Beatles LP on the Fly
Beatles LP on the Fly
In the Firestorm That Was Beatlemania, the Beatles Still Managed to Record an Album for X-Mas 1964 While running around with virtual non stop concerts, making their first feature film, doing countless intervciews the entire time.
It's hard to imagine now, but in the Fall of 1964, the general thinking regarding the Beatles was, "When is the bubble going to burst? They're probably going to be gone by 1965." And so forth. To be fair, even the Fabs themselves had no idea how long the good times would last. But pop stardom then, as now, is ephemeral at best. So, with the egging on of manager Brian Epstein along with their record company EMI, it was time again to squeeze as much money out of the general public as possilbe and this time, the excuse was the almighty Christmas market. All this of course, to cash in "before the bubble burst."
The self efacing title for their final album of 1964 was "Beatles For Sale." How ironic. Even the Fabs knew that this LP was a joke. What with a titanic world tour, a full length feature film, countless inteviews and TV appearances, a film soundtrack LP featuring all original music (A Hard Day's Night), over a dozen single releases, numerous EP releases; how in the world were they to be expected to put out a credible full length album??? Nevertheless, they did. Author Mark Hertsgaard summed it up best when he called "Beatles For Sale" the only true "casualty" of Beatlemania. He was right. But the thing is, the Beatles knew it too while they were cutting the tracks. The issue was time. The Beatles were serious, hugely talented musicians and by the Fall of 1964, cutting singles and LPs on the fly was making them angry for it sold out their chosen craft, hence the self mocking title of this album.
War Weariness: As author Mark Lewisohn put it, the Beatles were "War Weary" by August, 1964 for the reasons just described. Just look at the cover photo by Robert Freeman. They were so wasted at that point, they couldn't even manage a reasonably upbeat photo shoot. It had been 2 months and eight days since the "A Hard Day's Night" sessions ended. Now, as of August 11, 1964, they were to make another album. This would be their fourth in 21 months. Not surprisingly, there were a number of cover tunes recorded to pad out the LP for the simple reason, the Beatles themselves were tired and low on original material.
Tracks: There are 14 tracks on "Beatles For Sale." Six of those tracks are cover tunes drawn from music the Beatles were still playing live occasionally and from material they used to play live. Talk about recording on the fly, two of the six covers were banged out virtually live in the studio in one take along with two other covers all done on October 18 to finish the pad out process. Here are the songs: "Rock & Roll Music" by Chuck Berry and "Everybody's Tryin' to Be My Baby," by Carl Perkins; both in one take. Add to that, the Fabs recorded Buddy Holly's "Words of Love" in two takes with overdubs on a third take followed by "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey" completed in two takes.
>Cover songs notwithstanding, the album still had it's share of gems. The influence of Bob Dylan cannot be denied. Here, riding the wave of Beatlemania, were the Beatles writing songs with the following titles (and recording dates):
1) No Reply (Sept. 30)
2) I'm a Looser (August 14)
3) Baby's In Black (August 11)
All very downbeat and dark with dark lyrics. Gone were the happy-go-lucky sophmoric charmers from "Meet The Beatles."
"No Reply" in particular has become one of the great Beatle classics over the years with it's magnificent bridge. Most fans and musicians alike will tell you that the Fabs never wrote a better, more melodic bridge than on this great tune. "I'm a Looser" and "Baby's In Black" are actually fine songs in their own right. The album also featured the #1 hit "Eight Days A Week" (Oct.6) that featured a reverse sonic intro in that the sound was turned down low in the studio and gradually brought up as the song wheeled into it's first verse, a technological innovation. The LP had other good songs on including "I'll Follow The Sun" ((Oct. 18), "What You're Doing," ((Sept 29) and "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party." ( Sept. 29).
>Other covers included: "Mr. Moonlight" by Johnson (Aug. 14) and "Honey Don't" by Carl Perkins (Oct. 26)
>Also recorded during this time were the hit "I Feel Fine" with "She's A Woman" on the B side. "I Feel Fine" was another #1 for the Fabs but not released on this British LP.
Release: "Beatles For Sale" shot directly to #1 dethroning their own "A Hard Day's Night" soundtrack in Great Britain. In the US, Capitol saw fit to chop up the album and bleed the American public for two albums worth of cash by turning "Beatles For Sale" into "Beatles '65" and "Beatles VI." All #1's of course. What did we Americans know anyway?
Recorded between concert dates, interviews and TV appearances, "Beatles For Sale" is a bit of a hodge podge but no one is blaming the Beatles at this point for allegedly shortchanging their fans. We all know what they were going through at the time and still, the Fabs managed to release an album with enough high points and good music to rate better than most other lesser artist's best stuff.
