Under the Influence

We all know that Rubber Soul (Parlophone, 1965) by The Beatles is a masterpiece on its own right, but it has always been categorized as a great Beatles album under the shadow of Sgt. Pepper and Revolver. For some fans, this record is way, way better than these two and here we're going to prove their point.

In 1965 The Beatles were still touring, and before this record, they played their ultimate venue, their peak in their concert career: a loud and pretty much unlistenable gig at Shea Stadium. They were getting tired of singing about boy-loves-girl songs and even if they already suggested introspectiveness in their previous hit single "Help!," they never explored more than male romance and sexuality. Rubber Soul was their breakthrough and a pivotal point in rock and roll in general. They changed the way of things being done, and everybody else followed.

Just imagine what was going on in London in 1965. Lots of tobacco and weed smoke going around the swinging nightclubs, plus alcohol, pills, and acid, a substance that was not too far away. Paul McCartney was having fun with his brain, a fantastic machine spilling creativity all over. John Lennon was becoming a tortured soul under an unhappy marriage and everything he dreamed of was at his reach, yet so far away. Yoko Ono wouldn't enter the scene until the following year. At Abbey Road, George Martin was pushing the guys to produce high quality work, not bubble-gum or forgettable pop. Martin was dissapointed with the results of Beatles For Sale, and he wanted to move forward with something, anything better. He was not getting the best of the Beatles if they were touring all over. George Martin wanted them in the studio. Well, Rubber Soul is a brilliant studio product made during the heyday of Beatle Touring. A transitional album from the Mersey Beat sound into unknown territory. The non-missing link between the four kids of "A Hard Day's Night" and the studio band that gave us "Penny Lane." Rubber Soul explains us the transformation process.

Notice the Beatles rarely talked about God, but a lot about love. With the exception of George Harrison's approach to Hinduism in his music, Lennon and McCartney didn't want to explore the concept of God since they were agnostics, in a nice way. For the first time on a Beatles song, Lennon preaches like a priest in "The Word," which for me is a song about God. Before that, he confessed an affair he had with a mysterious woman in "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" Like I said, she wasn't Yoko. But the song is full of inside clues about the girl's identity. Most likely the rest of the band knew who she was. Paul at that time was dating Jane Asher but he came out of himself as he usually does and sang "Michelle," giving the Beatles a Grammy for Song of the Year in 1966. He sang about Asher directly, tho, in "I'm Looking Through You," in which a storm warning was posted. McCartney was the only unmarried Beatle at the moment, and Jane didn't seem to be a good catch.

Soul is also the first time when the Beatles look and sing like men, not like boys. Lennon remembers his tortured affair with a "Girl" that later he claimed it was Yoko unarrived. The song made me think about Lennon's real vision of living a life being in love. Did he create the Yoko character in his mind even before the Avant Garde artist was introduced to him? Was he longing for a tortured love the same way he was longing for long gone friends and lovers in "In My Life"? How much nostalgia can a man stand without going nuts? Well, this record is the answer.

George Harrison contributed with two songs of his own here in which he was becoming a grumpy and wise old man and stripping himself completely off the happy-go-lucky character Paul McCartney wanted him to be. "Think For Yourself" and "If I Needed Someone" are different and caustic points of view on love and relationships, but George made fans love him even more.

Capitol Records would butcher and alter Rubber Soul for its sale in the U.S. "Drive My Car," "Nowhere Man," "What Goes On" and "If I Needed Someone" would be removed and replaced with "I've Just Seen A Face" and "It's Only Love" (both songs from the U.K. release of Help!) The travesty is just found on the original vinyl and on that rip off of a collection called The Capitol Albums. The Beatles wouldn't let Capitol alter their product after the butchering of Revolver.

There's so much to talk about Rubber Soul it would take an entire blog or website.