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In which the 1960s’ doors of perception cracked open. Rubber Soul, The Beatles’ sixth album, is where their fascinations with American folk and soul fused with their own barrelling beat-pop momentum to create a pivotal Sixties artefact: the pop album as complete artistic statement, and the first buddings of UK psychedelia.
In the twangling sitar of Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), the Grecian textures of Girl, the baroque effects of In My Life (Lennon’s self-proclaimed “first major work”) and the Byrdsy drug fun of The Word and If I Needed Someone, The Beatles took their boldest steps into revolutionary pop experiment, and nothing – music, art, fashion, your mum’s body count – would ever be the same again.
The album itself, be it in the mono, stereo or Dolby Atmos mixes included in the various formats of this Special Edition of up to five LPs or four CDs, repels criticism by this point. It’s a masterwork; argue among yourselves over this or Revolver. But the expanded release has other treats to recommend it.
The inclusion of a seven-inch of Day Tripper /We Can Work It Out is a nifty gimmick smacking of period authenticity, and the decidedly folk-rock Capitol Records US version that ditches some of the more intriguing tracks (Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, If I Needed Someone) in favour of a couple of songs left off the US version of Help! evinces how far American fans were behind The Beatles’ evolution as 1966 dawned.
It’s the discs of unreleased demos, instrumentals and alternative session takes that will most excite the faithful. Amid the magical larks, fluffs and Goonslike Beatle-babble – the laboured We Can Work It Out demo that becomes a game show interlude, or the whole track of Beatle Talk in which they quote Stingray lines and call each other “pickled onion” – some tracks arrive ready-made for greatness (In My Life), while others evolve on-mic.
Michelle begins in country trek fashion, Nowhere Man has several wonky early iterations, and take one of Drive My Car almost invents grunge. Most revealing are the various takes of Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), involving a clunky, heavy-handed folk take and a highly experimental sitar version that illuminates their desire to push their own boundaries, and a previously unheard Lennon demo titled Little Girl, a twee romantic acoustic ditty exposing his true feelings towards such material by 1965: ‘If you’d asked me yesterday,’ he sings, heartthrobishly, ‘then I’d have told you sweet FA.'
