Rubber Soul (American) - Beatles (The) (Cassette)

In my recent review of the American release of Revolver, which I view as the greatest achievement of The Beatles, I vowed never to address the greed and hypocrisy of Capitol-EMI Records for butchering the original British releases of The Beatles for the sole purpose of making money. Well, I've gotta renege on my promise--when I was going through my old wax album collection this weekend, I came across the American release of Rubber Soul, and became so outraged, and perplexed, that I just had to put my poison pen to paper one more time. The British release of Rubber Soul is a very significant...

It's perhaps unusual that I should give such a high rating to an album that is, as I list as a Con, only a fraction of what its original incarnation is. It's also perhaps a bit strange that I'm reviewing at all a record that is no longer available, as it has been replaced on CD by the British version. Yet, although it may no longer exist as its own independent entity, the American version of RUBBER SOUL remains an important milestone in popular culture. This was the record which introduced millions of American fans to these songs. And it was this record, rather than the English original which.

"Rubber Soul" came in a time when the world was changing, most of that change brought on by The Beatles themselves. Gone was the "Yeah, yeah, yeah" and "wooooooo"s of the past. And almost gone were the moptops and matching outfits. The Beatles were not only become influenced by what they themselves had initiated, but they began to realize that the power their music had over the world was truly awe-inspiring. They had just met Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley. Dylan introduced them to drugs, and the first real evidence of that was "Rubber Soul." "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was still...

Rubber Soul is the beginning of the dawn of a new era.Sure the Beatles were already huge before the release of this album.They had already established themselves as being way beyond the ordinary.It was on this album that really proved that they were much more than just a fluke,much more than music for the teenie boppers, much more than just a long haired band from Liverpool that is here today and gone tomorrow.They took the next step and established themselves as the greatest song writing team of the 20th century. They first began to experiment on Rubber Soul which paved the way for other...