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<\/p>\nWhen the Beatles released \u201cRubber Soul,\u201d their second album of 1965, some of their most loyal teenybopper fans were put off. \u201cYou look as if you\u2019d all been dead for weeks,\u201d complained fan Annabel Lee in a poetic letter in the February 1966 issue of the Beatles Book Monthly. She was referring to the photo on the album jacket, which featured the group in the woods, clad in black turtlenecks and tan suede jackets, looking off to the side or, in the case of John, coolly down his nose.<\/p>\n
In retrospect, Robert Freeman\u2019s autumnal, artfully distorted photograph was an entirely apt image for a worldlier, darker, more grown-up Beatles record.<\/p>\n
The Beatles\u2019 \u201cRubber Soul\u201d has gotten the special deluxe treatment, with a bevy of new editions on CD, vinyl and Blu-ray and a museum show\u2019s worth of expertly curated material released Friday. As usual, there are punchy new mixes by Giles Martin along with never officially released session recordings and demos, including audio of a hitherto unknown song of John\u2019s, and an up-to-date account of the writing, recording and legacy of the album.<\/p>\n
Whatever Annabel Lee may have thought, this was the period just before the Beatles got truly weird; the fantastic sonic explorations of \u201cRevolver\u201d would come next. There was a lowering of tempos, a concerted exploration of new guitar sounds and a new depth of introspection, reflecting a multitude of diverse musical inspirations: Bob Dylan and Ravi Shankar (\u201cNorwegian Wood\u201d), the chiming guitars of the Byrds (\u201cIf I Needed Someone\u201d), Otis Redding (\u201cDrive My Car\u201d), Smokey Robinson and J.S. Bach (the recurring guitar motif of \u201cIn My Life\u201d and George Martin\u2019s pseudo-harpsichord solo), even Paul\u2019s holiday in Greece (the twanging bouzouki-style guitar of \u201cGirl\u201d).<\/p>\n
Speaking with London Life magazine around the time of the album\u2019s release, Paul summed up the impulse to keep trying new things: \u201cI saw someone on TV asked what he wanted out of life, and he said \u2018a cosy rut.\u2019 To be in a cosy rut is about the sickest thing ever, I think. You can enjoy it, but what\u2019s the point of living in a cosy rut?\u201d Indeed, from \u201cRubber Soul\u201d on, every Beatles album would feel like a radical departure from the sound of the previous record.<\/p>\n
Lyrically, \u201cRubber Soul\u201d revealed a new level of sophistication and wit in the group\u2019s writing. John, especially, after the publication of his second book of nonsense verse and stories, had finally cottoned onto the idea of putting some of his literary impulses to good use in song, resulting in some of his most haunting Beatles-era tracks. Paul, meanwhile, was in a period of uncharacteristic autobiographical directness in his lyric-writing, documenting his grievances with his actor girlfriend Jane Asher while residing in her family\u2019s London home. It was as if the two songwriters were turning inward in reaction to putting on the biggest stadium tour in history to that point.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Beatles during an April 9, 1969, photo session in Twickenham, England. <\/p>\n
(Bruce McBroom \/\u00a9 Apple Corps Ltd.)<\/p>\n
Putting it bluntly, the \u201cRubber Soul\u201d sessions also capture the Beatles at their most prurient: the would-be affair of \u201cNorwegian Wood\u201d (the details of which, it has been pointed out, align with Joan Baez\u2019s account of her encounter with Lennon the previous year), the sensual intake of breath on \u201cGirl,\u201d the beep-beeping euphemism of \u201cDrive My Car,\u201d Paul cooing velvety French in \u201cMichelle.\u201d Unsurprisingly, the original opening line of \u201cDay Tripper\u201d \u2014 \u201cShe\u2019s a prick teaser\u201d \u2014 is not to be heard in any of the newly released recordings. (In the related episode of the Saturday morning Beatles cartoon, the \u201cteaser\u201d in question is an extraterrestrial babe who whisks the group to the planet Glom.)<\/p>\n
\u201cRubber Soul\u201d is the Beatles album that made musos as diverse as Grace Slick and Elvis Costello sit up and take notice \u2014 it\u2019s also Harry Styles\u2019 favorite. The U.S. release ended up with an altered track listing that highlighted the group\u2019s folkier leanings; Joni Mitchell wore the grooves out on her copy and slipped \u201cNorwegian Wood\u201d into her coffeehouse sets in Detroit. (That version of \u201cRubber Soul\u201d is included in the special super deluxe new editions.) Perhaps most importantly, \u201cRubber Soul\u201d marked an escalation in the musical arms race between the Beatles and Brian Wilson that would culminate in \u201cSgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band.\u201d<\/p>\n
While there are no world-altering revelations here, there are some charming curios, including audio of an early version of \u201cDay Tripper,\u201d before the song became a thinly disguised delivery system for one of the most essential guitar riffs of all time, and several minutes of the group larking around between takes of \u201cThink for Yourself.\u201d As for the newly unearthed song snippet of John\u2019s, \u201cLittle Girl\u201d will intrigue only the most dedicated appreciators of Beatles flotsam. More interesting than its simple, undulating melody is its use of the British slang abbreviation for an unprintable expression: \u201cIf you\u2019d have asked me yesterday \/ Then I\u2019d have told you sweet F.A.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Beatles scholar Kevin Howlett\u2019s detailed account of the making of the album, presented here in a tastefully illustrated 88-page hardback book, one of the unsung heroes of the record is Hazel Yarwood. A cutting specialist at EMI more used to bringing out the complex dynamics of classical recordings, she was instructed to boost the low end of \u201cRubber Soul\u201d to match the sound of the American records the Beatles loved. Her efforts are in ample evidence in the exciting opening moments of \u201cDrive My Car,\u201d with a rhythm section that sounds, appropriately enough, like a motor thrumming to life.<\/p>\n
For 10 years now \u2014 actually, since around the time streaming decisively overtook people\u2019s listening habits \u2014 these Beatles releases have made a pretty compelling case for the collectible physical object. This may be the handsomest yet, and a very fine excuse to wander into the deep, dark woods of \u201cRubber Soul\u201d yet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Beatles released \u201cRubber Soul,\u201d their second album of 1965, some of their most loyal teenybopper fans…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":918584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[486658,64,63,6983,5865,134,32385,486660,14550,5585,8280,136,486659,1911,22679,486657,6984,6618,13681],"class_list":["post-918583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-album-jacket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beatles","tag-car","tag-entertainment","tag-girl","tag-good-use","tag-group","tag-john","tag-life","tag-music","tag-norwegian-wood","tag-paul","tag-recording","tag-rubber-soul","tag-song","tag-time","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=918583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/918583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/918584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=918583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=918583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=918583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}