worst Beatles LP ? Help

[Roller74]

Hi all,

First thing, there are no bad Beatles albums, but Help is almost one, Muddy production, some really boring songs, stand up Tell me what you see, The night before, You like me too much and Dizzy Miss Lizzy, the electric piano is horrible, production dull, muddy and not much fun, there are some fantastic songs on here, Help!, Hide your love away, Ticket to ride, Act Naturally, Face and Yesterday, the rest are no more than average, perfectly listenable, but lacking that Beatles magic, I personally prefer Beatles for sale, often called the worst album, but even the weak songs on it have a bit of charm, over to you folks

[Bianju]

I am a hardcore Help! defender. To me it feels like a natural step in their evolution, especially the songs included in the film (which, admittedly, may be part of my nostalgia leading). You can certainly feel a strain against what's expected of them (especially after Beatles For Sale and its many "dawn of rock n roll" covers) and what they want to do, but I think it makes it a surprisingly mellow listen.

I always see discussion of this album's shortcomings centering around Dizzy Miss Lizzy or You Like Me Too Much, maybe It's Only Love if you're taking everything Lennon said as gospel. Those are lame spots, yes, but even Side 2 is full of way more bright spots than detractors will speak to. Act Naturally is maybe Ringo's best vocal performance and I'd argue a pretty iconic part of the band's history, and I've Just Seen A Face is just one of the most beautiful examples of the boys' guitar playing we have. The only film song I'll concede to not being very good is Another Girl, but the rest I will defend to the very end.

Yes, this was an exhausting time for the band and you can hear they hadn't got the creative spark that made Rubber Soul work so well, but I think that the ratio of bad to good songs is massively over-inflated in discussion about this album. I happen to think that there are much more uninspiring listens on both of their first albums (and worse performances too... I'd argue most of their songs were better arranged AND performed on their BBC sessions).

And muddy production... Yeah, especially in mono, I'll agree with that. But as somebody currently trying to wring as much out of the old mixes as possible, I think perhaps it was down to technical problems and not the instrumentation.

[Kwai Chang]

HELP! I need somebody...
HELP! Not just anybody...
HELP! You know this ain't no fun...
HELP!

When they were younger
so much younger than today...
There was no way to know how much of a BORE it could be to be a Beatle.
By the time HELP showed up, Brian probably hated life more than they did.
But, he couldn't protect them, either.
Being a Beatle had only been invented quite recently.
NOW...they knew, for SURE...
Nothing could HELP a Beatle escape the invisible prison.
You might as well sing about it.
And, don't let the fans know that you are singing about them.
Brian would get ruffled about that kind of behavior.
(Gotta keep the image)
The problem is that you're always older than you were...
but you never notice until today.
KC

[IFeelFine]

I agree the production seems a bit under-par.
There are great live versions of Dizzy Miss Lizzy, but the recording is poor (much worse than its contemporary Bad Boy in my view).
However, my vote for worst album is (perhaps predictably) Let it Be.

[cdrtrade]

Help is fine. I’d say please please me. There’s nothing wrong with it other than it’s their first steps and they only got better after that. In the US we got the soundtrack album and side 2 was spread across Beatles vi, Rubber Soul and Yesterday and Today. Capitol did a nice job into sequencing those early albums. They still make more sense to me than the originals. I can never remember the second side of Help or Beatles For Sale after it gets past the Beatles 65 sequencing. And Meet The Beatle and the Beatles Second Album to me was a better way to compile that material. The Second Album just kicks ass and Meet The Beatles to me is the Mersey Sound. But back to Help. Help and Beatles For sale made up mostly Beatles VI. That used to be my least favorite but now I love it. It has a great country rock feel to it and a few belters thrown in. Tell Me What You See is a great song. George’s songs were all a bit of a step down from Lennon and McCartney, so You Like Me Too Much suffers from that.

[ruedabeat]

We´ve been listening to Revolver for almost a year since the SDE release. Then we get to hear Beatles for Sale or Help, what a Change of quality and sounds. I may not like Beatles for sale at all, but all I got to say about it is: "This album is part of the group's evolution."

[chescowx]

Help is IMHO nowhere close to their worst effort. That is most certainly the dreadful Magical Mystery Tour.. Followed closely by the Yellow Submarine LP. Let it Be would be next on the worst list.

[Ziggy C]

For some fun on the topic, check this in-forum link:
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=4209

With regards to Help! I tend to agree with Andrew from Parlogram, who did a video about the US version of Help! perhaps being the worst album of theirs.
What kills it for me are the movie score bits which were thrown in and given random titles. And it wasn't even George Martin's score. George Martin went on to release his own version of Help recorded by the George Martin Orchestra.

For myself, the bottom three albums are Yellow Submarine, Beatles For Sale, and the bleak and dreary Let It Be wallows at the very bottom.

[Lord Reith]

I must have overlooked this thread.

Help is actually the second Beatles album I ever got. I asked for it because I had heard the title song in the cartoon. But I have to say I was very let down by the rest of the songs. The only other one I liked was the night before but I already had that on rock and roll music. I didn't mind you're gonna lose that girl, but most of the rest just left me unmoved. I particularly didn't like i need you, youve got to hide your love away, act naturally, tell me what you see, i've just seen a face and yesterday. Yesterday just sounded like old lady music to me.

Mind you I was a kid at the time. Since then, I've learnt to appreciate it more when I did Abracadabra. But the energy levels are low and the production is pretty pedestrian. I think they were tired at that point, and you can also hear it in their last radio programme, where they are completely upstaged by their guests the Hollies. Marijuana gave them a shot in the arm I guess, and after that they stopped caring about live shows and threw themselves in to the art of recording with spectacular results. So Help for me represents the end of Phase 1 and the Fab Four. Most artist's careers would have ended at that point, but they somehow turned it all around. It is quite astounding really what they achieved later.

[MrMurphMcgee]

Help! Is an oddball one for me. It preferred the side two tracks that ended up on the US Rubber Soul on that album (my first cassette). I e grown to like all of side one. Side two a bit of a mess.

I see the album as the transition in what I think of as their second phase. Phase one culminates in A Hard Days Night. Then BFS, Help with Rubber Soul as the culmination of phase two. I used to think of Help as a dividing line, but not anymore. It’s the step leading to RS. To complete the “Beatles phases” I now group Revolver, Pepper and MMT/67 Singles/Yellow Sub as the psychedelic phase. That leaves the final 3 LPs as their own final phase. Revolver makes more sense to me with Pepper than Rubber Soul, though I didn’t come to that opinion until recently. It’s given me a new what to think about their recordings.