Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale is the fourth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 4 December 1964 in the United Kingdom on EMI's Parlophone label. The album marked a departure from the upbeat tone that had characterised the Beatles' previous work, partly due to the band's exhaustion after a series of tours that had established them as a worldwide phenomenon in 1964. Beatles for Sale was not widely available in the US until 1987, when the Beatles' catalogue was standardised for release on CD. Instead, eight of the album's fourteen tracks appeared on Capitol Records' concurrent release, Beatles '65, issued in North America only.
For the 1965 EP, see Beatles for Sale (EP).Beatles for Sale
The sessions for Beatles for Sale also produced a non-album single, "I Feel Fine" backed by "She's a Woman" as the B-side. During the sessions, the band ventured into studio experimentation, such as employing a fade-in and incorporating guitar feedback, and supplemented the basic recordings with percussion instruments such as timpani, African hand drums, and chocalho. The album reflects the twin influences of country music and Bob Dylan, whom the Beatles met in New York in August 1964. Partly as a result of the group's hectic schedule, only eight of the tracks are original compositions, with cover versions of songs by artists such as Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard being used to complete the album. The original songs introduced darker musical moods and more introspective lyrics, with John Lennon adopting an autobiographical perspective in "I'm a Loser" and "No Reply". Furthermore, the majority of the songs did not feature themes of love, with only three out of the fourteen tracks mentioning love in a positive light.
Beatles for Sale received favourable reviews in the UK musical press, where it held the number one spot for 11 of the 46 weeks that it spent in the top 20. The album was similarly successful in Australia, where the band's cover of Berry's "Rock and Roll Music" also topped the singles chart. One of the songs omitted from the US version of the album, "Eight Days a Week", became the Beatles' seventh number one in the US when issued as a single there in February 1965. In 2000, it was voted number 204 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums.
Background[edit]
When Beatles for Sale was being recorded, Beatlemania was at its peak.[5] In early 1964, the Beatles had made waves with their television appearances in the US, sparking unprecedented demand for their records there. Over June and July, the band played concerts in Denmark, the Netherlands and Hong Kong, toured Australia and New Zealand,[6] and then returned to Britain for a series of radio and television engagements and to promote their first feature film, A Hard Day's Night.[7] After performing further concerts in Sweden, they began recording the new album in London in mid August, only to then depart for a month-long tour of North America.[8] While in New York, the Beatles met American folk singer Bob Dylan, who introduced the band members to cannabis. Through Dylan's example, the Beatles, particularly John Lennon,[9] were encouraged to write more introspective lyrics than before.[10] For his part, Dylan said he recognised that the Beatles "were pointing the direction that music had to go",[11][12] and he soon began writing songs that embraced youth culture and recording with a rock backing.[13][14]
Beatles for Sale was the Beatles' fourth album release in the space of 21 months.[15] Neil Aspinall, the band's road manager, later reflected: "No band today would come off a long US tour at the end of September, go into the studio and start a new album, still writing songs, and then go on a UK tour, finish the album in five weeks, still touring, and have the album out in time for Christmas. But that's what the Beatles did at the end of 1964. A lot of it was down to naiveté, thinking that this was the way things were done. If the record company needs another album, you go and make one."[16] Noting the subdued and melancholy tone of much of the album, producer George Martin recalled: "They were rather war weary during Beatles for Sale. One must remember that they'd been battered like mad throughout 1964, and much of 1963. Success is a wonderful thing but it is very, very tiring."[15]
Songwriting and musical styles[edit]
Although prolific, the songwriting partnership of Lennon and Paul McCartney was unable to keep up with the demand for new material.[17][18] To make up for the shortfall in output, the Beatles resorted to including several cover versions on the album.[19] This had been their approach for their first two albums – Please Please Me and With the Beatles – but had been abandoned for A Hard Day's Night.[20] McCartney said of the combination on Beatles for Sale: "Basically it was our stage show, with some new [original] songs."[nb 1]
