Panther's Picks - The Beatles: Rubber Soul - 1965
"The Beatles have lost the typists in The Cavern" - Philip Larkin
After 1964’s Beatles For Sale had seen The Beatles move from rock 'n' roll covers and lyrically twee pop songs to a more cynical, worldly-wise (particularly in the case of John Lennon’s lyrics) approach to songwriting, this 1965 release was very much the transitional album in their career.
It was the one that saw them complete the move from lovable teen pop group to a “serious” band. Bob Dylan was already 100% more serious and credible, so they had some work to do.
Rubber Soul was said to be a “folk rock” album, an impression possibly nourished by the fact that the US release of the album contained tracks like I've Just Seen A Face and It's Only Love on it at the expense of Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, If I Needed Someone and What Goes On. I am not sure about that with regard to the better-known UK version. Yes, there was the acoustic Norwegian Wood, but that’s really as far as it went, in my opinion. It is still very recognisably The Beatles. They still ploughed their own unique furrow although it can't be denied that they were “borrowing” from other artists quite considerably on here. Firstly, the sound is fantastic in this album. Forget all that “mono sounds best” stuff. Just listen to the stereo (use Norwegian Wood as an example) - it will blow you away. No matter how many times I try listening to the mono, I always come back to the stereo, which is much better, surprisingly, than the clumsy stereo of some of Revolver.
The "Dylan influence" is supposed to be present on songs like Norwegian Wood (and, for some reason, Think For Yourself). I have never really bought that, to be honest. The former is just a great song in its own right, and sounds like pure Lennon to me, not anyone else. All this guff about Dylan hearing Rubber Soul and feeling he had to outdo it with Blonde On Blonde is mythologised, apocryphal nonsense - he had already released tracks like Subterranean Homesick Blues, Like A Rolling Stone and Desolation Row. If anything, it was the other way round as The Beatles, desperate to cast off their "boys next door" goody-goody image, tried marijuana (at the suggestion of Dylan) and by the own admittance, produced their "pot album". The music under this narcotic influence showed certain amounts of reflection and depth, Nowhere Man, Norwegian Wood and Think For Yourself being examples. Attached to this reflective "maturity" they made a definite attempt to get into the burgeoning "rock" and "album" thing as opposed to "pop" and "singles" and, in that respect, the album is a huge cultural bridging point for both The Beatles themselves and subsequent influenced artists. Yes, it undoubtedly marked something of a change for The Beatles - for example, Lennon's Nowhere Man was the first ever Beatles song not to be about boy-girl relationships - but it was still nowhere near as mature a piece of work as those that an artist like Dylan had been releasing.
It has to be said that the album still retains an upbeat poppy appeal although the “pop” is well-crafted mature pop, such as the jangly but melodic Byrds-influenced Nowhere Man, the slightly lyrically sombre but nevertheless singalong You Won't See Me, with its wonderful harmony vocals and the country-ish Ringo Starr co-credited What Goes On. It was on songs like the first two mentioned and ones like Norwegian Wood that the change can really be detected. It is often forgotten that the latter song was the first to feature George Harrison's soon-to-be beloved sitar. It is interesting that poet Philip Larkin said at the time that The Beatles had "lost the typists in The Cavern" from their fanbase with the release of this album. They moved from being a "act" or "combo" that impresarios would employ to entertain the Saturday night crowd to a serious "band", courted by the cognoscenti. The influence of contemporary soul groups cannot be under-estimated either.
Let's fall asleep in the bath, then....
The rocking cowbell, piano and guitar riffing of Drive My Car is incredibly catchy, and underneath its pop facade has some great guitar parts. On this track and many others, McCartney's bass sounds truly wonderful. There is a rockiness to this and a solid maturity that marked a sea change between this album and Help! McCartney was said to be dissatisfied with the song, lyrically. It is one of those songs where the lyrics don't matter that much, though, isn't it? It thrives on its rocking vibe and hooks.
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) was Lennon's supposed Dylan pastiche, or his attempt to match him. Dylan responded, good-humouredly, I think, with the similar 4th Time Around. As I said above, it was the first Beatles song to feature George's sitar. It is nowhere near the quality of Dylan's material from the era, though, let's be honest. Written by Lennon about an extra-marital affair he was having, I do like the wry line "I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me", though.
