Comments on: Rubber Soul

By: Carl Moore

Carl Moore — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 20:13:52 +0000

Yes, starting off with “I’ve Just Seen a Face” on the U S. version seemed to signal a sharp change in The Beatles’ sound. That song appeared the preceding August on the Help! album (side 2, the non-film side) in UK.

By: Ian Bartle

Ian Bartle — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 02:51:37 +0000

I’m with you on that. Von Bontee makes and excellent point about having a great closing track. Having a great opener goes without saying for the marketing point of view – but a great closer is equally important from the artistic point of view.
It not so subliminally suggests ‘there’s plenty more where this came from so if you like it, start saving for the next album’! Run For Your Life is not a great song, it’s anything but positive and is not blessed with either great harmonies or great bass-playing. If I’m going to listen to Rubber Soul and Revolver back to back (which I often do) I sometimes kill it and move on. Wait is pretty good (good drumming) and IINS is one of my all-times faves so Side 2 always gets played – just not RFYL. A brave song in some ways, just not a good song. I suppose it reveals a true side of John that we wish wasn’t there. He knew it was true and showed some courage in revealing it. Shame the others didn’t veto it pressed John to come up with something better – much better. He certainly had it in him. They were beyond covers by this stage but I’d sooner listen to John doing Money or Please Mr Postman than this track. It Won’t Be Long of course is another far better song that comes to mind though John was moving away from rock’n’roll in some ways and going into himself from where so many great, great songs would emerge.

By: Steve

Steve — Sat, 29 Sep 2018 19:11:28 +0000

and therefore wouldnt have heard If I needed Someone.

By: bryan seals

bryan seals — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 12:10:53 +0000

The Beatles discovered black American music and sold it back to the Americans

By: aubiemaggie

aubiemaggie — Thu, 21 Sep 2017 23:41:13 +0000

Even their fill-in songs were fab in their own way, eh?

By: Josiah

Josiah — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 08:44:11 +0000

My favourite nowadays, but I believe that’s only because I over-listened Sgt. Pepper’s and Abbey. Magical Mystery is equal favourite nowadays as well with Rubber. I always thought Rubber was far better than Revolver, in-fact Revolver is easily my least favourite of the Rubber and onwards albums. Still love it a ton though. Rubber Soul has the best harmonies and is the perfect transition album. Songs like Michelle, Girl (underrated) and Norwegian Wood are among my favourites and George really shines on this album with some of the best here with If I Needed Someone, his incredible contribution to Norwegian Wood and Think For Yourself. It’s also the second best in terms of sound quality oddly enough right behind Abbey Road. Not sure why. The silly vocals to the right thing and it being quiet on Norwegian Wood, similar to the song Sgt. Pepper’s is a real shame though. Can’t stand that. All in all one of my favourite albums and nowadays my favourite Beatles album tied with Mystery Tour.

By: Abdo A Ades

Abdo A Ades — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 02:09:51 +0000

Its was Johns last hurrah as head honcho before Paul started to dominate… All good… It was always the Beatles anyway… John made a big recovery on The White Album And also Abbey Road but their creative processes were so intertwined that its not only difficult but also unnecessary to separate them out
from each other That unity and synergism was what made them the Beatles. These were guys who loved each other for the most part.

By: pat

pat — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 15:51:56 +0000

@J.D. Lyle: In the Anthology George says that they listened excessively to “The Freewheeling Bob Dylan”, in Barry Miles’ “Many Years From Now” Paul also says that they all had the first Dylan LP and that Lennon actually adopted his black cap (that leather thing he used to wear in 1964) from the cover of that LP. I read somewhere, but don’t know if Lennon said so himself, that the “Another Side Of Bob Dylan” – LP influenced Lennon to write more personal and introspective songs. I get the impression that they were all big Dylan fans (especially John & George) and pretty much owned every album he issued at the time.
By the way: Dylan was a big Beatles fan as well – he later “confessed” that he didn’t dare to say so at the time because to his purist folk hipster friends they were sellouts that represented the bad bad establishement (the same “friends” that turned on him when he went electric – a move probably inspired by the Beatles and/or the whole British invasion).

To me from a songwriting point of view Rubber Soul is their best album. I don’t think Rubber Soul and Revolver are like part 1 & 2 although there is of course a connection between those albums. Rubber Soul is folky, sparse and laid back. It works very well as a unit. Revolver is very diverse and every song seems to come from a totally different place (look at the first 4 songs: Taxman, Eleanor Rigby, I’m Only Sleeping, Love You To – 4 songs 4 genres) – hearing it nowadays it almost feels like a sampler compiled to demonstrate the diversity of the group. Regarding that it’s more like a forerunner of the White Album. Some tunes could indeed have been on both albums but having Tomorrow Never Knows on Rubber Soul is unthinkable.

By: Andrew Gaines

Andrew Gaines — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 16:25:08 +0000

In a couple of interviews I’ve seen with Brian Wilson he refers to the “folky” sound of the album. I’d therefore assume he meant the U.S. version

By: Andrew Gaines

Andrew Gaines — Sun, 28 Aug 2016 16:00:49 +0000

I have read that part of reason for the “bastardization” of Rubber Soul in the U.S. format (apart from fleecing the public with shorter and more albums) was that with the new popularity of the Byrds and American Folk/Rock, Capitol were creating the Beatles Folk/Rock album. Ironic then that they left off “If I Needed Someone” which has Harrison recreating his own Byrds sound with his won “jingle-jangle 12 string guitar sound.

By: Leave YoKo Alone

Leave YoKo Alone — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 00:57:44 +0000

In my opinion, Rubber Soul is the Beatles best. Wait and If I needed someone are seriously underappreciated. Run for your life is an the only average song with a deeply disturbing subject matter that is glossed over in the beatles myth.

