Post by mrmustard on Oct 6, 2013 21:08:37 GMT
Help!
I think this was the first proper Beatles album I got about the age of 10 after the Red and Blue albums and Rock 'n' Roll albums (either this, Please Please Me or With The Beatles......yes I'm certain it was one those three....or was it A Hard Days Night??)
Their 5th studio album sees The Beatles trying to search for a new direction; a definite transitional album. It's an album I honestly don't listen to that much and, as a result, had some pre misconceptions about that I had to revise upon listening to the album properly again. It's a fine album. On technical point, the 2009 stereo remaster is by far the superior version to listen to, especially in terms of Starr's drums which where, at lot of the time, virtually in audible on the mono mix. The songs definitely lend themselves to stereo rather than mono. So far, I have found this album the most difficult to review.
Help
The opening and title track sees Lennon genuinely crying for help but it's sentiment is lost behind the facade of a Beatles single, the lunacy of Beatlemania and fans that did not want to even consider Lennon was anything but a happy go lucky mop top.
The song has great drive propelled by Starr who really hits hell out of the snare and plays a really distinctive fill going into each chorus. The only problem is his snare gets drowned out by the tambourine in the chorus. Nothing sensational going on in the bass department other than playing simple to keep the song driving. Harrison's guitar work is distinctive, tasteful and imaginative. It's just a shame McCartney chose to start muscling in on lead guitar from the Help album onwards. This was a mistake. It only served to make a great guitar player unsure of his role in the band and self conscious amongst the other guitar 'legends' of the 60's. Harrison has openly stated that 'McCartney ruined him' as a guitar player.
I digress, this is a classic Lennon song. He sited it as one of his favourites and regretted the pop version that was released. He originally wrote it in a slow ballad style. It's all vocal-heavy, the verses having very sparse instrumentation. Lennon's double tracked vocal is simply stunning and impassioned. He meant every word of it. McCartney and Harrison's harmonies and backing vocals are quite brilliant. The idea of doing a preamble of a few words of each line of each verse lead vocal is genius.
A great album opener.
The Night Before
McCartney starts to come round from his songwriting slumber (or was he really just a slow starter in comparison to Lennon?). I think Jane Asher was starting to gain considerable recognition as a stage actress at this time, touring the UK with the Old Vic. McCartney resented this and so this song starts a series of embittered love songs from McCartney. It's odd really, McCartney is popularly known for sincere love songs and strong family values. When you start to analyse his lyrics from 1965 to 1967 there are some really nasty lyrics that I'm certain are aimed at Jane Asher. This contrasts with Lennon, known for his abrasive put downs, womanising and documented, inexcusable treatment of Cynthia, who has never written one nasty song about any woman including Cynthia.
McCartney delivers a strong, edgy, soulful double tracked vocal. I love the way he sings 'yes' immediately before the guitar solo. Some nice harmonies from Lennon and Harrison.
Great intro with ascending bass and electric piano played by McCartney and Lennon respectively. Some great lovely chord changes especially between verses. A twin guitar solo before Wishbone Ash ever thought of it. Although credited to McCartney, it sounds more like Harrison is duetting with him on the solo rather than a double tracked solo by McCartney - well it would be nice to think that anyway! Either way, good solo.
Lyrically it's most likely about Jane Asher again. Although someone who makes cakes as nice as her cannot be a liar! All in all, a really good McCartney. This is the start of him gaining ground on Lennon in songwriting stakes.
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Allegedly about Brian Epstein's homosexuality, this Lennon track is a classic. For McCartney to say 'its basically just John doing Dylan' is an insult. This song gets the listener more involved in Lennon's ever-evolving introspection. The mood of the song reflects the lyrics but the 6/8 time signature somehow manages to keep an upbeat feel to the rousing 'hey!'
Simple in instrumentation, acoustic guitars, bass and percussion. Backing vocals not required here. Beautiful (albeit uncredited) flutes from Johnny Scott, the first time a session musician had been used on a Beatles recording other than Andy White. The song is perfect but it's all about Lennon's vocal and lyrics which make it a classic.
I Need You
It had been two years since Don't Bother Me. No songs on A Hard Days Night or Beatles For Sale, so you would expect there to be improvement on Harrison's first effort. Alas not. Don't Bother Me is like a major achievement compared to I Need You. The most interesting feature of the song is Harrison's new effect, the volume tone pedal.
