Released in December of 1965, The Beatles dropped a classic with Rubber Soul.
Rubber Soul is the second Beatles album where every song was written by a member of the band, as well, for the first time in their career, the Beatles were able to record an album free of concert, radio, or film commitments. Often called a folk rock album, Rubber Soul incorporates a mix of pop, soul and folk musical styles. (Are you seeing a theme here in my writing?) The title derives from the colloquialism "plastic soul" and was the Beatles' way of acknowledging their lack of authenticity compared to the African-American soul/R&B artists they admired - many of which hailed from Detroit’s Motown Records. While Rubber Soul isn’t my favorite Beatles album - you’ll have to wait for that nugget another day, let’s talk about what makes Rubber Soul a great album, and why it is still fresh today, just as it was in December of 1965.
Before we take a deep dive into Rubber Soul, we need to establish some background: my Beatle-background. I have been enamored with music my entire life. Especially the music of the Beatles. My life has been blessed with varying musical influences, hearing music from bands from the likes of Led Zeppelin to the Gap Band and everything in between, but I focused primarily on the Beatles, in my formative years. Yellow Submarine was the first track that hit my ears, and I was caught; hook, line and sinker for the Fab Four. The Beatles offered an edginess and clarity that I had not heard before. Each and every song, guitar riff, bassline and drum beat played by John, Paul, George and Ringo is burned into the synapses of my musical subconscious, and gave me a place of belonging. While the majority of my friends in my formative years were listening to rap and hip hop, I was blasting Rubber Soul over my iPod.
Now back to Rubber Soul. Rubber Soul is considered by music critics and historians to be a turning point in pop music, in that for the first time "the album rather than the song became the basic unit of artistic production." That is why I cover whole albums in my pieces, and not just songs - it is the entirety of the record that makes the cohesion of the music presented great. Every Album of the Week I have covered to date has this cohesion, and thanks to Rubber Soul.
In author David Howard's description, "pop's stakes had been raised into the stratosphere" by Rubber Soul, resulting in a shift in focus from singles to creating albums without the usual filler tracks. The release marked the start of a period when other artists, in an attempt to emulate the Beatles achievement, sought to create albums as works of artistic merit and with increasingly novel sounds, like the Beatles debuted in Rubber Soul. The idea of releasing an album filled with worthy music instead of an album with songs, with fillers and such didn’t happen before Rubber Soul. The composition and release of Rubber Soul would go on to inspire artists from the Beach Boys, to the Rolling Stones - namely Pet Sounds, by the Beach Boys and The Stones album Aftermath. These groundbreaking pieces would not have happened if it wasn’t for Rubber Soul.
Rubber Soul would also launch the world of rock and roll into developing subgenres. These variety of new styles, a process in which the Beatles' influence ensured them cemented them as deities, again it is hard for us in 2024 to comprehend that there was no Beatles before the Beatles. No one had done this stuff yet. Styles that, I can strongly assume, we take for granted as listeners. Some examples include: Norwegian Wood launched what Indian classical musician Ravi Shankar called "the great sitar explosion", as the Indian string instrument became a popular feature in raga rock and for many pop artists seeking to add an exotic quality to their music. The harpsichord-like solo on In My Life led to a wave of baroque rock recordings. Before Rubber Soul, albums were cut and dry, mainly the same style and theme throughout in the same format, carrying the same cohesive theme. But because of Rubber Soul, bands found it more attractive to add in flair to carry the overarching theme throughout the album, instead of the cut and dry approach. The Beatles took the usual approach, procedure, or formula bands took to create their sound and added more tools to the tool box - changing the game. There is a very evident way to identify this in an album: was it released before Rubber Soul or after?
Critics also claim that Rubber Soul "changed the direction of American rock". In the ongoing process of reciprocal influence between the band and US folk rock acts, the Beatles went on to inspire the San Francisco music scene, in a rather historic way. The album's popularity in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service, and the Grateful Dead were based. Journalist Charles Perry said: "You could party hop all night in San Fran and hear nothing but Rubber Soul in the mid 60’s." Perry also wrote that "More than ever the Beatles were the soundtrack of the Haight-Ashbury, Berkeley and the whole circuit", where pre-hippie students suspected that the album was inspired by drugs, while Lennon-McCartney refute that claim. John Lennon said in 1965, that the lyrics on Rubber Soul represent a pronounced development in sophistication, thoughtfulness and ambiguity. In particular, the relationships between the sexes moved from simpler sing-songy boy-girl love songs to more nuanced and negative portrayals, that still bite at the love song theme or trope. This was a new way to write a love song. Again, that didn't happen before Rubber Soul. See what I’m laying down here?
Before we get to the track by track breakdown, lets talk about who played what.
The Beatles are famously, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Rubber Soul found the Beatles playing additional and varied instruments. They are listed below:
John Lennon: lead, harmony and backing vocals; rhythm, acoustic and lead guitars; organ on Think For Yourself, and tambourine
Paul McCartney: lead, harmony and backing vocals; bass, acoustic and lead guitars; piano; and maracas
George Harrison: lead, harmony and backing vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; sitar on Norwegian Wood; maracas, and tambourine
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, maracas, cowbell, bells, cymbals; Hammond organ on I'm Looking Through You; lead vocals on What Goes On
Additional Personnel:
George Martin: production, mixing; piano on In My Life, harmonium on The Word and If I Needed Someone
Mal Evans: Hammond organ on You Won’t See Me
Track by Track Breakdown:
Side A
Drive My Car
Rubber Soul opens with a pair of lead guitar parts that are soon rendered off-meter by the arrival of McCartney's bass. The lyrics convey an actress's desire to become a film star and her promise to the narrator that he can be her chauffeur… if that is your take on Drive My Car.
