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5.55pm
14 October 2012
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I don't think Beatles For Sale was ever going to be a particuarlarly good album, becuase- as Satan says- they'd spent a lot of the year on tour and they were contracted to complete another album by the end of the year ("It was inevitable that the constant grind of touring, writing, promoting, and recording would grate on the Beatles,"- AllMusic) So its in no way their best work but its still a decent album. I think its has some cracking McCartney bass lines/ bass playing( particuarlarly I'm A Loser and Honey Don't) and you can see the development in Lennon's lyrics. I like the covers of Rock 'n' Roll Music, Honey Don't and Kansas City, and I like I'll Follow The Sun, I'm A Loser and Baby's in Black. The only part of the album which I think is especially poor is Mr Moonlight- John's opening in scream is great, but Paul and George sound drunk, and it really wasn't a good idea to let Macca loose on the Hammond Organ. 
"I don't think we were actually swimming, as it were, with shirts on, 'cos we always wear overcoats when we're swimming,"-
George Harrison, Australia, June 1964
6.05pm
19 April 2010
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I've said before and I say again, that 99.999% of musicians wish Beatles For Sale was their best album.
6.58pm
3 May 2012
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robert said
I've said before and I say again, that 99.999% of musicians wish Beatles For Sale was their best album.
That made me laugh. Very true.
7.53pm
1 May 2011
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For what it is and the circumstances surrounding it the album deserves more credit than what it receives. Try sticking most of the bands nowadays into those conditions and they wouldnt get so far as to lift a drum stick without threatening to quit. Usually they come back from a tour, have a few months off and then spend 6 months working out the bass line for the first song with the next album scheduled for 2 years in the future possibly.
Look back at the beatles schedule in 1964 and its beyond belief their work rate. Its exhausting just typing it out. 1963 was bad enough.
8.20pm
16 August 2012
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It is amazing the standards we hold for the Beatles. Look at the massive output and endless innovation of the band between 1962 and 1969, a span that nowadays would equal maybe two similar-sounding mediocre albums from any current rock act.
I think we can forgive one 3.5-star album in a group of 5-star albums. And for the fact that it was preceded by "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman" and immediately followed up with the recording sessions for 'Help!'.
9.14pm
14 December 2009
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True dat. In fact, I personally prefer it to "Help!" as an LP. The quality of the originals is more consistent – in fact the quality of the whole is more consistent, to my ears. "Help!" seems to have both higher highs and lower lows.
8.23pm
14 April 2010
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meanmistermustard said
Look back at the beatles schedule in 1964 and its beyond belief their work rate. Its exhausting just typing it out. 1963 was bad enough.
Somewhere in Wales, Joe is shouting, "Tell me about it!"
I really enjoy this album. I agree with John when he says that "Rock and Roll Music" goes on for about an hour. But all in all, I feel this is a great album. "Words of Love" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" are two of my favorite covers.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, Let it roll for all its worth.
2295 6972
8.53pm
1 May 2011
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The great thing about Rock and Roll Music is that throughout the song the piano another instrument until John sings "so keep rocking that piano" and its suddenly right in your face slapping you about. Plus the scorching guitar intro. I need to play that song now.
I love that song and it was great on the bbc. Sadly by the time they got around to performing it live they couldnt be bothered to cover it with any energy.
1.52pm
14 December 2009
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LOVE "Rock and Roll Music"! My favourite cover of a Chuck Berry song ever, and the 2nd-best Beatles cover after "Twist & Shout". Well-thought out placement on the album, too, putting an uptempo fast one there after leading off with three straight bummers.
Not sure what John meant by that 'hour' remark, other than the abundance of verses he had to sing. Many Chuck Berry classics have lotsa verses, like "Memphis" and "Too Much Monkey Business", that's why they had to play them so fast to get all the words in.
2.24pm
1 May 2011
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John loved the song so it wouldnt have been a negative comment, more as VB says that it has what seems like 70 verses.
3.33pm
14 April 2010
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That's the way I took it as well when I first heard him say that in Anthology during an interview with Brian Matthew. It is a great song, but seems to go on longer than it needs to.
On the other hand, the live performances you mentioned were cut way too short (see the Shea performance).
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, Let it roll for all its worth.
2295 6972
8.18pm
12 November 2012
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When Beatles For Sale was released, the Beatles were known as four young lads with endless energy. The Lennon/McCartney songs on the album did not reflect this because their touring schedule wore them out, and left little time to write songs. On previous albums they paired grat cover songs with mostly upbeat songs. Beatles For Sale was the first album which featured songs about not so happy topics (I'm a Loser, Baby's in Black…). Despite this, I enjoy the cover versions, especially Rock and Roll Music, and Everybody's Trying to be My Baby.
George's guitar work is fantastic on this album!!!
10.27pm
1 May 2011
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Zig said
On the other hand, the live performances you mentioned were cut way too short (see the Shea performance).
Rock and Roll Music wasnt done at Shea, Twist and Shout was and that was abbreviated.
7.06pm
26 March 2012
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I sometimes feel the reason Beatles for Sale is regarded as one of the Beatles' weaker albums is that it stands out as a retrograde step. After the practically fillerless A Hard Day's Night, which proved the boys were worth their musical salt with all original compositions, an album fleshed out with covers would seem a bit disappointing. I don't blame the Beatles for their decision, considering the constant presence of what George Martin described as "a battering" throughout '63 and '64, though. And besides, most of the covers are pretty great and the original songs are among their best of the period, showing a vast step in lyrical (and melodic) maturity. It's really their first "folk rock" record, and should be treated as the genesis of that style.
9.56pm
17 December 2012
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I think the real problem with BFS is where it falls in the catalogue, and I don't just mean between AHDN and Help! Help! is the natural follow-on to AHDN, and that's the problem. Bar the three giants (title song, Ticket to Ride and Yesterday), it's full of formula songs for a soundtrack and formula songs not good enough for the soundtrack. It was a repeat of the job they'd done a year earlier, and it's progression was slight. Many of the originals on Help! are a step backwards compared to AHDN, let alone BFS. BFS is the bridge to RS, not Help! For Help! they had to fall back into a holding-pattern demanded by the film. BFS is where you see a leap forward in their songwriting (especially lyrically) that couldn't have made up a soundtrack. Where could they have put songs like the originals on BFS in a film like Help!? The song closest lyrically, Help!, Lennon always said he imagined it slower and had to 'pop' it up for the film. BFS, in terms of their progress as writers, makes more sense after Help!, not before.
As for the weakest cover on BFS, surely not Mr Moonlight. Not their best cover by far, but does have elements of that Beatles twist on an original. Whereas Words of Love, however great the performance, is the closest they ever got to a straight Xerox of the original. That has to make it their weakest cover ever, not just on BFS. Nor was Moonlight their most leftfield cover, not if you take the BBC cover of Ann Margaret's I Just Don't Understand.
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