Rubber Soul

It was fifty years this week that The Beatles released Rubber Soul, a landmark album not only in their careers but also for rock and roll in general. It still holds up as a great album, and is in the mix among several albums as their best ever.

This was the Beatles' sixth LP, and in a certain sense it is considered the first rock "album," in that it was not just a collection of singles. Rock would steer in this direction, and along with the advent of FM radio, would change rock from song-oriented to album-oriented. Although by no means a concept album, Rubber Soul had a tone to it, with most of the songs about love but with a more mature, wistful tone, influenced by, among others, Bob Dylan and world music.

I grew up with the U.S. album, and thus when I hear the U.K. version, which I now have on CD, it's a bit jarring. "I've Just Seen a Face" is not on this version--it starts instead with "Drive My Car." But the songs that matter most are all there, the ones that elevated them into another realm. I'm thinking mostly of "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)," which is like a short story:

"She told me she worked in the morning
And started to laugh.
I told her I didn't
And crawled off to sleep in the bath.
And when I awoke
I was alone, this bird had flown
So I lit a fire, isn't it good
Norwegian wood

This song also marked the first time George Harrison played a sitar, which he had become interested in while filming Help. It would change the course of rock music and Harrison personally.

The other great song by John Lennon on Rubber Soul is "In My Life," a remarkably mature song by a 25-year-old. The lyrics are stunning:

"But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
But in my life, I love you more."

Musically, the song is interesting for a middle-eight in which George Martin plays the piano, but it's sped up to make it sound like a harpsichord.

Paul McCartney's contributions were no less substantial. "Michelle," a ballad about a French girl, has proved to be an eternal love song, and the under-rated "I'm Looking Through You" is simply fantastic. But I think of this more as John's album, with the addition of "Girl," with a guitar-lick inspired by Greek music.

Unfortunately, the album contains the most odious of songs, and this one is also John's. "Run for Your Life," which couldn't be released today, is about a jealous man's threats of killing a woman if she strays:

"I'd rather see you dead little girl
than to be with another man
You'd better your head little girl
Or you won't know where I am
You better run for your life
If you can little girl
Hide your head in the sand little girl
Catch you with another man
That's the end, little girl."

There's just no way to defend this song in this day and age. John repudiated it and said it was the song he most regretted writing.

I learned a few things while researching this post. The album title does not refer to a shoe, but is a pun based on a knock on Mick Jagger, who was said to have "plastic soul," or a white man trying to sing soul. Also, it was the first Beatle album not have the band name on the cover, and was the second not to have any covers (A Hard Day's Night was the first). There would be no covers again on Beatle albums except for the very short "Maggie Mae" on Let It Be.