Customer Reviews

Rubber Soul

5 star:		(594)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

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!

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 arguably beats them, especially with HIGHWAY 61 Revisited), 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, especially jazz, 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 boy-girl "I Love you" 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 aestheticallythan 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. Although it's true it's the first ALBUM of their mature sound, the seeds were already there in earlier material already released.

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 early pop material, 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.

RUBBER SOUL is the Beatles first masterpiece, and the original UK version is far better than the American LP. This is how the Beatles themselves intended it, not some hack from Capitol Records.

DRIVE MY CAR is an excellent opening track. It was chopped off of the original American record and was replaced by It's Only Love.

NORWEGIAN WOOD is about one of John's real-life affairs, and it is my favorite song on the album. It is probably the first time the sitar was used in popular music.

YOU WON'T SEE ME, great pop from Paul, and has some fine drumming from Ringo.

NOWHERE MAN, one the best tracks on the entire album, and it was cut off the American record.

THINK FOR YOURSELF, good track from George, not his best but still very good. Nice fuzz bass.

THE WORD, very much in the same vein as ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE, but this track is much better.

MICHELLE, classic Paul. Beautiful melody.

WHAT GOES ON, country song co-written and sung by Ringo. Neither bad nor great.

GIRL, more classic Lennon. He dominates this album.

I'M LOOKING THROUGH YOU, great Paul track, features Ringo on Hammond organ.

IN MY LIFE is possibly the Beatles' best song, and may be the greatest song ever written. Excellent keyboard solo.

WAIT, more classic stuff.

IF I NEEDED SOMEONE, George's best song up to this point. Great lyrics and a hypnotic guitar intro.

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE is Lennon at his most jealous. One of the weaker songs on this CD, but it features some great guitar work.

Rubber Soul is essential to everyone's music collection.

By the time they recorded "Rubber Soul," The Beatles were an unstoppable sensation with classics like "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," and "A Hard Day's Night" under their belt. "Rubber Soul," however, marked the band's first foray into the arty pop that would make up the bulk of their later efforts.

"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.

By 1965, The Beatles had already conquered the world with their music, always highly-qualified, as they always tried to be innovative and fresh-sounding with their early work. But at some point they had to demonstrate that they were not only the band that had broken all the best-selling records, but also a new and never-before-seen musical structure that would eventually break down all the conventions and create a social phenomenon that would change the world foverer.

"Rubber Soul" is an album where The Beatles, always guided by the hands and ears of Sir George Martin, intented to be innovative and creative, not abandoning the traditional pop music structures, but changing them to give them the shape they wanted them to have... So here we can appreciate notable instrumental superation which, in many cases, is close to perfection. We hear impressive works on guitars ("Drive My Car", "Nowhere Man", "Girl", the 12-string guitar on "If I Needed Someone"), bass guitar ("You Won't See Me", "Nowhere Man"), keyboards (Paul's piano on "You Won't See Me" and "The Word", and George Martin's solo on "In My Life"), drums and percussion (Ringo's drumming on "You Won't See Me", "The Word", "What Goes On" and "In My Life" is amazing, as is the percussion amongst the album). They present us special innovations in the recording: a sitar playing the lead role as a popular music instrument ("Norwegian Wood"), a fuzz bass guitar that has a more starring role that the lead guitar ("Think For Yourself"), and the most trebley acoustic guitars ever heard on record ("Nowhere Man", according to Paul McCartney).

