The Beatles are one of those bands that changed so many aspects of my life that it is almost unbelievable in retrospect. Their sixth album Rubber Soul was first released on the 5th of December 1965. I was first introduced to the song ‘Michelle’ when I was about 5 years old, and we would sing it at singing assembly. It was a favourite of mine along with ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ from the White Album. However, at the time I was oblivious to who the artists were that we sang. My favourite song that I played on vinyl at home was ‘I Don’t like Monday’s’ by The Boomtown Rats – but we never sang that at school, surprisingly.
The next time I came across these four lads from Liverpool was at my grandparents house in 1987. They had an awesome stereo at the time, very high end and it sounded incredible. Music was important to my Grandfather Rex and a passion we shared. As I dug through their stash of records I found two that struck my eye and both were by The Beatles. The first was With the Beatles, with that amazing black and white picture on the cover taken by Robert Freeman, and included songs like ‘Please Mr Postman’ & ‘Roll Over Beethoven’. The other album was Rubber Soul. I was instantly drawn to the bubble gum font by illustrator Charles Front, accompanied by another cover photo by Freeman. But it wasn’t until I dropped the needle down that my world changed.
I think the fact this was the first album where the Beatles didn’t have their name on the cover was emblematic of its sonic distinction. The name Rubber Soul itself has many different origin stories, but I like Ringo Starr’s interpretation best. During a press conference in 1966 he said the band wanted to acknowledge that, in comparison to American soul artists, “we are white and haven’t got what they’ve got.” Moreover, Paul McCartney recalled that he conceived the title after overhearing an American musician describing Mick Jagger’s singing style as “plastic soul.” Regardless, I loved the distinct sixties vibe to the sonic aesthetic of the album and I quickly became obsessed with it all. I felt like I was the first person to discover The Beatles. I even found my uncle’s Winklepicker shoes and started wearing them with my ripped jeans religiously in homage to my new found musical muses.
Rubber Soul is widely heralded as one of the greatest albums of all time (it was even Kurt Cobain’s favourite Beatles album), and a milestone in the evolution of the pop album for everyone who heard it. Rubber Soul reflected the start of a period where the band was unburdened by concert, radio or film commitments. The Beatles’ music, ideas and unbridled creative ambitions began to truly flourish. The album opens with ‘Drive My Car’ – which I instantly recognised as the end credit song from the 1988 film Licensed to Drive with Corey Haim. But it’s the next song that threw me for a loop. ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ opens with a sitar accompanying by an acoustic guitar, and that Indian sound was like coming home for me. Because of that sound I would go onto to be a full time professional yoga teacher for 20 years, and I became a vegetarian of currently 30 years. The whole spiritual trajectory that shapes me as a person began with listening to George Harrison play sitar on that song. I then learned about the beautiful practice of Hari Krishna from a random disciple who handed me a copy of Chant and be Happy, a book with the pictures of John Lennon and Harrison on the cover, to me on Queen St in Auckland right after I had bought The Beatles White Album on tape from Sounds Record Store. That book changed my life and I would never have entertained the subject matter if the Beatles weren’t involved.
‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ was written predominantly by John Lennon (my favourite Beatle) and was conceived during a skiing holiday in January 1965 at the Swiss Alps with his wife Cynthia, George Martin – the producer for the Beatles – and his wife. Lennon wrote the song about an extramarital affair and tried to word the narrative to hide the truth from his wife. As usual there is a debate as to how much McCartney contributed, maybe the middle eight on the bridge? He also claimed that the idea to set the wood on fire at the end of the song was his as well … but according to Lennon … well, he called bullsh*t. Apparently, the sitar that blew my mind had also blown Brian Wilson’s a few decades earlier, and Rubber Soul would go on to be the impetus for the Beach Boys’ incredible album Pet Sounds.
The Beatles were so open minded about using new instruments and sounds that no one lifted an eyelid when Harrison brought in his sitar that he had been learning to play since seeing one on set during the filming of the movie Help!. The whole recording of the sitar was simply a random suggestion by Lennon to see if Harrison could recreate the opening melody in cord of D on the instrument. He went into the corner of the studio for 5 minutes and returned with the finished product, magic! Arranged in 12/8 time, and in the English folk style, the song has a Mixolydian melody that results in a drone effect in the acoustic guitars, complementing the sitar part, though switches to parallel scale of E Dorian during its middle eight. This would be the first popular western song to ever have a sitar on it, and I’m so grateful for this song.
