Behka’s Breakfast With The Beatles Recap: Week of February 16

This week on Breakfast with Behka and The Beatles, we're going through the 1965 album, Help! On Monday, I realized I'd skipped past a single released before the album.  So we went back and covered "Ticket to Ride". This video is one they did for promotion, and if you watch it... they've clearly got a case of the smokey giggles.

The song was written by John Lennon. Lennon said that McCartney's contribution was limited to "the way Ringo played the drums". While the song lyrics describe a girl "riding out of the life of the narrator", the inspiration of the title phrase is unclear. McCartney said it was "a British Railways ticket to the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight", and Lennon said it described cards indicating a clean bill of health carried by Hamburg prostitutes in the 1960s. The Beatles played in Hamburg early in their musical career, and "ride/riding" was slang for having sex.

On Tuesday, we played the b-side of  "Ticket to Ride", "Yes It Is".

In his 1980 interview with Playboy, John Lennon described it as an attempt to rewrite "This Boy" (the style of the song) that "didn't quite work". Paul McCartney on the other hand described it as "a very fine song of John's", and said he was present when Lennon finished writing it. Over the course of a five-hour recording session, the Beatles attempted 14 takes of the basic track before perfecting it, more than any other song they recorded in 1965. It was recorded on 16 February, the same day that they completed Harrison's "I Need You". After completing the rhythm track, Lennon, McCartney and Harrison recorded their vocal harmonies in three hours, singing live together.

On Wednesday, we played track two of  Help!, "The Night Before".

The song is performed on Salisbury Plain in the second Beatles film, Help! and, just as it finishes, a bomb explodes. In the movie, the Beatles perform the song in the shadow of Stonehenge. Harrison mimes the terse, stabbing guitar solo — even though both he and McCartney played it on the record, according to Lennon. Lennon said in a 1965 interview that it was Harrison and McCartney playing the guitar solo together, albeit in different octaves.

On Thursday, I played track three, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away".

Lennon's vocal style was inspired by Bob Dylan. Lennon wrote the song at home during what he called his "Dylan period", wanting another song for the film. The song "is just basically John doing Dylan", Paul McCartney confirmed. This is one of my favorite Beatle tracks, and it's very cutely done in the movie. In the film, at the opening of the song, the head of the cult, Clang (Leo McKern), appears from underneath a manhole cover. He stays there for the whole song, which the Beatles play in Lennon's quarter of the Beatles' shared flat. The flute part of the song is performed by George's in-house gardener (who also trims his grass carpet with chattery teeth). They are watched by Ahme (Eleanor Bron), and at the end of the song, Harrison passes out after Ahme produces a giant needle for Starr, who is wearing the ring the cult is seeking.

On Friday, I played "I Need You".

It is the second George Harrison song the band released after two albums without any songwriting contribution from Harrison. The song was performed in their second film, Help! and is the second video produced showing George Harrison singing lead vocal on a song (after "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" from A Hard Day's Night). It is often considered to address Harrison's relationship with Pattie Boyd, whom he had met in March 1964 while filming A Hard Day's Night (they married in January 1966).

That's been our look back at this week's songs - join me on Monday at 6:00 a.m. where we'll pick up on Help! with track five, "Another Girl".

Beatifically yours,
Behka