The Beatles: Beatles For Sale

The Beatles: Beatles For Sale:

1964

Parlophone Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. No Reply  2. I'm a Loser  3. Baby's in Black  4. Rock and Roll Music  5. I'll Follow the Sun  6. Mr. Moonlight  7. Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!  8. Eight Days a Week  9. Words of Love  10. Honey Don't  11. Every Little Thing  12. I Don't Want to Spoil the Party  13. What You're Doing  14.  Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby

We're going to start today with Part 4 of "The Beatle Years" radio show tape I found recently:

Okay, with that out of the way, let's check discuss "Beatles for Sale...."

That autumnal cover really fits the more adult-mood....To me, this is another big step up...The originals are uniformly spectacular, as the band starts to develop their distinct personalities. The acerbic John with his witheringly self-loathing tracks "I'm a Loser," and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party." Contrast this with Paul's sweeter, more wistful ""I'll Follow the Sun."

Due to the limited time the band was given to write and record the album, the covers are back...Some of them seem filler-ish ("Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby," "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey") but the Buddy Holly cover is phenomenal...an excellent choice to showcase their beautiful harmonies, and "Baby's in Black is their best slow jam yet...It seems more mournful and mysterious than its straight-forward lyrics would imply...



It's also cool to hear their famous studio experimentalism in its embryonic form...The fade-in to "8 Days a Week" is historic...Everybody else was pushing the envelope by fading out songs, but the Beatles had the cool idea to fade their song in...Which gives what would be a killer pop tune anyway, a  build-up that all but screams, "This is going to be awesome!" And how much greater is "Every Little Thing She Does" for its epic timpani? George Martin and the Beatles were smart enough to know it's the small touches that make a song...



Another good album, and they only get better...Even though this album has way more filler than "A Hard Days Night," I actually like this one better...The great songs are truly great and their personalities and performances really carry it through and turned what could have been a dud album into a small triumph....This album also taught me to appreciate the covers aspect of the Beatles albums a bit more..

But we're not going to listen to a cover today...Instead we're going to check out the opening track "No Reply," that immediately let you know that this Beatles lp was going to be a bit different...Enjoy...