Tis Better To Have Loved And Lost Than To Never Loved At All. Alfred Lord Tennyson –– Part 4

Hello,

Hope you all had a fabulous seven days wrapped around the hustle of Christmas Cheer. Here we are into week four covering our journey amid unrequited love songs written by our Liverpool heroes. The featured LP of now––Beatles For Sale, released December 4, 1964. Join me as I walk you through eight original tunes that helped close out the most exceptional year favoring extraordinary, brilliant music, which gladly caused America’s surrender to the royal, remarkable British invasion, albeit we in the States had instead received the compromised Beatles’ 65 LP. Still, a win, win situation in its purest form for both continents, as well as the rest who heard magic and embraced the band lead by John Lennon.

4th LP: Beatles For Sale. (Mutual Love / 1  vs One-Sided Love / 7)

Track 1 – No Reply. A one-sided love song by John, based on the lyric portrayal the singer knows his girl is avoiding him and his phone calls while she hangs out holding hands with another man. Background Fun Facts: Written in Tahiti, May 1964 while on vacation after filming their first movie. Mr. Lennon erected the song using inspiration from the early rock and roll hit called, ‘Silhouettes’ by the Rays. John lacked confidence in the number and offered it to Brian Epstein as a gift to the manager’s other client, Tommy Quickly rather than keep it as a Beatles legacy. This downfall in Lennon’s conception of value in his own material lasted right up to the end of his days when he almost relinquished the beautiful song, Woman,’ from Double Fantasy to Ringo. Thankfully record producer Jack Douglas put a deliberate freeze on the notion and insisted John sing it on the new 1980 upcoming Lennon & Ono album. In June, Paul wrote a middle bridge for this piece, but the attempts to record it proved unworthy. Resurrected a few months later with a few changes and suggestions, such as George Martin playing piano live alongside J & P during the September 30^th studio session, the finished version of ‘No Reply’ showed great promise and received thought to become the next Beatle single. The mono mix chosen for release includes somebody adding a cough right after the word “window” on the first verse. Luckily the cough matches the downbeat and is hardly noticed, especially for a chance single. However, ‘I Feel Fine,’ recorded in October, far pleased and surpassed all hurdles toward winning the prize as the next single.

Track 2 – I’m A Loser. A one-sided love song by John, based on the lyric portrayal the singer lost someone near to him, she was a girl in a million, and now that she is gone, his tears fall like rain from the sky. He’s a loser. Background Fun Facts: Written in July 1964 with a lot of influence from Bob Dylan and a tiny bit of “tears in your beer” country music. With song titles filling the Country Charts like Sorrow On The Rocks, Long Gone Lonesome Blues, I Don’t Love You Anymore, and Before I Get Over You, John’s title, I’m A Loser seemed suitable, although. It was a bold move for the most popular musical artists at the time. The song took one hour to perfect on tape, take 8 being best and then overdubs for vocals, Ringo on tambourine and a guitar solo from George. John’s harmonica rolled out live with the other three mates playing on the rhythm track. A few slight differences surface between mono mix and stereo mix, such as, George’s guitar solo and Ringo’s tambourine play louder on stereo, but the ending fade out is shorter compared to the mono fade out. By the way, after this song, Lennon retired his sweet harmonica for a couple of years, unless you count the brief scene in Help while Ringo plays second hand to a tiger.

