Another 5-star Beatles Album

Imagine if someone like, let's say, the Backstreet Boys suddenly and completely, at the height of their screaming-teen stardom, morphed into U2. Multiply that impact by 100 for some idea of the signifigance of Rubber Soul in the Beatles catalogue. The stunningly rapid growth in songwriting from "Love Me Do" to most of the songs on this album is unparalleled in rock history, and helped the band move from teenybop idols to conquering middle America, middle England, heck the whole middle world.



The newfound maturity of the songwriting is manifested in details like John's lascivious heavy-breathing "Girl" to the secret affair (and sly drug reference) on "Norwegian Wood" as well as instrumentaly with George's interest in Indian music starting to come out and John and Paul writing songs that went beyond girls and rock-n-roll and more girls. Perhaps most shocking of all were the almost Stones-ish misogynistic lyrics on "Run For Your Life." The Beatles had suddenly gone from wanting to hold your hand, to rather creepily warning you what's gonna happen if you don't. "I'd rather see you dead...little girl" John croons, the sarcastic "little girl's" at the end of each line a genius little touch.



Best of the best: "In My life" can be forgiven the over-use as a proven tearjerker in television dramas since it's quite probably John's best and most profound song ever, which is really saying something. "Nowhere Man" is the perfect example of how if you try to listen to Beatles songs with fresh ears you are astounded by how simple yet brilliant and enduring Lennon/McCartney's songwriting was. 3-part harmony never sounded so good. "Think For Yourself" found George coming into his own as a songwriter, helped by some bitter lyrics and Paul's fuzz bass.



Not so stellar are two dogs in my opinion: "The Word" and "What Goes On." However, the rest of the record is far too strong to suffer from their presence.



A pivotal and key entry in the Beatles discography and a must for any collection.

Buy this album

This album is awesome. You should definitely buy it. Even if you have never listened to the Beatles or any rock music at all, I guarantee you will love this album. Every song is awesome, especially 'Nowhere Man' and 'In My Life.' 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' was in the top 100 of the Rolling Stone 500 greatest songs list and it is actually my least favorite song on the album (though I still think it is outstanding). This is one of the few albums in the world that you can listen to all the way through. If this album came out today, you would not be able to go anywhere and no hear about how great it is. If it came out today when the Grammys actually recognize rock music (The Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' in 1967 was the first rock album to win best album at the Grammys) it would win for sure. But since it is from 1965 it lost to Frank Sinatra. Anyway, the year doesn't matter. No matter what kind of music you like, unless you already are a fan of the Beatles, you will like this more. This is the Beatles 3rd best album. If you don't own 'Revolver' or 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' than you will think this is the greatest album ever.

George Harrison's favourite album

George said: "Rubber Soul was my favourite album, even at that time. I think that it was the best one we made; we certainly knew we were making a good album. We did spend a bit more time on it and tried new things. But the most important thing about it was that we were suddenly hearing sounds that we weren't able to hear before. Also, we were being more influenced by other people's music and everything was blossoming at that time; including us, because we were still growing."



I couldn't agree more. Rubber Soul has everything I look for in an album: 3 John's masterpieces which in my opinion are among the best 10 songs the Beatles ever recorded ("Norwegian Wood"; "Nowhere Man"; "In My Life"), beautiful ballads ("Michelle"; "Girl"), a great rocker ("Drive My Car"), Paul's 'nasty' anti-love songs ("You Won't See Me"; "I'm Looking Through You"), the first 2 essential George's tunes ("Think For Yourself"; "If I Needed Someone") and the funky, first 'flower power' song ever ("The Word").



I love this album so much that I even did a whole web site about it:



www.geocities.com/rubbersoul40years



Honestly, I think that Rubber Soul fans will enjoy this site.

Release the American version.

When Rubber Soul was originally released in the U.S. on Capitol Records, "Drive My Car" was missing from it. It was thought not to fit with the rest of the album, and so it was replaced. In its place came John Lennon's "It's Only Love" and Paul McCartney's "I've Just Seen a Face," two songs which made the American version superior to the current UK import. While "Drive My Car" can be easily found on the '62-'66 best-of collection, "It's Only Love" and "I've Just Seen a Face" cannot be found (Yes, "It's Only Love" is in the Beatles Anthology, but its an alternate version of the far superior original song that appeared on the American release. If ever it should be released, I'm sure Beatles fans would love to hear the American version of "Rubber Soul."

