Post by gremashlo on Nov 20, 2010 19:45:36 GMT -5
While I made mention earlier of a notorious Beatles "B" side ("You Know My Name", the flipside of "Let It Be"), the Beatles were not ones usually prone to wasting material for flips--hence the reason why they had so many two-sided hits...in fact, "Something/Come Together" was the first hit in which both sides were combined to reach #1 (Note to music historians--"Hound Dog/All Shook Up" by Elvis had both sides chart independently of each other).
However, while they did release consistent quality, they often were ignored as album tracks or lower scale chartings. But none was tossed away for so many years as "I'm Down".
While serving as the flipside to the world wide #1 "Help" and a concert favorite of the Beatles right up to the end of their live tours, the song itself was never released on the Help soundtrack album (and this was during a time when Capitol would deliberately take any/all stray album tracks and flips in order to create bogus albums for US sale). In fact, it would never be seen as an album track until Capitol released the "Rock and Roll Music" compilation album (which was only released because Capitol tried to cash in on rumors that the Beatles were about to reunite).
The song is a rollicking hoot, as it is Paul's dead-on homage to Little Richard, screams, whoops and all. At a time when the Beatles were going into studio production with increasing precision and experimentation, they could still cut loose with high octane rock and roll. A special feature is John Lennon's very first organ solo--which would receive special immortality when the Beatles perfomed at Shea Stadium, and Lennon basically went insane.
Still, it is a wonder how the Beatles could toss this song aside as a joke--as Dave Marsh noted, some far inferior group could have made a decent career out of the organ solos alone.
However, while they did release consistent quality, they often were ignored as album tracks or lower scale chartings. But none was tossed away for so many years as "I'm Down".
While serving as the flipside to the world wide #1 "Help" and a concert favorite of the Beatles right up to the end of their live tours, the song itself was never released on the Help soundtrack album (and this was during a time when Capitol would deliberately take any/all stray album tracks and flips in order to create bogus albums for US sale). In fact, it would never be seen as an album track until Capitol released the "Rock and Roll Music" compilation album (which was only released because Capitol tried to cash in on rumors that the Beatles were about to reunite).
The song is a rollicking hoot, as it is Paul's dead-on homage to Little Richard, screams, whoops and all. At a time when the Beatles were going into studio production with increasing precision and experimentation, they could still cut loose with high octane rock and roll. A special feature is John Lennon's very first organ solo--which would receive special immortality when the Beatles perfomed at Shea Stadium, and Lennon basically went insane.
Still, it is a wonder how the Beatles could toss this song aside as a joke--as Dave Marsh noted, some far inferior group could have made a decent career out of the organ solos alone.
