If you do the math, With The Beatles had 14 tracks and only 9 of them made it onto Meet The Beatles, which, if you add on EPs and singles, started the whole cut and paste theory of American Beatle releases in the early 1960s, culminating in the cultural vandalism of the American Revolver.
And since I was raised on the UK versions, the US versions make no sense to me on any level.
But as February 9th arrives, I took a spin on Meet The Beatles and I will say this: “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” makes perfect sense as the lead off for the first Capitol Beatles album. The song is so big, so intrinsic to the Beatles legend, and such a straight up masterpiece of rock and roll perfection, it should introduce the States to the State of pop circa 1964.
“I Want To Hold Your Hand” is a cornerstone of Western positivism, of seduction and desire, yet innocent, though Lennon had the most knowing voice imaginable and so you can’t help wondering exactly why John can’t hide his love. McCartney’s harmonies are just remarkable and in the end,, the song brings it all back home, a sort of longing, a yearn, a youthful dream of love that ignited the world. While this was the Beatles second US release (Introducing… The Beatles was the first), it was the real welcome home for the Beatles. “She Loves You” was an album away in the States and so it was up to “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” had to be the signpost, the signal tower to the future.
Except for Harrison’s “Don’t Bother Me” and “The Music Man” “Till There was You” it was all Lennon And McCartney masterpieces though quite how aware the world was that they wrote their own material (just like Hank Williams or something) I can’t say. What I can say is that the divergent gifts of the duo, with the help of hindsight, are more than obvious in the last two songs of Side One. The best one two on the album, “All I’ve Got To Do” is Lennon quivering in insecurity and losing it completely on the bridge, “And the same goes for me…”: this is Lennon’s gift before he was Lennon, he could say and mean something different, he could let his insecurities bare for the world to see (did I mention McCartney and Harrisons background vocals here?) and it is followed by Paulie’s “All My Loving”… a strange storyline (ps he loves her), with his tremulous earnest sweet honesty. A song of seduction so great, it made Paul a heartthrob for the next 50 years.
It is also worth noting that the Beatles –with the exception of George Martin’s piano on “Not A Second Time”. played every instrument on the album and so what keeps on returning is this sense where the music, for all its influences, is completely unique.Yes to girl groups, skiffle, early rock and roll, country, the blues, Motown -all that stuff, but whatever happened when they put it together came out something else.
For the young girls, for their initial fan base, what came out the otherside on Meet The Beatles, was sex without the threat of rape, it was love without the concern of pregnancy and adulthood: if you could be true you could be happy and the result would be a most joyful noise.
With The Beatles was innocence peppered with wiseness. It was the thrill of young life coupled with the insecurites of love, it was the face of the future and in the long haired charming boys from the UK, all the lines of defense, all the bewildered post-WW II spoils of combat disappeared for the children of the greatest generation. Finally, the 19th century was over once and for all and the future was here. Is it as great as With The Beatles? No, but for what it was, a literal introduction to the greatest pop band of all time, it was everything it could ever need to be.
