Going Back To The Please Please Me Album

One thing I've always enjoyed doing is mentally placing albums in their time-period context. This approach makes me appreciate the album more than I would otherwise. A timelessly great album comes off that much greater and one that hasn't aged too well still holds many factors of appreciation. It's the latter approach with which I "sit" each time I put on PPM....the album (proper) which I feel is the single most underrated in The Beatles' career. No, it does not compare to the musical brilliance of nearly all the post Help! albums (or even With The Beatles, for that matter which was just one album later). But I think to myself...here's an album from early 1963 by a brand new Pop/Rock group whose seasoned style and exuberance of the last three years worth of bar playing is represented for the first time in a proper studio. Great mics, great recording consoles, great sound balance...basically a live performance in a great studio. And along with that comes a sense of uniqueness...a uniqueness in the interpretation of the cover songs and a uniqueness in the fact that it contains some originals which show some pretty strong promise from these four kids. When I approach the PPM album in this way, I not only find it a "good" album but a hell of an exciting one. I think too many fans lose touch of the explosive magic this album offered in it's time and place. Your thoughts?

 

I love me some please please me especially after my fairly recent acquisition of the German Special Tape Pressing

 

Like plenty of Beatle fans, I tend to sort of dismiss it mentally. "It's Please Please Me, it's great, let's move on." But when you put that thing on, the raw energy just kicks out. It truly is a great album.

 

same feeling. Played WTB yesterday and turned it off. Will try PPM Sunday

 

I love Please Please Me. I could put it on right now and thoroughly enjoy it all the way through. It's not their greatest work, but it's an important work.

Most of it was recorded in one day. It's a great representation of their stage act at the time. I don't understand the negativity the LP attracts. It was the starting point of a great progression, and it's a great album on its own terms.

 

German Special Tape Pressing...?? You *know* I have to ask...so I'm asking......can you elaborate on that..??

 

I've learned to find the proper beauty of the album regardless its time of release; but it's fine to appreciate any music taking into account the time context. Nevertheless, I don't think the album is underrated; for instance, Please Please Me is placed at #39 in Rolling Stone's 500 greatest albums list, higher than any other Beatles album released before Rubber Soul. I'd say that Help! is a more underrated album, taking into account both quality and acclaim.

 

It’s a different pressing using the Die Beatles Stereo tape. I’m making dinner so I can give you the pressing info later

 

Hey , DK Pete...
I'm curious as to the timing of this thread about ' Please Please Me '.
On another recent thread a female member said this was her fave Fab Four disc. Was it you that replied to her and guessed she was in her 50's only to have her respond that she was in fact in her late 20s?
Fess up if it was you. Or lie.

As to this album , it' s a fine debut. A couple of the tracks may seem somewhat dated but it is closing in on being nearly 60 years old.
' Twist and Shout ' alone is worth the price of admission. And ' There's A Place ' and ' I Saw Her Standing There' and ' Baby It' s You ' and...

 

PPM is a fantastic album. It has aged splendidly if you ask me.

Yes, some of the tunes come off as goofy (A Taste Of Honey) and by the musical standards The Beatles were setting just a few months later it comes off as kind of primitive, but like others have posted, the sheer exuberance of it comes powering through every time. It is a great album, a fantastic listen and nicely recorded, too, considering what most poprock records of the day were recorded like. It is like they just came out of the club and were hot and ready to record.

Plus, line up PPM with the other debut LPs of the day by iconic sixties groups and it stands in a rarefied place of its own.

The Beach Boys Surfin' Safari was released just a few months before PPM and it's just no contest -- PPM is a double-barrel shotgun blast next to a pea-shooter (and I'm a Beach Boys fan saying this).

The Rolling Stones' debut LP would be released a year, year-and-a-half later and while an exciting listen, it's clear The Beatles were far more musical. If I had to choose just one -- PPM or the 'Stones debut -- it would have to be PPM.

Dylan's debut was released just about a year (IIRC) prior to PPM and it bears some similarities IMO. Not musically, but Dylan, like The Beatles on PPM, sounds like he just left the club and was hot to record. Still, if I had to choose just one -- Dylan's debut or PPM -- I have to go with The Beatles.

And, finally, Twist And Shout. Is there any track more exuberant, more joyous, more uplifting than The Beatles' cover of Twist And Shout? I'd be hard pressed to name one. I Saw Her Standing There is a contender on the album in question, but Twist And Shout simply slays.

