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6.20am
30 April 2019
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There is a book out, called 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. As you would expect, the Beatles place 7 albums on the list, including this one, which was a nice surprise for me. Tom Ewing wrote about this album:
So With the Beatles is simultaneously a quickly turned-around cash-in and a record of real generosity and integrity. And if the structure of the album is pretty similar to Please Please Me , the extra studio time is already starting to tell. On McCartney's romantic spotlight, showtune "Till There Was You ", producer George Martin builds a wholly convincing soft-focus soundworld around Ringo Starr 's bongos. The group harmonies on tracks like their rumbustious "Please Mr. Postman" are even more gorgeously thick. The way the drums rumble in on "Roll Over Beethoven " is a moment of simple joy.
And those are just the covers. With the Beatles starts with aggressive confidence, "It Won't Be Long " taking the "yeah yeah" chants that were the group's early calling card and turning them into missiles. We're back, it says, and it's one of their most thrilling songs. On "All My Loving " the guitars bubble and tumble and the band finds a new way to marry prettiness and drive. "I Wanna Be Your Man "— Ringo's best early vocal— has a wolfish, hustling urgency. Not everything the band tries, as writers or interpreters, comes off: draggy girl group revival "Devil In Her Heart " is an obscurity too far, and George Harrison wins a first songwriting credit for the Shadows-esque "Don't Bother Me ", but it doesn't get much spark until the guitar solo.
As for "Money", well, there simply is no second "Twist And Shout " in the catalogue, but neither was there any shame in the Beatles trying.
5.17am
28 April 2020
Online "draggy girl group revival "Devil In Her Heart " is an obscurity too far" .... I don't understand why this song is so unpopular! I love it and have done since I first heard back in the 70s on 'The Beatles' Second Album'. Somehow my local record shop back then had some of the American albums and I actually bought 'Meet The Beatles' and 'The Beatles' Second Album' long before I bought 'With The Beatles '.
Anyway, it is a really catchy song and I love George's vocals and John and Paul's backing vocals! George's guitar is pretty good too!
Instead of being an 'obscurity too far', I think it is great that they knew relatively unknown songs like this and weren't afraid to record them. I think that is great that they covered the early 60's girl group songs as well as doing the standard Rock 'N' Roll covers which no doubt, everyone else did at the time!
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