Category: Beatles

HELPing In The Studios

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Movies/Wordpress/DEC06/HELP.flv 400 300]

Previously I offered studio take 6 of the Beatles’ “I Feel Fine.” The audio player has takes 1 through 5 of “HELP!” The vocals weren’t introduced until take 9.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/Helptake1.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/Helptake2.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/Helptake3.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/Helptake4.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/Helptake5.mp3]

John considered this song to be a personal breakthrough, because it was a sincere cry for help. For all of the Beatles trivia I’ve picked up over the years, I’ve never seen confirmation of my suspicion that the song title HELP! was inspired by a magazine cover, as discussed here.

I’d like to offer a scan of the picture sleeve to the original single, as well as the single itself, but it’s in the possession of Mr. Dennis F. Rogers; so, instead, you can watch the Beatles performing the song on TV. This is from the last Ed Sullivan show ever broadcast in black and white. It’s fitting, I suppose, as this is, I imagine, the very last appearance of the Beatles in their Fab Four incarnation. “Rubber Soul” was released in December, and it was obvious to everybody that the times, they were a changin’.

Norman Smith

One other piece of trivia I can pass along is that the man sitting at the control console on Tuesday, April 13, 1965, engineering the recording of HELP! was Norman Smith. He later had a hit single of his own, on the charts in late 1972. Some may consider it silly fluff, but I’ve always loved this song. Perhaps you remember it?

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/OhBabe.mp3]

Backtrack

I Feel Fine

Friday, December 8, has no entry. It’s blank. The day that John Lennon was killed in 1980. I’d like to say I did that intentionally, to symbolize the space that could never be filled; but, the fact is, I screwed up.

The first Beatles song that I was aware as being “a John song,” was “I Feel Fine.” I’ve always considered “I Feel Fine” to be very innovative, and not just for the guitar feedback intro. To me it represents the point when The Beatles started to really break away musically from Beatlemania.

The audio player has the original single, 42 years old, that belonged to my big sister. Perhaps it still does, but she’ll never get it back! 😉 When that finishes, a second track will kick in with take 6 of the instrumental for “I Feel Fine.” This one you won’t find on “Anthology.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/IFeelFine45.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/DEC06/IFeelFine.mp3]

Technical note: Listen to the cymbals in the left channel of the studio session recording. Hear the smearing and slurping effect? The original is perfectly clear and clean. This is a good example of where 128 Kbps MP3 comes up short.

New York Radio — Scott Muni

Original card provided by Dennis Rogers.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/GrasshopperJump.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Sounds/Wordpress/WABCBeatles.mp3]

The audio player has two sound clips:  Muni’s theme song, an odd instrumental from 1961 called “Grasshopper Jump,” and Muni’s promo for the WABC Beatles Fan Club.

I don’t remember Scott Muni as well as some of the other WABC disk jockeys, because he left the station in 1965.  Muni is better known as a pioneer of Rock music on FM radio, but he was memorable on AM as a presence during the initial, wild rush of American Beatlemania.

Scott Muni on WABC
Scott Muni on WABC, 1965

< 7° of Separation

Click the picture below to see the entire cover to the January, 1965 issue of a humor magazine called HELP! The Beatles’ movie HELP! wasn’t released until August, 1965, leading one to speculate what possible influence Terry Gilliam’s bit of airbrushed artistic whimsy may have had on the title. Yes, that’s Terry Gilliam the animator, director and Monty Python troupe member who is listed as contributing editor.

HELP! was the brainchild of Harvey Kurtzman. In an earlier posting I have a link to a gallery with one of Kurtzman’s early comic-book stories. Kurtzman is still remembered today as the man who started MAD Magazine. One evening, Gilliam, who had replaced HELP! staffer Gloria Steinem, went to an off-Broadway show that featured a performer named John Cleese. They met and Cleese was talked into performing a photo comic strip for the magazine. Look for that in a future posting. After HELP! folded, Gilliam later caught up with Cleese in London, and then there was something completely different.