PROTO-PROG

As some minus I can mention that there are no more so perfect Grace Slick vocals in songs,I think their best works were "White Rabbit"and "Plastic Fantastic Lover". There female vocal is competent, but very average. But all the band sounds more as real band, not as few soloists and some musicians on back-up.

Still being sound of their time, album sound more modern. But anyway, don't think it will be too much interesting for newcomers. For fans of that era it's perfect evidence.

In my view, all homes should have both this compilation CD and in particular the blue 1967-1970 box. Why ? Because both double CDs are the blueprint for the modern music. To be able to understand the western culture; you need this knowledge. Yes, I know my opinions are controversial. But just have a look around and you may come to the same conclusion. Another reason for the purchase of this and the blue box/double CD is that the music here are mostly superb.

This double CD, the red one, is a collection of the pop stuff from The Beatles. These songs were all pioneering songs. Thankfully, there is no cover songs here. Just their own compositions. That include some songs not released on their albums.

There are some really gems and icons of the western civilisation here (I am again controversial). These are She Loves You, a song debated in many parlaments around the world as a danger to the youths in their respective countries and therefore ought to be banned outright. Yesterday, the most covered song on this planet and a wonderful song. Norwegian Wood with it's sitar. Help which was the title track of a movie that set new standards. Eleanor Rigby with it's serious theme and Yellow Submarine which is a hit in all nursery schools among the 4-5 six years old kids. All these songs are truly wonderful. Add songs like Paperback Writer, A Hard Day's Night, Eight Days A Week, Ticket To Ride, Drive My Car and Michelle to the mix and those are a good reason to purchase this album. The rest of the songs are also very good.

Those alone are the reasons to own this album. Everything properly considered makes this a four star compilation album. Store this double CD together with the Bible, your favorite food recipes, the backup of your harddisk, your insurance details, the pictures of your family, your passport and The Fawlty Towers DVDs.

4 stars

At this time the suscetibilities of fame were starting to get to The Beatles heads, frustrated with the (bad) quality of the shows to screaming audiences, where they could hardly hear themselves, the busy schedule, the constant harassment from both fans and the press. These all are very clearly stamped in the album's title track (written by John), a song of a person who feels lost, with no direction and, ironically, lonely, pleading for a helping hand.

One can also acknowledge the role that their contact with Bob Dylan (and maybe also drugs) played, along with the stimulus of classical-trained producer George Martin, that instigated them to welcome new sounds and instruments to their repertoire.

And so they did. Of course, there is the never enough mentioned Yesterday, probably their most popular and well-know song, the most re-recorded song in popular music history, covered by hundreds of artists (legend says that this song is ininterruptely played in some version, in some point of the earth). Yesterday features a string quartet in, the earliest example I am aware of in a rock and roll album. If only for this reason, that would deserve the recording and the album a special place in the history of rock and roll and, maybe, music in all forms. Of course, it happens that this is NOT the only reason for the inclusion of Help among the list of the most important and influential albums ever recorded.

There are plenty of novelties that this album has to offer. The clearly Dylan-esque song You've Got to Hide Your Love Away (composed by John and supposedely refered to the band's manager Brian Epstein and his homosexuality) is closed with flutes. There is another Dylan-like John composition, It's Only Love. Both are magnificent. And I Need You, the first contribution of George to this album, features some inovative guitar effects (though they are best heard in a Beatles b-side single, Yes It Is).

But the real tricks of this album are, insterestingly, in more obscure tracks. They are: The Night Before, Tell Me What You See and I've Just Seen a Face, by Paul and You Like Me Too Much, the second George song. The Night Before, Tell Me What You See and You Like Me Too Much might be, though I can't state for sure, the pioneers in the jazz-rock experiment that would blossom late in the sixties. The Night Before, a great song (maybe my favorite from this album), features the famous Fender Rhodes electric piano that would be one of the key elements of fusion in a rocking sound that pretty much antecipates what the Miles Davis band keyboardists would do some years later. (Let's not forget that Miles was introduced to the Beatles by his drummer, Tony Williams, who highly influenced Miles to explore new sounds both as a listener and as a musician.)

You Like Me Too Much opens with a beautiful, jazzy piano line, and follows with some more use of electric piano in the main section of the song. Tell Me What You See features the electric piano in a more evident, but less imaginative fashion. Last but not least, I've Just Seen a Face is a fast country-like song, but what really makes it worth to notice is the guitar introduction that builds in a crescendo in what might be one of the most imaginative guitar works to date in a rock album - let's not forget it's early 1965.

And then, of course, you still have Help! and Ticket to Ride, the most classic tracks (along with Yesterday, of course), to enjoy. The remaining four songs, Another Girl, You're Going to Lose that Girl, Act Naturally and Dizzy Miss Lizzy (the last two being the only covers) are not at the same level of the other ten, but not enough to harm the whole experience.

