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The title
Although it appeared somewhat obscure to 1965 listeners, the title Rubber Soul referred to the perception of The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger among black blues musicians.
I think the title Rubber Soul came from a comment an old blues guy had said of Jagger. I've heard some out-takes of us doing I'm Down and at the front of it I'm chatting on about Mick. I'm saying how I'd just read about an old bloke in the States who said, 'Mick Jagger, man. Well you know they're good - but it's plastic soul.' So 'plastic soul' was the germ of the Rubber Soul idea.
Anthology
The studio quote can be heard at the end of take one of I'm Down, included on 1996's Anthology 2.
That was Paul's title, it was like Yer Blues, I suppose, meaning English soul. Rubber Soul is just a pun. There's no great mysterious meanings behind all of this. It was just four boys working out what to call their new album.
Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner
The cover artwork
I liked the way we got our faces to be longer on the album cover. We lost the 'little innocents' tag, the naivety, and Rubber Soul was the first one where we were fully-fledged potheads.
Anthology
The cover photograph for Rubber Soul was taken by Robert Freeman, who had first worked with The Beatles on the cover of With The Beatles in August 1963.
The album cover is another example of our branching out: the stretched photo. That was actually one of those little exciting random things that happen. The photographer Robert Freeman had taken some pictures round at John's house in Weybridge. We had our new gear on - the polo necks - and we were doing straight mug shots; the four of us all posing. Back in London Robert was showing us the slides; he had a piece of cardboard that was the album-cover size and he was projecting the photographs exactly onto it so we could see how it would look as an album cover. We had just chosen the photograph when the card that the picture was projected onto fell backwards a little, elongating the photograph. It was stretched and we went, 'That's it, Rubber So-o-oul, hey hey! Can you do it like that?' And he said, 'well, yeah. I can print it that way.' And that was it.
Anthology
The distinctive lettering, meanwhile, was designed and drawn by Charles Front, a London-based art director who was approached to work on the album by Robert Freeman. It became much-imitated by other artists in the flower power era, although Front was never credited for his contribution.
Whether the Beatles were into LSD or not I don't know but I certainly wasn't. It was all about the name of the album. If you tap into a rubber tree then you get a sort of globule, so I started thinking of creating a shape that represented that, starting narrow and filling out. I was paid 26 guineas and five shillings.
In 2007 the lettering was auctioned by Bonhams, with a guide price of £10,000, after lying in a drawer for 42 years in Front's attic.
To me it was just another piece I'd done and I had put it away and forgotten about it. When I took it down to Bonhams I went on the underground with it in a carrier bag. When I came back after discovering its value I was absolutely clutching it in a case.
A different colour saturation was used by Capitol Records for Rubber Soul's US version, which made the red logo look brown or green, depending on the pressing.
Rubber Soul was the first album by The Beatles not to feature the group's name on the cover. By late 1965 they were famous enough not to need to announce themselves, and the likenesses of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr were famous the world over.
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Related articles:
- UK LP release: Rubber Soul
- US LP release: Rubber Soul
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their first truly amazing album!
Yeah. Their first collection of songs that seem to work together on the album somehow, they make the album seem to have a concept or something
Their first albums were AMAZING too but they put fill-in songs, which they stopped doing after Rubber Soul, or Revolver
Its incredible the way they progressed so fast, in every aspect a musician could
They progressed and responded to the amazing competion they had at the time on both sides of the Atlantic.
Could've conceivably been my favourite album if it didn't noticably fizzle out near the end with a couple of middling songs. They were new to the art of constructing capital-"A" Albums, and consequently hadn't thought to create a super-spectacular mindblower of a closing track along the lines of "Tomorrow Never Knows" or "A Day In The Life".
We here in the U.S. really like the Capitol release on vinyl. Especially the "East Coast/Dexterized" version with the added reverb. This variation of the album is rare and is not included on the Capitol albums box set.
You can spot this particular version of the album by looking in the "dead wax" on the record. If it has IAM in a triangle following the matrix # and "The Beatles" listed on the label (the first edition has the Beatles individual names only), it's a Dexterized version.
