Review Summary: The Fab Four lay down their impressions of America in their sparse fourth outing and deepen their lyrical craft in a seminal artistic exchange with Bob Dylan
Recorded in only 7 days in a 5 weeks period of time, just after a long US tour and between UK dates, the ‘fourth by the four’ was produced at the very peak of Beatlemania, by an overworked but also more confident band. On one side they are unscrupulous in mirroring themselves as affirmed stars and playing with that, marketing themselves (from the album’s very title) and candidly adding celebrity status themes (the Lennon’s personal complaint about success “I’m a loser”; the Carl Perkins’ ode to idol chaser fans “Everybody’s trying to be my baby”; the awareness about the effort they have to keep putting in to feed their fans’ love: “Eight days a week is not enough to show I care”) and on the other they feel secure enough to mature their songwriting, delivering more grown up lyrics, to the point of placing three consecutive darker and resentful songs at the very beginning of the record (the adulterous stalker case of “No reply”, the confessional get-down-to-yourself in “I’m a loser”, the impossible love desire for the grieving girl in “Baby’s in black”). By the summer of 1964, prior to this album’s recordings, a fundamental artistic exchange had happened: Bob Dylan influences the Beatles to write more autobiographical tunes and the Beatles lead Dylan toward the rock based electrification of his sound. Lennon is the more prone to this development. Nevertheless is Paul to come up with two highlights of the album, in the shape of “Every little thing”, a stunning and powerful melody, panoramic wide and played on the juxtaposition of the uplifting lyrics and the sadder contemplative guitar passages, that much anticipates the power pop injection at the hands of The Kinks and The Who (just to think how the timpani use in the song foresees the thunderous drumming work by Keith Moon), but also “What you’re doing” which cannot have gone unnoticed to the North American emerging pop rock scene, specially to the Byrds. The album is infatuated with american music, ‘50s rock’n’roll and country and western, as the Beatles had finished the US tour just right before the recordings, and has a role in kickstarting the country rock genre.
Originally posted at: https://www.discogs.com/release/651143-The-Beatles-Beatles-For-Sale
