The Beatles - Rubber Soul (CD 1988)

I love the Beatles and fancied buying the c.d version,i have all the Beatles on vinyl so dont want to spend lots of money buying them again...so cheap 2nd hand c.ds are a great buy on E-Bay..

This was bought to replace my old vinyl album of the same title. This is one of my favorite Beatles albums

Decided to buy it because I used to have this on vinyl years ago. Nostalgia!! Brings back some great memories. Really pleased to have it on CD now and it sounds just as good, if not better, now as it did then.

As the cacophonous crescendo of Beatlemania continued to rise, ’65 was a busy year for the lads: World tours, the film “Help”, its accompanying album, a shed-load of singles… and it was still only September. EMI wanted another album for the Christmas market (how times change – these days, with5 albums behind them, they’d have 2 Greatest Hits packages out by now!), so they squeezed in some studio time, odd days here and there totalling about 4 weeks, to work on the ideas that where filling their heads. What they produced was the first major shift away from the lovable Moptop image in what was to become a neck-snapping gallop of quantum leaps that helped shape the musical map of the Sixties, drawing up the blueprints for Rock music as we know it.
Now, that’s not to say it was all their innovation, as some folk would have you believe. Sure, “Rubber Soul” was hugely influential on both sides of the Atlantic, but it was arguably their most eclectically “influenced” album to date. And the catalyst for all this? Two legends that rose from the ashes of American music in the wake of the British Invasion, to scale the dizzy heights of Rock & Roll Cool and achieve true deity status: Bob Dylan and The Byrds.
Dylan's influence is all over the album, particularly in Lennon's songs, not to mention the band's shift in drug use. After years of reckless amphetamine abuse, caning the weed was now the order of the day. After chilling out with The Byrds, as their trans-Atlantic paths crossed, the message was reinforced even further. Lennon’s metamorphosis into “serious songwriter” had been hinted at in “Help” (an odd message for a pop star with the world at his feet), but now it was in full flight. After Macca’s raucous opener, “Norwegian Wood” was a dark, subtle vignette that is ironic and self-deprecating in a way that had not been previously explored. Based on Lennon’s experience in girl’s flats in Swinging London, it was also one of the first pop song to feature a sitar, George’s new infatuation, which he picked up on the set of “Help!” and had been shown by The Byrds’ David Crosby. Harrison was, of course, to become immersed in all things Indian. Fair play to the lad, the closest most of us ever get to embracing the Indian culture is having a cold Cobra with our madras. “Nowhere Man” may have a sugary melody, but you don’t need to scratch too deep beneath the icing to reveal the soft, white underbelly of world-weary bitterness and rumbling paranoia. Nice and jangly, mind. Elsewhere, Macca serves up his usual blend of Tin Pan Alley songsmithery and the odd perfect pop nugget (“Michelle”), but even he puts a more downbeat , complex twist on things on “I’m looking through you”. Track 11, though, is one of those stand-out Beatles tracks – “In My Life”. Written by Lennon as a reflection on his childhood (a vain he mined further in “Strawberry Fields” and Macca in “Penny Lane”), he could also have, chillingly, written it as his own epitaph. I always remember the song being played in full over the closing credits of “Not The 9 O’ Clock News”, on the show that aired in the week of his death in 1980. It was also played at the memorial for Kurt Cobain. The Byrds influence is most obvious on George's "If I Needed Someone", a track that could easily have found a home on "Turn, Turn, Turn" - supremely janglesome!
So there you have it: one of the finest Beatles albums, a piece of Rock history, the precursor to "Revolver" and the end of the begining...

Other than the Beatles double white album this is the most representative of the Fabs as an actual band.Most of the tracks are good, the rest simply brilliant.(Norwegian Wood,Girl,Nowhere man,Michelle and Drive my car)It is mercifully short (47 mins) and all the numbers get to their point in the quickest time allowed.George Harrison gets his customary 2 tracks (Think for yourself and If I needed someone)In short its possibly their best and I've been after it for ages.Once I saw it at the right price (on ebay)I had to strike and I'm pleased I did.

exellent album songs and presentation is brilliant words and music are fantastic a must for avery beatles fan

I already have this cd but had lent it out. I decided to buy it again for a great price. I would recomend anybody to buy it, it's a great cd.

The Beatles are perhaps the greatest popular musicians of all time, and when you listen to this album you will understand why. Worth it for In My Life and Drive My Car - amazing Tracks (but many many more great songs). Incredible Stuff. Guaranteed something for everyone.
It is commonly agreed that this album signifys when the beatles started to find their real song writing abilities.
Everything from the Sleeve to the music is Legendary - Plus in HMV/Virgin these beatles albums are always around 12-15 so grab yourself a bargain.

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Brought this CD as I decided although I have all the Beatles records on vynil I would collect them all on CD as well.
Rubber Soul is the first Beatles LP that highlighted their experimental moves towards using more and varied imstruments and double tracking that was refined in their follow up LP Revolver, that in my opinion was their finest LP.
Given that Rubber Soul was released in 1965 it still in my opinion stands the test of time as all the Beatles records do.

If you only half like them, I dont think you can go wrong in having Rubber Soul. This is Beatles at the best.

I have always loved listening to the the beatles,and I never bought this one when it was first released.I have no dislikes about it at all.

What more can be said about this album? I'm replacing my worn out LPs and letting my kids hear what quality music is all about - they are responding positively!

Great cd in excellent condition - shame about the case! Someone out there has a shed-load of dodgy cd cases and it seems that I always get them sent to me.

Track listing
1. Drive My Car
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. Word
7. Michelle
8. What Goes On
9. Girl
10. I'm Looking Through You
11. In My Life
12. Wait
13. If I Needed Someone
14. Run For Your Life


Details
Number of CDs: 1
Producer: George Martin
Recording type: Studio
Distributor: EMI
Recording mode: Stereo
SPAR Code: ADD


Album notes
The Beatles: George Harrison (vocals, guitar, sitar); John Lennon (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Paul McCartney (vocals, guitar, piano, bass); Ringo Starr (vocals, organ, drums).Additional personnel: George Martin (piano); Mal Evans (organ).Though some might argue that the Beatles' unprecedented evolution from British Invasion pin-ups to pop music visionaries began with BEATLES FOR SALE, RUBBER SOUL is without a doubt the first album to definitively put the Fab Four in the running for Greatest Band Ever. Virtually every aspect of the Liverpool quartet's incredibly diverse sound is in evidence here: the dark, irony-filled Dylanism ("Norwegian Wood," "Nowhere Man"), pop perfection ("In My Life"), the passion for classic tin pan alley balladry ("Girl," "Michelle"), and the love of good 'ol rock & roll music ("Drive My Car"). Peppered with nasty fuzz bass, exotic sitar, cartoonishly sped-up piano that sounds like harpsichord, and elements of country, Motown, and classical music, the album reveals a creative scope and willingness to experiment so revolutionary it can now only be termed "Beatlesque." Though the Fabs don't go as far out on a limb here as on the more overtly experimental REVOLVER, RUBBER SOUL is perhaps the Beatles' most finely crafted and accessible work, and consequently many fans' and critics' favorite.