- The sixth studio album by the band, released in December 1965. This means that they'd released six albums in just two and a half years!
- Recorded in a four week block in order to make the Christmas sales season.
- First Beatles album to be recorded in one big ol' block, as opposed to dates here and there between shows and commitments. I think this shows, and for a lot of people Rubber Soul is the first true 'album' the Beatles released.
- This is the point when the band really starts to open out and the beginning point for what some would call their 'psychedelic' period. The band was moving away from their r+b, rock roots and more becoming more and more influenced by contemporary artists such as The Byrds, the Yardbirds, Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys.
- Eleven of the fourteen songs were Lennon/McCartney compositions. Two were written by Harrison (he would now usually get two song slots each album) and one was 'written' by Ringo (he shared writing credit with Lennon and McCartney).
- The cover was the first Beatles album cover not to feature their name. The image came about after the Beatles watched some slides of photos by photographer Bob Freeman. One such slide fell askew, giving the photo an elongated effect, and the band asked for a photo to be stretched purposely to match said accident.
- The American release of the album had it's tracks re-arranged and some replaced with older tracks to give the album a more overall 'folk' style, to match the current popularity of that genre in America at the time.
- This album marks the true start of the Beatles' psychedelic era (as evidenced by the warped photo that appears on the cover).
- Martin and the Beatles began experimenting more with a wider array of instruments, most notably with the sitar - perhaps one of the most influential things the band ever did in regards to the modern pop genre. Also, several recording breakthroughs were made in the course of making this album, most notably the recording of an instrument at half-speed and then speeding it up to match the tempo of the track (as it was near impossible to play said instrument, in this case the harpsicord, at the pop-tempo employed by Beatles tracks) Also, George Martin used electronic sound processing for the first time, giving certain tracks a very heavily compressed sound - leading to the psychedelic sound the band helped popularize.
- This album also saw the lyrics move beyond simple love songs and the band started incorporating more sophisticated storytelling techniques.
- The title 'Rubber Soul' is a kind of pun that McCartney came up with to describe 'English' soul music.
- The Beatles would take a three month break after the recording of this album (their first proper break in a few years).- Rubber Soul's influence was most keenly and immediately felt in the form of the Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds, which began a short sequence of one-upmanship between the two bands.
1. Drive My Car
- Written mainly by McCartney, with some lyrical input from Lennon.
- McCartney had already wirtten the song on his own by the lyrics were derivative of older Beatles songs, so he and Lennon sat down to rewrite the words together.
- The song was used as an album opener because of it's lighthearted and upbeat nature... McCartney has tried to claim since that the words 'drive my car' were an "old blues euphemism for sex" but I think that's just him trying to sound cool.
- The doubling of bass and rhythm guitar was suggested by Harrison, giving the song a heavier bottom end than previous Beatles tracks. He also composed the guitar riff that plays throughout the verses (though, as usual, he didn't get any official songwriting credit for it).
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, and plays the piano and lead guitar (including the solo). Lennon only provided backing vocals and some cowbell, and Harrison played both the rhythm guitar and bass!
- Ringo added tambourine and cowbell alongside his drum track. Branching out Ringo!
- Runs for two and a half minutes.
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
- Written by Lennon, with McCartney contributing the bridge section.
- The first notable western pop song to use sitar (other rock bands had used it previously in a background fashion but never in anything all that 'pop').
- The song's lyrics are characteristic of this album and the way it showcases more aggressive, antagonistic and female-sided relationship-based songs. The final line of Norwegian Wood even implies that the singer sets fire to the home of the girl in the song!
- Lennon later said he wrote the song about an affair he had whilst married to his first wife, Cynthia.
- The percussion featured on this recording is rather sparse, with Ringo playing a pair of finger-cymbals, some tambourine and the maracas.
- Harrison became intrigued by the sound of the sitar and Indian music in general whilst the band was filming the movie Help! and he saw that some background musicians were using one. He went and bought a sitar from a hock shop and decided to use it to give Norwegian Wood a different edge... he hadn't really learnt how to use it yet and just picked out notes to match the song's melody. He got lessons from Ravi Shankar afterwards and would continue to explore Indian sounds in other Beatles tracks from here on in.
