Recorded: 12 October - 15 November 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 3 December 1965 (UK), 6 December 1965 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, Vox Continental organ, tambourine
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano
George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, sitar, tambourine
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums, cowbell, tambourine, maracas, percussion, bells, Hammond organ
George Martin: piano, harmonium, tambourine
Mal Evans: Hammond organ
Tracklisting:
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
The Beatles' sixth UK album and 11th US long-player, Rubber Soul showed the group maturing from their earlier pop performances, exploring different styles of songwriting and instrumentation, and pushing boundaries inside the studio.
In October 1965, we started to record the album. Things were changing. The direction was moving away from the poppy stuff like Thank You Girl, From Me To You and She Loves You. The early material was directly relating to our fans, saying, 'Please buy this record,' but now we'd come to a point where we thought, 'We've done that. Now we can branch out into songs that are more surreal, a little more entertaining.' And other people were starting to arrive on the scene who were influential. Dylan was influencing us quite heavily at that point.
Anthology
Rubber Soul furthered the group from the straightforward love songs that had characterised their early recordings, and continued the exploration of wider themes that had begun in songs such as Help! and You've Got To Hide Your Love Away.
John Lennon, in particular, was enjoying a songwriting peak, creating some of his best work such as Girl, In My Life and Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).
In Nowhere Man, Lennon detailed his lack of confidence and feelings of insecurity, and Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) dealt obliquely with an affair he was having, yet didn't want his wife to discover.
In My Life, meanwhile, began as a nostalgic set of memories of Liverpool. In 1980 Lennon described it as "my first real major piece of work",
I think In My Life was the first song that I wrote that was really, consciously about my life, and it was sparked by a remark a journalist and writer in England made after In His Own Write came out. I think In My Life was after In His Own Write... But he said to me, 'Why don't you put some of the way you write in the book, as it were, in the songs? Or why don't you put something about your childhood into the songs?' Which came out later as Penny Lane from Paul - although it was actually me who lived in Penny Lane - and Strawberry Fields.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Paul McCartney's songwriting, too, was maturing, although his creative peak as a songwriter arguably didn't arrive until 1966's Revolver.
I'm Looking Through You and You Won't See Me were inspired by McCartney's often turbulent relationship with Jane Asher, while Drive My Car - a playful humorous song with a twist in the tale - showed the lighter side of his songwriting.
In their rush to complete the album, Lennon and McCartney resurrected some older songs. Wait had been recorded for Help!, and with a few overdubs in late-1965 was deemed good enough for enclusion on Rubber Soul.
Michelle, meanwhile, was one of McCartney's oldest songs, dating as far back as 1959. It was inspired by Austin Mitchell, one of John Lennon's tutors at the Liverpool College of Art.
He used to throw some pretty good all-night parties. You could maybe pull girls there, which was the main aim of every second; you could get drinks, which was another aim; and you could generally put yourself about a bit. I remember sitting around there, and my recollection is of a black turtleneck sweater and sitting very enigmatically in the corner, playing this rather French tune. I used to pretend I could speak French, because everyone wanted to be like Sacha Distel...
Years later, John said, 'D'you remember that French thing you used to do at Mitchell's parties?' I said yes. He said, 'Well, that's a good tune. You should do something with that.' We were always looking for tunes, because we were making lots of albums by then and every album you did needed fourteen songs, and then there were singles in between, so you needed a lot of material.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Related articles:
- UK LP release: Rubber Soul
- US LP release: Rubber Soul
- The Word
- It's Only Love
- Rubber Soul to be released as Rock Band download next week
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.