Significations et usages de Rubber_Soul

Rubber Soul
Studio album by The Beatles
Released	3 December 1965
Recorded	17 June & 12 October – 11 November 1965, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Rock, folk rock
Length	35:50
Language	English, French
Label	Parlophone (UK), Capitol (US)
Producer	George Martin
The Beatles chronology
Help! (1965) Rubber Soul (1965) Revolver (1966)
The Beatles American chronology
Help! (1965) Rubber Soul (1965) Yesterday and Today (1966)

	"Michelle"   The Beatles's "Michelle" from Rubber Soul
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Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the English rock group The Beatles, released in December 1965. Produced by George Martin, Rubber Soul had been recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market. Unlike the five albums that preceded it, Rubber Soul was recorded during a specific period, the sessions not dashed off in between either tour dates or during filming projects.^[1] After this, every Beatles album would be made without the need to pay attention to other commitments, except for the production of short promotional films or principal photography and editing to Magical Mystery Tour. The album was described as a major artistic achievement, attaining widespread critical and commercial success, with reviewers taking note of The Beatles' developing musical vision.^[2]

Rubber Soul was successful commercially and critically, and is often cited as one of the greatest albums in music history.^[3][4][5][6] In 2012, Rubber Soul was voted 5th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".^[7]

  Composition

  Music

Virtually all of the songs for this album were composed immediately after the band's return to London following their North American tour.^[8] The Beatles broadened their sound on this album, with influences drawn from soul music and the contemporary folk-rock of Bob Dylan and The Byrds.^[5][9] The album also saw The Beatles expanding rock and roll's instrumental resources, most notably on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" through Harrison's use of the Indian sitar. He had been introduced to it via the instrumental score for their 1965 film Help! Although The Kinks had incorporated droning guitars to mimic the sitar after a visit to India on "See My Friend",^[10] "Norwegian Wood" is generally credited as sparking off a musical craze for the sound of the novel instrument in the mid-1960s—a trend which would later branch out into the raga rock and Indian rock genres.^[11][5] The song is now acknowledged as one of the cornerstones of what is now usually called "world music" and it was a major landmark in the trend towards incorporating non-Western musical influences into Western popular music. Harrison's interest was fuelled by fellow Indian music fan David Crosby of the Byrds, whom Harrison met and befriended in August 1965.^[12] Harrison would eventually be transfixed by all things Indian, taking sitar lessons from renowned Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar.^[13]

French-like guitar lines on "Michelle" and Greek-influenced ones on "Girl," fuzz bass on "Think for Yourself," and a piano made to sound like a baroque harpsichord on the instrumental bridge of "In My Life" added to the exotic brushstrokes to the album.^[14] Starr had frequently augmented Beatles track with standard percussion instruments such as maracas or tambourine, but on the track "I'm Looking Through You" unusually used taps on a matchbook, perhaps influenced by a similar trick as done by Gene Krupa in the 1941 film Ball of Fire.^{[citation needed]}

  Lyrics

Lyrically, the album was a major progression. Though a smattering of earlier Beatles songs had expressed romantic doubt and negativity, the songs on Rubber Soul represented a pronounced development in sophistication, thoughtfulness, and ambiguity.^[14] In particular, the relationships between the sexes moved from simpler boy-girl love songs to more nuanced and negative portrayals. "Norwegian Wood" sketches a failed relationship between the singer and a mysterious girl, where she goes to bed and he sleeps in the bath.^[15] "Drive My Car" serves as a satirical piece of sexism,^[16] and songs like "I'm Looking Through You", "You Won't See Me", and "Girl" express more emotionally complex, bitter and downbeat portrayals of romance. Lennon's "In My Life" depicts nostalgic reverie for younger days, while "Nowhere Man" and "Think for Yourself" explored subject matter that had nothing to do with romance at all.

  Recording

Recording commenced on October 18 with final production and mix down taking place on November 15.^[17] The song "Wait" was dusted off after initially being recorded for but rejected from the album Help!. "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper" were recorded during these sessions, but the band chose to leave them off the album," releasing them instead as their first double A-sided single.

