Rubber Soul

"Drive My Car" and the brilliant, lesser-heard "You Won't See Me" are certainly of the pure pop ilk, ditto for "What Goes On" and "I'm Looking Through You." And while these songs are all among rock's finest compositions, a more mature, forward-thinking spirit inhabits the likes of "Nowhere Man," "I'm Looking Through You," and "Wait." Three of the Beatles' finest ballads are featured as well (in fact, they're two of rock music's finest ballads), "Michelle," a country-tinged gem; the bluesy "Girl"; and the stately "In My Life," a masterpiece that gave the first true glance of the lyrical depth Lennon & McCartney were capable of.

A minor slip-up can certainly be forgiven in the face of such brilliance, which is fortunate for "Run for Your Life," a deceivingly-happy sounding pop number that offers a glimpse of the Fab Four's ability to occasionally shock ("I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than with another man"). Unlike some of their other dark lyrics this one doesn't register on the fun scale. Luckily the same can't be said for the rest of the album..."Rubber Soul" is one of the brightest moments in rock history, and with The Beatles' growing taste for experiment, one of the most important as well.


The Beatles' artistic growth begins to snowball.   September 20, 2001
Mike London (Oxford, UK)
105 out of 106 found this review helpful

RUBBER SOUL is an undeniably brilliant album, but before I get underway I want to address a statement I read in an earlier review, which I find difficult to believe that someone would actually make this statement. Matthew McDowell, in his review dated September 4, 2000, said this was the first significant album ever produced. That is simply an asinine statement. Even that year, Dylan gives The Beatles a run for their money, and both BIABH and HW61R were already released. There was a significant body of recordings and albums in other genres being produced for a long time, and his claim of RUBBER SOUL being first important album ever is both ridiculous and uninformed. That being said, I will resume the review proper.

RUBBER SOUL, The Beatles' sixth studio album in a mere three years, takes its place as the very first full length release that truly beings the evolution of away from the bubblegum pop that dominated the first half of their career.

The truly fascinating element of The Beatles are going through their recordings chronologically. You can watch that extremely rapid artistic growth explode. It is amazing that this is the same band who, a mere three years ago, recorded PLEASE PLEASE ME. Obviously, there are several influences that can be felt on this album, although The Beatles up the antes one with this release.

This album sounds like The Beatles playing (and beating) The Byrds at their own game. There are gorgeous three part harmonies, several compositions that would become standards almost on their release, and such a vast improvement artistically over the last five albums. The Beatles knew the time to move was now. Dylan had released BRINING IT ALL BACK HOME and HIGHWAY 61 REVISTED that year, both of which are much better ascetically than The Beatles' effort that year (HELP!).

The critics always talk about RUBBER SOUL being that pivotal album in The Beatles' artistic growth, but that is simply not true. While it is true that it is the first ALBUM by The Beatles to have that mature sound, about half of HELP! stands proudly alongside this release, as does the non lp tracks "Yes, It Is," and "I Feel Fine," which, to me, has always sound much more midperiod Beatles than the earlier material with which it belongs. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened had they scrapped HELP!, but the five or six extra tracks on this, and released the other half as singles, but we can never know. What we do know, however, is that tracks like "Help!," "Ticket to Ride," "It's Only Love," "Yesterday," "I've Just Seen a Face," and "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away," (which, by the way, is the best song Dylan never wrote) point toward this release. The first two tracks cited hearken back to tracks like "Hard Days' Night" and their earlier sound, the lyrics are much better and without expense to the melody.

Those who complain that the record company has butchered the pre-1967 Beatles releases by coming out with totally reconfigured albums are putting on prominent display their ignorance of The Beatles' history and the decadence of Capitol in regards to respecting the artistic integrity of their artists. There were ELEVEN*, count them, eleven U.S. albums released from1963 to 1966. In the UK, however, The Beatles had only issued FIVE albums before this. No one complains about these missing albums with the exception of this US version of RUBBER SOUL.

In those days, The Beatles were extremely hot commodities (which they still are) and the market supported singles more than albums anyway, so the reshuffling of all the tracks does not effect (much) the artistry of the songs until we get to RUBBER SOUL and REVOLVER. It is only until SGT. PEPPER that the American version and the UK version coincided. The most famous of these bastardized American albums is "Yesterday . . . and Today," the famous Butcher album, which is comprised of the four lost RUBBER SOUL tracks, two from the Side 2 of Help!, three from the then current REVOLVER sessions (the album was not completed when YESTERDAY was released), and the "Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out Single." Yet that album has its place in Beatles history more for the cover as opposed to the music inside, although the music is brilliant. But of all the American albums, this and the U. S. RUBBER SOUL are the most sorely missed.

Why are they sorely missed? Well, there's a reason why there have been many people complaining about the UK version when they grew up with the American version. With the release of this particular album, The Beatles and their contemporaries (especially Dylan) were firmly moving the market away from the singles and were becoming much more album oriented, which is why this is the most controversial reconfiguration. The rest sound like a collection of singles: this sounds like a unified album. To those who argue that the American release is better I do not necessarily agree. "Nowhere Man" stands as a vastly important composition, the first of The Beatles to move beyond the boy-girl subject of their bubblegum pop, and to remove it from this album makes the record suffer greatly. The American release compensated (partially) as having "Face" as the opener, which I greatly prefer to start the album off as opposed to "Drive My Car." This version of the album also is strengthened by dropping the rather bland "What Goes On," the worst track on the album.

As everyone praises this album, no one seems to fully discuss the disturbing "Run For Your Life," an extremely misogynistic Lennon song and the most baffling song in The Beatles' canon. This song makes a rather weakened end, and Ringo's simply isn't that impressive.