When is the bubble going to burst you ask? Apparently never.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
In the Firestorm That Was Beatlemania, the Beatles Still Managed to Record an Album for X-Mas 1964 While running around with virtual non stop concerts, making their first feature film, doing countless intervciews the entire time.
It's hard to imagine now, but in the Fall of 1964, the general thinking regarding the Beatles was, "When is the bubble going to burst? They're probably going to be gone by 1965." And so forth. To be fair, even the Fabs themselves had no idea how long the good times would last. But pop stardom then, as now, is ephemeral at best. So, with the egging on of manager Brian Epstein along with their record company EMI, it was time again to squeeze as much money out of the general public as possilbe and this time, the excuse was the almighty Christmas market. All this of course, to cash in "before the bubble burst."
The self efacing title for their final album of 1964 was "Beatles For Sale." How ironic. Even the Fabs knew that this LP was a joke. What with a titanic world tour, a full length feature film, countless inteviews and TV appearances, a film soundtrack LP featuring all original music (A Hard Day's Night), over a dozen single releases, numerous EP releases; how in the world were they to be expected to put out a credible full length album??? Nevertheless, they did. Author Mark Hertsgaard summed it up best when he called "Beatles For Sale" the only true "casualty" of Beatlemania. He was right. But the thing is, the Beatles knew it too while they were cutting the tracks. The issue was time. The Beatles were serious, hugely talented musicians and by the Fall of 1964, cutting singles and LPs on the fly was making them angry for it sold out their chosen craft, hence the self mocking title of this album.
War Weariness: As author Mark Lewisohn put it, the Beatles were "War Weary" by August, 1964 for the reasons just described. Just look at the cover photo by Robert Freeman. They were so wasted at that point, they couldn't even manage a reasonably upbeat photo shoot. It had been 2 months and eight days since the "A Hard Day's Night" sessions ended. Now, as of August 11, 1964, they were to make another album. This would be their fourth in 21 months. Not surprisingly, there were a number of cover tunes recorded to pad out the LP for the simple reason, the Beatles themselves were tired and low on original material.
Tracks: There are 14 tracks on "Beatles For Sale." Six of those tracks are cover tunes drawn from music the Beatles were still playing live occasionally and from material they used to play live. Talk about recording on the fly, two of the six covers were banged out virtually live in the studio in one take along with two other covers all done on October 18 to finish the pad out process. Here are the songs: "Rock & Roll Music" by Chuck Berry and "Everybody's Tryin' to Be My Baby," by Carl Perkins; both in one take. Add to that, the Fabs recorded Buddy Holly's "Words of Love" in two takes with overdubs on a third take followed by "Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey" completed in two takes.
>Cover songs notwithstanding, the album still had it's share of gems. The influence of Bob Dylan cannot be denied. Here, riding the wave of Beatlemania, were the Beatles writing songs with the following titles (and recording dates):
1) No Reply (Sept. 30)
2) I'm a Looser (August 14)
3) Baby's In Black (August 11)
All very downbeat and dark with dark lyrics. Gone were the happy-go-lucky sophmoric charmers from "Meet The Beatles."
"No Reply" in particular has become one of the great Beatle classics over the years with it's magnificent bridge. Most fans and musicians alike will tell you that the Fabs never wrote a better, more melodic bridge than on this great tune. "I'm a Looser" and "Baby's In Black" are actually fine songs in their own right. The album also featured the #1 hit "Eight Days A Week" (Oct.6) that featured a reverse sonic intro in that the sound was turned down low in the studio and gradually brought up as the song wheeled into it's first verse, a technological innovation. The LP had other good songs on including "I'll Follow The Sun" ((Oct. 18), "What You're Doing," ((Sept 29) and "I Don't Want To Spoil the Party." ( Sept. 29).
>Other covers included: "Mr. Moonlight" by Johnson (Aug. 14) and "Honey Don't" by Carl Perkins (Oct. 26)
>Also recorded during this time were the hit "I Feel Fine" with "She's A Woman" on the B side. "I Feel Fine" was another #1 for the Fabs but not released on this British LP.
Release: "Beatles For Sale" shot directly to #1 dethroning their own "A Hard Day's Night" soundtrack in Great Britain. In the US, Capitol saw fit to chop up the album and bleed the American public for two albums worth of cash by turning "Beatles For Sale" into "Beatles '65" and "Beatles VI." All #1's of course. What did we Americans know anyway?
Recorded between concert dates, interviews and TV appearances, "Beatles For Sale" is a bit of a hodge podge but no one is blaming the Beatles at this point for allegedly shortchanging their fans. We all know what they were going through at the time and still, the Fabs managed to release an album with enough high points and good music to rate better than most other lesser artist's best stuff.
When is the bubble going to burst you ask? Apparently never.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
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