By: Moriarty

Moriarty — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 03:30:29 +0000

It’s pretty clear in my life was a cowrite not just Lennon

By: Tom Palminteri

Tom Palminteri — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 15:01:00 +0000

I agree with you 100%!!! Whenever I hear the UK version I’m disappointed. The album really flows much nicer on the US version!

By: coldturkey1987

coldturkey1987 — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 05:35:12 +0000

So happy Wait was resurrected from help sessions. Had it not been, Wait would have been their best unreleased track. As it is I feel Leave My Kitten Alone is there most solid unreleased track and should have been used on Beatles For Sale as it is better than half the tracks on BFS.

By: Billy Shears

Billy Shears — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 20:46:50 +0000

I didn’t mean to imply that my choices were superior to those of the Beatles, who remain the last word in their artistic creations. I was just trying to say that if I were the producer at Capitol and had to chop up the album, I would have done it differently and more creatively.

By: Billy Shears

Billy Shears — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 20:42:04 +0000

What makes “Rubber Soul” such a great album, in my opinion, is not the “concept”, but (1) the collection of some of the best song-writing the Beatles ever displayed, particularly Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood”, “In My Life”, “Girl”; McCartney’s “I’m Looking Through You”, and Harrison’s “If I Needed Someone”, (and the melody, if not the words, to “Michelle”) (2) the increased willingness to experiment with harmony and texture in songs like “Drive My Car”, “Norwegian Wood”, “Nowhere Man”, “Girl”, and “If I Needed Someone”, and (3) the use of new techniques in the recording studio in just about every song. It doesn’t necessarily hang together as a complete album the way “Revolver”, “Pepper”, or even “Abbey Road” does, but most of the parts are worth listening to the whole.

By: Billy Shears

Billy Shears — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 20:34:02 +0000

Interesting to ponder: did the Beach Boys hear the U.K. version of the album or its chopped-up U.S. counterpart?

By: Billy Shears

Billy Shears — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 20:30:07 +0000

Although I post an alternative fantasy Capitol scenario (in another posting) which keeps DmC, NM, and If I Needed… (I completely agree with you about those three songs), I do generally agree with your assertion that Capitol bastardized the Beatles’ artistic intentions by chopping things up.

By: Billy Shears

Billy Shears — Tue, 11 Aug 2015 20:27:44 +0000

On the differences between the U.S. and U.K. versions of “Rubber Soul.” Since I discovered the Beatles, really, when “Pepper” came out in 1967, I never really heard the U.S. version as a whole although I grew up in the U.S. There are clear disappointments with the U.S. version, most notably, two of the best songs–“Nowhere Man” and “If I Needed Someone”, have been removed, as well as the very creative “Drive My Car”. Capitol would have created a better product by knocking off “Wait” and “Run for Your Life” (RfYL is a weak ending to an album packed with masterpieces; even Lennon himself claimed that it was one of his worst songs).

I do think that “I’ve Just Seen a Face” does work well as an opener on the U.S. album. Many have argued that because of this, the U.S. version has a more “folky” flavor, but replacing “What Goes On” with “It’s Only Love” reverses that feel, since “What Goes On” has more of a country sound (I’m not crazy about either song). Though I’m not a fan, generally, of Capitol’s practice of chopping up Beatles albums and creating new hodgepodges, since they were going to do it ANYWAY, here’s what they should have done (since they changed track order, I did too, to create what I think would have been a more coherent album without losing two of its best songs and including the two singles that were released on the same day). Keep in mind that Capitol albums would only have 6 songs per side, not 7.

Side One:
“I’ve Just Seen a Face”
“Girl” (a great song that works anywhere on the album but links thematically to IJSaF)
“We Can Work it Out” (not on the original album but released as a single the same day)
“Drive My Car” (after three more “folky” songs, moves to a harder rock feel)
“Day Tripper (maintains the harder rock feel)
“Norwegian Wood” (one of Lennon’s masterpieces, worthy of being a side closer)

Side Two:
“Nowhere Man” (a much stronger side opener than either “What Goes On” or “It’s Only Love”
“I’m Looking Through You” (picks up on the theme of “sight” that’s address in “Nowhere Man”)
“You Won’t See Me” (keeps the theme going)
“Michelle” (beautiful melody, uninspired words–would sound better if the whole thing were in French)
“In My Life” (another masterpiece, could be the album closer if the last chords were more assertive and final sounding)
“If I Needed Someone” (one of Harrison’s best ever)

So as you can see, I knocked off “Wait”, “Run for Your Life”, “What Goes On”, and “Think for Yourself” (not a fave), and “The Word” (which I think is overrated). I know that many will take issue with these choices, especially the last two (which I’d leave on if I were producing a 14-track album). This is just a thought exercise anyway.

By: Nolan Contendre

Nolan Contendre — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 15:59:33 +0000

The relative virtues of the Brit and US versions of “Rubber Soul” are infinitely debatable, obviously. I heard the US version first, but have long since owned both. I suppose I like the British original better, in part because that’s the one the band members created and preferred. But, as much as I love “Drive My Car,” it seems sonically out of place on the overwhelmingly acoustic Brit version. Capitol did find a compatible opener in “I’ve Just Seen a Face.” And “Nowhere Man,” though it’s beautiful melodically, is preachy and feels to me out of place among all those love songs. Here again, Capitol’s trim makes a certain sense. I actually like “What Goes On” as a record even if it is the weakest “song” on the British “RS.” But that’s a defensible trim too. What I wish Capitol had done, if it just had to cut one more, is leave George’s second “RS” song on the record and remove “Run for Your Life,” an early blast of Lennon misogyny. It hasn’t aged well.