There are a number of reasons why The Beatles struggled and why they were a band destined to break up. It’s a lot to put into words, but John Lennon does a pretty good job of summarising the problem with one line, as he says, “Trying to please everybody is impossible,” he said. “If you did that, you’d end up in the middle with nobody liking you. You’ve just got to make the decision about what you think is your best and do it.”
In many ways, this was one of The Beatles’ biggest problems. The moment they played on the Ed Sullivan Show, everyone around the world wanted to play in a band and emulate what they did in some way. The whole world was suddenly infatuated with The Beatles, and with that, they were in the position where they had to please everyone, and each member had a different idea as to how to do that.
One of the biggest creative divides within the band was between John Lennon and Paul McCartney. While the two are frequently celebrated as one of the best songwriting duos of all time (and rightly so), as the band progressed, what they believed was the most important aspect of songwriting changed. McCartney liked melody and was keen on making songs that would sit well in the charts and live on as hits. Meanwhile, Lennon wanted something more honest, a truer reflection of himself.
When McCartney wrote the song ‘Hello, Goodbye’, he was happy with its catchy melody and fun juxtaposed lyrics; however, John Lennon detested it. “That’s another McCartney. Smells a mile away, doesn’t it?” said Lennon, “An attempt to write a single. It wasn’t a great piece; the best bit was the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played the piano.” In many ways, this encapsulates the overriding problems that the band faced.
John Lennon hated it when music sounded too commercialised. He wanted to write songs that touched something in those who listened, which helped them realise something about themselves or about him. When asked about his favourite songs for The Beatles, Lennon gave suggestions that he felt were his most honest and showed him in the clearest light.
He always listed ‘Help’ as one of the best songs he wrote for the band. “I meant it, it’s real,” he said, “The lyric is as good now as it was then, it’s no different, you know. It makes me feel secure to know that I was that sensible or whatever—well, not sensible, but aware of myself. That’s with no acid, no nothing… well, pot or whatever.”
That honesty was something that Lennon wanted to champion not only in the songs he wrote but in the way they were recorded. He didn’t like it when songs sounded too commercial and instead liked things to sound like they were recorded live and a true representation of what was contained within the track. ‘Help’ was one of the songs he was most keen on re-recording because it had that commercial sound, alongside ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’.
“I don’t like the recording [of ‘Help!’] that much,” he said, “We did it too fast trying to be commercial. I like ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’. We wrote that together. It’s a beautiful melody. I might do ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Help’ again because I like them, and I can sing them.”