Why Isn't ' Rubber Soul ' Our Favourite Beatles Album ?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Wildest cat from montana, Jan 13, 2021.

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  1. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    I like it. It's in my top 3 or 4 Beatle albums. Could float to the top at times. Like it way better than that Abbey Road garbage. :D
     
  2. Crimson Witch

    Crimson Witch Roll across the floor thru the hole & out the door

    Location:
    Lower Michigan
    can't say other than too few of the songs here stand up strong alongside the best moments on A Hard Day's Night, Beatles for Sale , and Help!

    There are the top-shelf tracks which do equal or surpass the best gems of those 3 previous lps :

    Drive My Car
    Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
    Nowhere Man
    Think for Yourself
    In My Life

    But then,

    You Won't See Me :
    hobbled by an arrangement that creates the illusion of a rub in the beat, making it seem to drag.

    The Word :
    A track I could easily love were it not for the "Dosey-Doe" piano-chord rhythm which gives it a vaguely corny aspect.

    Michelle :
    Here's Paul again, his chim-chiminey,
    lawn chair serenade sung in dopey French soliloquy, better suited to a Wings album.

    'Girl' :
    is John's answer, which stultifies for the same reasons.


    What Goes On :
    .. the very question I'm asking here ..


    I'm Looking Through You :
    just okay - not bad, not great.
    the cheesy Farfisa sort of cheapens it for me

    Wait :
    again, just okay if somewhat mediocre

    Run for Your Life :
    another mediocre effort



    I guess the lp is held back as an overrated work, the great songs are great and deliver the leap forward that the album itself is hailed as, whereas the rest just don't quite live up to that reputation.

    YMMV
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2021
  3. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    I first heard the US version when it was their latest and it totally blew me away. It was certainly their best up until that time. I still prefer the US version to the UK version. I find it more consistent with a more cohesive folk rock mood and texture. "Drive My Car" and "What Goes On" may provide contrast but IMO, they clash with it, and "What Goes On" is slightly on the substandard side whereas the US version is all killer-no filler (the first Beatles album I can say that about).
    As for your other points, I don't think Paul's songs have to take a back seat to John's. "Michelle", "You Won't See Me", "I'm Looking Through You", and "I've Just Seen a Face" (US version) are superb, and I have always preferred "Think For Yourself" to "If I Needed Someone." It has inventive and unexpected chord progressions, Paul's fuzz bass is killer, and how many rock songs contain the word "Rectify?"
    As for it being the best, I can only call it one of the best. It's just as good, but not better than the groundbreaking Revolver.
     
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  4. bhazen

    bhazen I Am The Walrus

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    It's a ***** Beatles album. But so are most of the others!

    Hey, if it's your favourite Beatles disc -- why give a poo what the rest of the Beatleverse thinks?
     
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  5. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader Thread Starter

    Location:
    ontario canada
    There's a U.S. version ?



    Oh ! You mean that misguided attempt at trying to make it some kinda folk-rock thing or whatever the story was.
     
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  6. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    No album is "really" better than another. But some albums hit us individually where we live more than others, or offer something aesthetically or emotionally that we respond to in a way that we don't with others. When I was 15, I would have picked Rubber Soul as a favorite Beatles album, when I was a bit of a wild child in college I might have chosen the trippier and more sonically expansive and emotionally diverse Revolver. Now, for me, the darker (but also light in places), fractured, anti-masterpiece po-mo individualism of white album is pretty much the only Beatles album I ever find myself going back to listen to, an then only once every couple of years. I could parse the things about each album I found more attractive than the other at different times of my life, but that wouldn't "really" make one album better than another. They do have different characteristics though, so I could see how one might appeal to someone in a way that another doesn't.
     
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  7. AnalogJ

    AnalogJ Hearing In Stereo Since 1959

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Who says that it isn't at or near the top of the list? Is your determination more anecdotal? Most people I talk to mention Rubber Soul and Revolver as The Beatles' two best albums. They're mine. Their originality and creativity on those two albums are astonishing, especially for their time.
     
