Is the Beatles Rubber Soul overlooked?

Atavachron wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: Atavachron wrote: Not overlooked, probably just the opposite; fully explored as a collection of quality songs and found to be an important transitional record for both them and popular music, but with limitations that were done away with on the transformative Revolver. Interesting, what do you consider those limitations to be? I think the material speaks to that, mainly in the traditional structures (even mimicking Dylan at times)--  whereas something like 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Tomorrow Never Knows', 'I Want to Tell You' or even 'Good Day Sunshine' were true breakthroughs not just in terms of Pop innovation but also as a light toward the liberation the band - and everyone after them - began to show from that point on.

Agree strongly with this.  Also, other than In My Life, I don't find the songs on Rubber Soul quite as poignant as some of the best songs from Revolver...not to say they aren't, generally speaking.

Not overlooked. I once thought I didn't listen to Rubber Soul enough, so I listened to it more, and I wish I had listened to Pet Sounds or Abbey Road instead. I tried to "look" into it more, and was tired by it, therefore it can't be overlooked.

true enough

yep they were always fresh, making the records timeless

^ That's a great line Jim, and I'd agree with the imagery--  perhaps it is that very change of shirt that draws me to Revolver, as it was when they really came into their own as composers rather than just superbly produced songsmiths.  In many ways they had been almost an "impressionist" band with a yearn for almost everything mid-20th Century [you can hear this even on Peppers with 'When I'm Sixty-Four'], and it was Revolver that showed a personal depth unseen to that point, IMO.

yes, but that was not terribly new in pop music as the Folkies had been doing that for years, and usually much better

as I said Revolver is transformational, not just transitional

Slartibartfast wrote: Atavachron wrote: Not overlooked, probably just the opposite; fully explored as a collection of quality songs and found to be an important transitional record for both them and popular music, but with limitations that were done away with on the transformative Revolver. Interesting, what do you consider those limitations to be?

I think the material speaks to that, mainly in the traditional structures (even mimicking Dylan at times)--  whereas something like 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Tomorrow Never Knows', 'I Want to Tell You' or even 'Good Day Sunshine' were true breakthroughs not just in terms of Pop innovation but also as a light toward the liberation the band - and everyone after them - began to show from that point on.

Atavachron wrote: Not overlooked, probably just the opposite; fully explored as a collection of quality songs and found to be an important transitional record for both them and popular music, but with limitations that were done away with on the transformative Revolver.

Interesting, what do you consider those limitations to be?

On a side note this the first Beatles CD in my collection that got replaced with the latest remaster.  Also came out the year I was born.


Edited by Slartibartfast - January 21 2012 at 07:27

I actually have the albums rated White Album, Abbey Road, Revolver, Rubber Soul and then Sgt. Peppers, in that order. Although I understand the epochal importance of Sgt. Peppers, If one removes the societal claptrap and generational folderol, the compositional qualities of the other albums are clearly better.