It's funny the way people think of whether or not something has "aged well" or not. Most of the time I've found that things people think have "aged well" somehow connect the past with the modern in their eyes and ears. Sounds "ahead of its time" or something. PPM certainly sounds of its time (even if it was part of the best of its time, in poprock terms), but the sheer fun and exuberance heard in that album is something I don't hardly hear in anything else.

Though I'm a Beatles fan, I think it's probably true that I've listened to PPM more than the bands' other albums during the past ten or fifteen years. Maybe having copies of the stereo HorZu Die Beatles had a lot to do with that, but I'm sure the feeling I get from the album was/is just as important.

In that sense, I'd say PPM has aged very well indeed.

 

You could play ' Twist and Shout' at any club or party in 1963, 1973 , 1993 , 2013, 2073 and people will get up and twist and shout.

 

try Meet The Beatles! exciting album!

 

Heres some advanced details about my copy and the pressing in general.

its from Apple/EMI Electrola
Made in 1977, Germany
Deadwax Side 1: SHZE 117-A-2 04219-A-2
Deadwax Side 2: SHZE 117-B-2 04219-B-2
Catalogue number: 1C 072-04219

 

It's my second least favourite Beatles album, only ahead of Yellow Submarine.
One thing I agree with the OP on is that it does show promise. I hear it it one of the weaker cuts, "Baby It's You" in Lennon's voice. It's like "Who's to know what the future will bring to this group?". It has a lot of weak material though, notwithstanding the greatness of "Twist And Shout" (one of the last songs recorded for the record, George Martin saying how he couldn't believe how they just got better and better as the session wore on), the opening exuberance of "I Saw Her Standing There" and a fine single in the title track.
But by their second album, the originals were mostly great and the covers showed more and more confidence. With The Beatles is one of my fave Beatles albums.
And as for the Stones' and Dylan's debuts, both are better listening experiences for me, with the Stones' R&B swagger and a barely out of teenage years Dylan sounding like a man who's lived a hard and long life.
Anyway, that's my $0.02.

 

Thanks...I find that German Apple pressings prior to Revolver are a lot less common than the later albums...I guess this is one to look out for. Thanks for the numbers.

 

I couldn't agree more on WTB; it was not one but five steps up from PPM in a number of ways.

 

Everytime I start playing this LP I can't help but sing along to every song. This was actually the first Beatles album that I heard back in 1985, and how fascinated I was! So simple, so natural...

 

Two ways to look at this:

1. In context. Simple: name any other album that can broadly be considered to be "rock"/"rock 'n' roll" recorded in this time frame that can possibly compare to this one in terms of overall quality. Don't look at it through the lens of later accomplishments, but simply in terms of what else was around then. Can you name one that, pound-per-pound, has better combination of songs, playing, singing and general excitement?
2. Today. All I can say is that if you're not still moved by the album's infectious energy, freshness and confidence — if you can't hear what this early salvo portended for the future of rock 'n' roll, then you need to look up the word "jaded" in the dictionary.

Additional thoughts: The Beach Boys occurred to me as well, but the album that was recorded contemporaneously with PPM is actually Surfin' USA. That album has no fewer than five instrumentals, and the only really stand-out tracks are the title song and "Farmer's Daughter." Once again, no contest.

And even if the ballads on PPM don't do much for you, listen for John Lennon's voice. Nothing else like it at the time — and still nothing else like it 56+ years later.

 

Totally agree.

 

Couldn't have said it better myself. Context gets lost way too often, especially with "best guitarist" (whatever that means) conversations. But, for me, this is just a great album, even out of context. Other than the obvious songs, I really love Anna!
This album is about midway on my favorite Beatles albums list.

 

One of the best debut albums of all time.

 

Please Please Me is an excellent record. When people wish they could get into a time machine to go back and see The Beatles at The Cavern Club, this is your time machine. It's the only original lp completely recorded while they were still playing The Cavern.

A recent, excellent podcast about the groundbreaking aspects of "Please Please Me" can be heard at Nothing Is Real - Episode 13 - Please Please Me from Nothing Is Real - A Beatles Podcast with Forum member @Saul Pimon.

 

This is easily my least favorite Beatles album. I never really considered this album to be truly a part of the catalog, in part because Capitol didn't release it until later. But I think that many of the songs are amateurish (Love Me Do, Misery), and the fact that John's voice is shot does not help.

 

Sad to say it gets lost to me if I have the Beatles on "Random play". Rarely do I have time to sit through a whole album these days!

 

Agreed. I will place 'The Beatles Story' above it any day!

:--)