Beatles, the two versions of “Rubber soul” which turns 60 today
“Rubber Soul” is a transitional album, moving away from the still relative “simplicity” of “Help!” and anticipates the sound experiments of “Revolver”. There is a lot of anticipation among fans for a hoped-for Super Deluxe edition of “Rubber soul”, which was expected to arrive in 2025 – but this did not happen. Below I’ll tell you about the album.
Rubber Soul
The Beatles’ sixth British album and eleventh released in the United States, “Rubber Soul” is a transitional album, between “Help!” and the highly praised “Revolver”, of which he begins to anticipate some characteristics, first of all a more curious and attentive approach to the recording studio.
In October 1965 we started recording the album. Things were changing. The management was moving away from the more pop material. The first songs were aimed directly at the fans, as if to say: “Please buy this record”, but now we were at a point where we thought: “Okay, we’ve done it. Now we can move on to more surreal songs, a little more fun.” And all the while new people were coming onto the scene who had influence on us. Dylan was influencing us a lot at that time.
(Paul McCartney – Anthology)
The songs on the album largely escape the “love” cataloging that had essentially dominated the group’s production up to that point – with some exceptions, such as “Help!” and “You’ve got to hide your love away”.
It is especially John Lennon who wrote three of his best works: “In my life”, which in its instrumental version was the soundtrack to an Amazon commercial a few weeks ago, “Nowhere man” and “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)”.
“In My Life” began as a nostalgic collection of Liverpool memories.
I think ‘In My Life’ was the first song I really consciously wrote about my life, and it was inspired by a comment from an English journalist and writer after the release of my book ‘In His Own Write’. He said, “Why don’t you put some of the way you write in the book into the songs too? Or something from your childhood?” From there ‘Paul’s Penny Lane’ was born – even though I actually lived in Penny Lane – and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
(John Lennon – All We Are Saying, David Sheff)
As for McCartney, among his most notable songs on the album are “You won’t see me” and “I’m looking through you”, both referring to his relationship with Jane Asher.
“Michelle”, however, was one of McCartney’s oldest songs, dating back to 1959. It was inspired by Austin Mitchell, one of Lennon’s tutors at the Liverpool College of Art.
He threw great parties that lasted all night. There you could meet girls – which was the main goal – have a drink and generally show off a bit. I remember myself sitting in the corner, wearing a black turtleneck, playing this rather French tune. I pretended to know how to speak French, because everyone wanted to be like Sacha Distel…
Years later, John said to me, “Do you remember that French thing you used to play at Mitchell’s parties?” I said yes, and he said, “Well, that’s a good tune. You should do something about it.” We were always on the hunt for new songs, because by now we were making a lot of albums and each one required fourteen songs, plus the singles, so we needed a lot of material. (Paul McCartney – Anthology)
George Harrison also contributed two songs (“Think For Yourself” and “If I Needed Someone”) and the sitar on “Norwegian wood” (the first documented use of the Indian instrument in a pop song) and Ringo Starr has his first (co)writing credit on the record (“What Goes On”, attributed to “Lennon-McCartney-Starr”).
“Rubber Soul” was recorded in just four weeks, starting on October 12, 1965, in order to be released in time for the 1965 Christmas market.
I think the title Rubber Soul comes from a comment an old blues musician made about Jagger. I had just read about a guy in the US who said: “Mick Jagger, yes, they’re good – but it’s plastic soul.” From “plastic soul” the idea of Rubber Soul was born.
(Paul McCartney – Anthology)
I liked how we had elongated our faces on the album cover. We had lost the label of “little naives”, and ‘Rubber Soul’ was the first record where we were now professional weed smokers.
(George Harrison – Anthology)
The cover photo, taken by Robert Freeman, was taken at Lennon’s home in Weybridge.
We were looking at slides projected onto a card the size of the album cover, when the card bent backwards and the image stretched. He said, “Here, Rubber So-o-oul! Can we print it like this?” And he replied: “Of course.” And so the cover was born.
(Paul McCartney – Anthology)
The exit
“Rubber Soul” was released in the UK on 3 December 1965, and three days later in the US.
It entered the charts on December 11, reaching number one on Christmas Day and remaining at number one for nine weeks (42 in total on the chart).
In the US it remained on the charts for 59 weeks, reaching number one on January 8, 1966 and selling 1.2 million copies in nine days.
No songs from the album were released as singles in the UK, but “We Can Work It Out” and “Day Tripper” were recorded during the same sessions, released as a double A-side single on the same day as the album.
Differences between the UK and US versions
The American version of “Rubber Soul” differed considerably from the British one: Capitol Records reduced the number of songs from 14 to 12, excluding “Drive My Car”, “Nowhere Man”, “What Goes On” and “If I Needed Someone” and replacing them with “I’ve Just Seen A Face” and “It’s Only Love” (taken from the UK version of “Help!”). The excluded tracks were later released on the American album “Yesterday… and Today”.
Two different stereo versions were distributed in North America: a standard one and a so-called “Dexter stereo” (Dave Dexter was an A&R at Capitol, known – or infamous – first for refusing to release Beatles records in the USA, then for the sound manipulations to which he subjected the songs) or “East Coast”, with an additional reverb effect.
The US version also included Lennon’s overdubbed vocals on “The Word” and a double false start on “I’m Looking Through You”. Most likely, the people in charge of pressing the record at Capitol thought that the track was intended to be released that way, which is why the US stereo pressings of “Rubber Soul” have this difference with the UK version. Here you can listen to “I’m Looking Through You” which includes that anomaly.
This text was created by reworking the contents of “Beatles Bible”