They were also looking for lyrical perfection. "Drive My Car" is a collaboration between Paul and John, and a nice opener with a funny story (and it SO belongs here. The original album was the UK version!); "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" is a very weird story about an affair John was having at the time, which finishes with a fire!; "You Won't See Me" and "I'm Looking Through You" are Paul McCartney's love/argument songs to Jane Asher. They are both outstanding for their lyrics (Paul shines here as a lyricist. Yes, he wrote lyrics too) and their charming melodies; "Nowhere Man" is one of the best John's songs, about isolation and sharing the world with all the people who live in it, and also contains a three-part vocal harmony that will be present on the entire album; "Think For Yourself" is a great song by George Harrison ("probably about the government", he says), with a deep meaning (it's up to you to decide what it is: I think it's about not believing all the things that you hear). It also features three-part harmonies. "The Word" is a John Lennon song (also sung by three of the four Beatles) that has a great meaning even today, as the world still needs "The Word" to survive. I mean, those were other times and I didn't live there (I'm only 18), but how we need this kind of songs now! "Michelle" is the typical McCartney ballad, with lovely touches of french arrangements and a sweet guitar solo and background vocal harmonies; "What Goes On" is, in my opinion (and even considering all the love I have for Ringo Starr as a drummer, as a band member, and even as a singer and a solo artist!), the low point of the album. But it's not Ringo's fault, as he sings pretty well and his drumming does not contain any mistakes: is the guitar work that doesn't work here. I don't know what happened with John and George, but that guitars aren't right. Still a good song. "Girl" is a deep and melancholy lament by John, about a man losing his faith in love because of a particular girl who treated him badly. He would later take the revenge, as "Run For Your Life", the closing track for the album, is a very anti-feminist although humoristic song. They both have the precise arrangements that make them strong. "Wait" is quite a filler, but a good one, as its lyrics are good, and the guitar is very well-played. "If I Needed Someone" is another three-part harmony, this time on a nice George's song about love.

"In My Life" is a whole other chapter. One of my favourite songs of all-time, its sincere lyrics are just very emotional, and can mean a lot to everyone who hears them. I can't think about any song as charming, nice and sweet as this one. Also, "In My Life" can mean "In Our Lives", as John is talking about the places he remembered, the old memories, the old friends, that can only have meaning when love is "something new", when the loved person appears and makes the world go round again. It's so lovely that can make us cry. And not many songs can do that... Sweet, deep, meaningful, outstanding, delightful... A gem.

No matter how old are you, wherever you are, The Beatles music can have a deep impact "In Your Life". "Rubber Soul" was, I think, only the starting of the Beatles' brilliance. Musically and lirically, they were starting to grow, and the world was witnessing that process. And the new fans can now appreciate it as an whole, which makes this album, if you don't already own it, an essential addition to your CD collection. Wherever you are, no matter how old are you.

This is probably my favorite cd I own. There's really not a bad song on the whole thing. The quality is even more amazing when you consider the context in which it was first released. The 45 rpm was the dominant format, and any Lp had a lot of filler material. Anyone of these songs had the potential to become a major hit. Also, these songs have aged much better than some of their other work. Granted Strawberry Fields Forever is a masterpiece, but outside the late 1960's it doesn't really have much directly in common with popular music. The songs on Rubber Soul are timeless -- they'll sound as good today as they will 35 years from now as they did 35 years ago.

Drive My Car is the opening song, and it's a good country-based rock song with a good beat and excellent chords. Norwegian wood is a knockout of a song with just the right amount of sitar, and John Lennon's lyrics are great.

You Won't See Me is good song, but compared to the rest of the cd is just an OK work. Nowhere Man has a really catchy melody and lyrics;if you've never heard it before, your'e bound to find yourself singing it when you east expect it.

Think For Yourself turns up the heat a little bit and has some heavy beats. The arrangement on this song is nice and shows off some cool sounds. The Word is an ok song, but not as good as most of the other ones.

Michelle is one of the best songs on the whole album. It showcases Paul's ear to write a pretty tune. Ringo co-wrote What Goes On with Paul and John, and it has an upbeat countryish kind of feel. It's a strong song.

Girl is a cool song by John; the opening is captivating and is in the same vein as Norweigian Wood. I'm Looking Through You has its ups and downs. The organ part is both strange sounding and approriate at the same time. It's probably the most awkward song.

In My Life is fantastic. It's not all that well known, but it's a classic song which still sounds as new and original in the year 2000 as I'm sure it did in 1965. The piano by George Martin is almost breathtaking. Unfortunately for me, it sounds to my ears like a couple keys run together, but considering how fast it's played I don't think it's avoidable. I wonder how it would've sounded if Paul has played it though?

Wait is good song similar to I'm Looking Through You, but a little softer. If I Needed Someone is pretty strong throughout, but isn't one of my favorites. Run For Your life is another one of those catchy tunes with solid lyrics and excellent instrumentals.