- Lennon played both guitars on the recording - one a six string acoustic, the other a 12 string.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, with McCartney providing harmony.
- The song is in triple time, which is rare amongst Beatles tracks, and earlier versions of it were played in a different key.
- Runs for just over 2 minutes.
3. You Won't See Me
- Written by Paul McCartney.
- The song was written in descending scales but also re-arranged at the last minute to reflect a more upbeat motown rhythm.
- One of McCartney's most bitter songs to date, the lyrics concern his troubles with the mrs (Jane Asher).
- At nearly three and a half minutes it was the longest song the band had ever recorded (so far), reflecting the growing trend towards longer songs at the time (in part encouraged by Bob Dylan's sometimes epic ballads).
- The song was never played live by the band, though McCartney did eventually play the song live in 2005.
- McCartney supplies the lead vocals, as well as piano and his usual bass. Lennon doesn't play any instruments on the recording other than a tambourine, though he did do harmony vocals along with Harrison.
- The hammond organ on this track is credited to Mal 'organ' Evans, who was one of the band's longstanding roadies. His contribution consists solely on one note held down towards the end of the song, lol. Guess they just wanted to get their mate's name in lights.
- The song's tempo slows down a little bit towards the end.
- Apparently it took two takes to record, but the arrangement was worked on in the studio for at least 14 hours before this.
4. Nowhere Man
- Written by Lennon, with a little bit of help from McCartney.
- Lennon sings the main vocals, with McCartney and Harrison doing backup.
- One of the earliest Beatles songs to not be about love/relationships in any form or shape.
- The lyrics were born out of Lennon's frustration. He had been trying to write the lyrics to the song for nearly 5 hours until he decided to use that as the germ of an idea, with himself being a nowhere man in a nowhere land, IE. He had nothing in terms of ideas for lyrics. He used this as a base to then explore his own lack of sense of direction at that point in his life. Fans at the time had a different perception of the song, with many seeing it as a payout on the older generation who didn't "get it".
- This song was used as the basis for a character in the 1968 animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine.
- Released as a single in the U.S. in February 1966, where it went to #1.
- Amazingly, both Lennon and the rest of the band didn't really think much of this song at the time of recording. It was written as filler!
- Took 4 takes to complete, and runs for two and a half minutes.
5. Think For Yourself
- Written by Harrison.
- Harrison's most accomplished song to date. At this point Harrison was starting to catch up to Lennon and McCartney. This would spell trouble for the division of what songs would get chosen for Beatles' albums in the near future.
- Harrison provides the lead vocals and guitar on the recording, with Lennon providing an organ track instead of any guitar. Lennon and McCartney both provide backing vocals. Ringo overdubbed some maracas and tambourine.
- Many thought this song was a jibe at Harrison's then current-girlfriend Pattie Boyd. The lyrics were, however, a more general warning against listening to lies. In later years Harrison said that he felt that the lyrics were probably inspired by the government but that he couldn't remember for sure (drugs, lol)
- Features the use of a fuzzbox on a bass, one of the first times this had been used in a pop recording, though McCartney also added a regular bass track to keep the melody intact.
- Runs for almost two and a half minutes and took only one take to complete.
6. The Word
- Written by Lennon.
- Lennon's first attempt to write an anthem-ish message song.
- McCartney and Lennon often liked to set themselves fun challenges, one such challenge that they visited and re-visited was the idea of basing a song around one note only (inspired by songs like Long Tall Sally, which they enjoyed playing). This song is an example of this, with the entire thing based almost entirely around D major.
- Apparently Lennon and McCartney smoked a lot of pot while writing this song (two things they didn't normally combine).
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, with McCartney and Harrison providing backing vocals. McCartney also plays the piano track in addition to his regular bass duties.
- George Martin plays the harmonium solo.
- Ringo provides a maracas track as well as his drum track.
- Runs for two minutes and forty seconds, and took 3 takes to record.
7. Michelle
- Written mainly by McCartney, this is the last track of Side A.
- McCartney first started composing in 1959 as a joke song inspired by lefty French students, with the lyrics made up mainly of french-sounding groans and moans.
- The original version (which was really just the song's intro) was in the key of C major. This was changed to F major for the recording.