Continuing with the spiritual awakening, the next song that left my jaw on the floor was ‘Nowhere Man’. It is also fair to say at this point that I’m not a big McCartney fan … sorry Paul. So I am always more drawn to Lennon and Harrison’s work. That said, McCartney has written some of the best ballads and melodies ever known to humanity to be fair. Anyway, the ambiguity that Lennon craves and desires in 1965 is bought to the fore in this ‘Nowhere Man’. It’s a touching and relatable treatment of the lyrics, which was unusual for a pop band in 1965, and it really spoke to me. It felt like an exploration into the state of being but not, unattached to reality but present. The fact that this song come almost like divine intervention to Lennon just deepens that spiritual link. Lennon had been trying to write something for hours with no success. He decided to go in the other room and have a cigarette and a cup of tea, and as he laid down on the couch the whole song suddenly came to him in minutes with written lyrics in a 3rd person narrative. For me, the song is about letting go and letting life or divine inspiration flow through the artist to become the song. Like Buddha once said to a disciple when explaining the middle way or balance, “If the string is too tight you cannot play, if the string is too slack you cannot play, it must be the middle way”. The result was a beautiful song that McCartney later presumed was about his marriage at the time, rather than a direct reflection of how Lennon perceived himself at the time.
However, McCartney’s perception of himself in the past was that he quite fancied himself as a French man. During the early days of the Quarry Men, an early version of the Beatles, McCartney used to wear a black turtleneck sweater and sit in the corner during art school parties in Liverpool. He pretended to speak French whilst playing an early version of ‘Michelle’. I have always been fascinated with the French language and have spent my life learning to become fluent in Française. So I was instantly drawn to the melody and the multiple use of language in the song in those singing assembles. ‘Michelle’ was never intended to be a single, however, after its American release and no obvious singles from the album, it started to get more radio play after the success of McCartney’s previous song ‘Yesterday’. Lennon remembered the song during the recording sessions and suggested McCartney resurrect the song. The French crossover proved to be hugely popular and for me personally inspired my lifelong fascination with French culture and language. I also dated several Michelle’s in my life and all were great girls with a great name … but unfortunately none spoke French.
Speaking of girls, ‘Girl’ is Lennon’s answer to McCartney’s ‘Michelle’. Lennon moves lazily from Cm verse to Eb major chorus on a capo guitar, which gave a more European sound that harked back to their Hamberg days. Believed to be about Yoko Ono, the song lyrics are about a dream of a bohemian enigmatic artist. Lennon would go on to say the girl wasn’t real but rather an idea and that eventually he found this in Ono. He wrote ‘Girl’ with McCartney during a writing session where the lyrics came first and the music later, which was unusual as it was usually done in reverse during composition. It is just a beautiful song that reflects that sentiment every time I listen to it. As a romantic, the intention and ambiguity in the lyrics of ‘Girl’ appealed greatly to me then and it still does, as I am still searching for that bohemian muse girl in my life … my number is 021…
‘In My Life’ is the final song that has left me with a lifetime worth of inspiration and pleasure from Rubber Soul. As I get older I find myself in more reflection with retrospection, so this song appeals to me on so many levels. Lennon & McCartney had planned to write a song about Liverpool on Rubber Soul. However, during an interview with Lennon, journalist Kenneth Alison asked why his lyrics didn’t incorporate the same sharp wit seen in his books, In His Own Write & A Spaniard In The Works. Lennon respected Alison and reflected on his observation and decided to write a song about a bus ride from his childhood home in Liverpool to the city centre, mentioning local landmarks and neighbourhoods along the way. It was the first song that Lennon wrote directly about his own life and gave the audience an insight into who he was as person rather than a pop star. McCartney once again wrote the middle eight bridge but Lennon composed the entirety of the lyrics. As someone who does find joy in reminiscing, ‘In my Life’ was the first time I came across this joy sonically, or at least the first time I reflected on what the artist was actually singing about and how I related that to my life. It was a musical revelation that I would encounter in greater depth later within the Radiohead catalogue (who were both signed to the same label, Polydor, EMI).
Synchronistic is the perfect adjective to sum up my personal experience with the Beatles’ Rubber Soul. It was one of those discoveries that has had longevity and great influence on my life. I could never had imagined all those decades ago that this album would shape not only my physical future in the sense of Asana (Postures) in yoga but also Eastern philosophies being the glue of my ethics and overall world view. I also choregraphed a solo to ‘In My Life’ for the Hong Kong Ballet in 1993, and the work received critical claim at the time. Rubber Soul is not my favourite Beatles album, that honour goes to the White Album, however, it is impossible for me not to mention Rubber Soul and Revolver as the close second and third place. I will be forever grateful to the Beatles for their incredible influence on my early years during the 80s. Their music and artistry found its way into my soul and changed me into the better man that sits here typing this today.
To celebrate the monumental 60th anniversary, an expanded Special Edition of Rubber Soul has been released on both streaming and physical formats. Newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell, the collection presents the album in stunning new stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes, alongside the original mono mix, the original Capitol US Album version, and expanded with previously unreleased session recordings and home demos, and the contemporary double A-side single, ‘Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out’.
More than six decades after its original release, Rubber Soul remains a defining moment in The Beatles’ story as an album that bridged the craze of Beatlemania and the experimentation that would follow on Revolver, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and beyond.
Shop all formats of Rubber Soul (Super Deluxe) here.