In sum, the experiments both lyrical and musical make this one in fact more of a transition album than a continuity of the early sound. An often overlooked record by admires of the most daring Beatles phase, because the inovations are too subtle to make a radical change in the band's sound. Subtle, but quite significant. Pay close attention to these subtleties and you will be rewarded with the (re)discovery of a wonderful album with a great legacy.

For its contribution to the enrichment of the Beatles sound and rock and roll in general, plus its (still) thin link to the prog-rock world, Help undoubtedly deserves a 4-star rating. Don't miss the oportunity of checking out how the adventure of combining rock and roll, classical music and jazz was first insinuated.

Two of these versions, nevertheless, are quite remarkable ones.The extensive use of Hammond on Mr. Moonlight and its weird solo makes it a quite original song for the time it was recorded. Rock and Roll Music, composed by Chuck Berry, is a superb interpretation, adding power, energy, speed and drama to the original recording. It is a rocker in the vein of covers of other albums such as Please Mr. Postman, Roll over Beethoven or Twist and Shout - only that it is better. MUCH better. A great display of The Beatles power and interpretation skills. Not only the incredible vocals supplied by John, but also the instruments, particularly the rocking piano played by 6 hands: John, Paul and George Martin. Can't find words enough to express my appreciation for this song.

Going back to the start, though, again The Beatles provide a great opening song, courtesy of John. No Reply alternates between calmer and harder sections, with a great chorus in the middle and a very good coda, showcasing the impressive pace in which Lennon and McCartney were maturing as composers. No Reply, by the way, is John's jealous-guy song of the album. I'm a Loser follows with a well known chorus and a faster speed. Baby's In Black is the first slow number, shared by John and Paul, and with its intriguing lyrics - its subtle reference to the love for a widow ("She thinks of him, and so she dresses in black/ And though he'll never come back, she's dressed in black") is easily overlooked by the unattentious hearer.

I'll Follow the Sun is the classic Paul ballad, in the vein of previous Till There Was You and And I Love Her, but this time with a less optmistic subject. A goodbye song with a smater image than they used to provide ("But tomorrow may rain so/ I'll follow sun"). Very good.

Eight Days a Week, perhaps the best known song in this record, is also worth mention for its fade-in start - another original experiment at the time. The song in itself follows the steps of previous Beatles' classics.

Paul provides himself some good rockers with cover medley Kansas City/ Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! and original What You're Doing. From the start, both John and Paul composed rockers and ballads and both composers excelled on both styles. So, the common-place image of a raw-straight forward John and a soft-romantic Paul is for the most part a distorted picture. In fact, Paul was the "official" interpreter of Little Richard songs (like the aforementioned Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! a Long Tall Sally, released in an EP), and also composing powerful songs clearly influenced by that style, while John would take the lead vocals in most of Chuck Berry's songs.

The remainder of the songs in this album are not particularly remarkable. Like the previous one, quality drops sensitively in side B. The songs already mentioned are all highlights, but Rock and Roll Music clearly stands out, although it's a cover. Don't confuse this with any statement of weakness in the original compositions, though, as John and Paul were improving fast for all to see.

Excluding the curiosities of Mr. Moonlight and Eight Days a Week, there are not many tricks in this record, still far from the experimental years and, therefore, far from prog-rock. Though a step back in terms of number of original songs, it's a step forward in terms of the quality of those original songs and overall sound. 3 stars.

The album itself contains at least five classic Beatles songs: the faster ones are the title track and Can't Buy Me Love and the slower ones are If I Fell and And I Love Her (both democratically split between John and Paul). The fifth classic is caught in the middle: I Should Have Known Better, sung by John.

But then, to my ears, this one would have only another highlight in Things We Said Today, by Paul. Not that the others are absolutely let-downs. None of them are actually bad, but as the album goes, it kind of tires me, particular in side 2 (starting with track 8 on CD). Taken separately, another songs might stand out as second-class hits, like I'm Happy Just to Dance with You (sung by George, written by John), I'll Be Back and Tell Me Why (both by John). Probably the reason for that is John's lead singing (the exceptions are only 4 songs, already stated above), which accounts for diminishing one of the great appeals of Beatles albums: its diversity. Not that John's singing and writing are bad. They just don't make it for a Beatles album, which is supposed to be much more than that. That said, for my taste, this one is probably the weakest of all The Beatles albums. Not bad, but a bit tiring, and being the first phase of The Beatles the one I least appreciate, this is their album that I least listen to as well. In fact, I listened to it after several years only because of the 2009 remastered edition. Therefore, the rating here is more faithful to my actual overall opinion than the previous two, which are rounded down to suit a prog-rock website. Not this one: 2 stars is what I give it in all contexts.

