped Hofner and adore his exceptional playing on so many songs. (But let's not forget George subbing for Paul in a few exceptions, such as She Said, She Said.) Here, in our humble opinion, are the ten finest bass lines in The Beatles' canon:

Click each song title to hear the isolated bass track of that song.

Drive My Car

Though John and Paul wrote the lead-off song to Rubber Soul, George suggested that the band play the lead and bass guitars almost in unison, directly influenced by Donald "Duck" Dunn's stellar bass performance on Respect by Otis Redding which was charting in mid-1965. After the lead guitar opens the song, George lays down an unmistakably funky bass line that lets the other instruments and Paul's vocal fall into a solid groove.

Taxman

And Your Bird Can Sing

Paperback Writer

Rain

 

Revolver showcases Paul's bass like no other album before or after. There are four reasons why the bass sound is so rich on The Beatles' seventh album: Motown's influence (its legendary session bassist James Jamerson), Stax Records (Donald "Duck" Dunn), Paul's new Rickenbacker 4001S bass, and Geoff Emerick. Emerick became The Beatles' recording engineer at Abbey Road, the guy in the white lab coat who placed the mics around the instruments and twiddled the knobs on the recording console. "I was getting frustrated listening to American records like the Motown stuff," recalls Emerick, "because the bass was a lot stronger than we were putting on our records." Emerick remedied this deficiency by basically turning a studio speaker into a giant microphone to capture Paul's monster bass lines (the technicals are detailed in Emerick's memoirs, Here, There and Everywhere). Listen to the mono version of Revolver and the Paperback Writer/Rain single. The songs rival James Brown in sheer heaviness in the bottom end. Paul deserves full credit for the infectious bass line that grips Taxman. It's perhaps the most recognizable bass line in the Beatles' catalogue and was good enough for Beck to copy in The New Pollution 30 years later. Paul's bass dominates Paperback Writer and Rain so thoroughly that the needle nearly jumps off the grooves of the vinyl on your turntable. Both the released and alternate versions (right channel of take 2) of And Your Bird Can Sing showcase Paul's melodic bass lines.

Getting Better

It's hard choosing one song off Sgt. Pepper that demonstrates Paul's bass-playing prowess. The recording process on this album was a little different, in that Paul laid down his bass part last, after the rest of the instruments and vocals were recorded. This perspective afforded him the opportunity to shape his basslines which were invariably melodic yet meaty. Lovely Rita and A Day In The Life also feature outstanding work by Paul.

Hey Bulldog

The track that benefits the most from the 1999 remixes of The Yellow Submarine Songbook CD is Hey Bulldog. The old extremely panned stereo mix spreads the rhythm section paper thin, but the bold new remix concentrates the drums and bass, propelling those intruments to the front of the stereo picture. Ringo's drums and Paul's bass leap out the speakers like never before. Paul's fills between John's verses are full of swagger and attitude.

Come Together

Credit Paul for taking John's original up-tempo Chuck Berry rocker, slowing it down considerably and adding a swampy bass lick. Like Rubber Soul, Abbey Road opens on the bass and carries the song all the way through. In the long fade out, Paul's fluttery notes over Billy Preston's organ solo is outstanding.

Something

This bassline divides listeners: it's either too busy, threatening to distract from George's vocal, or it sweeps you in a melodic tour-de-force. I'm of the latter, and love the interplay during the guitar solo between George's guitar and Paul's bass.

I Want You (She's So Heavy)

To be fair, this experimental heavy rock song showcases all of the Beatles' guitars and not just Paul's bass. Like so many Beatles songs, the bass in I Want You (She's So Heavy) not only provides the bottom end, but acts as a lead guitar as well. There's as much melody in the bass as in John's rhythm guitar or George's lead.

Was Help! the pivotal Beatles album or the end of Beatlemania?