Lennon's Byrds-like beauty (inspired by feelings of isolation) in Nowhere Man was also enhanced by McCartney's bass - warm, melodious and throbbing nice and loud, just as I like it. You can clearly hear the inspiration of Motown's James Jamerson and the Memphis-Stax bass players in McCartney's playing, something he freely admits. The same applied to You Won't See Me as well.
With its excellent Harrison vocal, fine keyboards and slightly distorted but thrilling guitar solo, Think For Yourself is a philosophical track that is a bit of a revelation - a great track and one that showed Harrison to be a thoughtful songwriter.
Lennon is back on a rhythmic, bass-driven rocker, The Word, although his lyrics concerning the global use of the word "love" borders on the embarrassingly hippy and preachy at times - "spread the word and be like me...have you heard the word is love..". Musically, it is impressive, however - McCartney's rumbling bass is almost funky and there is another distorted guitar part in the middle instrumental bridge.
McCartney's French-influenced love song - he sung one verse in schoolboy French - Michelle - was basically a solo song on his part, typically tuneful and catchy with once again a lovely bass line near the end. Granted, it is a bit throwaway and incongruous, but it is an enjoyable diversion.
Starr's love of mid-pace "country rock" is reflected in his writing collaboration with Lennon and McCartney and also on his vocal here - What Goes On is an appealing but lightweight number. The steady drum sound on this is beautiful, though, as are the guitar interjections. The sound on this one is amongst some of the best sound reproduction on the album.
Like What Goes On, the rousing McCartney number I'm Looking Through You has many country-ish airs too, but there is also a killer high-pitched guitar interjection and a throaty, rasping vocal that almost apes Lennon at times. Once more, it has an angst-ridden and somewhat selfish (again) McCartney moaning about his relationship with Jane Asher. From its bitter sentiments, you would have imagined it to be a Lennon song.
The confessional and majestic In My Life has a reasonable case for being Lennon's finest song to date, although I have never been convinced by the harpsichord-sounding piano solo that George Martin put on to the song after the main parts had been recorded. It sounds totally incongruous to me and breaks the ambience of the song's narrative. Instrumental experimentations such as this were starting to appear more often in the group's output, though. The Rolling Stones, of course, had been using such instrumentation for a while by now, it is wise to remember.
Also a largely Lennon song, Wait sounds like a bit of a throwback to a few months before, as if it should have appeared on Help! Actually, that is exactly what it was, being rejected for that album. Most supposed Lennon-McCartney compositions by now were no longer the half-and-half collaborations they were in the early to mid sixties. By Beatles For Sale they were clearly either "Lennon songs" or "McCartney songs". This one, though, has signs of being back to the old double-act thing, possibly because of the return to the old shared vocal. Maybe that is why, on this album, it sounds just a little dated and out of place. Whenever I listen to the album, it always seems to come and go, unnoticed by me until it has gone.
Run For Your Life is slightly unnerving and malevolent - and the lyrics to this Lennon song can even sound a little creepy at times. However, Lennon baring his cynical soul is essential to The Beatles' development into something highly credible after the pure pop of the early material. Lennon himself later described it as his "least favourite Beatles song", interestingly, although there seemed to be a number of his own songs he dismissed in similar fashion.
A definite change in the band’s output and approach was taking place, but do not ever discount the other musical influences that helped to create this transitional work - The Byrds, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, even The Who and British blues bands like The Yardbirds, The Kinks and Them. The Beatles were certainly not the only trail-blazers in some of this musical diversity.
Three months from the release of this album the group recorded Tomorrow Never Knows, where Lennon changed tack took on board a whole kitchen sink full of Harrison's musical influences. This would see the move from pot to acid (LSD) as being the group's drug of inspirational choice.
Back to this album, briefly - listening to Rubber Soul always gives repeated pleasure. I have to say that in many respects this is my favourite Beatles album - no longer twee and musically-sonically really vibrant, containing an almost perfect "serious pop" sensibility.
Finally, an interesting piece of trivia (or maybe not so trivial) is that the now iconic distorted, "stretched" cover image was obtained as a result of the photographer accidentally dropped the card the photo was projected onto. The group liked it (weird, man) and the rest is history, inspiring years of similarly trippy cover artwork.
