The Vinyl Review Episode 1: Beatles for Sale

By the end of 1964, The Beatles were exhausted and still working eight days a week at the behest of their management and their record label(s) both in the UK and the USA. They were squeezing in recording sessions in-between tours of the United States and the rest of the world, all the while filming a movie and making television and radio appearances several times per month. No one really knew at this point how long they were going to last or whether they were just a passing fad that people would forget in a couple of years. Back then, it was thought that if a musical group didn't have a new album out every 5 or 6 months, then they would fade from the spotlight quickly. No one really knew how to manage an act that was a worldwide phenomenon like they had become so quickly. The Beatles were the biggest band in the world by the end of 1964, but the creative well was beginning to run dry because they just simply didn't have enough time to sit down and write more songs. So they had to dip way down into the well and pull out some music they had already been familiar with, and could record easily and quickly, but they had also clearly outgrown by that point in their careers. It was ultimately to culminate in an album that had flashes of brilliance and signs of future promise, but that was also terribly uneven.

  / wolfrivermusic