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Help! album, The Rowboat Syndicate debates the historic relevance of The Beatles' fifth LP. The Doc, based in Canada, and The Guv, from Australia, argue the importance of Help! in this dialogue:

The Doc:

I was at a party and was debating with a friend whether Help! was the transitional album for the Beatles.


The Guv:

Interesting indeed. Yesterday afternoon I was thinking about Help! and decided it was a transitional album. In fact, I used that word, transition.


The Doc:

No. It was Rubber Soul. That was the pivot.


The Guv:

Let's think about terms. You called Rubber Soul "the pivot" and I agree. And maybe Help! is right on the cusp--or the beginning of the transition--but the songwriting, instruments and recordings show the transition happening.


The Doc:

No, it's about assigning importance to that album. If I were to sum up Help! (the UK version throughout this discussion, not the cash-grab Capitol soundtrack), it's the last Beatlemania album. Sure, it shows signs of maturity, namely the lyrical sophistication of John's title song and Paul's Yesterday, which was the first to feature non-rock instruments. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away is also strong lyrically, hinting (though not outright) at introspection by Lennon.


The Guv:

There are certainly tracks on there that are Beatlemania. The Night Before, Another Girl, You're Going To Lose That Girl could all have been on A Hard Day’s Night. Heck, Dizzy Miss Lizzy should have been on Please Please Me or With The Beatles. But You've Got To Hide Your Love Away and I've Just Seen A Face are examples of songwriters in transition. Thinking about the words first. These are songs that could have been on later albums. These are signs of a band in transition.


The Doc:

That's another point: after the all-Lennon & McCartney showcase of A Hard Day’s Night, the band regresses with Beatles For Sale and Help! by adding covers as filler. Mind you, Act Naturally and Dizzy Miss Lizzy feature top-notch performances.



The Guv:

Beatles for Sale had six covers, and I still think that had to do with them being on tour and not having much time. They were delving into their Hamburg repertoire. The recording of A Hard Day’s Night was rapid, but they weren't tired yet. They could still pour energy into what they were doing. Some of A Hard Day’s Night was written on the road. Beatlemania hadn't yet taken its toll.


The Doc:

True. Also, I think the Beatles needed to absorb the music from the summer of 1965 released by other bands to push forward. Specifically, Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone and Highway 61 Revisited LP showed the world that you can rock to poetry. Also, the Byrds fused Dylan's lyrics with Beatles backing with their cover of Mr. Tambourine Man (released in June 1965). The Help! soundtrack was already in the can.


The Guv:

A few minutes ago you said the term "transition" was about assigning importance to the album, and I must confess it is probably one of my least played discs. It’s certainly patchy.

The Doc:

Actually, I play side A with some regularity and single out Help!, Ticket To Ride, Another Girl and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away. Side B is definitely patchy: You Like Me Too Much, Tell Me What You See, It's Only Love...I will say this about Help! the movie (not the LP): it introduced Indian music to George. That is key to the Beatles' sound and gave George an identity within the band.


The Guv:

I think You've Got To Hide Your Love Away is the one transitional aspect we agree on. And yes, Lennon was consciously channeling Dylan in his delivery. I even read recently where one commentator suggests the two flutes in the solo are a softened version of Dylan's harmonica


The Doc:
If you think that amounts to a transition, then you can argue that the lyrics of I'm A Loser indicate a transition in Beatles For Sale.


The Guv:

No transition is drastic and immediate, otherwise it's a revolution. The transition was gradual, but Help! was the bridge. It's where a number of elements - instruments, overdubs, songwriting, recording, all came together. McCartney started overdubbing bass, allowing for him to work up more melodic lines. They had new instruments and effects too. George brought in a new Stratocaster, volume pedals which you can hear on the record.



The Doc:

I would describe Rubber Soul in those very terms. With every advance on Help! (and there were advances) there were still only boy-girls songs and cover versions.


