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All rights reserved.Rubber Soul - Beatles (The) (Cassette 1987)
The Beatles - Rubber SoulReview created: 05/03/07
by: scapp70 -- a member of Epinions
Pros:
Excellent songs
Excellent songs
Cons:
Sound-production could have been better, Beatles have not evolved entirely from the Mop Top days.
Sound-production could have been better, Beatles have not evolved entirely from the Mop Top days.
When I had first acquired Rubber Soul on CD so many years ago, it was so hard, as an American, to get used to the different track listing. The album didn't open with I've Just Seen a Face anymore, in fact it's not even on this CD. I slowly learned that their label in America, Capitol, used to milk the Beatle Cow in the first couple of years and output more product than The Beatles were producing in the UK. In America, Rubber Soul was considered the band's 10th album (11th if you count the Vee-Jay release), while back in the UK, this release was The Beatles' sixth album. Wouldn't you know that now the American track listing bothers me? Life can sure be funny.
At this point, The Beatles are still recording on four-track, and it is still a year away before legendary sound engineer Geoff Emerick made his way into Abbey Road studios and changed the sound of The Beatles into a more dynamic hemisphere starting with Revolver. Having said that, the album's production sounds well enough, showing some depth inside such a small framework (four-track), and the instruments have a notable presence for the most part, the acoustic guitars, piano, sitar, tambourine, voices all sound great. Paul's bass guitar and most of Ringo's drums take a backseat as usual, as this is the way of Rubber Soul sound engineer Norman Smith and everyone at EMI. Until Emerick, a true visionary, came along this was just how it was done; and Norman Smith had done his job well.
Drive My Car opens up the CD in more of a rocking way than the folksy I've Just Seen a Face had. Drive My Car is a not-so-subtle euphemism for sex created by Lennon according to McCartney in the book Many Years From Now. The idea that Drive My Car means sex makes the song's lyrics deeper and not without a lot of humor, especially with the added Beep beep, Beep beep - yeah This bluesy-rock number was written by McCartney with help from Lennon on the lyrics. McCartney laid down the guitar lead for this track. According to Geoff Emerick, lead guitarist George Harrison often had trouble with creating a good lick for the guitar break in the early days. Instead of wasting too much time in the studio, McCartney would quickly record one, or producer George Martin may record a piano piece for a few bars.
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) is classic John Lennon. At first listen, the fact that this pop/folk song includes a Sitar spices up and hides the folk rock tune underneath. A notable appearance of an Eastern influence, perhaps the first pop record to utilize such an exotic instrument. George Harrison performs the Sitar complimenting Lennon's pattern around the D-chord. This is the shortest song on the album, coming in at only 2:05. The Beatles had a few folk sounding songs around this period due in part to a strong Bob Dylan influence. The song is made up of only acoustic guitars and the sitar, no drums or bass are present. The lyrics are about an affair Lennon had (while still married to his first wife Cynthia) and it seems that Lennon had no desire to mask this experience with euphemisms as the lyrics are pretty matter of fact.
Another one of John Lennon's, Nowhere Man evokes strong visual interpretations from the clever lyrics, yet once you watch their 1968 animated movie released three years after this song was recorded, then the Yellow Submarine character Jeremy is probably the image that appears in your imagination as you listen to this song. Nowhere Man is one of those few Lennon songs where Paul, John and George perform almost the entire song in three-part harmony. Nowhere Man is a wonderful example of the maturation of The Beatles and their music. The music takes pop music to a new level, and with the visionary lyrics from John Lennon it remains a landmark in pop history.
George Harrison delivers his best output to date within Rubber Soul. Their previous album, Help! Harrison had two songs, the throwaway You Like Me Too Much and I Need You which wasn't half bad. George pulled out a winner here with If I Needed Someone. Lyrically it is instantly categorized with the other songs he has penned over the last couple of years where he talks about how unhappy he is with the woman of subject, and much happier by himself or someone else. George borrowing a bit of influence from The Byrds here with the main riff of the song, but with Paul and John singing the harmonies over George's main melody line is the main hook of the song. Everytime I hear the song, I wonder if George Harrison felt lucky to have John and Paul sing harmonies for his song. If I Needed Someone is the least melancholy of George Harrison's numbers up to this point and while it shows musical growth from Harrison, we would have no way of knowing the direction he would take with the very heavy Eastern influence many of his songs would have for the next couple of years. His other song, Think For Yourself pales in comparison, but it still stands on its own. Paul's fuzz bass is the highlight of the song, his performance is spectacular although I would have preferred that he would have used a bass with a lower tone like the Fender bass he used a couple of years down the road. His bass playing is lovely here, but it squawks too much like a keyboard or guitar instead of a proper bass.