To achieve the mimicry of a harpsichord by the piano on "In My Life," George Martin played the piano with the tape running at half-speed. When played back at normal speed during the mixdown, the sped-up sound gave the illusion of a harpsichord.^[18][19] Processing used included heavily compressed and equalised piano sound on "The Word," an effect soon extremely popular in the genre of psychedelic music.

Until very late in their career, the "primary" version of The Beatles' albums was always the monophonic mix. According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, producer George Martin and the Abbey Road engineers devoted most of their time and attention to the mono mixdowns, and the band were not usually present for the stereo mixing sessions. Even with their landmark Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP, the stereo mixdowns were considered less important than the mono version and were completed in far less time.

While the stereo version of the original release of Rubber Soul was similar to that of their earliest albums, featuring mainly vocals on the right channel and instruments on the left, it was not produced in the same manner. The early albums were recorded on twin-track tape, and they were intended only for production of monaural records, so they kept vocals and instruments separated allowing the two parts to later be mixed in proper proportion. By this time, however, The Beatles were recording on four-track tape, which allowed a stereo master to be produced with vocals in the centre and instruments on both sides, as evidenced in their prior albums Beatles for Sale and Help!. Looking for a way to easily produce a stereo album which sounded good on a monaural record player, Martin mixed down the four-track master tape to stereo with vocals on the right, instruments on the left, and nothing in the middle, even though in "What Goes On", Ringo's vocal is mixed on the left instead of the right, with McCartney's harmony vocal on the right, while on "Think For Yourself" George's double-tracked lead vocal is split between the two channels.

This was the final Beatle album that recording engineer Norman Smith worked on before he was promoted by EMI to record producer.^[20]

  Packaging and artwork

Rubber Soul was the group's first release not to feature their name on the cover, an uncommon tactic in 1965. The 'stretched' effect of the cover photo came about after photographer Bob Freeman had taken some pictures of the group at Lennon's house. Freeman showed the photos by projecting them onto an album-sized piece of cardboard to simulate how they would appear on an album cover. The unusual Rubber Soul album cover came to be when the slide card fell slightly backwards, elongating the projected image of the photograph and stretching it. Excited by the effect, they shouted, "Ah! Can we have that? Can you do it like that?" Freeman said he could.^[21] The distinctive lettering was created by Charles Front, and the original artwork was later auctioned at Bonhams, accompanied by an authenticating letter from Robert Freeman.^[22]

Capitol Records used a different colour saturation for the US version, causing the orange lettering used by Parlophone Records to show up as different colours. On some Capitol LPs, the title looks rich chocolate brown; others, more like gold. On the 1987 compact disc reissue, the letters appear a distinct green, and the 2009 reissue uses the original cover design with the Parlophone Records logo.

McCartney conceived the album's title after overhearing a musician's description of Mick Jagger's singing style as "plastic soul". Lennon confirmed this in a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, stating, "That was Paul's title, meaning English soul. Just a pun."^[23] McCartney uses a similar phrase, "plastic soul, man, plastic soul...," heard at the end of "I'm Down" as released on Anthology 2.

  Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[24]
Blender	[25]
MSN Music	[26]
IGN	(9/10) [27]
Pitchfork Media	(10/10) [28]
Q	[29]
The Telegraph	[30]
Consequence of Sound	[31]

The album was commercially successful, beginning a 42-week run in the British charts on 11 December 1965. On Christmas Day it replaced Help!—The Beatles' previous album—at the top of the charts, a position Rubber Soul held for eight weeks. On 9 May 1987, Rubber Soul returned to the album charts for three weeks,^[32] and ten years later made another comeback to the charts.^[33]

Critical response to the album was also positive. Rolling Stone magazine commented "they achieved a new musical sophistication and a greater thematic depth without sacrificing a whit of pop appeal." Pitchfork Media described the album as "the most important artistic leap in the Beatles' career—the signpost that signaled a shift away from Beatlemania and the heavy demands of teen pop, toward more introspective, adult subject matter". Since 2001, the album has been included in several media-sponsored "best" album lists.^[3][4][5][6] In 2012, Rubber Soul was voted 5th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".^[7]

