Andrew_Hicks's Full Review: Beatles for Sale by The Beatles
I always consider Beatles For Sale as the equivalent of that highway sign that says “Last Rest Stop In Missouri” (or whatever state you happen to live in). In the Beatles canon, it’s your final chance to stop and catch your breath before the band reaches blatant, mind-blowing brilliance. It’s a good album, but it’s also the last of the four with the original formula intact – peppy, original pop songs mixed with cover tunes. After this, the rules change. Oh, Help! has its share of peppy originals and covers (okay, two), but it also has “Yesterday,” and nothing was the same musically after that.
Beatles For Sale is also the last Beatles album I got to know when I was first immersing myself in the band around 1994 or so. I started with the undeniable classics, Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road, and expanded myself backward through time. But I avoided this one initially, because the only familiar song was “Eight Days a Week,” which was, even then, my least favorite Beatles #1 hit. What I found when I did get into Beatles For Sale was mainly a slightly more-sophisticated continuation of With the Beatles. The sound is similar, the emphasis is on paying musical dues and the energy is through the roof.
But the original tunes on Beatles For Sale are far superior to the ones on With the Beatles. The opener, “No Reply,” is another John Lennon tale of rejection by the female species – he’s been wronged, and you feel every ounce of emotion, particularly in the hard-hitting bridge and vocal help from Paul McCartney on shouted lines like, “I nearly died.” The theme continues with “I’m a Loser,” which musically is much peppier than the title would suggest. It’s tempo-switching acoustic guitar and percussion in the early Beatles style, and with strong harmonica and electric guitar breaks.
Then there are songs like “Baby’s in Black” that sound like they were written and recorded in an afternoon. It might be the mixing on “Baby’s in Black,” an unremarkable waltz-type number, but it sounds mostly cacophonous and half-assed to me. So do most of the covers, like Lennon’s “Rock and Roll Music,” which is nonetheless likeable, and “Mr. Moonlight,” in which the lead and even harmony vocals are tossed together. Still, the “Kansas City” medley saves all for me, with surprisingly soulful vocals from Paul, bluesy guitar and a well-timed switch to “Hey Hey Hey Hey.”
I’ve had my ups and downs with the oldies-radio staple “Eight Days a Week,” but it’s a great example of the throwaway Beatles catchiness from this period. Try to resist singing along. And “I’ll Follow the Sun” is a quick and beautiful acoustic precursor to Paul’s later granola tunes like “Mother Nature’s Son” and “I Will.” Also, is it just me or would “Words of Love” fit in perfectly on the Rushmore soundtrack?
Beatles For Sale is an album for people who love early rock and roll music. It’s hardly experimental, but it’s catchy as hell. Even songs like “Honey Don’t,” which features lead vocals from Ringo (who cajoles George Harrison twice to “rock on for me”), are wonderfully bluesy. Like I said, though, this is your last old-style detour before the Beatles would leave the comfortable world of dues-paying pop and move on to change the face of music. And, for me, that’s when the music becomes truly beautiful.
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