Speaking of George Harrison, drummer Ringo Starr earns his first writing credit with the song What Goes On. Actually the song is credited to Lennon-McCartney-Starkey to be fair. This rockabilly/country flavored track started out as a song from Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen. Paul and Ringo added a middle section to the song and it became the "Ringo number" for Rubber Soul. The song was almost recorded for their first album Please Please Me but left off due to time constraints. I like Ringo's voice a lot, and for me it carries the main charm of the song. George Harrison's guitar work a la Carl Perkins is given center stage in the mix purposely in my opinion to act as a showcase for George Harrison's talent.
The best song from McCartney here is his beautiful ballad Michelle. The song has been around since those early 60s when he used to play a crude version at parties much to the delight of John Lennon. It was Lennon who suggested he finish the song and record it for this album. McCartney used to make French sounding groans and grunts instead of any real French words. With the assistance from a French speaking friend, he was able to flesh out the French lyrics that appear in the song. He had the phrase these are words that go together well translated into the French equivalent sont des mots qui vont tres bien ensemble and then walla the song was complete. To add to the ambience, there was a French horn solo that worked perfectly.
In My Life is another priceless classic from John Lennon, one of the best of his career. I wish the song was more iconic than his solo effort Imagine had become, In My Life is more memorable musically, and the lyrics carry more weight than those of Imagine. John presented the song to The Beatles, and with the help of Paul McCartney, they lyrics became much more generalized than Lennon's specific original lyrics, making the message easily applicable to our lives as well. John and Paul's harmonies are beautifully complimentary to the ballad. George Martin provided a classical piano solo in lieu of something George Harrison would have laid down on his guitar. Martin's piano playing sounds quite impressive with his spot on Baroque piano solo, yet he had a bit of help with studio trickery. They slowed down the tape to half speed and he played at a more leisurely pace in order to give it a more effective result, in fact they did this on more than a few songs. The solo in A Hard Day's Night, for instance, they used this same technique.
Rubber Soul possessed a more mellow feel, especially when you compare it to The Beatles' previous albums, Help!, Hard Day's Night, With The Beatles and so on, all basically rock n roll albums. Here, songs like Michelle, Run For Your Life, Nowhere Man, I'm Looking Through You, Norwegian Wood, and Girl all are big acoustic guitar songs, which gives the album somewhat of a Folk feel. Maybe the reason why the American version of this album included other acoustic gems like I've Just Seen a Face and It's Only Love give it an even more folk/rock feel. Whatever version you have in possession, the album stands as one of The Beatles greatest releases.
I loathe to say that this release marks a turning point in The Beatles recording career just because this is legend and the Beatle fans adhere to it. Mostly though, I don t believe it to be true because I believe that The Beatles made leaps and bounds with every release. They made improvements and matured with each new album and reestablished themselves as music legends each year.
the songs
1. Drive My Car
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. The Word
7. Michelle
8. What Goes On
9. Girl
10. I'm Looking Through You
11. In My Life
12. Wait
13. If I Needed Someone
14. Run For Your Life
More Beatles-related Epinions from Scapp70
~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Beatles~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Help!
Rubber Soul
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The White Album
Abbey Road
Real Love (CD Single)
Free As A Bird (CD Single)
Tropical Tribute to the Beatles
Bach On Abbey Road
My 20 Favorite Beatles Songs
Love
Here, There & Everywhere - My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles
~~~~~~~~~~~Paul McCartney~~~~~~~~~~
McCartney
RAM
Red Rose Speedway
Band on the Run
Band on the Run - 25 Year Anniversary Edition
Venus and Mars
Wings at the Speed of Sound
Thrillington
Should Paul McCartney Go Back On Drugs?
