Probably mostly by Americans who grew up with the U.S. LP version. Ditching “Drive My Car” and replacing it with “I’ve Just Seen a Face” as album opener really sets a different mood.
Why not just use the Past Masters track listing? That plus the studio albums gives you the complete canonical Beatles.
A few real gems in this collection . . . but when I got to In My Life, there was no doubt. 2.5 minutes of genius.
Like many, I had a hard time picking one choice, but in my case I think it was more because most of the hits on this album have been overplayed to the point where I’m bored to hear them again. Another factor is a combination of (IMO) mostly heavy-handed lyrics and a certain preciousness to the overall production. Nice harmonies on several of the songs, though.
So, er, I’ve cast a lonely vote for You Won’t See Me, although In My Life is in the running as well.
Toss-up for me between “I’m Looking Through You” and “In My Life”, but I went with the latter in the end just because it’s got more emotional depth, IMO.
+1
Tougher choice this time. Nowhere Man.
That makes a lot of sense, thanks! I knew there was an album out there mainly of songs not on the studios, but I was having trouble finding it.
Nowhere Man may be one of my least favorite Beatle songs ever. Just seems trite and obvious (“isn’t he a bit like you & me”, hmmm, isn’t he?)
In My Life is a good choice, but I went with I’m Looking Through You.
(I always thought I’ve Just Seen a Face was on Rubber Soul – apparently it is, on the US version. I always think of it, ILTY and You Won’t See Me as the “Look/See” trilogy.)
If I Needed Someone, followed closely by Drive My Car Beepbeepumbeepbeepyeah!
Not till looking over the choices to this poll did I realize what heady quality John Lennon contributed to this record. The top three songs so far are largely considered Lennon songs (Norwegian, In My Life and Nowhere Man). I know McCartney claims the melody to “In My Life” but it stills smacks of a Lennon composition to me.
I voted for “In My Life” by the way. Obvious choice, to me, at least.
Nowhere Man. I’ve just loved the arrangement since the first time I heard it. It may have been one of the first songs I ever heard that started with the chorus rather than the verse. And I like the unconventional way the guitar solo comes so early in the song.
As far as Drive My Car (I grew up listening to the American version of this album, which, as has already been mentioned, started off with I’ve Just Seen a Face), I was recently thinking about the song, and I realized that the song was perhaps an exercise in gender role reversal. The girl in the song is bragging about how she’s on her way to fame and fortune, and is offering the boy the great “opportunity” to be her chauffeur. But by the last verse —“I’ve got no car, and it’s breaking my heart/But I’ve found a driver, and that’s a start” — it’s clear she was just trying to get in his pants.
Personal trivia regarding The Word (love that song’s groove!): Long before I ever heard Rubber Soul, or, really, did any serious listening to The Beatles, I listened to my mom’s folk albums. She had a lot of Peter, Paul & Mary. PP&M had a tongue-in-cheek song called I Dig Rock and Roll Music, and that song referenced this Beatles song in the line, “And when The Beatles tell you/They’ve got a word, “love”, to sell you/they mean exactly what they say”. I didn’t hear The Word until a couple years later, and this light went on in my head, “That’s what they were talking about!”
Norwegian Wood. It’s beautiful and haunting with an unforgettable hook, it’s musically groundbreaking, and it’s also weird and funny. Great writing.
Yes. Pretty amazing album…
…but my pick was surprisingly easy too. In My Life was also my pick.
“In My Life”, but I almost picked “Michelle”. “If I Needed Someone,” “Norwegian Wood” and “Drive My Car” are right up there too, and damn but I love “Run For Your Life”, one of those happy little songs about murder.
That was the first really hard one for me. Norwegian Wood and Baby You Can Drive my Car fought, hard, but I had to choose In My Life.
Since I’ve already stated I don’t do “best,” I’ll take a different tack.
Rubber Soul contains the one song (not counting any of the overtly novelty/goof ones) in The Beatles’ catalog I can say I really don’t care for: “You Won’t See Me.”
I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hate it, but I find it very annoying. Sing-songy, cloying and seemingly interminable (at 3:16, it was the longest song in the Beatles’ canon until “Strawberry Fields Forever” was released over a year later)…it features Paul’s least appealing lead vocal and John and George’s most absurd back-ups (“la la la,” “la la la,” etc. etc. etc.).
Rubber Soul would be far more revered if this song had been ditched in favor of “We Can Work It Out.”
Norwegian Wood was the song that turned me onto John Lennon… I think I’d loaned Rubber Soul from the public library and just played 'Wood" over and over… Its simple yet still makes me think… Learning about the song later just muliplied it for me…
Harrison’s sitar… the lyrics… John’s accents in the vocalizing… still a top five all time Beatle song for me… obviously I lean to John…
Ugh. Agreed. “You Won’t See Me” is garbage.
But speaking of long-ass Beatles songs I don’t care for, “Hey Jude” takes the cake for me. (I know, not on this album). It’s pretty good, actually, but DEAR LORD I don’t want to hear the last line 99 zillion times!
Yeah. As I wrote yesterday in a completely unrelated thread:
Or maybe Marshall Tucker?
Can’t you see
Can’t you see
What that Hey Jude/Sympathy for the Devil I-flat VII-IV-I overused chord sequence
Been doin’ to me
(In a day or two, I’ll probably say “She Said She Said” is my favorite Revolver track, exposing me to charges of hypocrisy – that song features this same chord sequence. Okay, point taken. BUT, “She Said…” is from 1966, several years before it became a pop-rock cliche. And, it’s in a completely non-anthemic context – no lighter-waving stadium singalongs here! Anyway, the genius of “She Said…” is in the meters, the arrangement, the sound, the lyric…its chordal frugality is forgivable.)