George did make a relevant comment about songwriting. He was still very new to it and, unlike Lennon and McCartney, hadn't been writing for nearly 10 years. They got rid of their crap songs before they got famous whereas Harrison was learning how to write as he was famous. However, any other band would probably be happy enough with this song. For The Beatles though, 5th album in, it's not really good enough.
Another Girl
McCartney again, having issues with Jane. I like this song though. It's R'n'B in feel. Reminiscent of She's A Woman. McCartney delivers a great vocal and R'n'B bass line. However he again bullies Harrison out of his lead guitar role and for what benefit? None. His guitar parts sound pretty amateurish and Harrison, given the opportunity, could easily have one up with something better and original.
You're Going To Lose That Girl
A real highlight of the album. A pure, classic Lennon song. The melody is completely original and the lead vocal is simply stunning. Lennon makes the falsetto parts sound so easy but it's not. This song really shows his class as a vocalist, his grasp of melody and his ability to totally dominate a song with the sound of his voice. The song just flows from chorus to verse to chorus to a glorious middle eight. Nice solo from Harrison. Great backing vocals from McCartney and Harrison that really give the song real depth.
Starr and McCartney keep it simple but effective in the rhythm section with McCartney overdubbing some piano that adds a nice texture in the background. The only issue about this song are the ridiculous bongos. They are so badly out of time and intrusive that it borders on ruining the song. Someone really was having a laugh with percussion work. By the end of the song it's sounds like the person playing the it had been drinking too much bong juice!
A fine song and arguably one of Lennon's best to date....
Ticket To Ride
.....until this one. McCartney maintains he wrote 40% of it but Lennon stated McCartney's input was limited to the way Starr played the drums. That in itself is a major contribution. This is a real tour de force for Starr who performs some really revolutionary drums that absolutely define the track and make it a special piece of music. The drum pattern is quite hypnotic and is a precursor to the Tomorrow Never Knows drum track. Starr excels in changes of time signature and tempos and this is a perfect example. The stuttered rhythm of the verses to the change to a straight rock beat of the chorus and the double time outro made people finally sit up and realise there was more to Ringo than rings and quirky one liners. This effort put Starr in direct competition with his contemporaries.
The song itself sees the band moving toward a rock sound and again putting themselves in direct competition with the likes of The Who and The Kinks. The combination of drums, bass and guitars on this track definitely lean on the heavy side. It sounds convincing and very effective and of course ground breaking. A killer guitar riff to open and continually meander throughout the song played by Harrison. McCartney locks in perfectly on bass with Starr's complicated drum pattern. Once again, McCartney hogs the guitar spotlight playing the lead breaks at the end of each middle eight and the outro. You have to ask yourself, yet again, why? There's nothing ground-breaking here with what he plays. It kind of makes you think about 4 years later during the Let It Be sessions where George and Paul argue and refer to to Hey Jude in which McCartney later said 'it was a big deal having to tell the great George Harrison not to play guitar'. Well, Paul, it couldn't have been that big a deal because you were pushing his nose out years before!
Where McCartney really does excel on Ticket To Ride is his jaw dropping high harmony vocal. It really does take this song to yet another level and putting the song beyond the reach of their contemporaries. Lennon pulls out another historical vocal that's going to stay with us until our dying day and stay around a lot longer than any Pearl Jam song.
Act Naturally
Coming after the two preceding songs, this is a total let down. I know Ringo needed a song to sing but this is the wrong choice for such a transitional album. There's nothing wrong with the playing and it's nice to hear McCartney and Starr sing together but this is a backward step and a mistake.
It's Only Love
The shortest song on the album but still a beautiful one. Lennon has totally mastered this genre. For any other band, this would have been a classic. For The Beatles, it was just a really good album track. Lennon comes up with another totally original melody, combined with a completely believable vocal that is sung exquisitely. It's one of those songs of his that could easily have been just Lennon on acoustic guitar but at this stage Lennon wasn't selfish enough to do a solo song. Someone else in the band would jump at the chance though!
Lennon hated this song though and McCartney described it as a filler. I really struggle to see why.
You Like Me Too Much
Harrison's second song on the album and third officially released song in total. There is more depth to this song than I Need You. Lots of piano/electric piano going on played by Martin, McCartney and Lennon. George Martin plays the tricky intro on piano along with McCartney holding down chords on electric piano. Starr makes this song swing and plays a killer fill prior taking the song into the 'I really do' section. McCartney overdubs bass.
