Beatles for Sale

*1964年，甲壳虫似乎比前一年更加忙碌。8月28日接受采访时，Paul告诉记者他们还需要为下一张专辑创作大量歌曲。八九月间甲壳虫四处巡回演出，几乎没有时间创作。Beatles for Sale中大部分原创歌曲都是在录音前刚刚写完的。

*John的创作欲减弱，而Paul的产量又没有什么增加，因此在全部原创歌曲的A Hard Day's Night之后，甲壳虫在Beatles for Sale中又开始大量翻唱老歌。这张专辑中有6首翻唱歌曲，8首原创。其中3首是John独自创作的（No Reply、I'm a Loser和I Don't Want to Spoil the Party），4首的主要创作者是Paul（I'll Follow the Sun、Eight Days a Week、Every Little Thing和What You're Doing，后三首得到John的帮助），Baby's in Black是两个人合作的。I'll Follow the Sun是Paul在甲壳虫成立前就开始创作的歌曲。

*在演唱者方面，John一如既往地占统治地位。他主唱的歌有6首，和Paul合唱3首。Paul独唱3首。George和Ringo各自分到一首歌。有趣的是Every Little Thing基本是Paul的作品，却由John主唱，不知是什么缘故。

*大量翻唱歌曲使这张专辑被很多人视为一种倒退。封面上甲壳虫严肃而疲倦的表情似乎正反映了他们当时对大量巡回演出开始感到厌倦。但另一方面，考虑到他们当时紧张的日程表，这似乎是相当不错的成绩。专辑中原创歌曲内容的严肃性有所加强，因此它仍然是一种前进。

*其实，甲壳虫以前也经常把单曲发行的歌收入专辑，这次为什么不去掉两首翻唱歌曲，而把I Feel Fine和he's a Woman收入这张专辑，我一直不能理解。如果加上这两首歌，专辑会显得更强一些。

*专辑的歌曲安排似乎有些不太合理的地方，特别是Martin决定用George主唱的Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby作为专辑的最后一首歌，我一向觉得不太合适。开头连续3首原创歌曲都是悲观伤感的基调，似乎也有些奇怪。

*专辑在英国排行榜首位停留了9周，虽然听起来还不错，但按甲壳虫的标准却有些短了。

It was inevitable that the constant grind of touring, writing, promoting, and recording would grate on the Beatles, but the weariness of Beatles for Sale comes as something of a shock. Only five months before, the group released the joyous A Hard Day's Night. Now, they sound beaten, worn, and, in Lennon's case, bitter and self-loathing. His opening trilogy ("No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Baby's in Black") is the darkest sequence on any Beatles record, setting the tone for the album. Moments of joy pop up now and again, mainly in the forms of covers and the dynamic "Eight Days a Week," but the very presence of six covers after the triumphant all-original A Hard Day's Night feels like an admission of defeat or at least a regression. (It doesn't help that Lennon's cover of his beloved obscurity "Mr. Moonlight" winds up as arguably the worst thing the group ever recorded.) Beneath those surface suspicions, however, there are some important changes on Beatles for Sale, most notably Lennon's discovery of Bob Dylan and folk-rock. The opening three songs, along with "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party," are implicitly confessional and all quite bleak, which is a new development. This spirit winds up overshadowing McCartney's cheery "I'll Follow the Sun" or the thundering covers of "Rock & Roll Music," "Honey Don't," and "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey!," and the weariness creeps up in unexpected places -- "Every Little Thing," "What You're Doing," even George's cover of Carl Perkins' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" -- leaving the impression that Beatlemania may have been fun but now the group is exhausted. That exhaustion results in the group's most uneven album, but its best moments find them moving from Merseybeat to the sophisticated pop/rock they developed in mid-career.