This week on Compeatly Beatles, we look at the fantastic 1965 album Rubber Soul as well as the first double A-sided single “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out”. It’s another long episode, but there’s just so darn much to talk about as the Beatles begin the next phase of their recording career and leave behind their Beatlemania era-style. There is also a little controversy as David defends and Ian condemns John Lennon’s “Run for Your Life”. Don’t worry though; they were still talking at the end of the episode.
Thanks for listening and, please, feel free to leave your comments below on such subjects as “Run for Your Life”, Elvis Presley and how Ringo is the greatest drummer ever.
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Interesting discussion on Run For Your Life ; for a very long time I just accepted it as it was, almost in the same vein as a murder ballad-type song, but Ian makes an interesting point. Rather than fitting it into the tradition of something like Knoxville Girl, possibly a better comparison would be a near-contemporary pop song like He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss). That’s a really troubling song, and while I can think of reasons why it bothers me more than Run For Your Life, maybe there isn’t that much of a distinction between the two as I’d like to think.
Possible grist for future episodes:
1) It would have been a good fit for this episode since he got some mention, but I’d like to hear more about George Martin; his background, musical tastes, innovations if any, opinion on The Beatles as phenomenon and/or artists, what his position, if any, was on their drug use and its influence, and if he feels bad that the In My Life piano bit is more than a little treacly and almost ruins the song.
2) Obviously the Lennon/McCartney relationship is the engine that drives Beatletalk, and the McCartney/Harrison relationship gets a fair bit of play considering their history, but it feels to me that Lennon/Harrison is a bit of a blank spot. Maybe the reason is there wasn’t much to their relationship, or I should not be all Mr. Suggestion Telling You Guys What To Talk About And Just Look It Up On The Wikipedia Already, but I do enjoy hearing your respective takes on things.
3) Reading suggestions: Best Beatles books, or perhaps just a list of good books about music in general?
Actually-murderous Beatles fans usually find the “Hide your head in the sand” line in the chorus of “Run For Your Life” to be problematic. Why would actual murderers want their prospective victims to hide their heads in the sand? It’s absurd.
I have to admit I kind of agree with both of you in regards to “Run For Your Life”.
Disclaimer: It’s actually my 2nd favourite song on the album, after Norwegian Wood, in an entire album of amazing songs. So I may be biased. I LOVE the somewhat sloppy feel.
I’ve always assumed the song was a bit of a joke. With the ‘happy’ sound despite the dark lyrics, I simply can’t take it overly seriously. At the news that Lennon disowned it, I find that view being a little bit shaky now but I still can’t bring myself to view it as all that ‘real’, if you follow my meaning.
That said, the lyrics ARE atrocious and embarrassing. If this really depicts Lennon’s mindset at the time it really points to a terrible outlook towards women. Despite the views back then being a bit more accepting of that sort of thing, it’s not entirely excusable and it’s really a horrific song if you read too much into it.
I’m glad he eventually came around in the end.
I can sort of see the happy sound making it seem like a joke song, or even just a ‘playing a role’ song. But if it was intended as such, it was definitely not made clear.
I completely agree with Ian’s assessment, the sentiment of the song is not “I love you so much”, but “you’re my property”. I was pleasantly surprised to hear this somewhat in-depth discussion, well done!
Here’s the Nina Simone version of Sinnerman that I brought up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn5tiuZU4JI
Apparently Run for You Life remained one of George’s favourite songs on the album even in later years when John had turned his back on it.
Like most human-driven tempos, “Norwegian Wood” varies a bit throughout. But after a few metronomed playthroughs, technically you’re right, Dave! The first half starts around 61 BPM, drifting to 60, but after the instrumental break they finish at a pretty solid 59 BPM.
Well, thanks for dragging out the old metronome to test my theory, Marcus, but did you mean “Norwegian Wood” or “You Won’t See Me”? I was talking about “You Won’t See Me” having an eerie, slowing down effect that may or may have not been real.