Harrison does a decent enough vocal although sounding very monotone. Lennon and McCartney's backing vocals are essential and give Harrison's vocal some much needed support. Lyrically banal, but this is Harrison washing his dirty laundry in public whereas Lennon and McCartney never had to do this. It must have been so hard for Harrison to achieve success from within the band with the dominance of Lennon and McCartney. To his credit he learned the songwriting craft in a very short space of time. The next two albums and beyond demonstrate a massive improvement.
Tell Me What You See
Debatable who wrote this song. Certainly McCartney but it sounds like a joint composition although Lennon denied he had anything to do with it. McCartney said it was written 60-40% in favour of him. Either way, neither particularly liked the song.
I quite like this song though. It could have easily fitted on Beatles For Sale. The trebley, chiming rhythm guitars are very effective. Although Starr plays effectively enough, the song is more percussion heavy with claves and a guiro(played by McCartney) giving it a Latin American feel. In fact, for the vast majority of the song, Starr doesn't touch his snare. Only after the chorus's and before the verses does he come in with some hard-hitting snare which is incredibly loud compared to his usual mix. Throughout the whole of the album, more so on the mono mix, he is very low in the mix and when a tambourine comes in his snare is barely audible.
McCartney plays some very effective electric piano but the real joy to this song is Lennon and McCartney's harmonies. Reminiscent of their Words of Love harmony in parts of the verse to a glorious, full on 'Tell Me What You See!'
A great album track that's far more than filler.
I've Just Seen A Face
A folk, country song from McCartney that is certainly a classic. Some great acoustic guitar interplay between Harrison, McCartney and Lennon especially during the intro played by Harrison and McCartney. In fact the intro is so inventive it's like a piece all of its own with ascending and descending guitar parts. It's a very fast tempo, you realise this when you try and play it on acoustic guitar! Starr does exactly what is required on his brushes playing snare.
Harrison plays some wonderful acoustic lead, although I always feel slightly disappointed that he only plays the vocal melody line for the solo. He does play it exceptionally well though. McCartney turns in a perfect vocal and his overdubbed harmonies on the chorus's are exceptional. Lyrically it's very strong. His choice of words add to the tempo. Given the songs tempo, at no point does he struggle to fit any words in either. A great piece of songwriting and sees McCartney finally gaining ground on Lennon in songwriting stakes.
Yesterday
If I'm listening to The Beatles at home or in the car, this would be the last song that would ever come into my head to play. Why is this? I don't dislike the song.
It has over 2000 recorded versions. It's brilliantly played and sung. It's a totally unique and original song. It paved the way for a complete change in The Beatles in terms of songwriting and production.
Is it because its essentially just a McCartney solo track? No. I absolutely love Julia for instance. It was a bit of leap for McCartney to do this without any other Beatle involvement. Harrison could have easily played guitar for instance, which he did on the early incarnations of this song as can be heard on Anthology 2 where he does a guitar accompaniment. Drums and bass clearly weren't going to work as is evidenced when they performed it live.
McCartney does have unique acoustic guitar style and employs a flicking technique with his 3rd finger and plucking the bass strings with his thumb and 2nd finger. It's very effective on this song. He sings it really straight, avoiding the obvious cliche of heavy vibrato, removing it from a cabaret piece that You'll Never Walk Alone turned into, for example. It's a timeless song and McCartney could have done this at any point in his career.
The string quartet is a master stroke by George Martin. Its a beautiful score keeping well away from any obvious cliches that would draw the song into being a duff standard. McCartney's lyrics are also some of the best he had written to that point. Uncharacteristically introspective and deep for him.
A perfect song but I'm still not going to actively seek it out to listen to. Why?
Dizzy Miss Lizzie
As I said in my preamble, this isn't an album I listen to much and, as a result, had pre-misconceptions about a few songs. This song being a case in point. My original draft was a total put down, calling it the worst Beatle cover ever. I then decided to re-listen to it and revised by opinion. It's another killer vocal from Lennon who, again, destroys the Larry Williams original. McCartney and Starr turn in a great performance with some great machine gun rolls from Starr. This is a great cover. What ruins it though is Harrison's lead guitar. It truly drags the song down. He plays it like he couldn't be arsed. Badly double tracked and totally uninspired. By the second verse it makes the song become tedious. Perhaps he had just had enough of being pushed out of the lead guitar spot by McCartney and was just fed up. Either way its a pretty poor guitar performance and let's the song down. Overall, I prefer the version Lennon did with Clapton, Voormann and White at Live Peace In Toronto. Now that was inspired.
I think this was the first proper Beatles album I got about the age of 10 after the Red and Blue albums and Rock 'n' Roll albums (either this, Please Please Me or With The Beatles......yes I'm certain it was one those three....or was it A Hard Days Night??)
Their 5th studio album sees The Beatles trying to search for a new direction; a definite transitional album. It's an album I honestly don't listen to that much and, as a result, had some pre misconceptions about that I had to revise upon listening to the album properly again. It's a fine album. On technical point, the 2009 stereo remaster is by far the superior version to listen to, especially in terms of Starr's drums which where, at lot of the time, virtually in audible on the mono mix. The songs definitely lend themselves to stereo rather than mono. So far, I have found this album the most difficult to review.
Help
The opening and title track sees Lennon genuinely crying for help but it's sentiment is lost behind the facade of a Beatles single, the lunacy of Beatlemania and fans that did not want to even consider Lennon was anything but a happy go lucky mop top.
The song has great drive propelled by Starr who really hits hell out of the snare and plays a really distinctive fill going into each chorus. The only problem is his snare gets drowned out by the tambourine in the chorus. Nothing sensational going on in the bass department other than playing simple to keep the song driving. Harrison's guitar work is distinctive, tasteful and imaginative. It's just a shame McCartney chose to start muscling in on lead guitar from the Help album onwards. This was a mistake. It only served to make a great guitar player unsure of his role in the band and self conscious amongst the other guitar 'legends' of the 60's. Harrison has openly stated that 'McCartney ruined him' as a guitar player.
I digress, this is a classic Lennon song. He sited it as one of his favourites and regretted the pop version that was released. He originally wrote it in a slow ballad style. It's all vocal-heavy, the verses having very sparse instrumentation. Lennon's double tracked vocal is simply stunning and impassioned. He meant every word of it. McCartney and Harrison's harmonies and backing vocals are quite brilliant. The idea of doing a preamble of a few words of each line of each verse lead vocal is genius.
A great album opener.
The Night Before
McCartney starts to come round from his songwriting slumber (or was he really just a slow starter in comparison to Lennon?). I think Jane Asher was starting to gain considerable recognition as a stage actress at this time, touring the UK with the Old Vic. McCartney resented this and so this song starts a series of embittered love songs from McCartney. It's odd really, McCartney is popularly known for sincere love songs and strong family values. When you start to analyse his lyrics from 1965 to 1967 there are some really nasty lyrics that I'm certain are aimed at Jane Asher. This contrasts with Lennon, known for his abrasive put downs, womanising and documented, inexcusable treatment of Cynthia, who has never written one nasty song about any woman including Cynthia.
McCartney delivers a strong, edgy, soulful double tracked vocal. I love the way he sings 'yes' immediately before the guitar solo. Some nice harmonies from Lennon and Harrison.
Great intro with ascending bass and electric piano played by McCartney and Lennon respectively. Some great lovely chord changes especially between verses. A twin guitar solo before Wishbone Ash ever thought of it. Although credited to McCartney, it sounds more like Harrison is duetting with him on the solo rather than a double tracked solo by McCartney - well it would be nice to think that anyway! Either way, good solo.
Lyrically it's most likely about Jane Asher again. Although someone who makes cakes as nice as her cannot be a liar! All in all, a really good McCartney. This is the start of him gaining ground on Lennon in songwriting stakes.
You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
Allegedly about Brian Epstein's homosexuality, this Lennon track is a classic. For McCartney to say 'its basically just John doing Dylan' is an insult. This song gets the listener more involved in Lennon's ever-evolving introspection. The mood of the song reflects the lyrics but the 6/8 time signature somehow manages to keep an upbeat feel to the rousing 'hey!'
Simple in instrumentation, acoustic guitars, bass and percussion. Backing vocals not required here. Beautiful (albeit uncredited) flutes from Johnny Scott, the first time a session musician had been used on a Beatles recording other than Andy White. The song is perfect but it's all about Lennon's vocal and lyrics which make it a classic.
I Need You
It had been two years since Don't Bother Me. No songs on A Hard Days Night or Beatles For Sale, so you would expect there to be improvement on Harrison's first effort. Alas not. Don't Bother Me is like a major achievement compared to I Need You. The most interesting feature of the song is Harrison's new effect, the volume tone pedal.
George did make a relevant comment about songwriting. He was still very new to it and, unlike Lennon and McCartney, hadn't been writing for nearly 10 years. They got rid of their crap songs before they got famous whereas Harrison was learning how to write as he was famous. However, any other band would probably be happy enough with this song. For The Beatles though, 5th album in, it's not really good enough.
Another Girl
McCartney again, having issues with Jane. I like this song though. It's R'n'B in feel. Reminiscent of She's A Woman. McCartney delivers a great vocal and R'n'B bass line. However he again bullies Harrison out of his lead guitar role and for what benefit? None. His guitar parts sound pretty amateurish and Harrison, given the opportunity, could easily have one up with something better and original.
You're Going To Lose That Girl
A real highlight of the album. A pure, classic Lennon song. The melody is completely original and the lead vocal is simply stunning. Lennon makes the falsetto parts sound so easy but it's not. This song really shows his class as a vocalist, his grasp of melody and his ability to totally dominate a song with the sound of his voice. The song just flows from chorus to verse to chorus to a glorious middle eight. Nice solo from Harrison. Great backing vocals from McCartney and Harrison that really give the song real depth.
Starr and McCartney keep it simple but effective in the rhythm section with McCartney overdubbing some piano that adds a nice texture in the background. The only issue about this song are the ridiculous bongos. They are so badly out of time and intrusive that it borders on ruining the song. Someone really was having a laugh with percussion work. By the end of the song it's sounds like the person playing the it had been drinking too much bong juice!
A fine song and arguably one of Lennon's best to date....
Ticket To Ride
.....until this one. McCartney maintains he wrote 40% of it but Lennon stated McCartney's input was limited to the way Starr played the drums. That in itself is a major contribution. This is a real tour de force for Starr who performs some really revolutionary drums that absolutely define the track and make it a special piece of music. The drum pattern is quite hypnotic and is a precursor to the Tomorrow Never Knows drum track. Starr excels in changes of time signature and tempos and this is a perfect example. The stuttered rhythm of the verses to the change to a straight rock beat of the chorus and the double time outro made people finally sit up and realise there was more to Ringo than rings and quirky one liners. This effort put Starr in direct competition with his contemporaries.
The song itself sees the band moving toward a rock sound and again putting themselves in direct competition with the likes of The Who and The Kinks. The combination of drums, bass and guitars on this track definitely lean on the heavy side. It sounds convincing and very effective and of course ground breaking. A killer guitar riff to open and continually meander throughout the song played by Harrison. McCartney locks in perfectly on bass with Starr's complicated drum pattern. Once again, McCartney hogs the guitar spotlight playing the lead breaks at the end of each middle eight and the outro. You have to ask yourself, yet again, why? There's nothing ground-breaking here with what he plays. It kind of makes you think about 4 years later during the Let It Be sessions where George and Paul argue and refer to to Hey Jude in which McCartney later said 'it was a big deal having to tell the great George Harrison not to play guitar'. Well, Paul, it couldn't have been that big a deal because you were pushing his nose out years before!
Where McCartney really does excel on Ticket To Ride is his jaw dropping high harmony vocal. It really does take this song to yet another level and putting the song beyond the reach of their contemporaries. Lennon pulls out another historical vocal that's going to stay with us until our dying day and stay around a lot longer than any Pearl Jam song.
Act Naturally
Coming after the two preceding songs, this is a total let down. I know Ringo needed a song to sing but this is the wrong choice for such a transitional album. There's nothing wrong with the playing and it's nice to hear McCartney and Starr sing together but this is a backward step and a mistake.
It's Only Love
The shortest song on the album but still a beautiful one. Lennon has totally mastered this genre. For any other band, this would have been a classic. For The Beatles, it was just a really good album track. Lennon comes up with another totally original melody, combined with a completely believable vocal that is sung exquisitely. It's one of those songs of his that could easily have been just Lennon on acoustic guitar but at this stage Lennon wasn't selfish enough to do a solo song. Someone else in the band would jump at the chance though!
Lennon hated this song though and McCartney described it as a filler. I really struggle to see why.
You Like Me Too Much
Harrison's second song on the album and third officially released song in total. There is more depth to this song than I Need You. Lots of piano/electric piano going on played by Martin, McCartney and Lennon. George Martin plays the tricky intro on piano along with McCartney holding down chords on electric piano. Starr makes this song swing and plays a killer fill prior taking the song into the 'I really do' section. McCartney overdubs bass.
