TS: "Help!" vs. "Help Me, Rhonda"

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Time of deliberation: 0.000; Beach Boyz by a googleplex quarter-miles.

It's all chorus but that chorus >> Help!

― a regal trolley (aaron a), Saturday, 22 April 2006 20:05 (twenty years ago)

the guy in "help me rhonda" doesn't sound like he needs help as much as the guy in "help!"

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 22 April 2006 20:08 (twenty years ago)

i'm not that fond of "help." i'm not trying to be contrarian, i just don't really see what the big whoop is with it.

― stockholm cindy: comedy vigilante (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 22 April 2006 20:09 (twenty years ago)

Help starts with its chorus, and it has a better chorus.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Saturday, 22 April 2006 20:10 (twenty years ago)

the guy in "help me rhonda" doesn't sound like he needs help as much as the guy in "help!"

haha, exactly.

― a regal trolley (aaron a), Saturday, 22 April 2006 20:11 (twenty years ago)

The Beatles, "Help!"

― stockholm cindy: comedy vigilante (Jody Beth Rosen), Saturday, 22 April 2006 20:13 (twenty years ago)

"Help" isn't as much a direct address as it is a shout to anyone listening. "Help Me Rhonda" is more "I'm not having sex at the moment, because I can't forget the last person I had sex with. Will you, Rhonda, have sex with me and help to erase the memory?"

― Eric Harvey (eric marathonpacks), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:23 (twenty years ago)

"Help" by two yardsticks BTW.

― Eric Harvey (eric marathonpacks), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:24 (twenty years ago)

"Well since she put me down, there's been owls puking in my head..."

I hate you Dave Barry.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:36 (twenty years ago)

"help!" has better harmonies go figure!

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:38 (twenty years ago)

beatles pretty easy for me too on this one at least

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 22 April 2006 21:38 (twenty years ago)

Beatles by far are better...doesn't matter which song, except for maybe "Don't Worry Baby"

― me, Sunday, 23 April 2006 03:42 (twenty years ago)

i prefer help me rhonda

― buyabiznatch (buyabiznatch), Sunday, 23 April 2006 03:42 (twenty years ago)

Help starts with its chorus, and it has a better chorus.
-- jimnaseum (takeyourmedicinelikeacham...) (webmail), April 22nd, 2006. (jimnaseum)

Is that the chorus? Because it doesn't repeat. I think the chorus is actually "Help me if you can, I'm feelin' down" etc.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 23 April 2006 03:54 (twenty years ago)

For its bouncy pre-ABBA roller-rink rhythm, "Rhonda."

― In The Court Of The Redd King Harvest (Ken L), Sunday, 23 April 2006 03:57 (twenty years ago)

When I was 15 it would have been "Help!" by ten leagues or more. I knew JUST what he was on about and it just about brought me to tears, although mainly it just brought me to playing the record over and over and over. (Note: this was the Red Album, and I was also doing this for the same reasons with "Eleanor Rigby" and "Paperback Writer," which struck me as similarly tragic...) I dunno, though, these days "Help!" just kind of sits there for me, and there are a few little points that actively annoy me:

1. "I know that I...just need you like...I've never done before" - this is a clumsy, wordy way to say "I need you"

2. the guitar work is way too fiddly and busy

3. the crisis in general is obnoxiously vague - when he was younger he didn't need help, okay, now he's not so self-assured - why? Because he's "changed his mind and opened up the doors?" What? BE MORE SPECIFIC PLEASE.

Of course there are some great moments, and Blount is right to spotlight the harmonies ("My in-de-peennndence..") and the vagueness does lend it that universal, "How Soon Is Now?"-y appeal for 15-year-old Casinos everywhere... but, eh, if I knew "Help Me Rhonda" was playing on one station and "Help!" on the other, I would pick "Rhonda" anytime - assuming it's the single mix and not the shouty, "Look, I can fuck with the volume knob!" album cut...

Of course, just to be fair, I'll go ahead and point out that the "Rhonda" storyline is about as weak as "Help!" (though JD is right that Lennon sells his need for help a lot more convincingly) - in particular, there's something very dated about "She was gonna be my wife and I was gonna be her man" - it just doesn't seem right that if they were THAT serious to the point of getting married that we're getting so little emotional detail here. "I'll give you lots of reasons why..." Really? What are they? Can't you fit some into the song maybe? How did he feel about this nameless other girl? How does he feel about Rhonda aside from the fact that she, um, exists?

But man, is it a fabulously listenable recording...

I always sing it as "owls puking in my bed" too. Thanks, Dave...

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 23 April 2006 05:06 (twenty years ago)

Don't fuck with me, dig?

http://www.lt24online.com.ar/2002news/graficos/beach_boys_al_jardine.jpg

― timmy tannin (pompous), Sunday, 23 April 2006 05:16 (twenty years ago)

I guess I'm the opposite of you. I think Rhonda starts out well but then is let down by the three word chorus. With only 3 words, it feels like it's repeated a million times, i.e., it drags. Also, I don't like the way they lower the volume and then raise it back. Help! blasts off and just keeps surging. It never drags.

― Carlos Keith (Buck_Wilde), Sunday, 23 April 2006 09:31 (twenty years ago)

Carlos: Again, note that the volume-shifting gimmick appears only on the earlier album version of "Help Me Rhonda"; the single version features none of that nonsense. Unfortunately, both seem to be anthologized about equally, to the point where radio programmers now seem to have no idea which one they should be playing...

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Sunday, 23 April 2006 14:34 (twenty years ago)

Help starts with its chorus, and it has a better chorus.
-- jimnaseum (takeyourmedicinelikeacham...) (webmail), April 22nd, 2006. (jimnaseum)
Is that the chorus? Because it doesn't repeat. I think the chorus is actually "Help me if you can, I'm feelin' down" etc.

-- Tim Ellison

I don't know why I thought that was the chorus. It sounds like a chorus! But yeah, it's just an intro.

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Sunday, 23 April 2006 14:43 (twenty years ago)

And the intro is superior to the chorus of "Help me Rhonda".

― jimnaseum (jimnaseum), Sunday, 23 April 2006 14:43 (twenty years ago)

Help! in a 1st round TKO. Not even close.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Sunday, 23 April 2006 14:48 (twenty years ago)

Kind of a mismatch if you ask me. In all of those "Best Songs Evah" features where they give artists their own little sidebars to expound on their fave cuts, Brian Wilson inevitably names the Ronettes "Be My Baby" at no. 1 and then nine Beach Boys songs that he wrote. "Help Me Rhonda" is NEVER one of those songs.

"Help" = the fantastically exciting sensation of being run down by a bus
"Help Me Rhonda" = could be pretty much any tier 2 Beach Boys song - still great, but not Gr-r-r-eat!

(I look forward to this appearing italicized in another post by someone saying "when Brian Wilson wipes his ass, the sound of the toilet paper being flushed is better than any song the Beatles recorded by a million billion hectacres.")

― M. Biondi (M. Biondi), Sunday, 23 April 2006 15:34 (twenty years ago)

I actually don't think either one is top shelf. As M. Biondi said, "Rhonda" is definitely cool but it's no "I Can Hear Music" or "Let Him Run Wild" or "Wild Honey".

And "Help!", to me, is in the "Nowhere Man" category. It's kind of monotonous, as the overall rhythm is kind of a drag. If we're talking hits then it sure ain't no "Ticket to Ride," "I Feel Fine" or "Can't Buy Me Love".

Having said all that, I saw DRAW and lets talk about better tunes from both bands.

― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Sunday, 23 April 2006 16:09 (twenty years ago)

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