Ruminations on The Beatles: Please Please Me

[Repost From Old Site]
I've been what you might call a rabid Beatles fan for most of my life.  The story of my love for the Beatles is a long and complicated one, and would probably bore you if I were to tell it straight through.  So instead, what I've decided to do is write a series of articles surrounding each of the Beatles' albums; not so much reviews, as an autobiographical memoir of my experiences with each.
[audio:http://peterambles.blog.com/files/2013/03/14-Twist-And-Shout.mp3|titles=14 Twist And Shout]
Who among us has never danced to this song?  Like most living beings, I grew up with an awareness of the Beatles.  I heard their songs everywhere, whether I knew it then or not.  One of the truest testaments to their power is their ability to stay relevant, decades after their demise, and with only two living members to date.  I loved this song and danced to it before I even knew it was the Beatles.  So in a sense, I've always loved them.
It was in college where I first really discovered their music, however.  Their latter-day albums made a serious impression with me, containing as they did the blueprint for nearly everything that was to come in rock and roll.  It was a long process of many years before my interest grew beyond the post-Revolver material.  But once I embraced the more straightforward rock and roll of their early period, I found a wealth of spirited music that stands apart from its times, even if it does sound dated by today's standards.
When I listen to Please Please Me today, I hear punk rock before there ever was such a thing.  Compared to the punk and rock and roll that was to come, the music on this album is amusingly tame, but when you compare it to what was accepted and commonplace at the time, you can hear just how hard  the Beatles rocked.  A quick study of their formative years in Hamburg makes this clear enough, and thought they no doubt sound more polished on Please Please Me than they did in the Reeperbahn, you can still hear the spit and fire embedded in the cleaned-up riffs.  A band had to bend a lot further to make a record back then.  There were simply things one couldn't  do.  The Beatles strength then was in their subtlety; sneaking messages of wanton teenaged lust past overbearing parents in the form of emotionally charged love songs.
And as love songs go, you'll never, ever find a bunch better than the early Lennon/McCartney songbook.  Everything that can be said by rock and roll on the subject of love is covered, and to date no one has said it with more eloquence, emotion and style.  Every artist since has been beholden to the standard set by the Beatles, whether they know it or not.
"Twist and Shout" in particular shows the raw ferocity and punk-ish spirit of the early Beatles.  The album was recorded in a single session, ludicrous by today's standards (though common enough then), and by the end of the day, a sore-throated John Lennon was forced to belt out this iconic dance tune with the last drop of his energy.  We hear that last drop sputter from his shredded vocal chords like his life depended on it, which of course, it did.  The song, and so many others form this album, stuck, and quietly shattered the expectations of millions of rock and roll fans.  When I listen to it, I hear the same spirit that moved the likes of Johnny Rotten, Ian Mackaye and Jello Biafra to throw themselves all over the stage, writhing with rage, blood spewing from their battered bodies.  I hear the voice of the young who desire nothing but freedom, who want to shake off the chains of an oppressive society in a frenzy of dance.
If Lennon had never screeched out his desire to do the twist, Jello Biafra spewing bile against the establishment might never have been possible.  Songs (and albums) like this were the first poke of the tip of the knife into the veil of society, loosening the fabric enough that the rock that came after could tear it all down.
So if you are like I once was, and dismiss the early Beatles as just another oldies band, listen harder.  You have to with these old records.  Try to hear it as it sounded then, not as it sounds now.  If you do, you will hear a pot that was just about to boil over, and the restrained tension behind these old songs makes them some of my favorites to this day.