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Is the Beatles Rubber Soul overlooked?

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NYSPORTSFAN View Drop Down
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    Posted: January 18 2012 at 17:27

 Does anyone think that Rubber Soul really overlooked compared to say Revolver or Sgt. Pepper in terms of the Beatles catalog?

The Doors star says, "There I was, on a classic Lsd bummer. (I) went over to a friend's house. She said, 'Would you like to hear the new Beatles album...?' I said, 'No, I don't want to hear the mop-top fab teens...'

"She said, 'I think you'll like this. Take a look at the album.' And I looked at the album cover and realised, 'My God, they were stoners!' You could see it in their eyes... and then there's a song on the album called I'm Looking Through You."

 

Brian Wilson on the Beatles' Rubber Soul

The band shows increasing sophistication, Lennon shines on Norwegian Wood, and they stun their Beach Boys rival ... Brian Wilson
 
It must have been in November of 1965. I was living in this house in the Hollywood Hills then, way up on Laurel Way, and I remember sitting in the living room one night talking with some friends when another friend came in with a copy of the Beatles’ new one, Rubber Soul, I don’t know if it had even come out yet. But he had it and so we put it on the record player and, wow. As soon as I started hearing it I loved it. I mean, LOVED it!

I still remember hearing Michelle for the first time, and Girl. What an incredible song! Everything about the way John Lennon sang, and the lyrics he was writing. “Oh, girl, girl.” It sounded amazing.

Norwegian Wood is my favorite, too. The lyrics are so good, and so creative, right from the first line: “I once had a girl/ Or should I say, she once had me.” It’s so mysterious. Is he into her, or she into him? It just blew my mind. And in the end, when he wakes up and she’s gone, so he lights a fire. “Isn’t it good? Norwegian wood.” Is he setting her house on fire? I didn’t know. I still don’t know. I thought that was fantastic. I can’t forget the sitar, too, I’d never heard that before, that unbelievable sound. No one had heard that in rock’n’roll back then, this amazing, exotic sound. It really did inspire the instrumentation I ended up using for Pet Sounds.

So many other songs are on there, too. You Won’t See Me is like a cheerful pop song, and Think for Yourself is kind of dark. I’d forgotten that was George’s song. He really wrote that? Well, I know it has that cool fuzzy bass sound. I’d used that already on Little Honda, so it was more familiar to me. But then came The Word, and that was something else, too. A song about love, but not just about girls and boys.
 
Then there’s In My Life, that’s another John song. And that’s my favorite song on the record too, except for Norwegian Wood. I loved the sound of John’s voice. I’d never heard a collection of songs that were all that good before. It’s like a collection of folk songs, and they’re all just really, really great songs. And not just about love. They’re about a lot of different things, but they all go together, somehow.

Listening to Rubber Soul didn’t clarify my ideas for Pet Sounds, exactly. But it inspired me. When we were listening to it that night I said to myself, “Now I’m gonna make an album just as good as Rubber Soul.” Not the same album. Obviously there can only be one album that’s Rubber Soul, just like there can only be one Pet Sounds. But it inspired me to do my own thing, and so the next morning I went to the piano and wrote God Only Knows with Tony Asher.




 

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 18 2012 at 17:33
Yes.

It's a better album than Revolver and 2nd only to their masterpiece, "Let it Be"
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Slartibartfast Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 18 2012 at 18:42
Anyone else think it sounds like someone's smoking a joint on Girl?   Tongue
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 18 2012 at 18:48
yep....and every other track...Lennon said that was "the pot album."  
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Post Options Post Options   Quote rogerthat Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 18 2012 at 23:15
Sgt Peppers, save for some incredible compositions like Day in a Life, is a tad st overrated from amongst the classic Beatles albums.  I might want to take Rubber Soul over Sgt.  But I like Revolver more than both.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote BarryGlibb Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 01:21
It's definitely The Beatles' transition album but IMHO it does not come close to Revolver.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Snow Dog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 01:52
No it isn't overlooked. As far as I notice it is well regarded and loved.