Track 3 – Baby’s In Black. A one-sided love song by John and Paul, based on the lyric portrayal how desperate a love-struck man thinks only of the object of his affection, which sadly turns out to be a young widow who constantly wears black and ponders of nothing but her darling diseased husband. Background Fun Facts: Written July 1964 inside John’s Kenwood home and the last song J & P wrote nose to nose, as Lennon called it, right from scratch. Hereafter, the two only co-wrote if one needed assistance to finish a bridge or verse. The boys wanted to write a bluesy song much different from their standard 4/4 tempo I love you, or he loves her songs. So, Paul recalled how in the early days of 1961, they each enjoyed playing a tune called, “If You Got To Make A Fool Of Someone” by James Ray, a catchy number that combines R & B with a waltz. Freddy and the Dreamers scored high on the charts with it just before their bigger hit, ‘I’m Telling You Now.’ The duo Liverpool composers fancied the idea of writing a waltz and chose it as the first song upon arrival at the recording studio for another album and proudly added it to their August concert tour in America. Rumors flew back and forth that the lyrics spun from the tragedy dealt against Astrid Kirchherr when the love of her life, Stu Sutcliffe, died suddenly and John tried to pursue a romance, but the poor girl was still in heavy mourning. George had a difficult time with his new volume pedal, being intrigued with the way Colin Manley used it to give a new sound for his Liverpool formed British group, The Remo Four, and very much wanted to include this new sound onto the fresh waltz style gem. However, poor George couldn’t time it correctly, so John kneeled down directly in front of George and adjusted the volume knobs while Mr. Harrison plucked the strings. An interesting side note, George hired the Remo Four in 1967 as his backup band to help with his first solo album, the soundtrack for the movie, Wonderwall.

Track 4 is a cover song.

Track 5 – I’ll Follow The Sun. A one-sided love song by Paul, based on the lyric portrayal sunshine and roses overrules the singer’s heart even if love tries to stand in the way, yet dark, threatening clouds hold the smoking gun to kill the stormy relationship. Background Fun Facts: Written in 1958 inside Paul’s front room parlor, right after a menacing bout with the flu. The song gained opportunity since more material needed to fill a new album. The boy's grueling schedule of tours diminished their efforts to write songs. Half a dozen cover songs well-grounded and polished from many a night’s work in Hamburg saved the Christmas buying power, but the fellows preferred giving the fans originals. Of the all the 14 newest selections, this song held steady as George Martin’s favorite number on Beatles For Sale. The middle bridge received a lyric’s makeover, possibly with help from John, on the day they produced the recording, and George Martin wrote the harmony part for the revised bridge and taught John how to sing it. Mr. Starr’s drumming sounded too aggressive on the playback, so Paul suggested to set up a microphone between Ringo’s knees and told his mate to slap his leg covered trousers in sync to the beat. The guitar solo originally fell into the hands of John. However, George complained he was supposed to be the lead guitarist and took control of the solo as an overdub. At the mixing controls, the stereo version collected two to three times more reverb than the mono mix. Side note: If you enjoy recording your own compositions and the idea of hand claps appeal to your arrangement, just take a seat, slap your hands with open fingers against your legs covered with blue-jeans, and place the mic close between your knees. Instant group synchronization on one take. 

Tracks 6 & 7 are cover songs.

Track 8 – Eight Days A Week. A one-sided love song plea by Paul with a little help from John, based on the lyric portrayal the singer hopes the girl of his dreams needs his love as much as he needs her love. Background Fun Facts: Written between August 15 - 18, 1964, and although Lennon christened it a lousy song, George Martin tagged it as the next single following its October recording session. A much too hasty decision in that the amazing guitar work on ‘I Feel Fine’ pushed ‘Eight Days A Week’ under the carpet. Nevertheless, Capitol Records caught on to the wide appeal ‘Eight Days A Week' would generate and released their own single backed with ‘I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party’, and London watched the overseas single keep the Billboard #1 spot until ‘Ticket to Ride’ replaced the top position. Funny how our musical tastes can differ to the extreme­––I always loved ‘Eight Days A Week,' unlike John, and never appreciated ‘Baby’s In Black’ also unlike John.

Tracks 9 & 10 are cover songs.

