BEATLES FOR SALE

The Beatles For Sale could have been a classic album if the decision making was better. I would have added "I Feel Fine", "She" A Woman" and "Leave My Kitten Alone" to replace some of the covers on the album. I feel this album could have challenged the previous album of "A Hard Day's Night".

John's dark, nearly depressing "trilogy" ("No Reply," "I'm A Loser," and "Baby's In Black") which, bizarrely, opens the album; the beginning of John's Dylan fixation on "I'm A Loser"; Paul's refreshingly folk introspective "I'll Follow The Sun"; the band's proto-country rock attempt in "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party"; and the studio experimentation and odd stylistic pairings of "Every Little Thing" and "What You're Doing clearly point the way to Rubber Soul. ""Every Little Thing featuring all of that period's stylistic hallmarks: folk-rock guitars, a fadeout instead of an ending, and unusual instrumentation -- in this case tympani drums, which Ringo added. "What You're Doing" another proto-folk rocker with George's chiming lead guitar part, also Paul bass including a very heavy (for the time) bass sound and piano track by George Martin that produced strange effects when laid against the lead guitar. Indeed, some consider the chiming guitars of the latter to herald the arrival of folk-rock, coming as it did some six months before the Byrds' breakthrough.

As it is this album was a huge influence maybe not on progressive rock because this was 1964 but on 12 string jangle pop, power pop, and predicting folk rock and country rock.