- Lennon suggested to McCartney that he should rework it as a proper song for Rubber Soul.
- McCartney got some help from a friend of his, a french teacher named Jan Vaughn, to provide the french phrases used in the song.
- Lennon provided the "I love you, I love you, I love you" stuff in the bridge, he had heard someone emphasizing the you part in another song and suggested using something similar.
- George Martin claims to have written the guitar lead heard in the bridge and outro. He probably did, his influence on Beatles songs shouldn't be underestimated.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, Lennon and Harrison do the back up.
- McCartney plays bass and guitar on this one, with Lennon providing rhythm guitar. In addition to this, Harrison provides two guitar tracks (one lead and one rhythm). Some fans and Beatleologists claim that McCartney may have actually played all the guitar tracks but that this was too early in the game for him to take all the credit officially.
- This song got nominated for a Grammy in 1967. The Beatles had been previously nominated in 1966 nine times but failed to win anything. Michelle won song of the year, and signaled the turning tide in how important everyone was starting to realise the band was.
- Took two takes to record, and goes for two minutes and forty seconds.
8. What Goes On
- Written by Lennon back when he used to play in the Quarrymen, in the late '50s.
- The band originally hoped to record it as a follow up to their Please Please Me single but they ran out of time.
- Lennon decided to resurrect it as a token song for Ringo to sing on Rubber Soul.
- McCartney and Ringo worked on the bridge/extended bits in the song. It wasn't much of an addition to the song (Ringo apparently wrote just five words) but Ringo was given his first songwriting credit for his troubles! (A man's gotta eat, right?)
- This is a very country-ish track (the country 'arrangement' of it was probably influenced by Ringo's love of country and western music). Harrison provides the lively lead guitar work, much in the same style he employed for the band's cover of Carl Perkins' Everybody's Trying to be My Baby.
- Ringo sings the lead vocals, with Lennon and McCartney doing harmony back up.
- Recorded in one take. During the same sessions an unused 6 and a half minute instrumental referred to as 12 Bar Original was recorded. It was later released as part of the mid-90s Anthology series.
- Released as the B-side on the Nowhere Man single in America.
9. Girl
-Written by Lennon. McCartney claims to have helped co-write it, but after the Beatles broke up Lennon wasn't much of a fan of admitting which of his songs McCartney helped on, so it's a bit hard to tell.
- Apparently it was partially based on an instrumental song McCartney had written back in 1963, and Lennon resurrected it after being inspired by the Greek-o-mania that had come from the recent film Zorba the Greek.
- It's a bit of a sick joke that the country music shite-o-rama What Goes On sits between this track and Michelle in the album's track listing. It's like watching a movie marathon where the first movie is The Godfather, the second movie is Big Momma's House and the third movie is Citizen Kane.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals and plays an acoustic guitar track.
- The band gets away with quite a bit for a song released in the mid-60s. The backing vocal sung by McCartney and Harrison is 'tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit' and the sucking sound is allegedly meant to signify a mad toke on a reefer.
- Harrison plays a 12 string acoustic on the recording, as well as a regular acoustic track. He had originally added a fuzz-pedal lead bit but this was edited out.
- The last song recorded for the album Rubber Soul. It runs for two and a half minutes and took two takes to record.
- Capitol Records intended to release this as a single in 1977 to help promote their Beatles compilation Love Songs. It was canned at the last minute.
- Lennon 'sequelised' this song on a solo album in 1980 as Woman (the grown up version of 'Girl').
10. I'm Looking Through You
- Written entirely by McCartney.
- Another McCartney song about his break up with Jane Asher.
- Lennon plays an acoustic guitar on the recording, and McCartney also provides an acoustic guitar track alongside his bass.
- Ringo at his most multi-instrumental! Ringo provides the drum track, tambourine, a 'matchbox' track (where Ringo taps on a miked-up box of matches) and the organ (you know, that bit which goes 'DAH DAH' on the same note).
- I'm not sure about the vocals, it sounds like it might just be McCartney doing both lead and backups.
- The band recorded three different versions of this song before settling on the one that would be included on the album. One of the alternate versions would eventually show up on the Anthology albums, featuring a different rhythm and missing some of it's parts.
