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] It was listed as number five on Rolling Stone magazine's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.

Composition[link]

Music[link]

	"Michelle" noicon The Beatles's "Michelle" from Rubber Soul
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According to Richie Unterberger, "The Beatles and George Martin were beginning to expand the conventional instrumental parameters of the rock group, using a sitar on 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)', French-like guitar lines on 'Michelle' and 'Girl', fuzz bass on 'Think for Yourself', and a piano made to sound like a harpsichord on the instrumental bridge of 'In My Life'."^[7]

Musically, The Beatles broadened their sound, most notably with influences drawn from the contemporary folk-rock of Bob Dylan and The Byrds.^[5][8] The album also saw The Beatles broadening rock and roll's instrumental resources, most notably on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Although innovations of the kind had been made before—British rock group The Kinks, after a visit to India, recorded the influential "See My Friend",^[9] which used droning guitars (mimicking the sitar, an Indian stringed instrument) and a circular, hypnotic rhythm—"Norwegian Wood" is generally credited as being the first pop recording to use an actual sitar.^[10] The track sparked 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. George Harrison had been introduced to Indian classical music and the sitar earlier that year while filming Help!. That interest later was fuelled by fellow Indian music fan David Crosby of the Byrds, whom Harrison met and befriended in August 1965.^[12] Harrison soon became fanatically interested in the genre and began taking sitar lessons from renowned Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar.^[13] A broadening use of percussive arrangements, led by Ringo Starr's backbeats and frequently augmented by maracas and tambourine, can also be heard throughout the album, showcased in tracks such as "Wait" and "Think for Yourself". Perhaps Starr's most unusual percussion source on the album, which was revealed by him to Barry Tashian of the Remains in the book Ticket To Ride, is created by his tapping a pack of matches with his finger. This "tapping" sound can be heard in the background of "I'm Looking Through You".

Recording innovations were also made during the recording of the album—for instance, the keyboard solo in "In My Life" sounds like a harpsichord, but was actually played on a piano. George Martin found he could not match the tempo of the song while playing in this baroque style, so he tried recording 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.^[14][15] Other production innovations included the use of electronic sound processing on many instruments, notably the heavily compressed and equalised piano sound on "The Word"; this distinctive effect soon became extremely popular in the genre of psychedelic music.

As well as the sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and electronic innovations on "The Word", they voiced the drug-influenced peace-and-love sentiments that would colour many psychedelic lyrics.^[16]

The song "Wait" was initially recorded for, and then left off, the album Help!. The reason the song was released on Rubber Soul was that the album was one song short, and with the Christmas deadline looming, The Beatles chose to release "Wait" instead of recording a new composition.

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.

Lyrics[link]

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.^[7] In particular, the relationships between the sexes moved from simpler boy-girl love songs to more nuanced, even negative portrayals. "Norwegian Wood", one of the most famous examples and often cited as The Beatles' first conscious assimilation of the lyrical innovations of Bob Dylan, sketches a failed relationship between the singer and a mysterious girl, where she goes to bed and he sleeps in the bath.^[17] "Drive My Car" serves as a satirical piece of sexism.^[18] Songs like "I'm Looking Through You", "You Won't See Me", and "Girl" express more emotionally complex, even bitter and downbeat portrayals of romance, and "Nowhere Man" was arguably the first Beatles song to move beyond a romantic subject.

Recording[link]

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!. But Martin was looking for a way to easily produce a stereo album which sounded good on a monaural record player. In what he admits was some experimentation, he 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.

"What Goes On" was the first song which has Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) as co-composer beside Lennon–McCartney. The end of the song is different on the mono and stereo versions.

After completing the album and the accompanying single "We Can Work It Out" and "Day Tripper", The Beatles were exhausted from years of virtually non-stop touring, recording, and film work. They 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.^[19]

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

Instruments[link]

By late 1965, The Beatles were beginning to expand the range of instruments used in their recordings. Photographs of the sessions reveal many different guitars and keyboards:

Lennon

• 1964 Rickenbacker 325^[21] in Black finish (given to Lennon by Rickenbacker at the Deauville Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida on 14 February 1964)^[22]
• 1965 Spanish guitar^[21] (handmade and presented by its maker to Lennon in Madrid on 2 July 1965)^[23]
• 1964 Gibson J-160E^[21] sunburst finish acoustic-electric guitar (purchased during the September 1964 US tour.^[24] Modified for the 'Rubber Soul' sessions by moving the pick-up to the bridge side of the sound hole^[25])
• Fender Stratocaster^[21] in Sonic Blue finish (purchased by Mal Evans during the making of the 'Help!' album)^[26]
• 1965 Framus Hootenany^[21] 5/024 acoustic 12 string guitar^[27]