Rubber Soul

[The Big Guy]

Released December 3, 1965

[Kylenz]

My faves on this record are actually the 'non-hits'. Songs like I'm Looking Through You and You Won't See Me. Of course, like all Beatles albums from this era, EVERYTHING on it is good. Better than good. The best band on the planet. Even the song that John always hated, Run For Your Life, is a heck of a good tune with a searing guitar solo. Wait is another underrated song I love. And of course it has all those timeless songs that I won't mention.. something about driving a car, a man going nowhere, you get the picture! 

Yet, just when you think they couldn't top what is a perfect album........ along came Revolver! From that point on, the music they achieved in the studio.. simply breathtaking. Best band of all time, by a country mile - I think it needs to be said! 

[MeanMrMustard]

Most of us love ALL their work, for better or worse...BUT which album by The Beatles do you treasure the most in a  sentimental sense..for example, it may bring back fond personal memories for you when you see the cover or hear the songs on this particular album, and so forth...

for me, it's Rubber Soul. Anytime I see the cover I'm literally transported back to late '65 (and early '66 when, at 13, I got the record for my b-day) It's the record that made me even a deeper Beatle nut than I was. R.S. is such a personal album for me....not only is it a beautiful work of art, but it's my personal time machine as well.

 

[mervap]

From beginning to end, this album is clean, crisp and interesting...reading about the making of "Rubber Soul" one can see the recipe for disaster taking shape: constant touring, mixed with an impossibly short Christmas shopping season deadline....those factors make the result all the more astounding. You can both see and feel the growth happening here. The cover was unlike anything else out at the time, except maybe their own "With the Beatles". Drop the needle on side one and you can hear it: these guys are writing from a decidedly different place than on previous efforts...plus, there are no cover tunes, not that I've got anything against them, but these tunes are better.

I love to turn this CD up REALLY loud and marvel at how much McCartney's bass playing has matured from their previous albums...he was fine before, but it's really starting to show that the constant playing and recording, matched with real talent, have begun to pay off. I think he has said that it was around this time he began listening to the bass playing on Beach Boys records and how bass wasn't just a rhythm instrument anymore. George Harrison gets a few great tunes on "Soul", and his guitar is excellent throughout. Lennon had reached a plateau as a songwriter, but his songs continue to show a depth that would be more completely explored later. Ringo is....well...Ringo. That is to say, the Beatles' traffic cop is in great form here, just as always.

There is not a single "skipper" on this album....pop it in and have a swim in pure greatness.

[Kylenz]

I've got a bootleg cd from these sessions and the outtakes from George's Think For Yourself is hilarious! Making up all these skits and clowning between takes - these guys weren't just making a classic album.. they were having FUN! 

[chris]

you could tell by the odd looking album cover that this was to be a different type of offering from the band.

it had an almost folky sound. acoustic in nature, but, like mervap suggested, a very crisp sound. it suggested just a bit of smoky tomfoolery within the band. a hint of jazz cigaretteness that wasn't previously there. it was experimental in nature without actually sounding so. it suggested there were new sounds to be tried. new directions to go. it was the absolute closest thing to perfection the band had ever done til that point.

and it gave no hint as to how different the band's next album would be. and how much more experimental. and how even more (i realize this is a grammatical impossibility) perfect. this party was just getting started. people may have taken notice with early beatlemania...but this is when rock music began to be taken seriously by those who didn't neccessarily listen to rock music.

[mervap]

It was none other than the great Sir George Martin who said of "Rubber Soul", "It was the first album to present a new, growing Beatles to the world. For the first time, we began to think of albums as art on their own, as complete entities." And the world of Pop Music would never, ever be the same.

[EddieV]

One of the greatest pop-rock albums!!

Great selections of songs!! My faves are The word and I´m looking Through You, but then again there are so many great songs that this must change from time to time!!

[Paperback Writer]

Agree!  fabulous album.  I am curious about the left - right channel stereo "mix".
What do others think of it?
I wonder if , when they re-master it, they'll keep the same stereo-channel format?

[mervap]

What do others think of it?

It would be really nice to give us BOTH! Plenty of room on a CD.

[2 of 3]

It would be really nice to give us BOTH!

Ok, 2 needs more sleep. I'm going BOTH? Band on the Hun?....err...Beatles on the Hop?...err.....OH BOTH! DUH!

[Kylenz]

Agree!  fabulous album.  I am curious about the left - right channel stereo "mix".
What do others think of it?
I wonder if , when they re-master it, they'll keep the same stereo-channel format?

I hope they do! I love it. Turn one channel off and you have instant Beatle karaoke!!!