Not as good as Revolver though as some maintain. But if someone prefers it to Revolver, well of course, that is fine and you don't need me to say so or allow it so ignore this post.
Coldness doth get away with the badness.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Slartibartfast Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 05:10
I consider it one of the essentials for the prog fan as is everything after except Yellow Submarine perhaps.  The ratings on this site pretty much track how I regard the albums.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote HarbouringTheSoul Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 06:02
No Beatles album is overlooked. They're the Beatles.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote irrelevant Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 06:25
Originally posted by HarbouringTheSoul

No Beatles album is overlooked. They're the Beatles.

yyyep 
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Snow Dog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 06:36
Originally posted by irrelevant

Originally posted by HarbouringTheSoul

No Beatles album is overlooked. They're the Beatles.

yyyep 

Amen
Coldness doth get away with the badness.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 06:48
Read the OP.  The question was not "is the album overlooked" generally or anything to do with Beatles popularity generally.  It was, is the album overlooked compared to it's two big brothers.  Clearly, yes.  Revolver and Pepper are routinely deified.  Rubber Soul gets far less love even though fans know it is very good. 
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Slartibartfast Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 07:11
I was surprised to see Let It Be getting a rating in the lower 3's.  Rubber Soul did make it to the upper 3's.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Snow Dog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 07:39
Originally posted by Finnforest

Read the OP.  The question was not "is the album overlooked" generally or anything to do with Beatles popularity generally.  It was, is the album overlooked compared to it's two big brothers.  Clearly, yes.  Revolver and Pepper are routinely deified.  Rubber Soul gets far less love even though fans know it is very good. 

I honestly could not be bothered to read all that. Still won't. But as I aid..no..it isn't overlooked compered to the other two. It isn't as well loved or as highly regar5ded..but not "overlooked"


Edited by Snow Dog - January 19 2012 at 07:41
Coldness doth get away with the badness.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 07:49

You only had to read the first sentence SnowieLOL

And your distinction that overlooked does not equal loved is duly notedWink
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Snow Dog Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 07:53
Originally posted by Finnforest

You only had to read the first sentence SnowieLOL

And your distinction that overlooked does not equal loved is duly notedWink

I suppose it does rather boil down to what we mean by overlooked. Or actually what the OP meant. But you seriously think it is better than Revolver? Nothing wrong with that of course. Rubber Soul is a fine album by any standards.Smile
Coldness doth get away with the badness.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Slartibartfast Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 07:55
Would it help if the text was smaller? Tongue
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 08:04
Originally posted by Snow Dog

Originally posted by Finnforest

You only had to read the first sentence SnowieLOL

And your distinction that overlooked does not equal loved is duly notedWink

I suppose it does rather boil down to what we mean by overlooked. Or actually what the OP meant. But you seriously think it is better than Revolver? Nothing wrong with that of course. Rubber Soul is a fine album by any standards.Smile
 
 
Well, who's to say what *is* better.  But I like it better than Revolver.  Then again, I like Let it Be WAY more than Abbey Road, so most Beatles fans will find me certifiable anyway.   Let it Be is soulful, real, gritty, nearly every song grabs me.  Abbey is over-crafted fluff, much of it. 
 
So yeah, my views on the Beatles are not popularLOL
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Negoba Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 08:19
From my review:
 
This may be the best album ever made. The Beatles, that almost unholy convergence of talent and good luck, were just starting to grow up. Their pop craft was at its sharpest and if I were to pick one album as a textbook for songwriting, this is the one. Melody, harmony, economy, rhythm, all the basics are so perfectly in evidence here that despite hour after hour of study, I still learn every time I return to these songs.  


Edited by Negoba - January 19 2012 at 08:20
Current Listening:

Heater valve kicking on.
Snotty noses being blown.
Griping.
Maybe cookies coming out of the oven???

C is for cookie, and it is good enough for me.

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Post Options Post Options   Quote Ludjak Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 19 2012 at 09:39
Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's... have always seemed like sort of a trilogy to me, progressing from the songbook format to more elaborate efforts (with the final two albums + the ill-fated Let It Be showing a mature group with a focus that has never been seen before or since). Having said that, Rubber Soul is undoubtedly the best songbook The Beatles made, and I prefer it to Revolver by a hair (i.e. that awesomely fuzzy bass in 'Think for Yourself' Cool).
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