#0055: The Beatles - Rubber Soul [*****]

There has to be a list of Best or Most Iconic opening bars of an album somewhere.  If there isn't, we should start one and this should be on it.  Not at number one.  A Hard Day's Night would obviously be ahead of this but I do listen to those first few notes of Drive My Car and think, "Yeah, I'm alright for the next 35 minutes."  There are other albums that produce the same thought albeit with different running times.  You've got yours too.  You feel alright cuz you know there won't be a single track you feel like skipping over.  

In the old days, we'd just zone out if one of the songs was a bit shit.  We'd become more involved in the conversation or go and make a cup of tea, have a piss, smoke a fag - something to take up the time while the crap song finished cuz the album was on tape and you knew better than to try to fast forward.  You don't wanna break the continuity.  

I first discovered Rubber Soul in...I wanna say 1987.  It was the same year Sgt Pepper Knew My Father came out.  Remember that?  The 20th Anniversary of Sgt Pepper saw the collaboration of artists to recreate the album.  The original album I think was remastered on CD at the same time.  My brother bought it.  But when he got it home, even though the CD was printed with the Sgt Pepper title and the Sgt Pepper track list, the album on that CD was Rubber Soul.

I had no idea of course, I'd never heard either one.  My intention was to listen to the original album so that I would know whether Billy Bragg's version of She's Leaving Home was worth all the fuss they were making over it.  So I did.  Got right into it too.  My brother came into my room one day while I was singing along to Drive My Car and instead of berating me for nicking his CDs he went "yeah, great album Rubber Soul".  

"No, no", I corrected him loftily, "this is Sgt Pepper.  I can't believe you've got two copies of this CD and you don't know how it goes?"

My brother chose that moment to reveal his ruse.  

"Yeah.  I had to buy another copy cuz the first one had Rubber Soul on it."  

"Wha'?", I intelligently enquired.

I can't recount what he actually said next.  It was over 25 years ago and he does have a tendency to over egg the pudding with his yarns does my brother.

Apparently, he'd got the CD home, played it, realised the mistake and thought, "Fuck it", and then simply bought another one.  His thinking was, "I like Rubber Soul and you never know, it might be worth something in a few years."  

And indeed today, that CD is worth approximately fuck all.

I've no idea what a mis-burnt copy of Sgt Pepper is worth in mint condition but the one I found down the back of my brother's sofa in 1998 was barely passable as the thing that stopped all the loose change going down inside the frame.

Nowhere Man I think was the first song I ever knew off this album.  It was included in that Stars On 45 medley I mentioned on Hard Day's Night.  I wouldn't say that I was a loner through school but I certainly felt alone a lot of the time.  But I didn't realise that until I heard this song and I figured they were singing about me.  

Really?  You sure you weren't just an adolescent narcissist who thought _every_ song was about you?

I dunno.  Maybe.  Who cares - it was 30 odd years ago.  What matters is that I'm now a middle aged narcissist who _knows_ every song is about me.

Clearly, I can't write a bit about every song or we'd be here all day so I'll just mention two more and if I skipped your particular favourite then please be assured that I love it only marginally less than you do.

Girl - who would've thought of recording a man taking a breath in harshly over his teeth?  It expresses the mixed feelings of the song with unbeatable brevity.  

And then there's Michelle.

Michelle captures the story of a man falling in love across a language barrier and has so much character.  Its simplicity elegantly camouflages its musical complexity.  The word genius is often used with regards the Beatles but in my view this tune is one of the cases it is truly warranted.

I wouldn't put it at #5 of my all time list as Rolling Stone did but still a wonderful album that I love very much.