When I comes to music, I am a very simple man. Looking over the collection of CD's I own, and looking into all the albums I've bought off of iTunes, it's hard to think about a world without my favorite tunes to help me through each day.
And nothing helps me more than setting up an old Beatles album, and letting it play through.
Today I'm going to be analyzing one of my favorites, and perhaps later I will go over a few more of my favorite Beatles albums. But for now:
Rubber Soul
Rubber Soul was the sixth studio album by The Beatles, and they recorded it in only four weeks. Rubber Soul is not only my favorite Beatles Album, but it is also considered one of the best albums of all time, making numerous 'best-of' lists, and being a huge chart-topper.
Instead of getting into every little detail about the album, I'm just going to pin-point a few songs from the album that I find to be amazing. I guess about five.
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Norwegian Wood, the second song on the album, was written by John Lennon, with backing vocals from Paul McCartney. This was one of the first song's they performed using the instrument the sitar, which is used by George Harrison. Harrison would later get much more into the sitar, and use it in quite a few Beatles songs.
The song is about an affair John was having behind the back of his current wife. He wrote it as a sort of way of saying he had the affair, without having to actually say it. I find it to be a very gripping and interesting tune, one that goes one in my head long after it's done playing.
Nowhere Man
Nowhere Man, the 4th song on the album, is simple and fantastic. The three-part harmony used in this song, like man other Beatles song before and after it, work on many different levels, with solid backing from Ringo Starr. While it was quite popular among the other songs in the album, it never got released as a single in the UK, causing it to be a bit swept under the rug of amazing tracks.
A quote from Lennon writing the song: "I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then 'Nowhere Man' came, words and music, the whole damn thing as I lay down".
Michelle
Michelle was written primarily by Paul McCartney. It's a love ballad, obviously, and a great one at that. The Beatles were already know for their love ballads, as a lot of their early albums consisted of them, but this one was a bit of a turning point for them. Rubber Soul marked the first time that the songs started progressing towards other meanings besides love or relationships. While 'Michelle' seems like just a regular type of love ballad, it has much deeper implications towards the person in the song, singing to a person who doesn't quite understand him because of the language barrier.
'Michelle' was also the winner of the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1966.
In My Life
In My Life was written by Lennon and McCartney, with Lennon setting the ground work for it. Lennon started writting the song after he was told by a reporter that he should try and write a song about his childhood. At first he tried to make it more specific, naming places he had lived or worked in, but he felt it acted as a sort of boring 'bus tour'. So instead he made it more broad and translucent, adding a much better atmosphere to the tune.
In My Life is considered one of The Beatles best songs, listing high in a variety of different magazines and sites. Rolling Stone listed it as 23rd on their "500 Greatest Song of All Time" list, and 5th on their "100 Greatest Beatles Songs" list as well.
This was one of the only songs that McCartney and Lennon dissagreed over who wrote and worked more on. McCartney said, "I find it very gratifying that out of everything we wrote, we only appear to disagree over two songs". The other song being Eleanor Rigby.
If I Needed Someone
If I Needed Someone is a song written by George Harrison. Harrison drew heavy influence for this song from the band The Byrds, after George had listened to a song by Roger McGuinn. The song, which is next to last on the album, if a small and fresh take on the sort of romantic Beatles songs that were made by Paul and John.
It's one of my favorite songs on the album, and one of my favorite Harrison songs in general.
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