Friday, December 3, 2010

rubber soul











The Beatles went from black and white to colour with this dramatic shift in their sound and vision. Influenced by their recent interactions with Bob Dylan and the Byrds, Rubber Soul featured a more folk direction and saw many innovations in the studio. The stretched out effect of the photo on the album cover came about when the slide card accidentally fell backwards; the band liked the effect and decided to use it immediately. It was the first time American and British Beatles releases used the same photo and album title. It was also suggestive of the mind expanding influence of drugs.

George: "I liked when we got into Rubber Soul... Each album had something good about it and progressed."

Ringo: "I contributed about five words to "What Goes On.' (laughs) And I haven't done a thing since!"

Paul: "Sometimes I've got a guitar in my hands, sometimes I'm sitting at a piano. It depends, whatever instrument I'm on, I write with. Everytime it's different ... We'd started to learn what was involved (in the control room), and it was all so fascinating being allowed to do it. As we got more power they started to let us sit there during a mix. Then you'd say, 'I don't want to interfere, Geoff (Emerick), but push my guitar up!' With two guitarists-- with John and George-- it was always John saying, 'put that up a bit,' and then George would come in and put his up a bit."

John: "We got involved completely in ourselves then. I think it was 'Rubber Soul' when we did all our own numbers. Something just happened. We controlled it a bit. Whatever it was we were putting over, we just tried to control it a bit ... We were just getting better, technically and musically, that's all. Finally we took over the studio. In the early days we had to take what we were given-- we didn't know how you can get more bass. We were learning the technique on 'Rubber Soul' . We were more precise about making the album, that's all. And we took over the cover and everything."

























'I've Just Seen a Face' was kept off of the American version of Help! (along with 'It's Only Love') and put on Rubber Soul. The folky guitar intro gives a completely different feel to the whole record. While I can't argue with the more generous serving of songs on the British release, I will always think of this song as the beginning of the album.







'Drive My Car' is the first song on the standard British release. Along with 'Nowhere Man', 'If I Needed Someone', and 'And Your Bird Can Sing', it was kept off of the American release. It was standard practice for the American releases to have fewer songs so that they could put out more albums.


Drive My Car by colinwright1959







'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' is the first rock song to use the sitar.










'Michelle' features lyrics in French and won a Grammy in 1966 for Song of the Year.








Producer George Martin wrote the piano solo for 'In My Life'; but when he found he couldn't play it at the tempo of the song, he recorded it at half tempo and then doubled the speed of the tape.

















All songs written and composed by Lennon–McCartney except where noted. Lead v0cals listed.

Side one
1. "Drive My Car"   McCartney with Lennon 2:25
2. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"   Lennon with McCartney 2:01
3. "You Won't See Me"   McCartney 3:18
4. "Nowhere Man"   Lennon with McCartney and Harrison 2:40
5. "Think for Yourself" (George Harrison) Harrison 2:16
6. "The Word"   Lennon and McCartney with Harrison 2:41
7. "Michelle"   McCartney 2:33
Side two
1. "What Goes On" (Lennon–McCartney–Richard Starkey) Starr 2:47
2. "Girl"   Lennon 2:30
3. "I'm Looking Through You"   McCartney 2:23
4. "In My Life"   Lennon 2:24
5. "Wait"   Lennon and McCartney 2:12
6. "If I Needed Someone" (Harrison) Harrison 2:20
7. "Run for Your Life"   Lennon 2:18











No comments:

Post a Comment