Ron Schaumburg, author of the required-reading-for-kids-in-the-‘70s Growing Up With The Beatles, called Rubber Soul their “wood and smoke” album, for the images it generates of “deep-colored, paneled rooms and warm fires, of wine and haze”. That remains true today, as the new, unique sounds and experimentation—quite groundbreaking for the time—still shine throughout the edited version. But while the English were getting used to having two Harrison compositions per LP, the American thinning process limits George’s input to one (“Think For Yourself”, instead of the superior “If I Needed Someone”); “Nowhere Man” also went under the knife instead of “The Word”. Perhaps not as noticeable, this was the third straight American album without a token lead vocal by Ringo. (Also, “I’m Looking Through You” begins with two brief false starts; for this reason the intro on the CD, based of course on the British version, always sounds funny to US listeners.)
So while any version Rubber Soul is undeniably important, there is a lot of affection for the American version. After all, it was also the version that inspired Brian Wilson to record Pet Sounds. Also, fans who’d already inhaled the Help! soundtrack would have been much more familiar with the sound of the sitar than those who’d heard “Norwegian Wood” for the first time and wondered why the guitar sounded so weird.
However, if you bought the CD before 2014, you got the 14-track British version, as the Beatles intended; the 12-track American version was available only in a pricey box released in 2006, until its “U.S. Albums” release eight years later. Either way, you’d still get the unbeatable “You Won’t See Me”, “Michelle”, “Girl”, “In My Life”, “Run For Your Life”, and the other stellar songs above. And you’d get to hear an incredibly mature statement, from a bunch of kids barely in their mid-20s, that’s well worthy of all the praise it’s received as time goes on. And why did Capitol spring for 12 tracks instead of the usual 11? Not that we’re complaining.
Nearly 61 years later, once the Beatles legacy team had started going backwards creating deluxe editions, Rubber Soul was upgraded. As with the others, the album got a fresh new mix by Giles Martin, half of which had been previewed on the upgraded Red Album in 2023. The two-CD expansion added a disc of 14 “demos and session highlights” plus the “Day Tripper”/“We Can Work It Out” single to the UK lineup, but the so-called super deluxe edition added a further 14 outtakes to its second disc, plus the mono mix (which could have fit on the same disc with the new mix) on a third, and the US stereo version on a fourth (which had plenty of room for the US mono).
The big excitement was over the outtakes, both what was included and what wasn’t. Nowhere to be found was the complete “12-Bar Original”, which had been excerpted on Anthology 2 30 years earlier; meanwhile the first “I’m Looking Through You” had more chatter and the first “Norwegian Wood” was without the sitar overdub. Further takes of those songs showed their development, and the majority of the rest were instrumental tracks, both complete and breakdowns. “Highlights” from the lengthy vocal overdub session for “Think For Yourself” was probably better than including the whole thing, and not just because of saucy language. Home demo sessions of “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out”—the latter partially taped over by John back in the day—are entertaining, but nobody expected a heretofore unknown John Lennon demo of an unfinished song called “Little Girl”. Just one CD of outtakes may have seemed chintzy compared to the other expansions, even after two selections had already appeared the year before on Anthology 4, but they only had a month’s worth of album sessions to choose from in the first place.
The Beatles Rubber Soul (1965)—5
UK CD equivalent: Help!/Rubber Soul
2026 Special Deluxe Edition: same as UK 1965, plus 16 extra tracks (Super Deluxe Edition adds another 40 tracks)
The U.S. Capitol album is, of course, a different listen than the Parlophone album. However, it’s the only one since “Meet the Beatles” that was a coherent listen. Both are valid. It is a bit of a surprise that they didn’t add the “We Can Work it Out/Day Tripper” single. It was the first time that a Capitol album was released without a concurrent 45.
ReplyDeleteOnly “Wait” , “Drive My Car” and “Run for Your Life” resemble the rock on “Help!” I don’t hate the latter as much as John did, apparently. I take it as tongue in cheek. However, the two Lennon tracks (as well as “It’s Only Love”) pale in comparison to the more lyrical classics “Girl”, “In My Life” “Nowhere Man” and "Norwegian Wood". It’s interesting that George, when getting down the final sitar part, figured out that less is more. John also gets on the pulpit for the first time preaching “The Word”.
So does George for that matter with “Think for Yourself”, preaching to his ex-lady. The fuzz bass part really makes the song, musically. This is certainly the first, and maybe the only, pop song that uses the word “opaque”. Probably caused a few kids back in the day to look it up in the dictionary. George seemed to have lost his romantic streak with this one and “If I Needed Someone”. It’s amusing to contrast this one with “I Need You”, from just one year earlier. In that one, he sounds like a desperate and, well, needy adolescent. Now, he’s saying, “Well, I’ll consider it. Don’t call me, I’ll call you”. It has that great guitar riff, too. Great songs.
I never really thought about how relatively subdued Paul is before, excluding “Drive My Car”. He’s not interested in being Little Richard. "I'm Looking Through You" and "You Won't See Me" are great pop songs that could also have made it as singles. “Michelle” has our favorite crooner melting more female hearts, this time partly in French. Being half French-Canadian, I did enjoy listening and trying to translate as a kid. So, the only real dud on the UK version, is “What Goes On”. What annoys me is those backing vocals – sped up? A throwback to “Beatles for Sale”.
That one is skippable, but it hardly sinks the album. IMHO, this one began the most creative and influential two years of the band. Yet, they managed to be commercially successful, too. Although the electric guitars are more subdued, this still has the Beatles band sound, which would start to dissipate after this.
I had a good friend, a year or so older than me. Despite his age, he somehow maintained a great deal of innocence. He adored the Beatles – but this is the last album he would listen to all the way through. He didn’t like the druggy ambience that would begin to become apparent very shortly. He was naïve enough to not notice this was going on already. But yes, they did still sound somewhat innocent here, loving and even optimistic. The horizon had opened.