illusionofjoy | OTR: The Beatles - Rubber Soul (Reply)

John, Paul, George and Ringo. The Fab Four. The guys with the mop-tops. First wave of the British invasion. The Beatles. Yesterday I was bemoaning the fact that not much could be written about Bauhaus that hadn't already been written - this band is a thousand times worse in that regard. Furthermore, I can't just say "I don't know what to say" over the course of the eight Beatles albums that I do own - that would be a horrible cop-out!

I was born in 1980. For me, there has never been a time where the music of The Beatles did not exist. My parents, who were not terribly good at collecting music, only owned the so-called "Red" and "Blue" compilation albums on cassette (and I think that "Blue" was eaten by the tape player, which is a shame, as I've always liked the later Beatles work better). They didn't even own the bastardised Capitol America versions (i.e.: Meet The Beatles!) that introduced so many others from their generation in the United States to the band.

For me, the British versions of the albums have always been the proper presentation for The Beatles. While I'd heard the group on the radio constantly growing up, I first actually came in contact with their proper albums when visiting an aunt who had purchased The Beatles Box Set (released in 1988, it included all thirteen of the original UK albums plus the two Past Masters compilations, commissioned by Capitol to corral the group's singles and B-sides).

This set of albums (on cassette) was a thing of wonder to me. Even at seven years old, I knew The Beatles had a lot of songs (they'd been played on the radio), but this drove home just how many songs they had! A band must be truly amazing to be able to make so much music, I thought to myself. I remember my aunt letting me make my own mixtape of Beatles favourites from that boxed set. Dubbed onto a C-90 cassette tape, I made my own personal compilation of what I thought were The Beatles "greatest hits." It began with "Back in the U.S.S.R." and, if I recall, finished with "Strawberry Fields Forever" (which was truncated, because having only heard the song on the radio, I had no idea it faded back in).

From Rubber Soul, I dubbed "Drive My Car" and "Nowhere Man." Twenty years later, as I listen to the disc front to back, I probably wouldn't pick those two songs for a personal compilation. In fact, "Drive My Car" sounds weak to me, especially as it is immediately followed by sheer beautiful simplistic brilliance in the form of "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)." "Michelle," "You Won't See Me" and "In My Life" would also have to be included - I simply find myself gravitating towards the softer ballads on this album than the more "rock n' roll" tracks. Though I do still find "Nowhere Man" engaging, if for no other reason than it's not a love song.

It's also kind of shocking to realise this album is less than forty minutes long - such things just don't happen anymore. The advent and eventual domination by the CD as recorded media format of choice pushed album length up to seventy minutes, which many times is just too much. Who knows what downloads will do - though I predict that they will bring the single back to the forefront...which is kind of a shame...