Breakfast with Behka and The Beatles Recap: Week of January 26

This week on Breakfast with Behka and The Beatles, we're going in chronological order to move through the album Beatles for Sale. 

On Monday, I played "No Reply".

The song is about a young man who is unable to contact his apparently unfaithful girlfriend, although he knows she is home ("They said it wasn't you, but I saw you peek through your window.") In his last major interview, Lennon said that lyrically, the song was inspired by "Silhouettes", a 1957 song first recorded and released by doo-wop group the Rays. Originally Lennon had intended to sing the higher harmony part, as this was the original melody. However, his voice had deteriorated due to excessive use, forcing Paul McCartney to sing the part, and relegating Lennon to the lower harmony line.

On Tuesday, I played "I'm a Loser".

Country music and Bob Dylan were catalysts for the song. The country is in the fingerpicking, guitar twang and downhearted words; in 1964, the Beatles were listening to songs by Buck Owens and George Jones that McCartney said were "all about sadness." The song is notable for being perhaps the first Beatles' song to directly reflect the influence of Dylan, thus nudging folk and rock a little closer together toward the folk-rock explosion of the following year.

On Wednesday, I played "Baby's in Black".

"Baby's in Black" was recorded by the Beatles on 11 August 1964, and was the first song recorded for Beatles for Sale. Lennon and McCartney sang their vocal parts simultaneously through the same microphone. This was done at their own insistence in order to achieve a closer feel to the performance. McCartney was subsequently contacted by their music publisher in 1964 inquiring as to which melody line was the main tune (i.e. Paul's higher or John's lower melody). McCartney later said that he told the publisher they were both the main melody.

On Thursday, I played "Rock and Roll Music".

The Beatles performed the song in many of their early Hamburg shows, and also played it on the BBC show Pop Go The Beatles. In late 1964, exhausted from non-stop touring and recording and short of original material, they decided to record several of their old rock and rhythm and blues favorites to fill out their LP release Beatles for Sale. Among these was a version of Berry's tune that eventually became as well known as the original. The lead vocal in The Beatles' version was performed by John Lennon. In contrast to Berry's even-toned rendition, Lennon sang it as loudly and dynamically as his voice would permit.

On Friday, I played "I'll Follow The Sun".

It is a melancholy ballad written and sung by Paul McCartney, but was written long before that year: a version recorded in 1960 can be found in the bootleg record You Might As Well Call Us the Quarrymen. One reason they didn't use the song on their previous albums was because it wasn't tough enough for their leather-jacketed early image. By the time they did record it for their fourth LP, the rhythm had changed from a rockabilly shuffle to a gentle cha-cha. Ringo Starr kept the beat by smacking his palms on his knees.

Join me on Monday at 6:00 a.m. and we'll kick off the next track from Beatles for Sale.

Beatifically yours,
Behka