Still, an enthusiastic five star release non-the-less.

* For those interested, on these eleven albums there are tracks that are no longer available commercially, although they are of only marginal interested to the general fan as they are only tracks used for scoring the movies. A HARD DAYS NIGHT has four instrumental tracks used for movie scoring which are currently unavailable. THE BEATLES' SECOND ALBUM supposedly has some tampering to it to the actual recordings themselves, though what I do not know. The U. S. version of HELP! contains five tracks of Ken Thorpe's film score from the movie, which makes it like the YELLOW SUBMARINE album.


Love   December 4, 2006
My Uncle Stu (Boston)
59 out of 66 found this review helpful


In time for the annual holiday glut, The Beatles, or I presume a corporation that represents the surviving members, have released a new Beatles album, "Love." I guess it is a tie-in to the Cirque de Soleil show that uses remixed Beatles as a soundtrack. I'm not a purist and I have no objection to the new release, I'll be happy to give it a listen at some point. But it served to remind me that I've always considered Rubber Soul to be the single best rock album of love songs. I recognize that, artistically, it isn't the strongest or most profound Beatles album. Sgt. Pepper's stands as their most important album and a landmark in musical and cultural history, and a great album to this day. Abbey Road might be their second best. I always really liked the White Album too. I've heard some knock the White Album because the Beatles weren't playing together on it. But they were still the Beatles. George Martin was still the producer. And they were all in interesting places in their personal and artistic evolutions.

But for an album of the Beatles singing love songs, Rubber Soul is it. Norwegian Wood is a beautiful song as is "Michelle," "Girl," "In My Life," and "If I Needed Someone." Those are probably the strongest but none of the songs are bad. "Run for Your Life" might be a bit unsettling but it does speak to the very real jealousy and aggression that can get mixed up with romance.

Rubber Soul and Revolver tend to get grouped together and thought of as the transitional albums between the early and mature Beatles, between pop stars and composers. I think Rubber Soul stands alone as the album that retains the youthful fun and vitality of the Beatles as pop stars while also having the substance and immensity of the mature Beatles in their more artistic, explorative studio years.





A Timeless Masterpiece   November 12, 2000
paperbackriter (USA)
50 out of 58 found this review helpful

To say that "Rubber Soul" was merely groundbreaking, is like saying the Titanic was just another boat! With the release of this timeless masterpiece, the Beatles effectively rewrote the rock-n-roll rulebook. In doing so, they launched themselves into a four-year spell in which they were simply untouchable. Every element of "Rubber Soul" -- from its ultra-hip cover to the magnificent songs -- turned the rock world on its collective ear in 1965.

Ultimately, when judging the merit of an album, it all boils down to the quality of the songs and "Rubber Soul" is chock full of classics. "In My Life", "Norwegian Wood", "Michelle" and "Nowhere Man" are permanently ingrained in public consciousness. In a nutshell, they are essential elements of mid-20th Century pop culture. "Drive My Car" -- the album's rockin' opener --and John's seething "Girl" are pure pop pleasures. Paul's catchy "You Won't See Me" is a bitter send-off politely dressed in three-part harmony. The most surprising element of "Rubber Soul", however, was the emergence of George as a songwriting force. The Quiet One penned a pair of beauties with "Think For Yourself" and "If I Needed Someone". Each of "Rubber Soul's" 14 songs worked cohesively in terms of sound and theme. In other words, this wasn't two hit singles and a bunch of filler -- this was a "concept" album. The Beatles were growing up and soon the entire rock community would follow suit.

The influence of "Rubber Soul" was widespread. Upon first hearing the album, an awestruck Brian Wilson was said to have shook his head in disbelief. Wilson, of course, eventually recovered and answered the Beatles with his stunning "Pet Sounds" the following year. The most amazing attribute of "Rubber Soul" is that it was recorded in a single month! (Under immense pressure from the record company which was desperate for a Christmas offering from the Fabs.) Remarkably, the double-sided single "Day Tripper/ We Can Work it Out" was also recorded during these sessions, yet was never considered for inclusion on the long-player. Yes, that's how good the Beatles were in 1965, a banner year in rock's history. The Beach Boys, James Brown, Dylan, the Stones and Smokey Robinson all blazed a trail in '65, but ultimately the Fab Four grabbed the rock-n-roll mantle and ran with it. They were the trendsetters and "Rubber Soul" was their vehicle. I'd give this album 10 stars if I could !!


Perhaps the most influential album ever.   March 14, 2000
42 out of 55 found this review helpful

The impact of this 1965 album is incredible. The earliest recorded of the five great Beatles albums (Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, White Album, and Abbey Road are the others), Rubber Soul was the album that invented "album rock." This was the first rock album recorded for its own sake, without any Top Forty hit singles to back it up (Nowhere Man did not appear on the U.S. version). The songs "Girl", "Michelle", and "Norwegian Wood" each got massive radio airplay despite never being released as singles. Before Rubber Soul, most albums were junk, consisting typically of one or two songs that were Top Forty hit singles with the rest being throwaway filler tracks. Thanks to Rubber Soul, rock artists for the first time got serious about recording albums as works of art rather than just another way to make money. My favorite songs here are "Girl" and "In My Live", but just about everything on this CD is superb. However, I don't like the way they tinkered with the song selection; I would have preferred the original vinyl release format. The psychedelic cover art was the best of its time and it too was trendsetting. Overall, a must have CD for anyone who wants an introduction to their work, and don't forget the other four!