Track 11 – Every Little Thing. A mutual love song by Paul & John, based on the lyric portrayal the singer knows his girl loves him and he will love her forever, for he knows love will never die since every little thing she does, she does for him. Background Fun Facts: Written in Atlantic City, New Jersey between August 30 & September 1, 1964, influenced by Jane Asher waiting across the Atlantic for her Paul to return. George and John switch roles on this tune in the event John wanted to try his new custom made 1964 Rickenbacker 325 – electric 12-string, so George supplied the rhythm strums on a Gibson J-160E acoustic 6-string. In the out-takes, John included some nice guitar fills between his & Paul’s unison vocal phrases that sound quite different from the 1963 Rickenbacker 360-12-string belonging to George. Unfortunately, editing scraped the added guitar licks as they became crowded. . . Less is more. The next day, John added a new overdub lead guitar part, but his intro notes kept missing, so someone tapped a four count and whistled the melody to help John follow along. Supposedly this whistle can be detected on the stereo mix, although, I can’t hear it and I have both mono and stereo copies. Track 11 is the only time John used his specially designed 12-string. The darn thing wouldn’t stay in tune, so he returned it. Another overdub by Paul’s bass, ushered in the first time two bass parts played together appears on a Beatle’s recording. And finally, ‘Every Little Thing’ became one of Harrison’s preferred choice as a fine song.

Track 12 – I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party. A one-sided love song 80% written by John, based on the lyric portrayal the singer is depressed and wonders what went wrong in that his girl ditched him at a party. Even a few drinks can’t chase away the blues; there’s no fun without the one he loves. Background Fun Facts: Written in a hotel room during the second tour in America between mid-August to mid-September, 1964. Believe it or not, this song had bloomed specifically for Ringo pending he lost out on a featured vocal from last summer’s A Hard Day’s Night LP. Aware their drummer had a fondness for country and western music, J & P set themselves to dish out exactly that type of ditty. As lyrics progressed, many lines grew much too personal for John and discussions resulted in him taking the lead vocals, whereas, on the last day of recordings, Ringo tried his luck with a Carl Perkins hit called, ‘Honey Don’t.’ Not surprised, the ring man did a fine job with his rendition. However, John’s song, ‘I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party’ ran into numerous break-downs until take number 19 deemed a winner. Still, a noticeable flub pans across the speakers on the last verse in that John sings “If” before the line, “I think I’ll take a walk and look for her.” Due to his higher range vocal joined right in while the other fellows recorded the rhythm track, it was impossible to correct the blooper without erasing the steady flow of instrumentation. Later, while adding his lower harmony overdub, John still couldn’t fix the mistake since the added slipup word jump-started the correct phrasing delivery. When it comes to mono and stereo mixes, the only difference points to a volume boost to George’s lead guitar sound on the stereo version.

Track 13 – What You’re Doing, A one-sided love song composed equally by Paul and John, based on the lyric portrayal the tearful crying singer feels blue and lonely running all around waiting and wondering if she’ll stop lying then accept his true promise of love and affection. Background Fun Facts: Written in New Jersey’s Atlantic City between August 30 & September 1, 1964. America’s rock-n-roll girl groups fascinated both J & P, and for this tune, Paul insisted Ringo pound out a drum intro in the same style the Ronettes backup band starts off ‘Be My Baby,’ which climbed to #2 on the Billboard Charts in 1963. Not bad for a debut all-female musical act. After two days and 12 takes, this song’s evolution was a mess and rightly marked as unusable. Almost a month later, the recording deadline of October 26 saw it’s sunset darken the sky and a last possible effort to add a fresher refined arrangement onto ‘What You’re Doing’ uncoiled from 7:30 to 9:00 pm. Takes 13 through 19 spun reel to reel on the tape machines, with 19 being best. A major first occurred during their year-end session­––the bass guitar tested its limits and pushed the needle into the red from constant complaints the bottom sound was never loud enough. Volume limits ran the gamut from here on out. Two overdubs were all it took to finish the chore, a piano piece by Paul fattened up the bridge, and double-tracking his voice brought the musician’s labor to a close. Mono and stereo mixes performed the next day by Martin and his two engineers, Mr. Smith and Mr. Scott calculated both to a close match, except the drums and rhythm tracks received a bit more volume on the mono version.            

Track 14 is a cover song.                                  

Well, as Frank Barone would say on ”Everybody Loves Raymond,” Holly Crap! Only one song rides the romantic pathway toward marital bliss. Could it be the lads’ participation with American call girls blind-sided our favorite composers to sing about how unrequited affairs will potentially guarantee heartache?

Next week, part 5 whirls us through a razzle-dazzle adventure with the Beatles second movie soundtrack, Help. In the meantime, please post your comments and or corrections freely, I appreciate your feedback.