Maps of Music

Rubber Soul (1965)

Where the lyrics of Rubber Soul take you, and where it was really made.

The studio where Rubber Soul was recorded in 1965 is now known as Abbey Road Studios, and the album's title began as a joke about the band's own lack of soul authenticity.

Key places

Recording began at EMI Studios (1965)

Recording site Abbey Road Studios — Recording for the album began on 12 October 1965 at EMI Studios, which is now Abbey Road Studios in London. Final production and mix down took place on 15 November. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: Jubilee line to St John's Wood station, then about a 5-minute walk.

Album story

Overview

• Rubber Soul: the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles
• Released 3 December 1965 in the UK on EMI's Parlophone label
• Issued with the non-album double A-side single "We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper"
• The original North American release by Capitol Records contained ten of the fourteen songs
• Title derives from the colloquialism "plastic soul", a nod to the band's lack of authenticity next to African-American soul artists
• After A Hard Day's Night (1964), the second Beatles LP to contain only original material

Background

• Most songs were written soon after the band returned to London from their August 1965 North American tour
• The tour included a Shea Stadium show with more than 55,000 people, plus meetings with Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley
• Inspired by soul acts on Motown and Stax and by the contemporary folk rock of Dylan and the Byrds
• Ringo Starr called it the Beatles' departure record, made while the band was expanding in all areas of their lives
• John Lennon's songwriting matured, encouraged by Dylan's example to address wider issues
• George Harrison's outlook was changed by his experiences with LSD
• Lennon called it the pot album; Mark Prendergast called it the first Beatles record noticeably influenced by drugs

Recording

• Recording began on 12 October 1965 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London
• Final production and mix down took place on 15 November 1965
• For the first time in their career, the band could record an album free of concert, radio or film commitments
• The sessions lasted thirteen days and totalled 113 hours, with a further seventeen hours for mixing
• Harrison played a sitar on "Norwegian Wood"; McCartney played fuzz bass on "Think for Yourself"
• George Martin recorded the piano solo on "In My Life" at half-speed to create a harpsichord-like sound

Cover

• The cover photo was taken by Robert Freeman in the garden at Lennon's house
• The stretched image effect happened by accident when the projection board fell slightly backwards
• The distinctive lettering was created by illustrator Charles Front

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960
• Grew out of Lennon's earlier band the Quarrymen
• Built its reputation playing clubs in Liverpool and Hamburg
• Starr officially joined in 1962

Members

• John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr

Career

• Manager Brian Epstein shaped them into a professional act
• Producer George Martin developed their recordings after they signed with EMI
• First hit Love Me Do came in late 1962
• By early 1964 they were international stars
• Part of the British Invasion of the US pop market
• Retired from live performance in 1966
• Turned to more sophisticated studio albums: Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album and Abbey Road
• Founded Apple Corps in 1968
• Broke up in 1970

Around this album

• Abbey Road was the last album the group recorded together
• On 20 September 1969, six days before release, Lennon told McCartney, Starr and manager Allen Klein that he wanted a divorce from the group
• No public announcement of the split came until McCartney announced he was leaving in April 1970

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critical response was highly favourable
• NME's Allen Evans described it as a fine piece of recording artistry and adventure in group sound
• Newsweek praised the band as the Bards of Pop, citing the album's mix of gospel, country, baroque counterpoint and French popular ballads
• Ralph J. Gleason of the San Francisco Chronicle called it one of the most universally appealing albums ever issued
• Melody Maker found the new sound a little subdued and some tracks almost monotonous
• Record Mirror's Richard Green argued that most of the album would not be worthy of release if recorded by anyone but the Beatles

Reappraisal

• Greil Marcus described it as the best of all the band's LPs
• Bob Stanley called it a good 18 months ahead of its time and the first album of the rock era that sounded like an album
• Jon Friedman of Esquire found the work vastly overrated and dismissed it as dull
• Chris Ingham of Rough Guides called it the pre-acid, pre-antagonism masterpiece
• Pitchfork ranked it number 46 on its 200 Best Albums of the 1960s list in 2017

Records

• Third highest-selling album in the UK in 1965 and in 1966
• Topped the Billboard Top LPs chart on 8 January 1966, with 1.2 million US copies sold within nine days of release
• Number 1 for six weeks in the US in total
• Number 1 for eight weeks on the UK chart; held the top spot on the Melody Maker chart for thirteen weeks
• Certified 6x platinum by the RIAA in 1997
• Certified platinum by the BPI in 2013 for UK sales since 1994
• Ranked fifth on Rolling Stone's 2012 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
• Ranked number 34 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000
• Inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2000

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Rubber Soul was the group's first album not to feature their name on the cover, reflecting the control they had over their releases and their international fame.
• The title came from McCartney, who said he conceived it after overhearing an American musician describe Mick Jagger's singing style as plastic soul.
• Harrison first used a Fender Stratocaster on the album, including his lead guitar part on "Nowhere Man".
• Rubber Soul was the fourth highest-selling album in the US in 1966, according to Billboard.
• The album's success surprised the UK music industry, which had hoped to re-establish the LP market for adult record buyers.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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