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

Help! turns 50, but how has it aged?

The Beatles on grass during Help!
A Rare French lobby card.

For 50 years, Help! has been overshadowed by A Hard Day's Night. 

Popular sentiment scorns the second Beatles' movie for lacking the wit and intelligence of A Hard Day's Night which is a fictionalized documentary of Beatlemania, screaming girls et al. In contrast, Help! is a cartoonish romp, revolving around a hokey plot about a religious Eastern cult wanting to sacrifice Ringo for wearing a special ring. The Times of London noted in Help! "some sense of strain, more careless and slapdash, thus less funny" than A Hard Day's Night. Even John Lennon complained that The Beatles were “extras" in their own film. So, does Help! deserve its lowly reputation?

No.

Okay, the story is dumb and the chase scenes which dominate the movie are silly, but Help! is a pop art gem. It's a snapshot of mid-sixties popular British, bursting with colour, turtlenecks, long hair, short skirts, absurdist humour and wisps of pot smoke (more of that later). Let's also single out the movie's cinematography, editing and direction which, in 1965, paved the way for rock videos that flourished 16 years later with the arrival of MTV. Sure, there were "jukebox musicals" before Help! harking back to the dawn of rock 'n' roll, but they lacked the visual flair of director Richard Lester.

Backstory: After directing A Hard Day's Night, Lester was awarded a budget more than twice as large to shoot a follow-up. He didn't want to make a colour version of A Hard Day's Night (seen it, done it), and he couldn't make a film about The Beatles' private lives "because by then it was certainly x-rated," he explained many years later. So, Lester took the opposite approach. "They have to become passive recipients of an outside plot or outside threat brought on by a weakness within themselves."

The first idea for a story revolved around Ringo being unable to remain "the one at the back" and so he hires a stranger in a bar one night to kill him. Problem is, Ringo was hammered that night and when he wakes up, can't remember who the hitman is. Unfortunately, a French movie was being made at that time with a nearly identical plot (never released).

Instead, Lester got his hands on a Eight Arms To Hold You, a screenplay written by Marc Behm (who wrote the Grand-Hepburn hit, Charade) that was first submitted to famed British comic actor Peter Sellers. Remember that Lester began his character in the UK directing Sellers' comedy troupe, The Goons, who directly influenced The Beatles' own Liverpudlian humour and helped shape Lester's visual gags in Help! Lester handed the Behm script to a friend, acclaimed playwright Charles Wood, who rewrote it in 10 days to tailor it for the Fab Four. 

"It was just an assignment," Wood recalled nearly 30 years later. "I don't think I did a particularly good job." In fact, a United Artists exec regarded the script as "fourth-rate Marx Brothers" but realized that his studio needed to cash in on the box office success of A Hard Day's Night. Fast. The Beatles were considered a flash-in-the-pan boy band in 1965 with a limited shelf life.

Lester was wise to cast some fine British comic actors, starting with Leo McKern (as Clang) and Victor Spinetti (who also later appeared in A Hard Day's Night as well as Magical Mystery Tour). The inevitable "girl" role went to stage veteran Eleanor Bron (as Ahme) who made her screen debut in Help! Let's face it: their performances cover up The Beatles indifferent acting which was influenced more by cannabis than Stanislavski.

(In 2015, it's politically incorrect to cast white English actors as Indian characters, but being east Asian myself, I'm not offended by the "brownface" here. Nothing in Help! explicitly refers to India, and the film is smart enough to take the piss out of itself for playing brownface. Just watch the start of the Indian restaurant scene where Ringo is astonished that the doorman isn't Indian, but from Stepney.)

There was a lot of criticism at the time directed at Help! for relying on slick cinematography, exotic locals and flashy editing to cover up a patchy story. Fair enough. Home viewers inevitably fast-forward through the dumber scenes and watch the six musical numbers (including the opening titles). These numbers are really music videos, bursting with clever camera angles, quick cutting and surreal imagery.

Who knows why The Beatles are singing The Night Before on the windy Salisbury Plain, surrounded by tanks and soldiers when they're hiding from Clang's gang? And just who is that guy playing flute in The Beatles' house in You've Got To Hide Your Love Away? Never mind. It looks cool. It's eye candy and fans get to watch their heroes on the big screen playing  rock 'n' roll.

Two sequences stand out. Another Girl showcases quick cutting and unusual and often juxtaposing camera angles to charming effect. However, Ticket To Ride is the film's highlight, shot on the Austrian alps where The Beatles cavort in the snow and ski. The wintry location and images have nothing to do with the song, but the barrage of surreal imagery, such as The Beatles picnicing in the snow, is exciting and infectious. Credit goes to editor John Victor Smith for piecing together this random footage. (Smith would go on to cut many of Lester's subsequent films and assist with the seminal reggae film, The Harder They Come.) Credit also goes to Lester's cinematographer David Watkin (who'd later shoot Oscar winners, Chariots of Fire and Moonstruck).

Most of the praise goes to Lester himself for orchestrating these visuals. It's astonishing to think that Help! was his first film in colour. I get the sense that he's like a kid with a new toy set trying all sorts of ideas. We can trace Lester's visual style in Help! to his 1963 short film with Peter Sellers The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film and his early TV work translating the Goons from radio which both feature Help!'s anarchic, comic energy.

It would be wrong to ignore the rest of the film. Scenes such as the Scotland Yard one showcase The Beatles's cheekiness to authority, and the Intermission, which speeds up nonsensical footage of the band cavorting in the grass, are funny and inspired.

Speaking of grass, yes, there's a message implied in Help!'s visual and verbal non-sequitors and absurdist situations to suggest that The Beatles at least were consuming more than scones every morning on set. Lester recalls that they could never remember their lines and were often giggling between takes. 

Help! will forever pale beside A Hard Day's Night, but it remains a charming romp that continues to dazzle Beatles fans and movielovers alike.

A final note: Help! (along with Yellow Submarine) is blessed with a gorgeous 5.1 surround sound mix and must be watched this way in your home theatre.

Play loud.