Dusty's Record Review: September '07

Nowhere Man, please listen,
You don't know what you're missing,
Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.



There have probably been more words written about the Beatles, both as a group and individually as artists, than there have been than just about any other musical group. A visit to the local library or a walk through your favorite bookstore will confirm the same. Literally dozens upon dozens of books are on the shelf with more being published almost every month. They are iconic figures in pop culture in general and rock and roll specifically. In the post-Elvis world, they out-Elvised the King himself. They have one of the most impressive catalogues in music, each album a snap shot of the time and the talent that turned the world on its’ ears.

If you look through the catalogue, it’s easy to spot the albums that marked a shift in the bands identity and direction but the first that practically left a trail of dust behind it was Rubber Soul.

Released on the Capitol label on December 3rd, 1965, Rubber Soul was a clear shift for The Beatles from their sugary sweet pop sentiments to a more introspective, dark, dangerous and sexually moody feel that settled into the music from that point forward. After being on a three month hiatus from three years of continual touring and recording, the band was set to enter the studio on October 12th, 1965, a date set by Capitol to ensure that they would have a release in stores for the holiday season, they faced an almost insurmountable task. The only song that they had in reserve at the time was ‘Wait’ which had been written for and eventually discarded from the soundtrack to their movie “Help’. Lennon and McCartney had to come up with a dozen songs in two weeks.

The songs that they wrote, including two from the young George Harrison, ended up becoming a watershed moment for the band. ‘Drive my car’, a tawny and satirical song about reverse sexism opens the album with a memorable guitar riff and an infectious lyrical hook that sounds as clean today as it did on it’s release over forty years ago. ‘Norwegian Wood’ follows with what is considered to be pop music’s introduction into world music with the sitar playing a major role in the piece. Harrison had become enamored with the instrument and began to study under sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar. Lyrically, ‘Norwegian Wood’ was a different direction for Lennon and McCartney as it was a brief vignette of an affair with a married woman. Other more notable tracks on the album include ‘Nowhere Man’ which was the bands first real foray into writing about a subject not involved in a romantic situation. This shows the band was being caught up in the rapid changes that were happening to music, notably to those changes showing up in Dylan, The Byrds and The Kinks.

Many of the other tracks on the album show a more dark and convoluted side of the band; ‘You won’t see me’, ‘Think for yourself’ and ‘Run for your life’ are almost amusingly bitter at times. Although later, Lennon and McCartney carped at each other over the authorship of the a true standout amongst the wonders on ‘Rubber Soul’, ‘In my life’ shows the telltale fingerprints of both of them. Although Lennon supposedly came up with the original tune and idea, by the time McCartney had re-worked the song, he had essentially made it his own.

It wasn’t just the band that seemed to be moving and maturing in their writing and playing but legendary producer, George Martin, was engaged in his own alchemy within the studio. While recording ‘In my life’, the band needed a piano piece to fill 12 bars in the middle of the song. Although Martin was not really a trained pianist, he could come up with a serviceable piano fill when needed. Lennon reportedly said to Martin ‘Play it like Bach’. So Martin came up with a little something ‘baroque-sounding’ however he found it too difficult to play fast. To solve the problem, he lowered the tape speed to half and then sped it up to regular speed during the playback. The result was the sound of an Elizabethan harpsichord in the middle of one of the most popular Beatles song courtesy of George Martin. Other innovations at the hands of George Martin and the genius engineers at Abbey Road studios was inserting newspaper through the strings on his piano ‘just to make it sound different’. He also wrote the middle figure to ‘Michelle’, bouncing it off of duet he played with Lennon against the solo expertly played by Harrison. Martin is quoted as saying these little innovations were “just manipulations of the resources we had at the time’, although most music fans will agree, between the four Beatles and the genius of George Martin, it was magic.

To the press, McCartney explained that ‘Rubber Soul’ would be different than anything the band had put out previously by saying “You can’t be singing 15 year old songs at 20 because you don’t think 15 year old thoughts at 20”. ‘Rubber Soul’ clearly explained this quote on its release and it marked the new direction the band was to take for the remainder of their careers. The inventiveness, the wry humor and their willingness to tackle more mature, some times political, subject matter that was to become their core as the band continued to climb to the height of their influence; the same influence that is felt and heard today.

‘Rubber Soul’ was listed as number 5 on Rolling Stone Magazines ‘100 Greatest Albums of All Time’. Listen to this one again and you’ll know why.