The Guv:

Let's talk about the production and mixes. There were two mixes made at the time: the mono and the stereo, which was very wide. When it came to releasing the 1987 CDs, this is one album George Martin actually remixed. The ‘87 stereo mix is narrower. Reverb was added, especially on Dizzy Miss Lizzy, so the album doesn't sound as dry. The 2009 remasters used the ‘87 stereo mix, although the ‘65 stereo mix can be found as a bonus on the 2009 mono CD.


The Doc:

I love the remix with reverb. Man, it opens it the audio picture. Just love it. It really opens up That's definitely one virtue with Help! You gotta hear the DVD in 5.1. The sonic picture is detailed and exciting. Also, check out to the bass and drums of Ticket To Ride in mono.


The Guv:

Indeed. Ticket To Ride kicks in mono. Yet, overall the album sounds thin. Rubber Soul was where they started working towards a thicker bass, but even compared to their early albums Help! doesn't punch, especially at the lower end.


The Doc:

True, a little thin, but the English didn't "get" bass like the Americans, especially the soul musicians there. You don't "feel" the bass on Beatles' records until Revolver, thanks to Geoff Emerick.


The Guv:

Studios in the UK, and in particular Abbey Road, were stuck in the 1950s. And there were technical reasons why they couldn't get the bass. The bands wanted it, the studios and technicians couldn't deliver with their equipment and regulations.



The Doc:

True. George Martin, Geoff Emerick and The Beatles have noted this many times.


The Guv:

So how do you think the album has aged?


The Doc:

How has it aged? Overall, it's a Beatlemania album chock full of their trademark harmonies, catchy hooks and boy-girl lyrics. But some songs are timeless: Help, You’ve Got To Your Love Away, Yesterday and Ticket To Ride.


The Guv:
There are other, unused tracks from the sessions: That Means A Lot and If You've Got Troubles. All intended for the soundtrack, but  they realised these cuts weren't up to scratch. If You’ve Got Troubles was supposed to be Ringo's vehicle, but they switched to Act Naturally at the last moment.


The Doc:

Thank God. If You’ve Got Troubles goes nowhere. And let's remember I'm Down and Bad Boy. I'm Down is an overlooked B-side. Paul's vocal kills.


The Guv:

I'm Down was the insane closer at Shea. It worked well live, and featured a great vocal from Paul doing Little Richard. Bad Boy was recorded at the same session as Dizzy Miss Lizzy. Bad Boy was mixed and shipped to the US the following day for inclusion on Beatles VI. Did Capitol need a filler track for their weird album mashing, so the Beatles recorded two and chose one? In this case, Dizzy Miss Lizzy is simply a leftover. I also have a soft spot for Yes It Is. George is playing with his pedals here and it's a solid song. I read they were trying to revisit This Boy.


The Doc:

Amazing harmonies. Why the hell wasn't that on the B-side of the LP? That should have replaced Tell Me What You See.


The Guv:

Yes It Is would have worked alongside Tell Me What You See and It's Only Love. I'd have kept Tell Me What You See. I'd have lost You Like Me Too Much.


The Doc:

What about George's royalties? Or give George the b-side of Ticket To Ride?


The Guv:
So where do you rate this album among the Beatles canon?


The Doc:

In the middle. To compare, I think A Hard Day’s Night plays better all the way through, because the songwriting is more consistent.


The Guv:

It's one of those albums I should play more. I even play Let It Be and Magical Mystery Tour more often. Yes, A Hard Day’s Night is more consistent. I still think Help! was the start of their transition to a studio band, but Rubber Soul was the pivot, the transition in full flight, and probably gave the first real clues as to what they would become.


The Doc's Help! on iPod:
Dissatisfied with how George Martin sequenced the songs on side B (side A is fine), I re-order it on my iPod to create a better song flow and have replaced the weaker songs with the superior B-sides from singles: 


1. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
2. Act Naturally
3. It's Only Love
4. I've Just Seen A Face
5. Yes It Is
6. I'm Down
7. Yesterday