Ask Me Why

Richard Furnstein: The boys wooo-wooo-woo-woo their way into our hearts with this early exotic filler. Ringo shuffles and plods and Paul is almost inaudible. There's not much here, but that's almost the beauty. The first two minutes exist to build towards the stunning climax, where harmonies suspend over a desolate cliff of lovely. George plunks out some final notes for some well deserved suspense. It's over before you realize all the gorgeousness that you just encountered. Play it again, that's why the button is there.

Robert Bunter: The Beatles sound surprisingly polished and wonderful on this early gem. The studio version, great as it is, sounds limp compared to the energetic live readings on "Live at the Star Club" and the "Last Night In Hamburg" bootlegs. What must it have been like to be in the audience in those raucous subterranean German beer cellars in 1962? We can only imagine.

I see myself swaying drunkenly under the influence of many "pints" of dark brown lager, my arm snaking playfully across the midriff of pixie-haired existentialist Astrid Kirchherr (she needs comforting because of the loss of inferior bassist Stu Sutcliffe a mere two months ago in April 1962) as my leather-jacketed buddies from Liverpool on the cramped stage belt out this yearning rock and roll lament. Then there's that augmented chord right before the bridge, and next I hear "I can't belieeeeeeeeeve / this happened to meeeeeeeeeee" and my heart soars as I feel a hand in my pocket, a delicate female German hand that isn't my own. "Do you fancy some fish and chips, bird?" I say to her. "That would be gear, mate," she replies. And then we leap onto my moped, racing towards what sweaty, nude, tousled German sunrise?

Don't wake me up, it is too beautiful.

Richard Furnstein: I'm quivering with excitement right now!