Oh, flapjacks. I didn’t catch the change, somehow. But YWSM is even worse. It starts at 118-119 BPM, slows to 116 by the second verse, and even dips to 113 in moments at the middle eight. By song’s end, they’re at about 115-116 BPM.
It doesn’t look like much on paper, but one can really hear the difference in three beats per minute.
Here’s Bob Dylan’s 4th Time Around which Dave mentioned… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=471VYdCTEqg
In the very good discussion on The Beatles capturing the moment (or, as you correctly pointed out, the upcoming moment), I think you left out one important thing that was mentioned elsewhere: from A Hard Day’s Night through Rubber Soul, they were writing, recording, and releasing songs so quickly. There was a six-week period from the first true recording session for Rubber Soul to the release date and, as you said, they wrote these songs during that period. That is incredible, and something that may have seemed somewhat normal then and may seem more normal today (when we can record something and have it heard around the world the same day), but, for most of the rock era, such a small gap is very unusual.
Further to our discussion about “Run for Your Life”, we had an email from a nice lady who gave me permission to post it here. She actually was my imaginary girl sitting on her bed, listening to Rubber Soul and this is what she said:
“OK, guys, I was there. I was the girl sitting on my bed listening to my Beatles albums in the 60’s. My reaction to Run For Your Life?
“That’s right guys, you DON”T cheat on your man!” It didn’t ruffle any feathers then, it doesn’t now. In fact, listening to it now, it makes me chuckle.
I love your historical tidbits but some of the things you say drive me nuts, LOL!!!
Connie”
So thanks to Connie for backing me up! Be sure to check out her great podcast The Disneyland Gazette at http://www.disneylandgazette.com/
Like Iain, I always assumed “Rubber Soul” was a play on words and was really interested to hear about the Mick Jagger connection. MJ is also known as “Rubber lips” so it sounds possible. However, it is quite possible that both these things are happening. Lennon is well known for his multi-layered puns, as demonstrated in his books, and McCartney is not just a pretty face either… When I thought it was only the pun, I linked it to the distorted photo on the cover, where they look a little like stretched rubber. Anyway, I ramble, great podcast again.
This is only two years late but I’m siding with Ian on the Rubber Soul title. To me, the words “Rubber Soul” on the album cover are shaped like a shoe! Don’t you agree? Or am I crazy?
Crazy. Also, late! 🙂
I just read about it a little more on google and apparently it’s supposed to look like rubber being harvested from a tree…if you tilt the album 45 degrees it looks like a drop of liquid So I was wrong!
As to “Run for Your Life” – Sorry Ian, but Dave is completely right. RFYL is only jarring when looking with today’s politically correct sensibilities. Society back then did not see the jealous, possessive boyfriend as a horrible unusual thing.
Ian is looking back with 2018 glasses on. Back then for example, Jerry Goffin and Carole King wrote a hit–no pun intended– for The Crystals (girl group) called “He Hit Me, and it Felt Like a Kiss.” Carole is embarrassed by it now, but for the times, it was accepted and nobody lost their sh*t over it, as Ian appears to have.
Sorry Ian, but Dave is right.
Love your podcasts–can’t get enough of all of them….
Cheers!
Danny
The song you mention is referenced in Mad Love, a comic book about The Joker and Harley Quinn to highlight her perspective on their abusive relationship. She accepts that he will hurt her and try to kill her but it’s okay because it shows he cares.
Many things in the past weren’t openly criticized because the people they were happening to didn’t have the power to speak up. I’m sure someone being harmed back them and couldn’t say anything did “accept” it but it the worst possible sense of the word.
Letting dark parts of the past off the hook because of the times they were in is something a lot of people are fine with. I’m not. I’ve said on other shows the thing to do is try and predict what someone in the future will look back on and judge us for, then try and change that. The only way to grow is to call out the sins of the past and try to be better now. Enjoy the song but don’t accept and dismiss the culture it was part of.
At 52:00, David was half right. The studio term DI stands for “Direct Input.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DI_unit