Man, I never heard of ANYbody who likes that fake stereo - uh, excuse me, "Duophonic" sound! Give me pristine stereo or mono anyday.
Well this particular lp was in true stereo, not Duophonic. I do have some Capitol lp's with some songs in Duophonic and I agree with you...not the greatest sound.
Ah, I see. I assumed that by "Dexterized" you meant Duophonic - he's the one who usually gets the blame for that process.
You can almost smell the pot on this album! I've heard on the Anthology DVDs that this was probably one of there most favorite albums. A great collection of songs, front to back. I think after this one and Revolver their albums seemed a bit patchy, they still had great songs on them but it became more individual. They didn't seem to work together as much. Really either the end of an era or the beginning.
This was the first Beatles album I ever bought. It had just come out and I bought with my 9th birthday money.
I bought Rubber Soul and Help that day. I remember being amazed (even as a 9 year old) at the incredible musical differences between the two albums.
Plus the Rubber Soul cover - didn't even have their names on it - just those incredible four faces! it was all you needed.
Their best album in terms of song quality, the problem, maybe, is that there's no remarkable end that the next two albums offered. But that's also why I love this album, you can start it anywhere and end everywhere. It just flows really well.
I was nine when this came out, and it was my second LP (my first was With The Beatles). I played them both morning, noon and night!
Rubber Soul was the first time I realised that The Beatles had an appeal beyond kids and teenagers. I was dragged along to visit some of my mother's friends - they were school teachers - and to my amazement THEY had Rubber Soul!
Rubber Soul features such a great collection of songs, it's hard to separate it sometimes. It's my second fav behind "Pepper". They never had better harmonies than on this album. "In My Life" was Lennon's greatest majority work in my opinion & "Norweigan Wood" isn't far behind. It was a revolutionary sound for them with the sitar, at the time & it really stands out still even after their studio years. It does kind of just flow along, but I think that some of their most underrated songs are on this album, like "You Won't See Me", "Wait" & "You Won't See Me". Love this album.
Heh, you like "You Won't See Me" that much, eh?
I really do. I think it was the best usage of Paul's double tracking of his voice until he did "Penny Lane". Also, John & George were great in accenting background vocals. It was their most complex instrumental song, but vocally it stands up with anything of that period.
Well, my point was that you mentioned it twice in that one sentence! (Or was that intentional?...)
(Anyway, don't worry, I think it's good enough to be listed twice, too.)
This is another where I think Capitols bastardizing of the albums worked in the Beatles favor. I'm sure I would have loved either tracklist. But having grown up with the leather-and-suede acoustic feel of the American Rubber Soul it is downright DIFFICULT for me to play the british version all the way through. What Goes On is, to me, simply a travesty in the world of Rubber Soul. Drive My Car and Nowhere Man are good tracks -- Nowhere Man a great one -- but the Capitol album is just so much more COHERENT a collection of songs.
It is interesting that UK versions have now taken over because when a lot of people refer to Rubber Soul historically they are talking about the U.S. Capitol version. That is the collection of songs that inspired Brian Wilson not the Uk one. I remember listening to the warm "I've just seen a face" a staring at the pictures on the back of Rubber Soul and my mind just being blown. Opening track on the uk version is "Drive my car", it just doesn't work for me as the Rubber Soul feel. Should have been strictly a single.
It is amazing how John dominates 1965 with major achievements like Help, Ticket to Ride, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away, Norwegian Wood, Girl, In My Life, Nowhere Man (I know Paul helped with some of these but they are definitely John songs). Paul taking a back seat with exception of Yesterday writing filler tracks like The Night Before, Another Girl, You Won't See Me etc. But I feel John takes a back seat to Paul in 1966 (I think Paul's years are 1966 and 1968).
John's output in 66 & 68, while not as catchy or single-worthy as Paul's, was awesome and inspiring nonetheless:
I'm only sleeping, Tomorrow never knows, Dr. Robert, She said she said, And your bird can sing, Happiness is a warm gun, I'm so tired, Revolution, Glass Onion, Dear Prudence, The continuing story of Bungalow Bill, Julia, Yer blues, Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey, Sexie Sadie, Cry Baby Cry, Goodnight.