On August 6, 1965, the Beatles’ album Help! was released in the UK, followed by an August 13 release in the U.S. In a 1970 Rolling Stone interview with Jann S. Wenner, John Lennon stated that the song “Help!” — along with “I’m a Loser” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” — were “personal” songs. He not only considered “Strawberrry Fields Forever” and “Help” his “best songs,” but “[t]hey were the ones I really wrote from experience and not projecting myself into a situation and writing a nice story about it.”
Lennon was critical of the recording of “Help,” though. He said, “We did it too fast trying to be commercial.” I understand his point, as the song sounds pretty happy for a cry for help from a person feeling down. I like to think about the possibility that had Lennon grown older, he might have recorded an slower acoustic version of the song, evoking the pain and sadness that is there in the lyrics. But as a Beatles song, I think it is absolutely perfect.
What do you think of the song “Help!”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
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