Why 'Rubber Soul' may be the Beatles' true masterpiece
The best Beatles album debate has raged for decades: "Sgt. Pepper," "Abbey Road" or "Revolver"? But is it time to consider "Rubber Soul"?
The often-underrated 1965 landmark, beloved by the faithful for its introspective and experimental songs and distorted Robert Freeman cover art, is getting the lavish reissue treatment on Oct. 2. Recording quickly in just a month to hit record stores in time for Christmas, the Beatles didn't consciously set out to make a masterpiece.
"They're writing internal songs about themselves. It's an album about breakup and rejection, a lot of it − the rejection of their fans. They didn't enjoy really playing live anymore," says Giles Martin (son of Beatles producer George Martin), who remixed the special edition with engineer Sam Okell. "It is the emergence of the Beatles out of the pupa into sort of psychedelic butterflies."
As the band soaked up Bob Dylan and Motown, "they took the world that was around them and stuck it back onto a 12-inch vinyl," he says. The slyly titled "Rubber Soul" – a punny play on the record's R&B inspirations and rubber-sole shoes − became a statement about where the Beatles were musically.
Up until then, "the single was the State of the Union," says Beatles scholar Martin Lewis. " ‘Rubber Soul' was the first time that the album became the State of the Union." A lost John Lennon song is the 'Rubber Soul' reissue's biggest surprise
The expanded set includes never-released takes and (in the super-deluxe edition) a hardbound book with an introductory essay by Paul McCartney. A banter-heavy recording of the Fab Four working through George Harrison's "Think for Yourself" and McCartney's demo of "We Can Work It Out" will appeal to superfans, though the biggest draw is an unfinished − and until recently, unknown − John Lennon song, "Little Girl."
A working version of the song is captured in Lennon's cheeky demo. "The Beatles would have ideas, and they'd have these reel-to-reel tapes and they'd record over them, wipe over them," Martin says. "Paul played John his idea, or vice versa. That's what they started doing. ... So it's one of those."
Source: thestate.com/Kim Willis
