The Beatles' "Rubber Soul" - Putting together the proper tracklist

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by yesstiles, Dec 23, 2017.

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  1. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Before this discussion devolves into the inevitable "US vs UK" debate, my option would be to retain the US tracklisting but replacing "Think For Yourself" and "Wait" with "If I Needed Someone" and "Nowhere Man" and putting "Think For Yourself" and "Wait" on Yesterday And Today:righton:
     
  2. schnitzerphilip

    schnitzerphilip "Modern Dad" Unlocked Award

    Location:
    NJ USA
    You know what, you are absolutely correct. "We Can Work It Out" belongs on the LP. And you know what I realized this morning? So does "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away".

    Now before anyone goes down the blasphemy road, "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" really is the first Rubber Soul track the Beatles recorded, they just didn't realize it at the time. It was recorded in late February 1965 just before they left to make the Help film for 14 days and then took another few weeks off when returning. Only 3 months studio time before they laid down was Paul's "I've Just Seen A Face" which picks up the Dylan vibe John channeled for "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away". So that small of a gap between the recordings works for me as a bridge to Rubber Soul.

    So I'm going to try this for a few days, it's the original US version with the following songs added in the highlighted places:

    1. "I've Just Seen A Face"
    2. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"
    3. "You Won't See Me"
    Nowhere Man
    4. "Think for Yourself"
    5. "The Word"
    You've Got To Hide Your Love Away
    6. "Michelle"

    1. "It's Only Love"
    2. "Girl"
    3. "I'm Looking Through You"
    4. "In My Life"
    We Can Work It Out
    5. "Wait"
    If I Needed Someone
    6. "Run for Your Life"

    The casualties here vs. the UK version are "What Goes On" which is dreadful and destroys the folk vibe, and "Drive My Car" which always felt forced and out of place, it's too poppy for an acoustic masterpiece like this. 'Nowhere Man' sits where it does on the UK version, 'Hide Your Love Away' sits nicely before 'Michelle' and puts 8 tracks on each side, and 'We Can Work It Out' brings life to the dead spot in the original LP in the middle of Side 2.

    So take the US version, add those 4 tracks in those spots, I think we've got a perfect version of Rubber Soul with all the right tracks in the acoustic phase the Beatles found themselves in before/after the Help film.
     
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  3. aphexj

    aphexj Sound mind & body

    Far as I'm concerned, the second side of the EMI Help! album is fair game for plundering. They cut "Bad Boy" and "I'm Down" and "Wait" and "If You Got Trouble" and "That Means a Lot" for those positions and none of them made it, so there's lots to go around — arbitrary or not, they could have chose differently there
     
  4. qm1ceveb

    qm1ceveb Forum fanatic

    Location:
    Fort lauderdale
    Agree. And while it is difficult for Americans to appreciate and adopt the UK track list, it is IMPOSSIBLE for us who grew up with the UK to adopt the US.
     
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  5. bumbletort

    bumbletort Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore, Md, USA
    SIDE 1:
    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. The Word
    7. Michelle

    SIDE 2:
    1. Day Tripper
    2. Girl
    3. I'm Looking Through You
    4. In My Life
    5. We Can Work It Out
    6. If I Needed Someone
    7. Run for Your Life

    I like "Wait" but it belongs with Help where it reinforces what at artistic breakthrough those sessions were.
     
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  6. Bingo Bongo

    Bingo Bongo Music gives me Eargasms

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    Not me
     
  7. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    First Capitol Beatles album to not have a US single on/off it.

    As well as the first Capitol album to consist entirely of original Beatles songs.

    I bet the folks at Capitol were mightily tempted to slap a big 'THE BEATLES' font across the moody cover.
     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2017
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  8. notesfrom

    notesfrom Forum Resident

    Location:
    NC USA
    “’Rubber Soul’ was my favorite album, even at that time. I think that it was the best one we made; we certainly knew we were making a good album. We did spend a bit more time on it and tried new things. But the most important thing about it was that we were suddenly hearing sounds that we weren’t able to hear before. Also, we were being more influenced by other people’s music and everything was blossoming at that time; including us, because we were still growing.” - George Harrison, 1990s
     
  9. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    UK
     
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  10. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    I don’t get why people are so obsessed with including the singles on the albums. One of the strengths of The Beatles’ catalogue is that they had so much quality material they could keep the singles separate instead of releasing albums by installment.
     
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  11. Cronverc

    Cronverc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn,NY
    US cover is better?
    OK, forget the tracklistings let's talk about pure aesthetics.

    US cover: brown letters on dark green background.
    UK and most other countries: orange/red letters on dark green background.
    US cover - crappy as usual paste over with peeling off paint.
    UK and German covers - nice thin laminated covers, no wonder records in Europe costed more than in US back then.
    But hey, I understand that aesthetics are usually subjective.
     
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  12. Cronverc

    Cronverc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn,NY
    Very well said Sir!
     
  13. Man at C&A

    Man at C&A Senior Member

    Location:
    England
    1. Drive My Car
    2. Norwegian Wood
    3. You Won't See Me
    4. Nowhere Man
    5. Think For Yourself
    6. The Word
    7. Michelle

    1. What Goes On
    2. Girl
    3. I'm Looking Through You
    4. In My Life
    5. Wait
    6. If I Needed Someone
    7. Run For Your Life
     
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  14. Mr. Grieves

    Mr. Grieves Forum Resident

    Most of their albums yes, but imo they could have used some singles (or their b-sides or double A-sides) to replace the filler tracks featured on some of their albums to make them even better.

    Like I stated previously though, I'm fine with how it came out. Those albums, w/ or w/o the singles/dream tracklist editing, are the classics without question.
     
  15. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Not everyone agrees on what is filler, though, and in my opinion, Rubber Soul is pretty much perfect as is. I see people saying they’d ditch “Wait” — love that song!
     
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  16. Mr. Grieves

    Mr. Grieves Forum Resident

    Yeah it's all opinion. There's isn't a song I dislike on Rubber Soul
     
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  17. cwitt1980

    cwitt1980 Senior Member

    Location:
    Carbondale, IL USA
    I would just go ahead and put the US version with Yesterday...and Today following it. It should be about 60 minutes of bliss.
     
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  18. muffmasterh

    muffmasterh Forum Resident

    Location:
    East London U.K
    it's fine as it is - the UK version.
     
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  19. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Not always though. "Yellow Submarine" off Revolver. How often did they release a single from an already released album? "Come Together"?
     
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  20. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Might as well throw in the US Revolver for an encore, then...that's usually what I do:righton:
     
  21. Andreas

    Andreas Senior Member

    Location:
    Frankfurt, Germany
    Simple answer: Some albums would have been even stronger if singles were included. And I can see how We Can Work It Out fits on and improves Rubber Soul, e.g. instead of What Goes On.
     
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  22. ralph7109

    ralph7109 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Franklin, TN
    Good Day Sunshine follows Rain....
     
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  23. greenoort

    greenoort Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan
    Honestly, the US tracks like Face and Love are perfect in the track listing. I hate Drive my car and Run for your life, as well as what goes on. some of my least favorite beatles numbers in one album.
     
  24. e.s.

    e.s. Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Stronger according to whom, though? There’s a post after yours with someone decrying the inclusion of “Drive My Car!” There is no consensus on what should be added / subtracted other than the one that matters (John, Paul, George, Ringo, and George) and at this point there’s 50-some years of sales that indicate they knew what they were doing.
     
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  25. abzach

    abzach Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sweden
    Who cares about the american track lists, they're not even real albums. This forum should once and for all get over those commercially, sloppy put together compilations, no one else talkas about them anywhere but here.
     
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