The Beatles - Rubber Soul

This week in 1965 the Beatles began recording their sixth album.  Rubber Soul is one of the first Beatles albums I ever owned.  My big sister gave it to me after she was done with it [she also gave me A Hard Day’s Night, Meet the Beatles, and Yesterday & Today].  This album, and the single Help!, was my first exposure to The Beatles.  It is probably the biggest reason I became a Beatles fan.  Because my sister is 12 years older than I am, the Beatle hand-me-downs were the original albums. Though I was but a little kid when I got them, I remember them from when they were still somewhat new. The Help! 45 had the orange-and-yellow Capitol swirl label.  I’m Down was the flip side. 

Unlike albums that came before it, Rubber Soul had a decidedly acoustic feel.  Many writers about all things Beatle attribute this to the Beatles listening to Bob Dylan a lot.  Dylan apparently introduced them to marijuana, so there’s that perspective to throw into the mix.  And lyrically, they [especially John] began to move away from the boy-girl love songs that were their stock in trade.  On several songs, the Beatles seemed to take a more jaundiced view of women.  John started to look inward, to use himself as inspiration for his work.  Paul wasn’t as cute and cuddly lyrically.  George was a bit acerbic as well.

There are British and American versions of Rubber Soul.  The original British Rubber Soul release had 14 songs.  The American version had 12 songs.  Capitol Records had a nasty habit of cutting songs from the British versions and compiling albums unique to the American market.  For instance, Yesterday & Today is a purely American creation – there were no Yesterday & Today album sessions.  In the UK, Help! was just a regular album that happened to have a movie tie-in.  But in the US, Help! had only six Beatles songs with the remaining songs consisting of incidental music from the movie.  Capitol cut Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, What Goes On and If I Needed Someone from the British Rubber Soul, cut Act Naturally and Yesterday from the British Help!, cut I’m Only Sleeping, And Your Bird Can Sing, and Doctor Robert from the British Revolver, and used the Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out single.  Put all these songs into one collection and voila! – Yesterday & Today.  For the US version of Rubber Soul, Capitol added two songs they cut from Help! – I’ve Just Seen a Face and It’s Only Love.  To compound things, Capitol would also release two versions of the American albums – one in mono, the other in a new mix called “stereo.” 

Confused yet?  This butchering of their work prompted the infamous “butcher” sleeve for Yesterday & Today. This practice ceased with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.  Beginning with that release, the American and British versions of their albums would have identical track listings.

UK Version

Drive My Car / Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) / You Won't See Me  / Nowhere Man / Think for Yourself  / The Word  / Michelle  / What Goes On / Girl  / I'm Looking Through You / In My Life  / Wait  / If I Needed Someone  / Run for Your Life

Single – Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out – recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions, but released separately from the album.

US Version

I’ve Just Seen a Face / Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) / You Won't See Me / Think for Yourself  / The Word / Michelle / It’s Only Love / Girl / I'm Looking Through You / In My Life / Wait / Run for Your Life

Just where did the name Rubber Soul come from?  The genesis can be traced back to an outtake of I’m Down [found on Anthology 2], after which Paul McCartney can be heard to say “plastic soul, man, plastic soul…”  How did the album cover make The Beatles look like they all had long faces? When the band was looking at proofs of the album cover, they were being projected on a wall.  One proof got tilted somehow and they all said something to the effect of “we like that one! Use it!”  So there you have it.

The songs:

Drive My Car – Paul and John sang the lead vocals together.  George played the same lines on guitar and the six-string bass in unison.  One can’t tell where the guitar ends and where the bass begins – it sounds like one instrument.  George got his inspiration for that after hearing Otis Redding’s Respect.  Paul played the lead guitar track.  Beep beep, beep beep…yeah!

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) – John wrote a song about an affair that he didn’t want his wife to know about.  Paul suggested the character burn down the girl’s house after she made John sleep in the bathtub.  Cool sitar, George… J  The first version of the song was recorded a couple of steps lower than what appeared on Rubber Soul.  This version can be found on Anthology 2.  John didn’t like the result, but when he put a capo on his guitar at the second fret, presto!  David Gilmour’s song Murder [about John Lennon’s murder] sounds like this one [capo on the second fret on this one too].

You Won't See Me – Paul wrote a couple of songs for Rubber Soul about fights he had with his girlfriend, Jane Asher.  This is one of them.  Apparently Jane was ignoring Paul for awhile, so he wrote an uncharacteristically bitter song about it.