The Walrus Was Paul
Top 20 Favorite SOLO Beatles Songs W/O
~~~~~~~~~~~~Ringo Starr~~~~~~~~~~~
Ringo
Goodnight Vienna
Blast From The Past
Rotogravure
VH1 Storytellers
~~~~~~~~~~~~John Lennon~~~~~~~~~~~
Plastic Ono Band
Imagine
~~~~~~~~~~~George Harrison~~~~~~~~~~
All Things Must Pass
At this point, The Beatles are still recording on four-track, and it is still a year away before legendary sound engineer Geoff Emerick made his way into Abbey Road studios and changed the sound of The Beatles into a more dynamic hemisphere starting with Revolver. Having said that, the album's production sounds well enough, showing some depth inside such a small framework (four-track), and the instruments have a notable presence for the most part, the acoustic guitars, piano, sitar, tambourine, voices all sound great. Paul's bass guitar and most of Ringo's drums take a backseat as usual, as this is the way of Rubber Soul sound engineer Norman Smith and everyone at EMI. Until Emerick, a true visionary, came along this was just how it was done; and Norman Smith had done his job well.
Drive My Car opens up the CD in more of a rocking way than the folksy I've Just Seen a Face had. Drive My Car is a not-so-subtle euphemism for sex created by Lennon according to McCartney in the book Many Years From Now. The idea that Drive My Car means sex makes the song's lyrics deeper and not without a lot of humor, especially with the added Beep beep, Beep beep - yeah This bluesy-rock number was written by McCartney with help from Lennon on the lyrics. McCartney laid down the guitar lead for this track. According to Geoff Emerick, lead guitarist George Harrison often had trouble with creating a good lick for the guitar break in the early days. Instead of wasting too much time in the studio, McCartney would quickly record one, or producer George Martin may record a piano piece for a few bars.
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) is classic John Lennon. At first listen, the fact that this pop/folk song includes a Sitar spices up and hides the folk rock tune underneath. A notable appearance of an Eastern influence, perhaps the first pop record to utilize such an exotic instrument. George Harrison performs the Sitar complimenting Lennon's pattern around the D-chord. This is the shortest song on the album, coming in at only 2:05. The Beatles had a few folk sounding songs around this period due in part to a strong Bob Dylan influence. The song is made up of only acoustic guitars and the sitar, no drums or bass are present. The lyrics are about an affair Lennon had (while still married to his first wife Cynthia) and it seems that Lennon had no desire to mask this experience with euphemisms as the lyrics are pretty matter of fact.
Another one of John Lennon's, Nowhere Man evokes strong visual interpretations from the clever lyrics, yet once you watch their 1968 animated movie released three years after this song was recorded, then the Yellow Submarine character Jeremy is probably the image that appears in your imagination as you listen to this song. Nowhere Man is one of those few Lennon songs where Paul, John and George perform almost the entire song in three-part harmony. Nowhere Man is a wonderful example of the maturation of The Beatles and their music. The music takes pop music to a new level, and with the visionary lyrics from John Lennon it remains a landmark in pop history.
George Harrison delivers his best output to date within Rubber Soul. Their previous album, Help! Harrison had two songs, the throwaway You Like Me Too Much and I Need You which wasn't half bad. George pulled out a winner here with If I Needed Someone. Lyrically it is instantly categorized with the other songs he has penned over the last couple of years where he talks about how unhappy he is with the woman of subject, and much happier by himself or someone else. George borrowing a bit of influence from The Byrds here with the main riff of the song, but with Paul and John singing the harmonies over George's main melody line is the main hook of the song. Everytime I hear the song, I wonder if George Harrison felt lucky to have John and Paul sing harmonies for his song. If I Needed Someone is the least melancholy of George Harrison's numbers up to this point and while it shows musical growth from Harrison, we would have no way of knowing the direction he would take with the very heavy Eastern influence many of his songs would have for the next couple of years. His other song, Think For Yourself pales in comparison, but it still stands on its own. Paul's fuzz bass is the highlight of the song, his performance is spectacular although I would have preferred that he would have used a bass with a lower tone like the Fender bass he used a couple of years down the road. His bass playing is lovely here, but it squawks too much like a keyboard or guitar instead of a proper bass.
