I’ve got a word or two to say...
And finally… Apple’s series of deluxe expanded reissues of the Beatles catalogue has arrived at what many people, myself included, consider their best album: Rubber Soul. I’m sure a lot of fans were disappointed when it didn’t appear for its sixtieth anniversary last year – a pointless reissue of the Anthology albums took its place in the release schedule – but it’s here at last. Two questions to be answered: was it worth the wait and how does it compare to others in the reissue series?
Firstly, the music. ‛Demixed’ and remixed by Giles Martin from the original master tapes, this is easily his best work to date. For me, Sgt. Pepper was marred by a mix that pushed the bass and drums much too far forward. It sounded modern rather than vintage. Revolver was better, but slightly spoiled by a lead guitar part from ‛She Said She Said’ that somehow got lost when the tracks were stripped down and rebuilt. There are no such absentees this time around. Indeed, most of the album represents a major improvement on the old stereo mix which was ‛hard panned’ with extreme separation of vocals and instruments across the left and right channels. There are notable improvements in clarity and definition, and the tone is still as bright as it was on the original 1965 mix and masters. Nothing has been given undue emphasis, although the vocals sometimes ride a little higher in the mix than they did previously. On the whole, though, the listening experience isn’t vastly different from the original, just without that weird stereo (it sounds slightly less spacious as a result). From first listening, here are my impressions for what they’re worth:
Drive My Car: Paul’s vocal seems to dominate John’s somewhat – they seemed more balanced on the original.
Norwegian Wood: Clearer, big improvement in definition, everything present and correct.
You Won’t See Me: Mal Evans’ famous one-note organ drone is very much less evident in the mix than it was originally. The note appears in the last verse and is held through to the end of the song. This time around, it’s been pushed well into the background.
Nowhere Man: The final harmonic note in the guitar solo has been lowered slightly in volume.
Think For Yourself: This is the worst cut here. Paul’s fuzz bass lines are much less prominent during the verses. They’re audible, but sit lower down in the mix, only leaping out in the intro and in the spaces between verse and chorus. It’s not catastrophic, but I’d stick to the 2009 cut for preference.
The Word: A big improvement. The track sounds punchier without the mix being discernibly different, which is exactly what’s required from these remixes. Easily the best cut on the album for me.
Michelle: Again, a noticeable improvement: everything from 1965 is still there and still sets where you’d expect to hear it in the mix. This, like ‛The Word’, is down to the improved stereo image.
What Goes On: Again, a major improvement in the stereo separation. John’s scratchy guitar part is still clearly audible but doesn’t seem to dominate the track the way it did in the 1965 stereo mix (which was easily the worst mix on the album).
Girl: Like Norwegian Wood, there’s no detectable difference here, just an overall improvement in clarity.
I’m Looking Through You: Another big improvement on account of the true stereo separation. Parts of the original mix that sounded a bit feeble (the electric guitar and organ) sound better without detriment to the mix as a whole.
In My Life: George Martin’s solo leaps out at you rather more than it used to, but in a good way.
If I Needed Someone: Not much difference, but the guitar solo between the last two verses sounds slightly less prominent to me, allowing the harmonies to come through a bit more.
Run For Your Life: Sounds exactly the same.
The obligatory sessions disc doesn’t disappoint either, although this time there’s just a single disc where we had two with Revolver. The booklet does explain that there are fewer outtakes from the Rubber Soul sessions as early takes and rehearsals were often wiped with later performances. Also, the sheer pressure of time that the Beatles were under meant that some of the backing tracks were perfected in two or three takes where previously they might have run to ten or twelve.
The majority of the session tracks are instrumental backings, without overdubs of vocals or additional guitar parts. These reveal some fine details for anyone like me who’s interested in exactly what instruments were played on what tracks. The first version of ‛Nowhere Man’ has John playing the rhythm part on his rarely used Rickenbacker 325-12string, an instrument whose use has been debated by fans for decades. The booklet incorrectly credits him with regular electric on this track, but if you know, you know – the 325/12 has a peculiarly lightweight tone that sets it apart from George’s 12-string Rickenbacker.
One track has appeared before – the first attempt at ‛I’m Looking Through You’ had been doing the rounds on bootlegs before it finally saw a legitimate release on the Anthology 2 collection, where it was faded at the end. This time, it plays right through to the messy breakdown. Track 25, ‛Beatle Talk’ has been available online for years – this candid recording was made during the vocal overdub session for George’s song ‛Think For Yourself’, and apart from a tiny segment used on the film soundtrack of Yellow Submarine, has never been legitimately issued. Anyone familiar with the recording will spot a minor edit for language: Paul’s impromptu performance of Barry Gray’s ‛Aqua Marina’ from the TV series Stingray has been trimmed to remove a profanity. I wrote about this recording in more detail in an earlier blog.
I was slightly surprised to see that ‛Twelve Bar Original’, the bluesy instrumental recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions didn’t make the cut, but it has been available before.
Finally – almost – John’s rediscovered demo of a song called ‛Little Girl’. It’s clear from the lyrics (‛I’d have told you sweet FA’) that this was never a serious contender. Maybe he was too embarrassed to play it to Paul. There’s a very odd chord change – E flat to D – that doesn’t sound quite right, and the whole thing is slight and of only academic interest.
The sessions disc concludes with the ‛2023 mixes’ of ‛Day Tripper’ and ‛We Can Work It Out’. The latter is fine, but for me, ‛Day Tripper’ suffers from excessive compression, rendering everything as loud as everything else, as compression is wont to do.
So much for the music: what about the packaging? As with previous releases, a deluxe book is now obligatory – but comes only with the deluxe CD or vinyl editions. Compared to the book that accompanied Revolver, it’s a slight disappointment, mostly on account of the production quality. It’s still a solid, nicely bound volume, but the internal pages are printed on inferior uncoated stock, contrasting the superior paper used on previous releases. There are also a few factual errors – like misquoted lyrics – that should really have been picked up. Some of the photos look very poor as well, particularly those from the Beatles Monthly Book archive, which have appeared elsewhere in superior quality.
As before, the CDs are slotted into a gatefold sleeve that externally reproduces the original album artwork. But there are only four of them – Revolver gave us five: the new stereo mix, original mono, two discs of sessions and a further EP comprising various versions of the single tracks ‛Paperback Writer’/ ‛Rain’. If you buy Rubber Soul on vinyl (cost £199!), you get the ‛Day Tripper’/’We Can Work It Out’ single as a separate entity, but on CD the tracks are tagged onto the sessions disc, which at over 70 minutes duration is close to maximum capacity for an audio disc. My copy jammed on one track, but played through okay when reinserted.
The big takeaway here is the price. Revolver cost a shade over £100 when it came out in 2022. This time, there are fewer discs, and a book that has compromised on production quality, and the price is £125. Annoyingly, within days of release, Amazon had ‛discounted’ it to £122.51. For most fans, the 2-CD set will probably suffice, although the sessions disc offers only 16 tracks contrasting the 28 that are on the deluxe edition.
For me, this was the last essential re-release from the Beatles’ catalogue. Much of the outtake material from the earlier albums has surfaced on the four Anthology collections – certainly the tracks that are of most interest – although I’m aware of unreleased takes that have circulated online for years. Welcome though this release is, Apple needs to up its game if it’s planning to continue the series. Deluxe price point should mean deluxe content. I can’t help feeling that the label is still holding back on material that could be issued if the remit was to comprehensively catalogue every single session from every single album. That, I’m sure, will come… but will any of us be around to hear it?
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