#0042: The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night [*****]

I breathed a sigh of relief when I realised this was next.  That's all I really need to say to warrant the five stars.  When the idea of hearing something gives you a sense of relief that you can trust what you're about to hear, then it's a five star album.  I've actually listened to this twice.  It's like the CDs I have in the car.  I let them go round a couple of times before I change them over.

What is so great about AHDN?  The opening track has that incredible chord to start things off and it just blasts you with its energy.  The Beatles product is maturing and while this may not be their Thriller, their Brothers In Arms or their Parallel Lines, there's a ton of hits on this and the other songs ooze melodic genius.

I Should Have Known Better, with that wonderful braying harmonica hook is sticking two brazen fingers up to Bob Dylan.  Y'see Bob?  This is what can be done when you're not tone fucking deaf.

The simplicity of the sentiment in I Love Her, Things We Said Today and I'll Be Back steers the songs away from the schmaltzy pap they could so easily have been.

The anger in You Can't Do That, even though it's wildly inappropriate in terms of social values, controlling your partner etc, is just so cheekily delivered that you can't help but sympathise with this very jealous guy.

I'll Be Back is the stand out track for me.  I first heard this as a snippet on the very first Stars On 45 record that came out back in...1981 I think.  I was already very late to the Beatles party.  A couple of my friends at school had already discovered them but it's not a race right?

The song cuts right into me and brings me instantly to the verge of tears.  I was 11 or 12 and I'd fallen in love with a girl.  The fuck I had but for the sake of brevity, let's say that I did actually fall in love with her rather than it being a simulacrum I created in order to feel normal among my peer group.

I would listen to this and it spoke to me of the long-suffering nature of true love.  How peaceful love is in its obstinate persistence.  How void of need for reward or validation its selfless understanding.  I'm very fortunate to have been given that quality of love in my life.  Not at the time.  I was openly ridiculed and persecuted for my pathetic little crush and they tore my fat, bespectacled ass to pieces as only a cluster of poisonous cunty pre-teens can.  But the song has stayed with me and remains unpolluted by their prepubescent vitriol.