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I think this is a *great* album. The songs are awesome and varied; the arrangement is great; it rocks.
I love the Beatles; I love the Early Beatles; I love it.
I guess it just feels good to say it.
And, also, as far as our whole music theory and methodology of commenting on the sacred writ, so to speak, I'd like to register one comment:
I really *very especially* do not like the term "British Invasion". I know about all about (I suppose) Capitol Records and The Ed Sullivan Show and Beatlemania 1964, (I know-- after this), but I just think that it's not an especially *clever* term to express it all.
After all, it's not as though it were Ringo's special duty and mission-in-life to beat up Jim McGuinn with his drum-sticks. (And, *honestly*, alot of people who say after all these years that they didn't follow the Byrds (or whoever) "because of the Beatles" didn't really follow the Beatles, even, that close, really.... and, really-- alot is shared, both because of the shared epoch, and because they of the epoch did alot of sharing with each other.... I think, anyway.)
And, anyway, look at Ringo on the album cover-- he's obviously the all-American running-back, or, something like that.
But, anyway. It's a pretty super album.
Did anybody really like Sgt. Pepper? No, they did not. Why? Because, he invaded. From Britain.
But, anyway, yeah.
I really dislike the term. It rubs me the wrong way. Even when I have tried to use it as a sort of "musical joke", people seldom seem to understand what I mean.
It's *not* an invasion.... it's a magic spell; it's a magic circle.
And that's truly super.
Anyway, now, I'm going to make clever little remarks.
"I Saw Her Standing There" is a great lead-in. If "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is the spark of "Pet Sounds"-- of the Beach Boys; I'm not an idiot, lol-- after the whole thing comes apart at the end of the day with "Caroline, No", "I Saw Her Standing There" is like the Beatles being reborn after dying ten years in the future with "Let It Be".
If that makes sense.
"Misery" is a miserable. It makes you feel.... *miserable*. Actually it doesn't. I'm just being witty, because I'm a goddamn music critic, albeit one that works for free and without a definite audience. (I mean, it's like a song that Georgy Harrison would write-- actually, "Don't Bother Me" is a great song. But, basically, nobody likes that guy. I say so.) (Sullen. Sullen Georgy. Trotskyite.)
"Anna (Go With Him)" is a surprisingly grown-up, married, sort of song. It's like.... I don't know. Being married. I suppose that's the good thing about cover songs, because who could write that sort of song when they were about 20 and doing their first album. It's like shared memory. So, anyway, it's very grown-up. It's like, doing the right thing. Like when Adam Sandler or The Beach Boys suddenly have the answer to serious 'married' problems, you know.... Anyway, it's terrible.
"Chains" would make a great youtube video, with pictures. Actually, it would not. That is a terrible idea. I hereby absolve myself of all responsibility for it.
"Boys" is, I suppose.... about the Beatles! Or, something.
"Ask Me Why".... John Lennon wrote this song? Didn't he write "I Am The Walrus"? Sorry. I know it's not like that. But, I thought that I was pretty good at doing Lennon vs. McCartney. But, I'm not always perfect. Only sometimes. (That's why I'm a music critic, or, something.)
"Please Please Me" is an incredibly clever: (1) phrase, (2) song/single, (3) album title, (4) way to be inappropriate with the desk girl (who likes the Beatles) at the music studio I go to, which I'm never actually going to use.
But it's defs a single. It's really rockin'.
(..... And John wrote it, and George Martin (!)-- the producer!-- helped him!
Isn't that funny!
I certainly wouldn't have guessed. I might have even said Paul; I don't know-- hard to tell.
But it's all very fine, you know.)
Contrast with "Anna (Go To Him)".
Was "Anna" a single.
No, she was not. ;)
And why not?
Greedy, selfish, consumer capitalism, that's why. ^^
"Love Me Do"-- another great single. Also another great, *This Is John Lennon* Early-Beatles moment, if you know what I mean.
Kinda goofy rhyming, and really really hickish early-60s sorta.... rockin'.
I mean, this was the Beatles *first single*, right.
The veritable primordial goo.
Back in ancient times.
It must pre-date Mozart.
"P.S. I Love You"
Many Beatles songs are about love. This one is about writing a letter because you're in love. Like the letter that Darcy wrote to Elizabeth.
Only more.... *better*.
It's a better, letter.
"Baby It's You"
Eh.
*Eh*.
"Do You Want To Know A Secret?"
'Can You Keep A Secret?' Lol.
John Lennon.... Disney? Is this true, Wikipedia? Lennon of John, with Disney of cartoon?
Wow.
But, then, people forget that John is a Libra.
Znaku Librae has the special power of having feelings.
"A Taste of Honey"
This could be a single; it's just as good as any of the other really good songs on the album, for me.
"I'll come back for the honey.... and you!"
"A taste of honey, tasting much sweeter than wine."
It's just really really good. It's a lot of good; it's a lot of fun.
It's really a certain sort of perfect; it really is.
It's that perfect kind of.... Mantovani, sort of style.
It's very good-- an oldie, post-classical, pre-.... now.
It's very old, regal, gentle.... not unrealistic.
"A taste of honey! Tasting much sweeter, than wine."
It's.... sophisticated. Caring, and *artistic* and *sophisticated*.
"I'll come back, (he'll come back), for the honey-- and you!"
And it has a way of bringing me back.
Because this is how a ~*sophisticated* man does it, you know....
"I'll come back, (he'll come back), for the honey, (for the honey)-- and you!"
....If you want, (and you can do whatever you want, I just wrote that line again instead of 'correcting' it.... since I'm listening to it for the 30th time now), you can imagine Paul McCartney being goofy and approving and pointing at the camera-- ".... and YOU!"
For the happy energy.
"There's A Place"
This place is *not* the Soviet Union. This is because Khrushchev is still in power, and he would *not* make a good father-in-law. In about five years, things will be different-- Brezhnev will not be heroic, and not like the Georgian; he'll be wall-paper-- but, bearable.
(But maybe Brezhnev would have liked the Early Beatles better-- what can you do. Some men are *truly* unfortunate, ha-ha.) (You know how at every truly mediocre oldies party, there has to be that guy that makes everyone clap by being the super-important person who stands in the front of everyone and claps? Brezhnev. "As you know, I am not a writer but a Party functionary." Really? I had no idea. I thought you just wrote songs, like Georgy does.)
But "the place" must be totally devoid of schize bald Ukrainians who bang their shoe on the table-- that is absolutely imperative.
"Twist And Shout"
Is this *not* a single, technically?
Even though it's super-famous?
Are covers not singles, is that how it works.
I mean, I guess it might even be a famous song without the Beatles-- although half the time you hear about alot of these solid-gold shared-songs because of the Beatles cover, first, you know-- but, still, it's a pretty great....
And an odd little exit, but, it works, somehow.
"A Taste of Honey" is probably my favorite from the album as a whole, all in all.
I was going to try to do something about the "flow" of the album-- maybe not as obviously or as perfectly as "Pet Sounds", but, some albums have a sort of good flow of energy, without being an annoying concept-y album with weird annoying indie stupidness.
'Cause that's stupid.
I'm the critic. You heard it here first. ;)
Anyway.... it's pretty super.
The second one, "With the Beatles", (screw Capitol, they don't know *what* happened), is just as good, at least as good-- but I suppose that I ended up writing up this one, just because it's the first.
(10/10)