To best appreciate this CD, listen via headphones

What really makes this CD an alltime classic isn't so much that every tune is a standout in rock and roll history...not every song is. You can't even say every song is one of the BEATLES finest efforts overall. But what this album does do more than any before it is start to realize the possibilities of the recording studio and of basic rock/pop music to be artful. These songs are deceptively simple..when you REALLY listen to them, there's a lot going on. More than that, they nearly completely subvert what most people think of when they hear the phrase "rock": there aren't a bunch of wailing guitar solos, screeched lead vocals, or bashing drums here. But calling it their "country/folk" album is to not REALLY listen to how every song is filtered through a rock sensibility.



I'll start with what I feel are the highlights: "DRIVE MY CAR" is a great rock number but rather than being driven by the drums, it's actually the COWBELL that does it. Another nice touch is the extra menace thrown in between 1:24-1:34 as Paul's bass is doubled up./"NORWEGIAN WOOD" is usually touted for first using the Indian sitar in Western music and that's surely one of its virtues, but there's more going on. Listen to almost "polka" oom-pah rhythm in the acoustic guitar at :49 and again at 1:46./"IN MY LIFE" is far and away the best song here..one of the finest looks at life and love ever written and a decided classic for all rock and roll. Ringo's drumming here is a masterpiece of economy...exactly what is needed is here and no more. The speeded up piano solo at 1:28 (to make it sound like a harpsichord) was a first for pop. John's falsetto at 2:10 is gorgeous./"NOWHERE MAN" is a great lyric and sterling harmonies. Listen for the brief building guitar figure at 2:03 and again at 2:31./"RUN FOR YOUR LIFE" is probably the most underrated track in the Beatles catalogue. The most flatout 'rock' guitar solo on the album is found here, starting at :57, along with a sneeringly misogynist John lyric. He's gone from holding her hand to grabbing her wrist...



The others found here also have moments of wonder: "YOU WON'T SEE ME": This is Paul's show. The bass drives the song./"THE WORD": A fantasticly original bass part from Paul. The first 'psych' leaning with George Martin's harmonium at 2:02 and 2:33/"MICHELLE": Probably the first bass solo in pop music (2:20)/"WHAT GOES ON": A prime example of 'deceptively simple'. The guitar solo at 1:33 may be rockabilly, but it AIN'T "country". Ringo turns in his nicest vocal yet. Listen to the guitars in the right speaker...the scratchy sound of them anticipates the funk sound of Sly Stone./"GIRL": Listen for the 2nd guitar to come in at 1:30 (right channel) and at 2:00 for the minimalist 'solo' (right) during the dual acoustic guitar bridge./"I'M LOOKING THROUGH YOU": If there IS a "country" song on this disc, this is the one. But even then, the breaks with George's guitar and Ringo on Hammond are definitely rock./"WAIT":With only one exception (the guitar build at 1:17), ALL the motion comes from the percussion....ALL of it. The music drop out at 1:59 is interesting, too./"IF I NEEDED SOMEONE": Probably the least "experimental" song here but George's best effort to date. Wonderful melody.



The only real low point for me on the disc is George's "THINK FOR YOURSELF" which is a fairly mishmash lyric. All the musical power from the tune comes from Paul's fuzz bass, George's own electric is an also-ran. Even in this one, though, there's an interesting bit: Observe how the harmonies go DOWN at the end of the phrase in the chorus (the 'think for yourself' bit).



BOTTOM LINE:

This album should be in every collection. If you don't own this, it's difficult to understand all that came after.

When Rock N Roll became cultural

Before the release of "Rubber Soul" Rock and Roll was considered just a simply temporal consume product, when artists released singles for the season and this singles were available in little vinyl formats that after the season were just thrown away and never played or even remembered again , was not untill the Beatles created this awesome album that Rock and Roll entered into the contemporary popular culture , then albums became subject of cult and years later adopted several forms like conceptuall albums (Beatles were the first on this also) double albums (again the Beatles were the first) and many other concepts that were developed after , albums have been apreciated as complete masterpieces since then and not just singles, Beatles became more mature persons, musicians and song writters , influenced by introspection as in "think for yourself", groovy rithms like in "drive my car" american country sounds as in "what goes on" , indian sitar as in "norwegan wood" (wich contained the elements of Bob Dylan style by the way), ballads were also improved like "michelle", and folk rithms are also a part of this production , Beatles showed all the environments that sorrounded them , indian philosophy , american styles etc, the escence of 60s started to be evident in that days , Rubber Soul is a basic album to understand the path that music choosed by this influence in the decades that came after this release.

HM