The album follows in great fashion with the ballads All I've Got to Do and All My Loving, the first one a slower by John, the second a faster by Paul. It continues with the very first George Harrison composition, quite naive but a pretty enjoyable tune. Rumour has it that he wrote while sick in a hotel bed, that's maybe the reason of the cranky and lonely message (though in a light way, obvious). Little Child is a faster number with John's harmonica, not one of my favorites, but decent. Till There Was You is another slower ballad, with a nice hawaiian-style guitar solo.

Many more rockers follow with cover songs Please Mr. Postman (faster and harder - and better - than the better-known Carpenters version) and Chuck Berry's Roll over Beethoven, a great version sung by George. The pace is kept fast with an excellent Lennon-McCartney original, Hold Me Tight, sung by Paul, with an explicit reference to sex, long before the Stones or The Who were even composing, let alone recording. Of course it is a "light" reference ("making love to only you", says the lyrics), but still it goes to refute the idea that The Beatles were merely a naive, well-behaved band that couldn't go any further than claiming that "I Want to Hold Your Hand". (They were clever, though, and saved their more audacious songs to the records, issuing singles - the most popular vehicle for promoting music at the time - with lighter lyrics more palatable to the conservative ears and minds of early sixties Britain.)

The following is the slower soul-like You Really Got a Hold on Me, another excellent cover version sung by John. I Wanna Be Your Man, a Lennon-McCartney original sung by Ringo (and later covered by the Rolling Stones) follows. It's not a particularly good song, but has the distinction of featuring Hammond piano, I don't know if this was the first time it happened on a pop album (probably not), but still uncommon at the time.

Devil in Her Heart is a good cover song, followed by the last Lennon-McCartney original, Not a Second a Time, good tune screamed by John, and, for the sake of curiosity a typical jealous-guy theme song so particular of him. Almost every album of The Beatles would feature a John composition around the theme of jealousy. He was himself a jealous guy and admitted it latter in his solo 1971 album, Imagine, with a very well know song with that confession in the title.

The closing song doesn't work that well to me. Money was to emulate the artifice of Twist and Shout - a screaming cover song. Not quite memorable, though word has it that was quite popular in the Cavern Club times.

In sum, apart from very few weaker moments, this one does very good as an introduction and summary for The Beatles' early sound. If you were to acquire only ONE Beatles record from this early period, I would strongly recommend this one. Like we'll see later, though, I do not count Help and Rubber Soul as a part of this early sound. So you would be sparing yourself from only three records, actually.

Tough to point out highlights in such a well-balanced album, but if I was requested to do so, I would mention the first three tracks (It Won't Be Long, All I've Got to Do, All My Loving), plus Hold Me Tight and You Really Got a Hold on Me (the only cover among the highlights, what testifies for the growing maturity and sharpness of the Lennon-McCartney partnership).

A 3-star record in its own merit, only because this is a prog-rock website. In the context of rock and roll regardless of genre, or even popular music in general, this one would easily deserve 4 stars.

With the Beatles, it all changed. Not only in the looks or the atitude, not to mention the numbers (popularity, concerts attendance, sales, contracts). The sound changed as well.

This is not to say that the Beatles were the only band to do the kind of sound you find in this album. The characteristic early Beatles records accounted for a music know as "merseybeat" or "merseyside" (reference to the Mersey River that crosses Liverpool). It was an absolutely original and unique sound that mixed early rock and roll, rythm and blues, soul music, doo wop and skiffle. Liverpool benefited from its port status, so new sounds from across the Atlantic landed there earlier. Combined with the monopoly and strict control BBC exerted over the radio waves, Liverpool became some kind of a green house where this new sound developed quietly. It's therefore not surprising, either, that record companies were reluctant to invest in this new kind of sound. When The Beatles, rejected from Decca, signed up with EMI, the merseybeat finally reached the public ears, and rapidly fell in their taste.

The originality of merseybeat becomes even more evident when you compare The Beatles' records to the bands outside Liverpool - like the Rolling Stones - whose sound still relied strongly (and actually almost solely, in my opinion) in rythm and blues. This is to demonstrate how absolutely new this sound was, and why The Beatles were revolutionary from the very start.

Please Please Me is the sum up this early Beatles sound. Though not that appealing today, and pale in comparison to the band's ever-growing achivements in the following albums and years, it has this historical importance. This is not to say that it doesn't have its charm, as well. There are the lovely cover ballads "Anna" and "Baby It's You", both sung by John, the rockers "I Saw Her Standing There" (Paul's lead-singing) and "Please Please Me", this last one a kind of sinthesis of early merseybeat Beatles' sound. Plus, obviously, the screamed "Twist and Shout", a live favorite up until The Beatles quit touring and still a very well-known and appreciated song among both fans and occasional listeners (not quite to my taste, though, to be honest).