C’mon, who doesn’t know this classic.
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Lennon said he wrote Norwegian Wood about an extramarital affair and that he worded the narrative to hide the truth from his wife, Cynthia. The lyrics sketch a failed meeting between the singer and a mysterious girl, where she goes to bed and he sleeps in the bath; in retaliation at the girl's aloofness, the singer decides to burn down her pine-panelled home.
For the music theorists out there: Norwegian Wood is arranged in 12/8 time, and in the English folk style, the song has a Mixolydian melody that results in a drone effect in the acoustic guitars, complementing the sitar part, though switches to parallel scale of E Dorian during its middle eight.
The narrative draws heavily on Bob Dylan's style through its use of ambiguity, in the overarching theme.
You Wont’ See Me
Written by McCartney, You Won't See Me reflects the difficulties he was experiencing in his relationship with actress Jane Asher due to her refusal to put her acting career second to his needs… not cool Paul.
Paul has also claimed inspiration from Motown for this song in particular, pulling influence from the great bassist: James Jamerson, for the “feel” of the song and namely the bassline.
The verses use the same chord sequence as the Four Tops' hit: It's the Same Old Song, interestingly enough.
Nowhere Man
Lennon penned Nowhere Man after a pretty substantial existential crisis.
Musically, the Beatles found themselves inspired by the Byrds for this track. The guitars have a jingle jangle similar to what Roger McGuinn was up to with the Byrds.
Think For Yourself
A Harrison track, he suggests lyrically the influence of Bob Dylan's September 1965 single Positively 4th Street, as Harrison appears to rebuke a friend or lover. Maybe a foreshadowing to the Traveling Wilburys? Seems like it to me.
The Word
Critics and historians recognize The Word as marking the start of the Beatles "high psychedelic period". John Lennon admitted that "The word is love" anticipates the ethos behind the counterculture's 1967 Summer of Love. The lyrics focus on the concept of universal love as a path to spiritual enlightenment.
On the song's rhythm side, highlights Ringo’s drumming for its feast of eccentric 'backwards fills' and McCartney's tight bass playing.
Michelle
Originally conceived by Paul McCartney in the late 1950’s, but came to fruition during the writing session for Rubber Soul. During the same session, John added a new middle eight, part of which was taken from Nina Simone's recent cover of I Put a Spell on You. Another nod to the Civil Rights movement and the Beatles influence and support of it, indirectly.
Side B
What Goes On
What Goes On was put on paper by John Lennon in early 1963 and shelved until the Rubber Soul sessions, but when the boys picked it back up, Lennon-McCartney reworked it into a country styled song for Ringo to sing, Ringo was a big country guy. Not a bad song, just not for me. Sorry Ringo.
Girl
Lennon said he wrote Girl about an archetypal woman he had been searching for and would finally find in Yoko Ono, shockingly. Sorry, I’m not on team Yoko.
The song was the final track recorded for the album. The composition incorporates aspects of Greek folk music, while the arrangement includes instrumentals set as a German two-step, a blend of genres, again that hadn’t happened until Rubber Soul. There were no Beatles before the Beatles.
I’m Looking Through You
One of my FAVORITE Beatle songs, mainly from the Paul vocal to the high tempo and high keyed acoustic guitar part. To me this is a song that could've been written by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
The composition contrasts acoustic based verses with harsher, R&B style instrumental sections, suggesting a combination of the folk rock and soul styles.
Like You Won't See Me, I'm Looking Through You focuses on McCartney's troubled relationship with Jane Asher.
In My Life
Used as many a - High School Senior Song throughout history, Lennon considered the song to be his "first real major piece of work". The lyrics evoke his youth in Liverpool and reflect his nostalgia for a time before the onset of international fame. Paul McCartney recalled writing the melody on his own and said that the song's musical inspiration came from Motown’s own Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.
George Martin, an experienced keyboardist in his own right, played the baroque styled piano solo and overdubbed it onto In My Life.
Wait
Wait is a Lennon song that Paul added a middle section too. Real heavy on the tambourine on Wait. You can feel the R&B influence heavily added into Wait. Not my favorite, but I respect it.
If I Needed Someone
Harrison wrote If I Needed Someone as a love song to Pattie Boyd, for background on Pattie Boyd, you might want to check out my piece on Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs:
George Harrison’s use of the 12-string Rickenbacker is another nod to Roger McGuinn of the Byrds.
Run For Your Life
Lennon wrote Run for Your Life based on Baby Let's Play House, which was one of Elvis Presley's early singles on the Sun record label. Lennon retained a line from the Presley track – "I'd rather see you dead, little girl, than to be with another man".
Performed in the country style, it was the first track recorded for the album and features a descending guitar riff played by Harrison and slide guitar parts.
Rubber Soul is a timeless classic that pioneered a new musical age, and a way for song writers to write songs. Adding in flavors and themes not yet explored.
While I said, Rubber Soul is not my favorite Beatles album, the breath of the tracks bequeathed to us by the Beatles on Rubber Soul is untamable. To me, no other singular album has inspired more folk rock artists then Rubber Soul, and for that I am eternally grateful.
Did you know that ‘If I needed someone” wasn’t on the original American release? It was Larry’s favorite song and I ordered the English pressing from Harry’s Amusements for his birthday back in 1985. -LoriK