19 - I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND - ESCARABATS

PERFORMANCE CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Not many days have left a mark on our cultural collective consciousness like 22 November 1963; US president JFK was assassinated, the first episode of Doctor Who aired and the Beatles released their difficult second album ‘With the Beatles’. ‘Difficult’ has become a buzzword due the many underwhelming second albums from bands over the years. The first album is usually full of songs written and honed over many years whereas the second needs to be written quickly against a hectic backdrop of being on the road so can create varied results.
With The Beatles carried on where Please Please Me had left off, melding more Lennon-McCartney originals with further highlights from their stage set. It also included the song-writing debut of their twenty-year old, Lead Guitarist, George Harrison ( with the fresh song "Don't Bother Me").
The Beatles' debut, Please Please Me, was famously cut in a single day. It's tougher follow-up, however, came together in seven sessions over four months amid the group's cyclonic British success. While fashion photographer Robert Freeman's iconic cover shot captured four sober young men in chic black turtlenecks, the music inside couldn't be any more bracing, jubilant, or sexy. References to home and happy reunions pepper "It Won't Be Long," "All My Loving," and five other Lennon-McCartney originals in addition to George Harrison's admonitory debut, "Don't Bother Me." And once the Beatles covered Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" and Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got a Hold on Me," they stayed covered.
The Beatles had to write a host of new songs in a surprisingly short period of time. Whilst still reliant on filing the album with covers at this stage, they managed a fantastic album that didn’t reinvent the wheel but kept it on a steady track towards the heights they would get to.
As we have done in all our project, our recording also included the singles that came out at the time of the LP. With this second album, after Please Please Me, we thought: “this is serious, it is not a joke” and we begin to believe in the Escarabats Project (making our version of every album when it becomes fifty years old), reverencing and playing with great respect the music of the Beatles. They are great.
ELS ESCARABATS
Lluís Moreno: Rhythm guitar, harmonica (15), piano, background vocals, lead vocals (11)
Joan Carles Catalá: Lead vocals, harmonica (16), hand claps
Joan Alba: Lead guitar, background vocals, harmonica (5,18)
Wolfgang Lepp: Bass guitar
Toni López: Drums, hand claps, percussion
Joan Tassa: Producer, mixer, audio engineer,
and intense coaching
Photographs: Joan Alba Llansó
Drawings: Laura Maynadé