The hidden meaning behind The Beatles’ ‘Help’
If the story of The Beatles teaches us anything, it’s that fame changes people. The Fab Four benefitted from being almost entirely unknown during their formative years, which would have made their meteoric rise to fame in 1963/64 even more of a shock to the system. Beatlemania made privacy impossible. Whether it was by fans or photographers, The Beatles were constantly followed, and it wasn’t long before Lennon began to struggle.
To claim that ‘Help’ contains a hidden message would be inaccurate – there’s nothing hidden about it. In the opening verse, Lennon sings: “So much younger than today / (I never need) I never needed anybody’s help in any way / (Now) but now these days are gone (these days are gone) / I’m not so self-assured / (And now I find) now I find I’ve changed my mind
And opened up the doors.” Here, Lennon is clearly expressing his discomfort with the limelight. By 1965, The Beatles had broken America and were well on their way to being the biggest band in the world. But with more fame came more anxiety. Lennon was struggling with his weight, his relationship with Cynthia and his songwriting ability.
“When ‘Help!’ came out, I was actually crying out for help,” Lennon says in David Sheff’s All We Are Saying. “Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n’ roll song. I didn’t realise it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. So it was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: he – I – is very fat, very insecure, and he’s completely lost himself. And I am singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was.”
It’s possible Lennon’s insecurities were also connected to his burgeoning desire to move away from commercial pop music. 1964 bought a range of new influences into his orbit: marijuana, LSD and the music of Bob Dylan, whose songs were far more intellectual than anything Lennon or McCartney had produced. ‘Help’ was clearly a watershed moment because, by the end of ’65, everything had changed. Lennon adopted a more introspective approach to songwriting, one that defined the sound of 1965’s Rubber Soul and 1966’s Revolver.
That same year, The Beatles stopped touring for good, allowing them to spend more time in the studio and create albums like Sgt.Pepper’s. It was the beginning of a whole new era.
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