Nowhere Man – George played one of his most recognizable solos on Nowhere Man.  I still have no idea how he got that “ping” at the end of the solo.  If you want to know what a Fender Stratocaster without any effects sounds like, play this song.  The three-part harmonies of John, Paul and George are exquisite.  John was trying to write a song, but inspiration was lacking.   When he stopped thinking about it so hard, he said this song came to him, words, tune, everything all at once as he was drifting off to sleep.  Neil Young’s producer David Briggs once said this about making music – “If you think, you stink.”  Here’s an example of what happens when you try to “force it” and when you don’t try to “force it.” After two or three years of writing love songs, he came up with this.  Who was this Nowhere Man?  John Lennon, of course…

Think for Yourself  - Paul played two bass parts – a normal bass, then an overdub with a distorted fuzz that would be Jack Bruce’s trademark in Cream. Curiously, Paul wouldn’t use this sound again until Abbey Road on the song Mean Mr. Mustard.  So just who is George telling to “think for yourself”?  For a long time I thought these words were directed at some girl, given the many songs on Rubber Soul that don’t portray women in a very positive light.  Now I’m not so sure…

The Word – The “word” is “Love.”  This was the Beatles first venture into peace, love and hippy shit.  Say the word and you’ll be free… Free from what?  I don’t know, but John said he was “here to show everybody the light.”  This song is “John Lennon as preacher.”  It wouldn’t be the last time he would be “preaching practices.”  This is a precursor to All You Need Is Love.  Paul McCartney played a medley of The Word/All You Need Is Love on tour recently.  It was neat to hear him sing a couple of John’s songs.

The Beatles – The Word

Paul McCartney – The Word/All You Need Is Love [First time live – ever!]

Michelle – Paul’s song with a little help from John [the I love you, I love you, I love you bridge].  This excellent ballad is a lot like Here, There and Everywhere which appeared on Revolver in 1966.  A fine piece of work, this one… J

What Goes On – Ringo’s vocal turn on Rubber Soul.  John wrote most of it, to which Ringo [in his own estimation] contributed about five words.  This resulted in the unique Lennon-McCartney-Starr songwriting credit.  My thought on this song – yawn…

Girl – John’s song about a not-very-nice girl whom he can’t help but fall in love with.  She’s the kind of girl who puts you down when friends are there, you feel a fool/When you say she’s looking good she acts as if it’s understood, she’s cool… Listen closely and you can hear tit tit tit tit in the background vocals.  Somehow the censors missed that one…

I’m Looking Through You – This is the other Jane Asher song written by Paul.  It has the same mood as You Won’t See Me – bitter.  On the American Rubber Soul, the song has two false starts.  The British version cut out the false starts.

In My Life – This is one of the best songs John Lennon ever wrote.  A British reporter once challenged him to write a song about his childhood.  John did, but didn’t like what he came up with, so he made changes from very specific things, places and people to more general things [There are places I remember/Some have gone and some remain…Lovers and friends I still can recall/Some are dead and some are living …].  George Martin recorded the piano solo at half speed.  The harpsichord sound comes from playing the tape at regular speed.

Wait – Filler.  It’s not a bad song, but it’s not very memorable either.

If I Needed Someone – I argue that this is George’s first great Beatles song.  George’s twelve-string Rickenbacker work was inspired by The Byrds’ The Bells of Rhymney. Roger McGuinn bought a twelve-string Rickenbacker after he, David Crosby and Gene Clark had seen A Hard Day’s Night, so with this song George returned the compliment.  The funny thing about this song is that John seems to sing more of the song than George.  This was the only George Harrison original the Beatles ever played live.  Eric Clapton played it during 2002’s Concert for George.

Run For Your Life – The Beatles did many great songs, and even more merely good ones.  This song fits neither category.  John wrote it, and even he hated it.  He wrote it to finish the album.  It was a filler track and John knew it. 

Day Tripper – John came up with the riff and most of the words.  Paul sang lead on the verses while John harmonized.  This went against type as for almost all Beatles songs, the main writer sang lead.  John played the guitar solo, too.  Apparently the “she’s a big teaser” line was originally written as “she’s a prick teaser.”  Jimi Hendrix recorded a neat version of Day Tripper for the BBC [it’s on BBC Sessions].  Legend has it that John Lennon sang on it – he didn’t.  The other vocalist you hear is Noel Redding.

We Can Work It Out – This is a true Lennon-McCartney effort.  The verses were Paul’s while the middle eight [the Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting bit] came from John.  Paul sang lead on the verses while John’s vocals came to the forefront on the middle eight.  On a humorous note, when Paul McCartney did an Unplugged® show for MTV, he forgot the words and had the band start over again.  They left that bit in the broadcast – very refreshing.

Is Rubber Soul the best Beatles album?  No…that would be Revolver.  But this one is a fine collection.