The Worst Beatles Album: Beatles for Sale (1964)
Beatles for Sale is the fourth studio album by The Beatles and it comes after meeting and becoming inspired by Bob Dylan. At this same time, Dylan introduced them to marijuana which would become a major influence going forward. Many of the songs on this album take on a bit of a country and folk influence with less lovey and more downtrodden lyrics. You can tell that these dudes needed some rest at this point since they look miserable on the album cover, they sound tired in some of the songs, and the album is literally called Beatles for Sale.
The album begins with “No Reply” and John’s voice sounds strained right off the bat. The lyrics are pretty typical “unfaithful + jealous lover” John Lennon lyrics. My favorite part of the song is when they harmonize and yell “I nearly died.” I enjoy the percussion and acoustic combination more than the vocals, but overall I think it’s a pretty good song.
“I’m a Loser” brings out some of John’s more insecurity in it’s lyrics. Most of the time, John does heartbroken and introspective better than most, however, I’m not a big fan of this song because it’s a little too on the nose and a little bit whiney. It feels like it’s missing the quintessential Beatles charm. I do like the tinny-sounding guitar.
“Baby’s in Black” is the best song on the album up to this point and the chorus is solid, it sort of reminds me of The Everly Brothers. This whole album has a bit of a country taste and works well on this track. I don’t know how to describe it, but I love that the instrumental kind of sounds sloppy, and not in a bad way. It sounds like they’re miserable playing their instruments and it works very well with the lyrics on this song. To be fair they probably were miserable the chart of the amount of work they were doing at this time is insane, they would’ve easily surpassed their 10,000 hours by this point.
“Rock and Roll Music” is one of many covers on this album and this one is not as good as the Chuck Berry original. It’s not bad, it’s just been done better. I do like that it sounds like John gave a serious fuck about the performance on this song because it’s one of his most energetic performances on the album.
“I’ll Follow the Sun” is an excellent song. The guitar work is great because it is so playful and simple. I enjoy the vocals and the melody is soothing. You can tell on a few of these songs that songwriting is starting to mature even though a few of the songs are hampered by them sounding exhausted. The way Paul delivers the “but tomorrow will rain” line is my favorite part of the song and maybe the album.
“Mr. Moonlight” is another cover where I prefer the original by Roy Lee Johnson more. John’s vocals sound tired and strained but they do sound passionate, especially during the intro. This is a decent cover but the harmonizing isn’t at the top of the list for classic Beatles harmonies. The next song, “Kansas City/ Hey Hey Hey” is another cover, this time by Little Richard. Unlike some of the other covers on this album, I prefer this version more mostly because Paul’s vocals are great on this one. Either way, I feel like this is an okay song, even for the time it doesn’t sound like it would be revolutionary or mind-blowing but simply a good cover.
The eighth song on the album is “Eight Days a Week” which is the most well-known song on the album and it’s for good reason. This is the Beatles back to their usual pop music bliss. The harmonies here are better than most of the songs on this album and the melodies are timeless. The intro and outro build-ups are classic.
“Words of Love” is a Buddy Holly cover and another one that I like the original more than their cover. The guitar sounds great on this song but for literally everything else, I prefer the Buddy Holly original. This is followed by “Honey Don’t” which is the obligatory Ringo song and it is a cover of a Carl Perkins song. I could live without it since it is a fairly cut-and-dry rock and roll tune, nothing extraordinary.
“Every Little Thing” begins with a pretty smooth guitar riff. I like the instrumental more than the vocals especially the drums and George’s guitar parts. There are parts of the vocals I like (like the chorus) but other than that this song is short and to the point. “I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party” is another somber song that I think could fit on the Fallout: New Vegas soundtrack. That’s the vibe I get from lots of the more country-influenced songs on the album. I like this song overall, the guitar playing is great and it’s got some pretty solid Lennon songwriting, at least to the point where you can tell he’s speaking more candidly.
“What You’re Doing” is another one of my favorites on the album. I love the guitar riff, George’s playing is solid throughout the album. It is so melodic and it amazes me how much he can do with like eight notes consistently. The drumming is interesting and catches my attention as well it sort of has a marching band meets surfer feel to it. Paul’s vocals are great and feel believable considering he’s talking about the pains of his relationship.
The final song on the album is a second Carl Perkin’s cover, this time sung by George, “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby.” The guitar carries this song for me and not too much to say about the rest, another pretty standard rock n roll track.
It is crazy that by this point they are only TWO years into releasing albums, but already four albums in and nearing the peak of “Beatlemania.” There are lots of covers on this album, but on the original songs, you can tell they’re starting to expand more just not to the crazy degree they would in the next year or two. They sound tired throughout this album, especially John, and that could be due to the fact that they made four albums in two years while touring non-stop, making movies, and tons of other promotional shit. This album has the Beatles dip their toes into more interesting and interesting songwriting, but it’s still a work in progress. You will get to see the fruits of their labor on the next album, Help! Beatles for Sale is the lowest the Beatles ever get, it is not quite as cohesive as the last couple of albums and the quality is nowhere near what comes next.
6/10 - Above Average