‘Beatles for Sale’: The Fab Four’s interim oddity
No band is meant to have a perfect career. There may be some artists that have never made a bad album, but when looking at every one of their projects next to each other, it’s easy to see where some fit in as classics and where others start to look like odds and ends of their catalogue. Although The Beatles may be the one exception to the rule for most rock and roll fans, Beatles for Sale remains one of the few oddities in their catalogue that felt like treading water.
Then again, The Beatles were never afraid to show their dark back pages to the fans. The only reason The White Album earned its reputation is because of its lack of cohesion, and even though the band got the signature Phil Spector touch added to Let It Be, some of the best moments come from when they are being human, like hearing John Lennon and Paul McCartney trade verses on ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ or sharing those Everly Brothers harmonies on ‘Two of Us’.
Given where they were in 1964, though, Beatles for Sale feels like a strange placeholder album in between their classics. They had already come off of making their first album of all-original material, so seeing them go back to the same sounds that they were playing with on Please Please Me and With the Beatles felt like a step backwards.
Still, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a good share of highlights in the mix, either. Outside of the songs they had left over, like ‘I’ll Follow the Sun’, the whole album feels like a great crash course in how the Fab Four constructed their songs, like watching them workshopping songs like ‘Every Little Thing’ or seeing Lennon get more introspective on tunes like ‘I Don’t Want To Spoil the Party’ or ‘I’m a Loser’.
By this point, the lads had been through the wringer of Beatlemania, and it’s hard not to see that kind of fatigue setting in. Compared to all the other albums they released, this felt like the first attempt by the band to make a record because they had rather than having the desire to get back into the studio as if to rush everything out to meet their end-of-year deadline.
That kind of behaviour leads to a lot of the songs sounding either forced or not properly fleshed out. ‘Mr Moonlight’ has the makings of a good idea, but bringing in the cheesy organ might have been passed over if the group had some better ideas for what they wanted to do. And while their take on Carl Perkins on ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby’ is serviceable enough, hearing Ringo Starr’s vocal showcase on ‘Honey Don’t’ is one of the most skippable tracks in the band’s catalogue.
But while it’s certainly odd, Beatles for Sale still feels like a core piece of the band’s catalogue. After all, the whirlwind of Beatlemania wasn’t suddenly going to stop, so getting them into the studio may have been one of the only ways to keep them sane during the never-ending cycle of touring. And looking at their inventiveness on a song like ‘Eight Days a Week’, they were still willing to think outside the box and test their creativity like they would later do on Rubber Soul.
So, while Beatles for Sale should never be the first album that anyone picks up as a prospective Beatles fan, it’s still a treat for those willing to seek it out. The band may have been broken down after a year in the limelight, but at their core, they could still be damn good songwriters.
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