Editing Beatles for Sale (section)

===="No Reply"====
"[[No Reply (song)|No Reply]]" is about a young man who is unable to contact his apparently unfaithful girlfriend, although he knows she is home.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hertsgaard, Mark.|title=A day in the life : the music and artistry of the Beatles|date=1996|publisher=Pan Books|isbn=0-330-33891-9|location=London|oclc=60293710}}</ref> Beatles music publisher [[Dick James]] was pleased with the song, saying Lennon had provided "a complete story".{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1996|pp=104–05}} Reviewer David Rowley said that its lyrics "read like a picture story from a girl's comic" and evoked a picture "of walking down a street and seeing a girl silhouetted in a window, not answering the telephone".{{sfn|Rowley|2002}} Sequenced as the first track on ''Beatles for Sale'', the song served as an uncharacteristic album opener, given its dramatic and resentful mood.{{sfn|Spencer|2002|pp=130–31}}

MacDonald attributes effectiveness to the acoustic guitar backing and the treatment given to Martin's piano part, which is rendered as "a darkly reverbed presence" rather than a distinct instrument.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=131}} The vocals on the song are "massively haloed in echo", contributing to a mid-section providing "among the most exciting thirty seconds" of all the Beatles' recordings.{{sfn|MacDonald|2005|p=132}}