The Beatles' Rubber Soul: From Zero-to-Masterpiece in 30 Days

by SCOTT FREIMAN, Culture Sonar:
http://www.culturesonar.com/beatles-rubber-soul/

By 1965, The Beatles had already rocked the world with their music and films. They maintained a punishing schedule in order to stay at the top of the proverbial heap. Their lives were a predictable but chaotic cocktail of concert touring, press appearances and recording. They had little time to think, much less write new music.

Brian Epstein, The Beatles’ manager, put the group on a schedule of two albums and two singles a year. In 1963 and 1964, The Beatles’ fans had been rewarded with albums like Please Please Me and A Hard Day’s Night and singles like “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.” This pace continued in early 1965 with the release of their fifth album, Help!, and the single “I Feel Fine.”

By the time October rolled around, The Beatles had still not begun work on their second album for 1965 — an album that would need to be in the stores by mid-November for the Christmas season. Moreover, The Beatles’ grueling schedule was taking its toll. Their list of new songs to record was shorter than it had ever been.

Most groups would probably have churned out a covers album for Christmas. The Beatles knew hundreds of songs that they could have easily recorded in no time at all. But The Beatles weren’t just any group. They set about creating one of the greatest albums ever, Rubber Soul, an album full of spectacular songwriting and equally magnificent performances.

Trivia question:  The title Rubber Soul was taken from which song lyrics?
A) “The Word”
B) “Think For Yourself”
C) “What Goes On”
D) None of the above.

Answer: D.  The lyrics was a take off on a derogatory phrase used by black musicians, “Plastic Soul.”

Rolling Stone ranked it #5 of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” Within the same thirty days in which Rubber Soul was recorded, they also recorded and released the first double A-side single, “We Can Work It Out” backed by “Day Tripper.” How did The Beatles manage to write, record, and mix this remarkable album in only thirty days?  That’s the subject of the next film in the Deconstructing the Beatles series, Deconstructing Rubber Soul.

Here’s the trailer:

Trivia question: The music on which Rubber Soul song was written before Ringo joined the group?

A) “Michelle”
B) “What Goes On”
C) “Run For Your Life”
D) “Wait”

Answer: A. Paul used to play it as a faux French song to impress girls at parties.

In Deconstructing Rubber Soul, you’ll be watching the days tick by as The Beatles somehow managed to beat the clock and create a masterpiece. A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

You can take the rest of the Rubber Soul trivia quiz here.

– Scott Freiman  (photo: Getty Images)

PS. For more Deconstructing The Beatles, check out our posts on Sgt. Pepper, Revolver, “Penny Lane,” “A Day In The Life,” and “P.S. I Love You.”

PPS. We’ve received many requests (thank you) to release the films on DVD or streaming. We’re working on that, but it’ll take some time. We’ll let you know when we have news…

PPPS. If your local theatre isn’t playing the film, please ask them to do it. It really does help. You can point them here.

VIDEOS: Jimi Hendrix Plays the Delta Blues on a 12-String Acoustic Guitar in 1968, and Jams with His Blues Idols, Buddy Guy and B.B. King

by Josh Jones, Open Culture: http://www.openculture.com/2015/11/jimi-hendrix-play-the-delta-blues-on-a-12-string-acoustic-guitar.html

“I started playing the guitar about 6 or 7, maybe 7 or 8 years ago. I was influenced by everything at the same time, that’s why I can’t get it together now.”

When you listen to Jimi Hendrix, one of the last things you’re ever likely to think is that he couldn’t “get it together” as a guitarist. Hendrix made the characteristically modest statement in 1968, in a free form discussion about his influences with Rolling Stone’s Jann Wenner and Baron Wolman.

“I used to like Buddy Holly,” he said, “and Eddie Cochran and Muddy Waters and Elvin James … B.B. King and so forth.” But his great love was Albert King, who “plays completely and strictly in one way, just straight funk blues.”

Since Hendrix’s death and subsequent enshrinement in pop culture as the undisputed master of psychedelic rock guitar, a number of posthumous releases have performed a kind of revisionism that situates him not strictly in the context of the hippie scene but rather in the blues tradition he so admired and that, in a sense, he came of age within as a session and backing guitarist for dozens of blues and R&B artists in the early 60s.

In 1994 came the straightforwardly-titled compilation album Blues, which celebrated the fact that “more than a third of [Hendrix’s] recordings were blues-oriented,” writes Allmusic’s Richie Unterberger, whether originals like “Red House” and “Hear My Train a Comin’” or covers of his heroes Muddy Waters and Albert King.

Martin Scorsese devoted a segment of his documentary series The Blues to Hendrix, and an ensuing 2003 album release featured even more Hendrix blues originals (with “pretty cool” liner notes about his blues record collecting habits). Prolific director Alex Gibney has a documentary forthcoming on Hendrix on the Blues.

It’s safe to say that Hendrix’s blues legacy is in safe hands, and it may be safe to say he would approve, or at least that he would have preferred to be linked to the blues, or classical music, than to what he called “freak-out psychedelic” music, as a Guardian review of Hendrix autobiography Starting at Zero quotes; “I don’t want anybody to stick a psychedelic label around my neck. Sooner Bach and Beethoven.” Or sooner, I’d imagine, blues legends like Albert King, Buddy Guy, and B.B. King, of whom Hendrix sat in awe.

At the top of the post, you can see Hendrix flex his Delta blues muscles on a 12-string acoustic guitar. Then in the video below it from 1968, Hendrix gets the chance to jam with Buddy Guy, after watching Guy work his magic from the audience (Hendrix joins Guy onstage to jam at 6:24). Beneath, see Guy and King reminiscing a few years ago about those days of meeting and playing with Hendrix.

During their conversation, you’ll learn where Hendrix picked up one of his stage tricks, playing the guitar behind his head - and learn how little Guy knew about Hendrix the rock star, coming to know him instead as a great blues guitarist. 

Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagness