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12.59am
8 August 2019
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I’d Like to say the White Album , but it’s not, it has Cry Baby Cry , Dear Prudence , Happiness Is A Warm Gun and I’m So Tired which are some of my favourite songs ever.
I easily pick Help !
I think most of the songs on Help ! are just bad, and I think it’s one of their worst early albums, but people always rank it as the best early Beatles record which I strongly disagree with. It has terrible pace and lazy material.
The song Help ! is wasted potential given the lyrics are a cry for help with an upbeat rhythm, which I always thought was stupid. That song could’ve been a great piano ballad or something.
Some of my favourite songs on it are I’ve Just Seen A Face , Ticket To Ride and You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away , which are good songs. But most of them are C tier Beatles songs anyway. There are no nine out of tens, less so ten out of tens.
As for Yesterday , it has two problems: the first one is that it is not that good. It’s not even the best acoustic McCartney song, that goes to Blackbird . And the other problem is that it isn’t the closer. The closer is a lousy cover of Dizzy Miss Lizzy . A butchered version of the Larry Williams classic, that doesn’t suit Paul’s vocals at all, and it is a terrible closer. So any value Yesterday could’ve given to the album is gone because of the closer.
It also contains Act Naturally , one of the worst Ringo songs.
And it is plagued with so-so tracks: Another Girl , I Need You , It’s Only Love , The Night Before , You Like Me Too Much , You’re Going To Lose That Girl . All of those do nothing for me. And there’s not enough material in between to pick it up for me.
I know it’s not the “greatest album of all time” Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band is considered to be, but it astonishes me how people rate Help ! above Let It Be or Please Please Me , which are vastly better records.
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1.28am
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27 November 2016
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Which is interesting, as I disagree with almost everything you said…
I agree re. Yesterday not even being Paul’s best acoustic song, but I don’t even agree on what’s better (it’s clearly
And I Love Her )
You’re Gonna Lose That Girl is fantastic, that would easily get a 9 from me. In fact, it got an average score of 7.73 out of 10 in our 2018 poll.
In fact, Yesterday is the only song on this album that isn’t in my ‘great Beatles songs playlist’ – even Dizzy Miss Lizzy (on which John sang, not Paul) just barely makes it on.
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3.55am
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1 May 2011
Offline I find a lot on ‘Help !’ so enjoyable, yeah it’s got filler but it’s a highly enjoyable album which flies thru. I find ‘MMT’ far less appealing as I find the title track and ‘Penny Lane ‘ very underwhelming and ‘YMSK’ is just 2 minutes 30 seconds of lame lazy guff that overstays its welcome by at least one minute (the thought of the Beatles singing such nonsense on the ‘Our World’ broadcast is scary).
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Jules"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
4.29am
13 January 2019
Offline Penny Lane ? Underwhelming?? 
I haven’t heard anyone say that before. I agree about the title track though.
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5.31am
28 February 2020
Offline Getbackintheussr said
Penny Lane ? Underwhelming??I haven’t heard anyone say that before. I agree about the title track though.
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6.32am
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1 May 2011
Offline I’ve often said on here that I don’t care for ‘Penny Lane ‘ as it’s not a song I’ve ever been bothered about and fail to see what’s so great about it. It’s alright, it fills 3 minutes.
"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
8.35am
10 March 2017
Offline I mostly agree with you about Help ! @Jules but i really enjoy both the title track and You’re Going To Lose That Girl , with the other 12 tracks ranging from good but not great to meh. Ironically, I really enjoy the tracks that were recorded during the sessions but left off the album.
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3.31pm
15 March 2020
Offline Aside from the covers (and tbh I enjoy Lizzy) I enjoy every song on Help ! Love it
4.46pm
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1 May 2011
Offline ‘DML’ is a great rocker terribly placed. They could easily have just run with the same format as ‘AHDN ‘ with 13 songs.
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Jules"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
6.55pm
8 August 2019
Offline @The Hole Got Fixed you know, it’s the funniest thing. I just had the biggest Mandela effect ever. I could swear I remember Paul singing that song, wow. Well, that really weird me out, I feel I’ve been listening to a different song. I still strongly stand by what I said, the song is just not good for the Beatles’ style in general. And John overworks his performance, it’s kind of awkward. Also, I really like And I Love Her , I’d agree is better than Yesterday . If And I Love Her was on Help !, it’d be the best song on it, honestly.
@Dark Overlord I always get that kind of reaction with You’re Going To Lose That Girl . I could never see it as just as much a filler as the rest of the songs on Help !, I never found that special quality about it that makes it so unique. But people really pull it aside as if it was as inventive or particular as, say, Ticket To Ride (which, even if it’s not one of my favourites, it has quite interesting drumming and production). People rank it way higher than the rest of the forgettable early tunes, which always puzzled me. Nobody would take a bullet for Another Girl , for example, the same way they would for You’re Going To Lose That Girl , and I just find that interesting.
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7.56pm
11 June 2015
Offline I know how that can happen. There was once a 10 year stretch that I didn’t listen to Side 1 of Abbey Road . Somehow during that time my brain determined that John sang Oh! Darling 
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3.44am
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1 May 2011
Offline Clerefor Sede said
@Dark Overlord I always get that kind of reaction with You’re Going To Lose That Girl . I could never see it as just as much a filler as the rest of the songs on Help !, I never found that special quality about it that makes it so unique. But people really pull it aside as if it was as inventive or particular as, say, Ticket To Ride (which, even if it’s not one of my favourites, it has quite interesting drumming and production). People rank it way higher than the rest of the forgettable early tunes, which always puzzled me. Nobody would take a bullet for Another Girl , for example, the same way they would for You’re Going To Lose That Girl , and I just find that interesting.
Ringo’s bongos.
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Jules"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)
2.46pm
24 March 2020
Offline I don’t have as much of a liking for their psychedelic era as most people. Seems to me that’s considered the best. I’m going to go with Sgt. Pepper for most overrated album. It’s not bad by any means but that’s probably the album I listen to the least. Just can’t get into most of the songs on there and I think it might be my least favorite Paul outing (not counting WTB), which is a shame as it’s practically a Paul album in the same way that AHDN is a John album.
