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[Mervap]

Released December 3, 1965

[Mervap]

From beginning to end, this album is clean, crisp and interesting...reading about the making of "Rubber Soul" one can see the recipe for disaster taking shape: constant touring, mixed with an impossibly short Christmas shopping season deadline....those factors make the result all the more astounding. You can both see and feel the growth happening here. The cover was unlike anything else out at the time, except maybe their own "With the Beatles". Drop the needle on side one and you can hear it: these guys are writing from a decidedly different place than on previous efforts...plus, there are no cover tunes, not that I've got anything against them, but these tunes are better.

I love to turn this CD up REALLY loud and marvel at how much McCartney's bass playing has matured from their previous albums...he was fine before, but it's really starting to show that the constant playing and recording, matched with real talent, have begun to pay off. I think he has said that it was around this time he began listening to the bass playing on Beach Boys records and how bass wasn't just a rhythm instrument anymore. George Harrison gets a few great tunes on "Soul", and his guitar is excellent throughout. Lennon had reached a plateau as a songwriter, but his songs continue to show a depth that would be more completely explored later. Ringo is....well...Ringo. That is to say, the Beatles' traffic cop is in great form here, just as always.

There is not a single "skipper" on this album....pop it in and have a swim in pure greatness.

[2 of 3]

One of the Beatle albums I have purchased more than once. I wore out 2 albums and then bought it on CD. I gotta admit...the albums sound better...but I never did buy the remastered versions.

[chris]

this changes every week or so...but right now...it is the most listened to beatle album for me. the folky nature...but the more complex chord progressions...mean they re gearing up for better and better things.

this is the album that begins their...note for note perfect album...streak that ended with abbey road.

[kylenz]

clean, crisp and interesting

Couldn't have put it any better! There is one song on there (through no fault of its own) that I have to skip due to not wishing to hear that person's name again ever in my life but song-for-song it is flawless.

I love how they began to experiment with fuzz basses like on 'Think For Yourself' and of course the Indian influence on 'Norwegian Wood'.

It's great how they have so many good straightforward uptempo rock songs on there too. Macca had 'You Won't See Me' in his live show for a while, but I'd like to hear him do 'Wait'. That is such an underrated tune.

[Mervap]

Odd, Kyle, because LC's real name is that same one, and she skips it too!

[2 of 3]

Kind of interesting that GIRL is written about Lennon's feelings towards Christianity. I never knew this before, but it totally fits when you replace the meaning while reading the lyrics. Of course, if  you asked Lennon again a week later, it would have been a different answer.

[Keri]

Yeah this is a great album, it all flows together, it was a leap into a new direction and extremely cool.

Drive My Car - great singing, lyrics, cool keyboard excellent start to the album
Norwegan Wood - Great John song, excellent exotic touch with the sitar, great vibe, cool story
You Won't see Me - Nice changes, kind of complaining lyrics, but it's clever.
Nowhere Man - Lennon classic, by this time you realise that this is one very good album
Think For Yourself - Pretty good George song, pretty true to him
The Word - A great prelude to the Summer of Love, kind of cool biblical references
Michelle - A classic song
What Goes On - Nice country vibe from Ringo
Girl - Amazing delivery from John, brilliant song
I'm Looking through You - Pretty biting from Paul, good song though
In My Life - A major piece from John, he was on a roll on this album
Wait - Not major but a cool song
If I needed Someone - pretty good George song suits the mood of the album
Run for Your Life - to me this song is the only misstep - a bit too scary and close to the bone, I can't enjoy singing along to this what a way to start a song "Well I'd rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man..." Jealous Guy was a much better way of turning these kind of feelings into song.

[Mervap]

Today's DYK:

Wait - Not major but a cool song

"Wait" was actually a leftover track from the HELP! sessions.....time was running out on the delivery of "Rubber Soul", so this track was revived and had a few things added to it and PRESTO!

[2 of 3]

Haha...leftover song. Wow...wouldn't it be nice to write a leftover that good?

[Mervap]

You bet it would.....

[kylenz]

Today's DYK:

Wait - Not major but a cool song

"Wait" was actually a leftover track from the HELP! sessions.....time was running out on the delivery of "Rubber Soul", so this track was revived and had a few things added to it and PRESTO!

Wow really? I wonder if there are any bootlegs of the original version of that song floating around. I love that song, it's one of the underrated ones, it's almost as if it has 2 choruses - it's THAT good!   

I also agree that the only 'weak' track on Rubber Soul is Run For Your Life. I remember reading a John Lennon interview (was it the 1968 Rolling Stone 'Lennon Remembers' interview?) where he says he always hated that song. Mind you, at that time, he was sounding rather dismissive of all his Beatles output at that stage and wished they were recorded differently etc.

There is a searingly good solo in Run For Your Life though - so clean it cuts like a knife!

[Mervap]

As I recall, one of the reasons JL hated "Run For Your Life" was that his inspiration was so obvious, at least to him....the first two lines are a direct lift from Elvis Presley's "Baby, Let's Play House". The Beatles were not shy about their influences but usually disguised them better than that. :-)

[Keri]

As I recall, one of the reasons JL hated "Run For Your Life" was that his inspiration was so obvious, at least to him....the first two lines are a direct lift from Elvis Presley's "Baby, Let's Play House". The Beatles were not shy about their influences but usually disguised them better than that. :-)

Thanks Merv, I didn't know that. I just went and had a listen to the Elvis song. In the Elvis song, that line was tangential to the main lyrics and Elvis' song wouldn't have been much different without it. In "Run for your Life" it becomes the centre. In neither case do i like the line, but in the Lennon song it is much worse by being so central, it's a bad theme. Kind of mars the message coming from the Word.

[2 of 3]

the first two lines are a direct lift from Elvis Presley's "Baby, Let's Play House".

I can't hear it..but what do I know  haha. Sounds like a million other rockabilly songs. Or was that the point?