Music moment: With a little help from his friends

[ceri]

I've been listening to the Beatles remasters, courtesy of the local library. (Yup, there they were, just shelves. I snaffled. Will return them now that I've ripped them so that others can enjoy them, too.) First I note that they are amazingly glorious albums and that if you have any fondness for the Beatles at all, you want these. Like the remastering of the Yellow Submarine movie a few years back, these albums now sound as vibrant as if they'd been recorded last night and uploaded for sharing this morning.

I was freshly struck by how smart and distinctive a lot of these songs are even now. Take "With A Little Help From My Friends", reproduced here for your listening convenience. (Ignore the 4:20 running time. The song's only 2:45 or so long, and then there's silence after that.)

There are a lot of songs where the backup singers complement the lead singer, including "She's Leaving Home" on the very same album as this. (What a pure heartbreak it is, too.) But how often is there an actual conversation between lead and backups? Not often, I'm thinking.

 

Comments

[onomasticator]

"The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes."

Mind you, it would be fair to spy a certain amount of Beatles influence on Costello's music.

[ceri]

Good catch, and quite true. ;)