Harrison does a decent enough vocal although sounding very monotone. Lennon and McCartney's backing vocals are essential and give Harrison's vocal some much needed support. Lyrically banal, but this is Harrison washing his dirty laundry in public whereas Lennon and McCartney never had to do this. It must have been so hard for Harrison to achieve success from within the band with the dominance of Lennon and McCartney. To his credit he learned the songwriting craft in a very short space of time. The next two albums and beyond demonstrate a massive improvement.
Tell Me What You See
Debatable who wrote this song. Certainly McCartney but it sounds like a joint composition although Lennon denied he had anything to do with it. McCartney said it was written 60-40% in favour of him. Either way, neither particularly liked the song.
I quite like this song though. It could have easily fitted on Beatles For Sale. The trebley, chiming rhythm guitars are very effective. Although Starr plays effectively enough, the song is more percussion heavy with claves and a guiro(played by McCartney) giving it a Latin American feel. In fact, for the vast majority of the song, Starr doesn't touch his snare. Only after the chorus's and before the verses does he come in with some hard-hitting snare which is incredibly loud compared to his usual mix. Throughout the whole of the album, more so on the mono mix, he is very low in the mix and when a tambourine comes in his snare is barely audible.
McCartney plays some very effective electric piano but the real joy to this song is Lennon and McCartney's harmonies. Reminiscent of their Words of Love harmony in parts of the verse to a glorious, full on 'Tell Me What You See!'
A great album track that's far more than filler.
I've Just Seen A Face
A folk, country song from McCartney that is certainly a classic. Some great acoustic guitar interplay between Harrison, McCartney and Lennon especially during the intro played by Harrison and McCartney. In fact the intro is so inventive it's like a piece all of its own with ascending and descending guitar parts. It's a very fast tempo, you realise this when you try and play it on acoustic guitar! Starr does exactly what is required on his brushes playing snare.
Harrison plays some wonderful acoustic lead, although I always feel slightly disappointed that he only plays the vocal melody line for the solo. He does play it exceptionally well though. McCartney turns in a perfect vocal and his overdubbed harmonies on the chorus's are exceptional. Lyrically it's very strong. His choice of words add to the tempo. Given the songs tempo, at no point does he struggle to fit any words in either. A great piece of songwriting and sees McCartney finally gaining ground on Lennon in songwriting stakes.
Yesterday
If I'm listening to The Beatles at home or in the car, this would be the last song that would ever come into my head to play. Why is this? I don't dislike the song.
It has over 2000 recorded versions. It's brilliantly played and sung. It's a totally unique and original song. It paved the way for a complete change in The Beatles in terms of songwriting and production.
Is it because its essentially just a McCartney solo track? No. I absolutely love Julia for instance. It was a bit of leap for McCartney to do this without any other Beatle involvement. Harrison could have easily played guitar for instance, which he did on the early incarnations of this song as can be heard on Anthology 2 where he does a guitar accompaniment. Drums and bass clearly weren't going to work as is evidenced when they performed it live.
McCartney does have unique acoustic guitar style and employs a flicking technique with his 3rd finger and plucking the bass strings with his thumb and 2nd finger. It's very effective on this song. He sings it really straight, avoiding the obvious cliche of heavy vibrato, removing it from a cabaret piece that You'll Never Walk Alone turned into, for example. It's a timeless song and McCartney could have done this at any point in his career.
The string quartet is a master stroke by George Martin. Its a beautiful score keeping well away from any obvious cliches that would draw the song into being a duff standard. McCartney's lyrics are also some of the best he had written to that point. Uncharacteristically introspective and deep for him.
A perfect song but I'm still not going to actively seek it out to listen to. Why?
Dizzy Miss Lizzie
As I said in my preamble, this isn't an album I listen to much and, as a result, had pre-misconceptions about a few songs. This song being a case in point. My original draft was a total put down, calling it the worst Beatle cover ever. I then decided to re-listen to it and revised by opinion. It's another killer vocal from Lennon who, again, destroys the Larry Williams original. McCartney and Starr turn in a great performance with some great machine gun rolls from Starr. This is a great cover. What ruins it though is Harrison's lead guitar. It truly drags the song down. He plays it like he couldn't be arsed. Badly double tracked and totally uninspired. By the second verse it makes the song become tedious. Perhaps he had just had enough of being pushed out of the lead guitar spot by McCartney and was just fed up. Either way its a pretty poor guitar performance and let's the song down. Overall, I prefer the version Lennon did with Clapton, Voormann and White at Live Peace In Toronto. Now that was inspired.