Field Mix - Rubber Soul

Album: Rubber Soul
Artist: The Beatles
Release Date: December 3rd, 1965
RS Greatest Albums of All Time Ranking: #5
Songs You'll Know: Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), In My Life
Songs You May Have Missed: Run For Your Life, I'm Looking Through You

A Little History/Why This Album Is Famous: Anyone with even a little knowledge on The Beatles' history will know that they started as pop heartthrobs and ended as experimental rockers. You can thank a ferocious desire to be seen as genuine musicians, and drugs, for that. Rubber Soul is the turning point between the two sides of the Beatles. This is the album where the Fab Four moved away from the 2-3 minute pop songs to longer form (but still relatively short by today's standards) songs with more texture and depth. It is only their second album to contain all original music (A Hard Day's Night was the first) and the first that was intended as an artistic work. This album is also famous for its cover art: the iconic stretched photograph that was originally a slide projection mishap. It is also the first album cover which does not have "The Beatles" printed on it.

Comments: In my opinion, this is the first album where we as listeners start to get to know the Beatles both as a group and individually. As a group, we hear their actual intentions as musicians: they want to combine styles, stretch the bounds of popular music, and explore possibilities. They want to write about more than girls and love (though there's plenty of that). They want to write about politics, free thinking, and peace. John wants us to know he's got jealousy issues: turn to "Norwegian Wood" and "Run for Your Life" for that. George wants to promote individuality: the somewhat oxy-moronic "Think For Yourself". Paul is still kinda stuck on love songs: "Michelle" and "You Won't See Me". And this is probably the first time we start to realize that Ringo feels overlooked: "What Goes On". Ringo didn't write it, but they're his vocals and I don't buy that the lyrics are coincidental.

This album is full of really great songs. Everything referenced in the previous paragraph could easily get stuck in your head or become a "I've got to listen to this 10 times in a row" type of song. That being said, there are a couple clunkers. In my opinion, "Girl" is a little sleepy, though that might have something to do with the amount of literal sighs in the song. Give it a listen; you'll know what I'm talking about. I also find "The Word" and "If I Needed Someone" to be skip-able on occasion. If you listened to our recent The Lettuce Podcast episode about Charlotte's favorite music, you'll know that I don't have much taste for when an artist is "preachy" with their life philosophy. In the context of the episode, I was talking about Jason Mraz, but these same feelings apply to the Beatles' "The Word". I'm wholly supportive of perpetuating peace and love, but I can't handle the presentation of this ideal in "The Word". My criticism of "If I Needed Someone" is that I've heard this song minimum 20 times and would not be able to sing the chorus to you right now. So, there's that.

As with most of the albums in the top 10 slots on Rolling Stone's list, this is kind of essential for a popular music historian. It is not only a mark of the style change for the Beatles, but the style change for music in general. All of the protest songs, folk music, psychedelic/experimental rock, etc start around this time. I'm not saying Rubber Soul is the cause for all of that, I'm saying Rubber Soul is an essential part of that period of music. And even if it wasn't a mark for a generation, it's full of seriously great tunes. You can skip a couple here and there, but the bulk of this album is really fantastic. And of course, it's all up to personal taste- you might love every single track or you might hate it. Whichever way the wind blows, I think anyone who hasn't listened to Rubber Soul all the way through should do it ASAP. And get back to me with you thoughts!

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It's been a while since I've blogged about this project and if you're new to TLP blog, you might not quite know what's going on here. I, Laura, am on a mission. That mission is to listen to and critique all of the albums on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. I am not the first to do this. I assume I will not be the last. I just love music and love talking/writing about it. Come along with me, Lettuce Heads, and learn about music! Join me next time as I explore the #6 album Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. 

Until then,
Argualater!