The US version of the album greatly influenced the Beach Boys. Brian Wilson believed it was the first time in pop music that the focus had shifted from just making popular singles to making an actual album, without the usual filler tracks. He "answered" the album by releasing Pet Sounds in 1966.^[34]

"What Goes On" was the first song which has a Richard Starkey writing credit, as co-composer beside Lennon and McCartney. Lennon later said this was the first album on which The Beatles were in complete creative control during recording, with enough studio time to develop and refine new sound ideas. Exhausted from five years of virtually non-stop touring, recording, and film work, the group subsequently took a three-month break during the first part of 1966 and used this free time exploring new directions that would colour their subsequent musical work. These became immediately apparent in the next (UK) album, Revolver.^[35]

  Compact disc reissues

The album was released on compact disc 30 April 1987, with the 14-song UK track line-up now the international standard. Having been available only as an import in the US in the past, the 14 track UK version of the album was issued on LP and cassette on 21 July 1987. As with the Help! album, Rubber Soul featured a contemporary stereo digital remix of the album prepared by George Martin. Martin expressed concern to EMI over the original 1965 stereo remix, claiming it sounded 'very woolly, and not at all what I thought should be a good issue'. George Martin went back to the original four-tracks tapes and remixed them for stereo.^[36]

Rubber Soul is one of few albums released on the HDCD format with remastering by Fabulous Sound Labs.^[37]

A newly-remastered version of the album, again utilising the 1987 George Martin remix, was released worldwide with the reissue of the entire catalogue on September 9, 2009. The original 1965 stereo and mono mixes were reissued on that date as part of the mono box set.

  Track listing

All songs written and composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney except where noted. 

  American release

Rubber Soul was the eleventh album by the group in the United States, released three days after the British LP by Capitol Records in both the mono and stereo formats. It began its 59 week chart run on Christmas Day, topping the Billboard Album chart for six weeks starting on January 8, 1966. The album sold 1.2 million copies within nine days of its release, and to date has sold over six million copies in America.

The American version differed markedly from its British counterpart. Capitol removed the tracks "Drive My Car," "Nowhere Man," "What Goes On," and "If I Needed Someone," and replaced them with two from the UK Help! album, "I've Just Seen a Face" and "It's Only Love." Through peculiarities of sequencing, by placing the Help! tracks at the beginning of each side, Rubber Soul was deliberately reconfigured to appear a "folk rock" album to angle The Beatles into that emergent lucrative American genre during 1965.^[38]

The stereo mix sent to the US from England has what are commonly called "false starts" at the beginning of "I'm Looking Through You." which are on every American stereo copy of the album from 1965 to 1987 compact discs. The US version of "The Word" is also recognisably different because it has Lennon's double-tracked vocals, an extra falsetto harmony on the left channel during the last two refrains, with some percussion panning to the right and then the left channel during the instrumental break. "Michelle" on the US mono version has louder percussion and the fade-out runs ten seconds longer. The 1965 American stereo mix with added echo and reverb and the original mono mix are available on compact disc as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 box set.

  Track listing

All songs written and composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney except where noted. 

  Personnel

According to Mark Lewisohn,^[39] Ian MacDonald^[40] and The Beatles Anthology.^[41]

• John Lennon — vocals, guitars, electric piano, harmonium, percussion
• Paul McCartney — vocals, bass guitar, guitar, piano, electric piano
• George Harrison — vocals, guitars, sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"
• Ringo Starr — vocals, drums, percussion, Hammond organ on "I'm Looking Through You"

  Additional personnel

• George Martin — producer, mixer, piano on "In My Life", harmonium on "The Word"
• Mal Evans — Hammond organ on "You Won't See Me"
• Norman Smith — engineer, mixer

  Chart positions

  Notes

  References

  External links

• Beatles comments on each song
• Recording data and notes on mono/stereo mixes and remixes
• Discussion of Canadian CD copies that contain original LP mixes