The Continuing Appeal Of Rubber Soul

I once had a conversation with my late Dad who was a life long Beatle fan. We were talking about The Beatles and how their style changed - how each album was different from the previous one. He said that you never really knew what you'd be getting with each new album. I sensed, for him as well as for many people who were first generation fans, that it was a genuinely exciting time to be a music lover.

When Rubber Soul was released in December 1965 it must of been quite a shock to the musical system. Released in the same year as the popular and very poppy Help! soundtrack this was the about as different to Help! as you could possibly get.

For me, it was upon the release of Rubber Soul that the Beatles got really interesting. Naturally, all of the music up to this point was good. It was very good. There is no denying that. And it was popular as well. But with Rubber Soul I feel the Beatles truly coming of age, that they had something too say and were not afraid to say it in a blunt, frank manner.

Let's take George as a brilliant example of their quickly growing maturity. On the Help! album he had written two songs that were pure pop bliss. 'I Need You' and "You Like Me Too Much'. I can imagine the hoards of teenage girls screeching in delight at these two songs, where George declares how much he loves his girl of choice. I'm not going to lie, decades later when I was twelve I was screeching in delight at this wonderful man declaring how much he needed me. Because it was written for me, right?

Fast forward though, to later on that same year, he was writing songs in a familiar manner that we would come to know George by. Gone were the love songs that he sang whilst beaming and bopping along too. In came the new serious, profound George. Who wrote songs from the heart, he wrote words that he really meant. This were not throw away love songs, they were droll, sometimes sarcastic, but with a feeling that this was the genuine George.

I wonder what some fans thought of the bitter Lennon song, "Run For Your Life' which even John admitted was a horrible song and one that he openly admitted he was neither proud or fond of. "I'd rather see you dead little girl then to be with another man' is somewhat different to 'wont you please, please help me ..."

The sad thing, from where I sit, is that I had the luxury, so to speak, of being able to listen to the albums all at once. Much like binge watching your favourite box set, when it's laid out on a platter all at once, it's easy to under appreciate what it is you're consuming. When you wait patiently each year for a new album release, the effect is much more profound and I do often wonder what those teenage girls actually thought of Rubber Soul. Up till then they had one type of Beatle's. Rubber Soul showed them another.

Rubber Soul was the first album where the Beatles were not sidelined by having to tour. They had the chance to fully devote all of their creative energy into producing the album. And it shows. It's an album that is well produced and crisp. It flows easily from one song to another. It is mature and grown up. It's energised. You can almost sense within this album that the manic Beatle mania was over, that they no longer had to perform to deafening screams. Once all that commercial hassle was stripped away from them they were liberated to make the music they had long wanted to make.

Of course we cannot side step the issue that by this time they had gotten into drugs. John himself described Rubber Soul as "the pot album". But, I suppose, after a few years of the crippling mania, endless touring and being treated, to some degree, as performing seals, their mind was opening. Still a few years away from visiting India, which, especially for George Harrison, lead to an almost total change of life, they were taking the first steps into a new musical frontier.

The Beatles started recording Rubber Soul in October that year and the pressure was on the group to produce an album that would take full advantage of the pre-Christmas sales rush, which is another reason this album is amazing for me. To record it in a little over four weeks is quite staggering, when you think nowadays of the length of time it takes to make an album

It was, however, a slightly fraught time. Being close together in the studio highlighted that the individual members of the group could and often did fall out in this period. The creative tension between John and Paul emerged as each perfected their songs in an attempt to out do the other. Arguments were caused about which song would be the A side of their planned single releases. However, the group seemed to thrive on the sometimes fractious energy to create one of their most unique albums. Sadly, in the future, these falling out's meant that any one Beatle would walk out at any one time. And eventually, it did pull them apart. But in the latter part of 1965 this tension drove them on to produce a wonderful album. It was a positive force and was used in the right way.

Why Rubber Soul continues to hold such an appeal to me is the sheer speed of change. If you take Help! and Rubber Soul, both released in the same year, it's like hearing two different groups. Within the short space of these two albums the group, and the individual members had matured almost over night. Part of The Beatles genius is not only their desire to create something different from what had gone before, it was their ability to do so. Like a sponge they absorbed influences from other sources yet put out something totally unique, something so Beatles.

What I have the luck to know which Beatles fan's didn't upon the release of Rubber Soul, was that the next album to come, Revolver, was once again something very different. Within a year, yet again they made an album that was game changing.

But Rubber Soul is the one single album that held the key to change for the Beatles. It was the gateway album into something much bigger.  When you look at what followed it still retained a little of that early Beatle charm compared to the rugged, full on Revolver. But it did signify change. And it proved that neither the Beatles or those that worked with them on their albums were willing to stagnate. Their minds were open. They were progressing, moving on like a full flowing river.

Sgt Peppers was a couple of years away. But without Rubber Soul there would be no Revolver or Sgt Peppers. Rubber Soul was almost a leap of faith by the group and their fans. You either adapted to the change or you were left behind. The Beatles were not like Cliff Richard, for example, stuck in a musical rut producing the same music over and over. And this is what makes The Beatles true leaders in their field.

They risked a new sound quite different to what they had produced before. And the fans had to trust in them that these changes were all for the better. The times really were changing and the Beatles were reflecting that in the music they were producing.

And that, readers, is why Rubber Soul holds a special place in my heart. It may not be the first Beatle album that comes to many peoples minds if you ask.  But in a way, it's probably one of the most progressive. Gone were the days of 'She Loves You'. We were heading into the pure joy of Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said She Said. Only, at the time, we didn't know it.