I didn't want this album to end, that's how good it is. You can listen to Revolver right afterwards and it feels like a continuation, but then the songs start getting a little trippy, so the connection fades. Rubber Soul is nothing less that excellent.

Rubber Soul marked a turning point in the Beatles' career. Tiring of their lovable moptop image and shifting away from the formalmatic music they felt they were making, they made over their sound and with the grim album cover, their image. Rubber Soul is the first non-soundtrack album to feature all original compensations. Lennon & McCartney were expanding their horizons with such songs as the mocking "Nowhere Man", the aggressive "Run For Your Life" and the cutting "I'm Looking Through You". They were no longer singing about puppy love, but looking at the bitter side of love. "Norwegian Wood" is about an extra-marital affair and contains George Harrison playing a sitar. "Girl" shows the Beatles still had a playful side by inserting the word tit into the backing vocals and "Michelle" is a love song in the traditional sense. "In My Life" is one of the most poignant songs of all time and still brings tears to your eyes. The Beatles broke alot of their stereotypes with Rubber Soul and showed that they could make music that wasn't made for the girls to scream to.

I had a chance to sit down with a decent set of headphones and AB my earlier CD, vinyl and the 2009 remaster of Rubber Soul, one of my all time favorite albums. I even used an audio editing tool to take a look at the waveforms of the two digital CDs. Here is my 2 cents.

Bass has more depth

Balance is better, but still follows Sir G. Martin's 2-channel master from 1982, which is the source of the remaster.

Highs have a my crystaling sound, especially noticable on cymbals.

Levels are highers and there doesn't seem to be as much compression. Nice.

Overall balance is better making the melodic voices more clear and forward sounding.

Well worth the investment. Next stop, grab on to one of the boxed sets.

I see they are almost gone from all the stores, but I expect more to come and I can be patient.

'Rubber Soul', 'Revolver' and 'Sgt. Pepper' -- these are the Beatles' big three ('Abbey Road' is wonderful but flawed). This album features what arguably ranks as the best overall work on a Beatles album from John Lennon. "Norwegian Wood", "Nowhere Man", "Girl" and "In My Life" are some of the finest compositions that he ever offered to the group. If you could take John Lennon's work from 'Rubber Soul' and combine it with Paul McCartney's work on 'Revolver' onto one album, you would easily have the greatest album ever made. The lyrics to the songs on 'Rubber Soul', as it stands, are some of the most introspective and deeply moving that the group members ever came up with.

The album was made during a time when the Beatles were still united as a performing unit, maturing in their abilities but still tied to the group as a whole and not pursuing their own individual interests and avenues. They were still THE Beatles --- touring, performing, recording, hugely influential and the best damn rock 'n roll band on the planet. They were also incorporating folk-rock and Dylan-inspired influence into their music , which of course lead 'Rubber Soul' to inspire the Beach Boys' masterpiece 'Pet Sounds'. This album, in terms of the quality of its individual songs, has to be recognized as one of the band's greatest achievements.

One of my biggest regrets of being born six months after The Beatles broke up was that I couldn't experience the impact of listening to this album for the first time back in 65(even if it was the truncated US version).Rubber Soul,like Bringing It Back Home and later Pet Sounds redefined the album format as more than a hits and filler fodder.Every song,even if you may not like it,stands out and sticks in your head.Not only was the songwriting at its sharpest,but the recording studio was becoming an integral part as musical experimentation ascented the songs to heights unimaginable in pop music.The introduction of the sitar(on Norwiegian Wood),fuzz bass(Think For Youself), & upperneck capoed acoustic guitars(Michelle,Girl) made the music a quantum leap beyond anything else at the time.John Lennon is the real star here with not only Norwiegian Wood,but also The Word,Nowhere Man,Girl,Run For Your Life(which he later discarded as a throwaway),and his most beautiful Beatle composition In My Life.Paul McCartney was no slouch bringing in Drive My Car,You Won't See Me and of course the sappy,yet beautiful Michelle.If I Needed Someone shows George Harrison's growth as a fine composer.Any act on the same level as The Beatles would've ran their winning formula into the ground.But instead of resting on their laurels,they took their music,along with the whole of pop music to a whole new level.And their best was still ahead of them.