Speaking of George Harrison, drummer Ringo Starr earns his first writing credit with the song What Goes On. Actually the song is credited to Lennon-McCartney-Starkey to be fair. This rockabilly/country flavored track started out as a song from Lennon's first band, The Quarrymen. Paul and Ringo added a middle section to the song and it became the "Ringo number" for Rubber Soul. The song was almost recorded for their first album Please Please Me but left off due to time constraints. I like Ringo's voice a lot, and for me it carries the main charm of the song. George Harrison's guitar work a la Carl Perkins is given center stage in the mix purposely in my opinion to act as a showcase for George Harrison's talent.
The best song from McCartney here is his beautiful ballad Michelle. The song has been around since those early 60s when he used to play a crude version at parties much to the delight of John Lennon. It was Lennon who suggested he finish the song and record it for this album. McCartney used to make French sounding groans and grunts instead of any real French words. With the assistance from a French speaking friend, he was able to flesh out the French lyrics that appear in the song. He had the phrase these are words that go together well translated into the French equivalent sont des mots qui vont tres bien ensemble and then walla the song was complete. To add to the ambience, there was a French horn solo that worked perfectly.
In My Life is another priceless classic from John Lennon, one of the best of his career. I wish the song was more iconic than his solo effort Imagine had become, In My Life is more memorable musically, and the lyrics carry more weight than those of Imagine. John presented the song to The Beatles, and with the help of Paul McCartney, they lyrics became much more generalized than Lennon's specific original lyrics, making the message easily applicable to our lives as well. John and Paul's harmonies are beautifully complimentary to the ballad. George Martin provided a classical piano solo in lieu of something George Harrison would have laid down on his guitar. Martin's piano playing sounds quite impressive with his spot on Baroque piano solo, yet he had a bit of help with studio trickery. They slowed down the tape to half speed and he played at a more leisurely pace in order to give it a more effective result, in fact they did this on more than a few songs. The solo in A Hard Day's Night, for instance, they used this same technique.
Rubber Soul possessed a more mellow feel, especially when you compare it to The Beatles' previous albums, Help!, Hard Day's Night, With The Beatles and so on, all basically rock n roll albums. Here, songs like Michelle, Run For Your Life, Nowhere Man, I'm Looking Through You, Norwegian Wood, and Girl all are big acoustic guitar songs, which gives the album somewhat of a Folk feel. Maybe the reason why the American version of this album included other acoustic gems like I've Just Seen a Face and It's Only Love give it an even more folk/rock feel. Whatever version you have in possession, the album stands as one of The Beatles greatest releases.
I loathe to say that this release marks a turning point in The Beatles recording career just because this is legend and the Beatle fans adhere to it. Mostly though, I don t believe it to be true because I believe that The Beatles made leaps and bounds with every release. They made improvements and matured with each new album and reestablished themselves as music legends each year.
the songs
1. Drive My Car
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. The Word
7. Michelle
8. What Goes On
9. Girl
10. I'm Looking Through You
11. In My Life
12. Wait
13. If I Needed Someone
14. Run For Your Life
More Beatles-related Epinions from Scapp70
~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Beatles~~~~~~~~~~~~
Please Please Me
With The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Help!
Rubber Soul
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Magical Mystery Tour
The White Album
Abbey Road
Real Love (CD Single)
Free As A Bird (CD Single)
Tropical Tribute to the Beatles
Bach On Abbey Road
My 20 Favorite Beatles Songs
Love
Here, There & Everywhere - My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles
~~~~~~~~~~~Paul McCartney~~~~~~~~~~
McCartney
RAM
Red Rose Speedway
Band on the Run
Band on the Run - 25 Year Anniversary Edition
Venus and Mars
Wings at the Speed of Sound
Thrillington
Should Paul McCartney Go Back On Drugs?
The Walrus Was Paul
Top 20 Favorite SOLO Beatles Songs W/O
~~~~~~~~~~~~Ringo Starr~~~~~~~~~~~
Ringo
Goodnight Vienna
Blast From The Past
Rotogravure
VH1 Storytellers
~~~~~~~~~~~~John Lennon~~~~~~~~~~~
Plastic Ono Band
Imagine
~~~~~~~~~~~George Harrison~~~~~~~~~~
All Things Must Pass
Review ID: 10000000003500763
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