There’s a pretty clear divide between The Beatles early, poppy stuff and their later more experimental music. Rubber Soul is where that split started to happen, and Revolver saw the transformation completed. Those are two of my favorite Beatles albums (I imagine they’re two of everybody’s). They showed the world that this wasn’t just a pop band but a serious artistic force.
Still, when I rank all of the band’s albums in order, it’s inevitably A Hard Day’s Night — one of those early, uncomplicated albums — that rises to the top. It lacks the ahead-of-its-time production techniques of later albums, the mind-bending lyrics, the complex song construction, but it makes up for all that in unparalleled pop songcraft.
Put simply, A Hard Day’s Night is chock full of songs that make you happy to be alive.
Released as a soundtrack to the seminal film of the same name, the album contains 13 songs that would be the best track on any other album by any other band. Among the finest is ‘I Should Have Known Better,’ a propulsive number written by John Lennon and featuring him on harmonica. The clip below comes directly from the film.
That I would love everything that you do
And I do, hey, hey, hey, and I do.
Whoa, whoa, I never realized what a kiss could be
This could only happen to me;
Can’t you see, can’t you see?
That when I tell you that I love you, oh,
You’re gonna say you love me too, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, oh,
And when I ask you to be mine,
You’re gonna say you love me too.
So, I should have realized a lot of things before
If this is love you’ve gotta give me more
Give me more, hey hey hey, give me more
Whoa, whoa, I never realized what a kiss could be
This could only happen to me
Can’t you see, can’t you see?
That when I tell you that I love you, oh
You’re gonna say you love me too, oh
And when I ask you to be mine,
You’re gonna say you love me too,
You love me too
You love me too
Meet Me In Montauk 
Songs that make you happy to be alive 🙂 What could be better than that? (maybe songs that make you happy to be alive AND show serious artistic force? I imagine we’ll be focusing on some of those in subsequent weekends)
I was watching some interviews with Kurt Vonnegut this past week, and he talks about how music has provided him the most effective antidote to the cynicism present due to the actions of people in so many situations.
This song – and clip – provide a great example. Jail becomes an opportunity to play a game of cards and serenade some girls 🙂 I have always loved this song, though I imagine the album containing it would wind up a bit further down my list of favorites.
They’re actually in the storage car of a train, not in jail, but the effect is about the same, because it’s the only place they can hide to get away from the throngs of people chasing them everywhere.
As I write this, I am watching my wife and daughter putting together the drum kit for the Beatles’ Rockband game. So, perhaps we will be re-creating this box car scene a bit later today:) I, of course, will have to insist on taking the lead vocals on this one, so I can do my best John Lennon.:)
By the way, as much as I love this song and album, I agree with Amy that it would not be ranked number one. That honor goes to Rubber Soul.
Rubber Soul comes in at #3 for me, with Revolver at #2.
I love this song too ^_^ did’nt recognze it by name though. Beatles Rockband is amazing! You have to come play it sometime