- The version included on the U.S. release features a false guitar start.
- Runs for two and a half minutes, and once the arrangement was settled it took only one take to record.
11. In My Life
- Primarily written by John Lennon, though McCartney contributed to it (what and how much he contributed has remained in dispute).
- Lennon said that McCartney wrote the bridge section of the song, whereas McCartney claims to have written all the actual music and melody (with Lennon supplying the lyrics). After the Beatles finished, this and Eleanor Rigby are the two main songs that they would disagree so strongly about in reference to who wrote them.
- Rolling Stone magazine placed it 23rd in their 500 greatest songs of all time list, and Mojo magazine placed it 1st.
- Written somewhere around late 1964. Lennon wrote the lyrics in response to a journalist's suggestion that he write songs about his childhood. Lennon was less than happy with the result, and felt the whole concept rather boring, so he enlisted the help of McCartney about a year later to re-write it. The line that refers to friends who are dead is said to directly mean Stu Sutcliffe, the Beatles' first bassist.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals and plays a guitar on the track, and McCartney and Harrison provide harmony vocals. Harrison also did two seperate guitar tracks (one lead and one rhythm). Ringo plays the tambourine in addition to his drum track.
- Lennon asked George Martin to play a baroque-sounding piano piece for the instrumental-bridge section of the song. Martin wrote a suitably classical sounding piece for the section but when he went to record it he found that the song's tempo was too fast for him to physically play it. So (and this is the groundbreaking part) Martin recorded the solo at half-speed and simply speeded it up, which also gave the piano a decidedly un-piano sound (it sounds very much like a harpsichord). Subsequently, of the many cover versions performed of this song, very few of them feature this solo.
- Runs for nearly two and a half minutes and took three takes to record.
- George Harrison played the song on his 1974 Dark Horse tour, which Lennon disapproved of.
12. Wait
- Co-written by Lennon and McCartney, Lennon wrote the verses and McCartney the bridges.
- Both Lennon and McCartney sing the lead vocals together for most of the song, with McCartney singing on his own for just the bridge.
- Harrison provides two seperate guitar tracks (one for lead and one for rhythm). Ringo also provides a bit extra with tambourine and some maracas.
- Originally recorded for Help! but left off the album because the band felt it was below-par.
- In order to fill out Rubber Soul quickly enough to get it released before Christmas the band decided to pull this song out of the archive and re-dubbed certain parts to bring it in line with the overall feel of the new album.
- Runs for just over two minutes and took four takes to complete.
13. If I Needed Someone
- Written by Harrison.
- Harrison was influenced by the Byrds, who had in turn been influenced by his own use of the electric 12-string guitar on A Hard Day's Night. Harrison based this song around a riff he had adapted from a Byrds song, and sent a tape of it to the Byrds prior to release.
- Music nerds: this song is in the key of A Mixolydian. Meaning it is basically in a major scale, only the starting note is moved down a semitone.
- Harrison sings the lead vocals, though McCartney and Lennon harmonise with him quite heavily throughout. Harrison also double-tracked his vocals for his solo vocals in the bridge section.
- The first Beatles song to make use of a capo.
- This is the only Harrison-composed song to ever be played by the band whilst they were on tour.
- Harrison played it live with Eric Clapton in 1992.
- The Hollies recorded their own version of this song in 1966 (making this one of the first Harrison-penned songs to be recorded by another group). The single wasn't much of a success for the Hollies, and a slanging match erupted between the Beatles and the Hollies in the press afterwards.
- Runs for two minutes and nineteen seconds, and took one take to record.
14. Run for Your Life
- Written by Lennon.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals and contibutes both electric and acoustic guitar tracks.
- McCartney and Harrison sing backing vocals, and Harrison plays both lead and rhythm tracks.
- Ringo supplies a tambourine track in addition to his drumming.
- Features rather aggressive lyrics for a Beatles song, with Lennon taking inspiration from the line 'I'd rather see you dead then be with another man' from an earlier Elvis song.
- Lennon later remarked in interviews that this was the Beatles song he most regretted writing, and he often named it as amongst his worst songs.
- George Harrison reportedly liked it the most out of all the songs on this album.
- Runs for two minutes and 17 seconds, and took five takes to record.
