BeatlesTube

1. Drive My Car (Lennon/McCartney)
2. Norwegian Wood (Lennon/McCartney)
3. You Won’t See Me (Lennon/McCartney)
4. Nowhere Man (Lennon/McCartney)
5. Think For Yourself (Harrison)
6. The Word (Lennon/McCartney)
7. Michelle (Lennon/McCartney)
8. What Goes On (Lennon/McCartney/Starkey)
9. Girl (Lennon/McCartney)
10. I’m Looking Through You (Lennon/McCartney)
11. In My Life (Lennon/McCartney)
12. Wait (Lennon/McCartney)
13. If I Needed Someone (Harrison)
14. Run For Your Life (Lennon/McCartney)

Released in December 1965, and produced by George Martin, Rubber Soul was recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market. Showcasing a sound influenced by the folk rock of The Byrds and Bob Dylan, the album was seen as a major artistic achievement for the band, attaining widespread critical and commercial success, with reviewers taking note of The Beatles’ developing musical vision.

McCartney claims to have conceived the album’s title after overhearing a black musician’s description of Mick Jagger’s singing style as "plastic soul". Lennon confirmed this in a 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, stating, "That was Paul’s title… meaning English soul. Just a pun." McCartney said a similar phrase, "Plastic soul, man. Plastic soul…", at the end of "I’m Down" take 1, on Anthology 2.

Music

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)," Greek-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 break of "In My Life".
Musically, the Beatles broadened their sound, most notably with influences drawn from the contemporary folk-rock of the Byrds and Bob Dylan.

The album also saw the Beatles broadening rock n’ roll’s instrumental resources, most notably on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Although both the Yardbirds and the Kinks had used Indian influences in their music, this track is generally credited as being the first pop recording to use an actual sitar, an Indian stringed instrument, and "Norwegian Wood" sparked a musical craze for the sound of the novel instrument in the mid-1960s. 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 recently been introduced to Indian classical music and the sitar by David Crosby of the Byrds. Harrison soon became fanatically interested in the genre and began taking sitar lessons from renowned Indian sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar. 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 Ringo’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. Other production innovations included the use of electronic sound processing on many instruments, notably the heavily compressed and equalised piano sound on John Lennon’s "The Word"; this distinctive effect soon became extremely popular in the genre of psychedelic music.

Also on Rubber Soul, the Beatles were seen heading into psychedelic rock. They introduced a genuine sitar on "Norwegian Wood," and on the "The Word," they voiced the drug-influenced peace-and-love sentiments that would color many psychedelic lyrics. 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.

Lyrics

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. 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 poetically ambiguous extramarital affair between the singer and a mysterious girl. "Drive My Car" serves as a satirical piece of sexism. 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 (arguable because the song "Help!", released earlier in 1965, also appears not to be specifically about a boy-girl relationship—the song takes the form of a general cry for "help" from the singer to another person, whose relationship to the singer remains unspecified. Even the line "now I find I need you like I’ve never done before", could be addressed to any close friend of the singer, not necessarily a romantic partner).

[From Wikipedia - Original page is here]