The album features eight Lennon–McCartney compositions.[26] In addition, the pair wrote both sides of the non-album single, "I Feel Fine" backed with "She's a Woman",[27] which accompanied the LP's release.[28] At this stage in their partnership, Lennon and McCartney rarely wrote together as before, but each would often contribute key parts to songs for which the other was the primary author.[29] Nevertheless, Lennon's level of contribution to Beatles for Sale outweighed McCartney's,[30][31] a situation that, as on A Hard Day's Night, author Ian MacDonald attributes to McCartney's commitment being temporarily sidetracked by his relationship with English actress Jane Asher.[32][nb 2]
At the time, Lennon said of the album: "You could call our new one a Beatles country and western LP."[34] Music critic Tim Riley views the album as a "country excursion",[3] while MacDonald describes it as being "dominated by the [country-and-western] idiom".[4] The impetus for this new direction came partly from the band's exposure to US country radio stations while on tour;[35] in addition, it was a genre that Ringo Starr had long championed.[36] Lennon's "I'm a Loser" was the first Beatles song to directly reflect Dylan's influence.[37] Author Jonathan Gould highlights the influence of blues and country-derived rockabilly on the album's original compositions and in the inclusion of songs by Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly. He also comments that Dylan's acoustic folk sound was a style that the Beatles tended to identify as country music.[38]
McCartney later said that Beatles for Sale inaugurated a more mature phase for the band, whereby: "We got more and more free to get into ourselves. Our student selves rather than 'we must please the girls and make money' …"[39] According to author Peter Doggett, this period coincided with Lennon and McCartney being feted by London society, from which the pair found inspiration among a network of non-mainstream writers, poets, comedians, film-makers and other arts-related individuals. Doggett says that their social milieu in 1964 represented "new territory for pop" and a challenge to British class delineation as the Beatles introduced an "arty middle-class" sensibility to pop music.[40]
Recording[edit]
The sessions for Beatles for Sale began at EMI Studios on 11 August, one month after the release of A Hard Day's Night. The majority of the recording sessions took place during a three-week period beginning on 29 September, following the band's return from the US tour. Much of the production was done on "days off" from performances in the UK, and much of the songwriting was completed in the studio.
George Harrison recalled that the band had become more sophisticated about recording techniques: "Our records were progressing. We'd started out like anyone spending their first time in a studio – nervous and naive and looking for success. By this time we'd had loads of hits and were becoming more relaxed with ourselves, and more comfortable in the studio …"[39] The band continued to develop their sound through the use of four-track recording, which EMI had introduced in 1963. They were also allowed greater freedom to experiment by the record company and by George Martin, who was gradually relinquishing his position of authority over the Beatles, as their label boss, throughout 1964, and was increasingly open to their non-standard musical ideas.[41] The sessions resulted in the first use of a fade-in on a pop song, at the start of "Eight Days a Week",[42] and the first time that guitar feedback had been incorporated in a pop recording, on "I Feel Fine".[43]
The band introduced new instrumentation into their basic sound, as a way to illustrate the more nuanced style adopted by Lennon in his lyric writing.[44] This was especially evident in the range of percussion instruments, which, mainly played by Starr, included the band's first use of timpani, African hand drums[44] and chocalho.[45] According to MacDonald, the Beatles adopted a "less-is-more" approach in their arrangements; he cites "No Reply" as an example of the group beginning to "master the studio", whereby doubling basic parts and the use of reverb lent the performance "depth and space".[46] As he had done since With the Beatles, Harrison continued to vary his guitar sounds, favouring a Gretsch Tennessean guitar for the first time, in addition to using his twelve-string Rickenbacker 360/12.[47] Author André Millard describes this period as one in which the recording studio changed its identity from the Beatles' perspective, from a formal workplace into a "workshop" and "laboratory".[48]
Recording was completed on 26 October,[49] partway through the band's four-week tour of the UK.[50] On 18 October, the Beatles had rushed back to London from Hull,[51] to record the A-side of their forthcoming single, "I Feel Fine", and three of the album's cover tunes (in a total of five takes).[52] In an interview published the day before this session, Lennon admitted that the need for new original songs was "becoming a hell of a problem".[53] The band participated in several mixing and editing sessions before completing the project on 4 November.
According to Ian MacDonald:[139]
The Beatles
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