Title: Rubber Soul
Artist: The Beatles
Label:
UK: Parlophone/EMI
US: Capitol/EMI
Year: 1965
Songs:
UK: Drive My Car/Norweigan Wood (This Bird Has Flown)/You Won't See Me/Nowhere Man/Think For Yourself*/The Word/Michelle/What Goes On**/Girl/I'm Looking Through You/In My Life/Wait/If I Needed Someone*/Run For Your Life
US: I've Just Seen A Face/Norweigan Wood (This Bird Has Flown)/You Won't See Me/Think For Youself*/The Word/Michelle/It's Only Love/Girl/I'm Looking Through You/In My Life/Wait/If I Needed Someone*/Run For Your Life
Written by: John Lennon & Paul McCartney, except *George Harrison and **John Lennon, Paul McCartney & Richard Starkey
Produced by: George Martin
Thoughts: If you call the U.K. version of the album - you know, the one that is what The Beatles and George Martin wanted - a perfect album, you'd be wrong. If you called the US version of the album - you know, the one sequenced by the corporate heads at Capitol - a perfect album, you'd be right. Yes, this is the only move that Capitol made that was right. The American version of Rubber Soul is just so awesome. Great opening to both sides of the record. None of the best songs are taken off because Capitol was rather silly and had an odd way of chosing what tracks to turn into singles. Somehow, they thought Ringo's throwaway "What Goes On" was actually strong enough to render a single release, but that's just because of Ringo's popularity in the States. (Also, Capitol knew how to pander to the Southern US, which is why "Act Naturally" was the b-side to "Yesterday".) The two albums are so different that it does show how just a slight realignment of tracks can throw off the sound of an entire record. The albums share ten songs, most of them practically in the same order, but the US version feels like a folk-rock record, whereas the UK version is an all-out rocker. It just goes to show you how the Beatles really did transcend all types of music.
Rating: 10/10
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