Which is partly why I’ve suddenly joined the stubborn minority flank of fans that has always thought of “Rubber Soul” as the best all-around effort. That could change in 15 minutes, naturally, because it happens to be The One I’m Listening To Right Now — in its very expanded form as “Rubber Soul: Special Edition Super Deluxe,” a five-LP or four-CD set that finally reached the world Friday after many years of fans’ wishing and hoping. Or it might be 15 months before I switch sides on this one and go back to the White Album. Because there’s something about “Rubber Soul” in all of its released forms, including the substantially different original U.K. and U.S. versions, that makes for the Fabs’ most consistent listening experience.
It provided — provides — a different kind of joy than the kind of whiplash that the world would get when the screaming guitar of “Taxman” gave way to borrowing the “Psycho” strings to mourn all the lonely people, and other hilariously sharp juxtapositions on “Revolver” going forward. “Rubber Soul,” in contrast, catches the Beatles constantly at the glorious nexus of rocking and mature. (Or folk-rocking, but the force of the electric guitar remains strong.) It’s kind of the last bastion of Carl Perkins’ influence being stronger than the pot’s, but with the looming spectres of Dylan, the Byrds and Simon & Garfunel getting also getting their licks in before the psychedelia, orchestration and music-hall homages seriously creep in.
And it’s the sound of the Beatles almost accidentally catching lightning in a bottle, before they more deliberately put their kites way, way up in the air for just about everything that followed. There’s a shorter way to describe it: perfect.
The boxed set has four distinct components, each of them incredibly necessary, whether new or old: the requisite fresh stereo remix of the U.K. album from Giles Martin and Sam Okell; a collection of studio outtakes; the U.K. track list in mono, revisited; and the American version in stereo. So, in order not just of appearance, but of what you need:
The most fun outtakes might be the early tries we hear of “Day Tripper” (which was never on any version of “Rubber Soul,” but on a single as part of the same era). There’s a kind of hootenanny-style recording, before the signature riff was composed, and then, once things get electric, we get delightful outtake arrangements where they tried ramping up the intensity in certain parts of the song… plus lots and lots more of the Ringo fills you know and love. And a version of “I’m Looking Through You” that goes on for about 45 seconds longer than the release version, so Beatles fans can hear more of a fairly rare example of Paul being a little mean. Part of the reason “I’m Looking Through You” runs longer in the outtake is because the parts of the song where it wants to turn into a rave-up go on for a few bars longer each time, as if they really wanted to work in a little more of the “soul” sound promised in the title. With “Norwegian Wood,” there’s a progression of different degrees of use of the sitar sound, from a take that has too much of George Harrison‘s use of the exotic instrument — it sounds like it’s about to turn right into “Within You Without You” — to a version with none at all, before they settle on a mixture that’s just right.