  8. Alex D.

    Alex D. Forum Resident

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    It seems like their best regarded album keeps changing to an earlier one. When I was a kid in the 90s, it was Sgt. Pepper’s. It’s been Revolver for a while now. Rubber Soul will soon be regarded as their best. Eventually, A Hard Day’s Night may be regarded as best. I can’t see that happening for the other early albums though.
     
  9. PNeski@aol.com

    [email protected] Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    The White Album is the clear winner if you add Hey Jude,I do love Nowhere man
     
  10. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader Thread Starter

    Location:
    ontario canada
    Saw some clip where various musicians were asked what their favourite Beatles song was . Dozens were named. ' Penny Lane' got a lot of mentions but Brian Wilson picked ' Across The Universe '.
     
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  11. Too many filler and grandma-friendly songs.
     
  12. finslaw

    finslaw muzak to my ears

    Location:
    Indiana
    I can think of a Grandma song (usually by Paul) on each subsequent album, but not this one.
     
  13. Pseudonym

    Pseudonym Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit, MI
    It's worse than Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles, and Abbey Road.
     
  14. Bradd

    Bradd Now’s The Time

    Location:
    Chester, NJ
    Always been one of my favorites along with Revolver. It’s a transitional album but nonetheless very good.
     
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  15. joy stinson

    joy stinson Secret friend

    Location:
    Dickson. Tn
    Ah, Paul’s great older traditional music hall style various genre style granny songs that expanded the later Beatles genres and made them be considered the most progressive group then. Where would late sixties pop rock and the Beatles be without Paul’s granny songs? Where rubber soul is...an imitation of Dylan and California folk style songs with one Paul ethnic genre style French single, Michelle. Rubber soul was brit Dylan and California folk derivative but very good. I still laugh at a YouTube commenter writhing that Michelle messed up the Beatles RAWK as if they hadn’t written many ballads before Michelle, lol.
     
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  16. joy stinson

    joy stinson Secret friend

    Location:
    Dickson. Tn
    It was mid Beatles folk style.
     
  17. joy stinson

    joy stinson Secret friend

    Location:
    Dickson. Tn
    It sold. It’s the Beatles. Shut up. Paul McCartney ..lol.
     
  18. Kerm

    Kerm Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Because if I’m judging records as a whole, the finale is wildly important to me and “Tomorrow Never Knows” is as good as it gets and “Run For Your Life” is goofy and lame.
     
  19. Bhobb

    Bhobb Crate Digger

    I'm with Greil Marcus in that it's their best album. Not my favourite, however.
     
  20. bhazen

    bhazen I Am The Walrus

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    "Run For Your Life", by Beatles standards, is pretty mediocre. Not to mention shockingly misogynistic. I'm sure Lennon dismissed it later in an interview as "just a bit of slag". The one real blot on an otherwise typical Fab masterpiece.
     
  21. Stephen J

    Stephen J Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    I think Rubber Soul is a lot of Beatles' fan's favorite album. It's my second favorite, after Revolver.
     
  22. JuanTCB

    JuanTCB Senior Member

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
    UK tracklist, mono is definitely my numero uno.
     
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  23. adm62

    adm62 Senior Member

    Location:
    Ottawa, Canada
    What Goes On
     
  24. Celebrated Summer

    Celebrated Summer Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Because people on this forum are old.

    Rubber Soul is a young person's album because it's first and foremost about emotions, some of which we don't like to admit to having.

    When you grow older, you get less emotional and more caught up in things like technical details. So we're now more inclined to discuss the intellectualism of Revolver or the tech prowess of Pepper.

    But if we were all still in our teens or twenties, this album would feel like a raw nerve.
     
  25. Wildest cat from montana

    Wildest cat from montana Humble Reader Thread Starter

    Location:
    ontario canada
    Totally mystified why ' In My Life' didn't end the album. It's an obvious and natural closer.
     
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