The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1964)

A Hard Day's Night, the movie, was meant to be a standard pop film to give fans of the Beatles a chance to see their heroes up close and in action.  It proved to be more than that; it became a huge cultural statement of a new generation.  A Hard Day's Night, the soundtrack album, made that same statement with some of the most direct, most joyous music the group had produced up to that point . . . and perhaps the most direct and joyous music they ever would produce.  Long before they became more conscious of their arrangements, incorporated different instruments and effects in their sound, or put more original thought in the lyrics, the Beatles were re-inventing pop out of a conditioned reflex.   

From the strident guitar chord that begins to the opening title song to the measured acoustic guitar fade-out of  the closing number, "I'll Be Back," A Hard Day's Night brims with musical ingenuity. George Harrison's Rickenbacker twelve-string solo on "I Should Have Known Better" (the B-side of "A Hard Day's Night" in the U.S.)  pulsates with energy, while the cutting performances of "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" and "Can't Buy Me Love " are full of unbridled power. Both John Lennon and Paul McCartney prove adept at writing proper ballads, with John offering his evocative "If I Fell" and Paul providing his tender love letter to then-girlfriend Jane Asher, "And I Love Her."  Both songs are low in key, centered on understated guitar and light percussion, but neither one of them has a trace of icky sentimentality.

The songs on side two of A Hard Day's Night, the non-soundtrack portion of the record (including all thirteen songs from this album in the movie would have left little time for plot development), are no less captivating, offering clues of the more multifaceted nature of the Beatles' music.  "Any Time At All" "and "You Can't Do That," two of the toughest songs John produced in this period, are really soul tunes that rival some of Motown's most intense records, while Paul's "Things We Said Today" (the B-side of "A Hard Day's Night" in the U.K.) foresees the more lyrical folk rock of American groups like the Lovin' Spoonful.  Lyrically, the songs continue to be about one of two things, a boy winning a girl or a boy losing a girl, but the exuberance of happy relationships and the implicit determination in overcoming relationships that aren't so happy make A Hard Day's Night a positive record overall for listeners; you're not only thrilled by this music, you're thrilled to hear a band that's as thrilled to be performing it.  The first Beatles album comprised entirely of original material (and the only Beatles album comprised entirely of  Lennon-McCartney compositions), A Hard Day's Night is a declaration from a quartet seasoned by their days as a cover band in Liverpool and Hamburg that they have no problem speaking for themselves.   

(This is my last Sunday record review for awhile; I need another break.  Look for it to return in due time, the date to be determined.)