Ron Schaumburg, author of 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”. (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 American 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 give us 12 tracks instead of the usual 11?
The Beatles Rubber Soul (1965)—5
UK CD equivalent: Help!/Rubber Soul
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.