If only for its historical importance to rock and roll, it would certainly deserve a 4-star rating. It's not historically important to prog, though, and really not a must among non-Beatles fans. Therefore, 2 stars is a fair rating considering the context of this website.

The guy is totally out in left field. Happy As Can Be. And besides, I Ain't no FOOL and I don't take what I don't want for I have got.....(John says "yeah, yeah, you'll lose that girl and I'll have her by morning" or how about Paul's new vision "I've just seen a face I can't forget the time or place" 'but as it is I'll dream of her tonight la la la" BUT!!! When Paul is singing "falling, yes I am falling" he's really FALLING Hard and he does'nt know it Then Paul wakes up one day alone. The Greatest Beatle song is Selected By Lennon To Help Paul With His Immature Approach To Songwriting And there it is, "Yesterday" Paul CRASHES to earth and becomes like the rest of his bandmates, sober . Now John says Finally Some Real Emotion-- LOSS!!! hello its awesome Mr. McCartney doesn't even Have a clue as to why. " I don't know she would'nt say" excuse me mate but I just heard James Paul say "I Don't know" Lennon says that'll do just fine Of Course I grew up with the Shredded Capitol version of HELP! and it's soundtrack What a bunck of REAL IDIOTS to mess with one of the greatest setups (musically) of all-time From "Tell Me What You See" to "I've Just Seen A Face" to "Yesterday"

Heck, I thought Rubber Soul Started with "I've Just Seen A Face" Love To All yoko too

Jim Morrison puts on a fantastic performance that is as poetic as it is musical. It really shows you why he was so notorious.That's the main difference between Doors songs in the studio and live. In the studio it's much more about the sound, and I believe that's what most people notice, but, live, Jim lives his lyrics so passionately in the performance that you can't help but notice how the poetry of the words meshes with the music. It's like seeing the way he interacts with the music shows you how the music is meant to be heard, always improving the effect. A good example of this is Jim dancing around the microphone like an Indian around a campfire during the intense climax of The End. This brings me to my second point: The rest of the band performs fantastically as well. They really capture the mood of the words and create some incredible suspense and explosions of energetic mind melting music using great contrasts of key and timing between instruments. The moods caught are nuts, ranging from the hellish "Horse Latitudes" to the carnival-like joy of "Light my Fire" to the spaced out majesty of "The End".

I will definitely be watching this again.

P.S. Psychedelic accompaniment encouraged. Enjoy the music the way it was meant to be enjoyed.

This Rating is base on PROGRELATED, not PROG

Another album it though was underrated. The Doors left some of their psychedelica behind and got more into their 'gothic' blues sound with the angelic voices of lead singer Jim Morrison. Morrision Hotel became a highly relaxing blues rock album with no weak track among it, be it some are a bit simple from the compositional point of view. Still this is blues, and blues isn't always about the noodlings and intelligent chord progressions: it's about HOW it is played. If I'd give a rating for that single element of the music, it would be a masterpiece, but since we are on a progressive/related website I'll try to be more objective.

There are to sorts of songs on this album. The typical bluesy tracks and the more evolved tracks. Typical bluestracks are Roadhouse Blues, You make me Real, Piece Frog, Queen of the Highway and Maggie McHill. I talked enough about the bluesy side of the record, so I'm going to the discuss the other tracks here.

Waiting for the Sun is one of the more progressive tracks by the Doors. It has an intelligent composition and some symphonic elements. Blue Sunday is one of my Doors favourites. This is pure devotion combined with a gentle approach on music, a quiet song, but emotionally deeply evolved. Great! Ship of Fools is darker song with a touchy, interesting middle section. The lyrics are as expected with such a title, critical to society. Spy falls between the bluess and the evolved songs. It's so atmospheric and even erotical that it's a track on it's own, your girlfriend will like this! Sing it for her! Indian Summer is a track like Blue Sunday, silent and devoted.

Conclusion. For proto-prog or related this is a great album. Doors fans should never skip on it and the critics might not been very accurate. They will tell you what this album doesn't have, but what about the things that replaces those elements? What's new about it? What's wrong with a great band playing great blues songs? Which songs can replace the pure magic of Blue Sunday, Spy and Indian Summer? Just because this isn't as great as some other Doors records, it doesn't mean it isn't an excellent addition still? Well.. I myself rate this as a highly rewarding album with a high level of relaxation abilities. Three stars! Just get it! Especially protoprogger, classic rock fans and those who have girlfriends/wives among us or want a relaxing blue sunday.