The Beatles - Rubber Soul

Parlophone

December 3rd, 1965.

The Beatles Rubber Soul turns 60. Just four - three-and-a-half, to be exact - months after the release of Help! The Beatles returned to the 60's scene in which they became common participants within. Not touring and being taken up by further commitments, The Beatles made use of something a lesser schedule - the studio would become something of a sanctuary for, not from, everyday life. 

The Beatles really began to kick into gear with album number six Rubber Soul. You could say it set up their mid-to-late 60's run to be what it would become - more nuanced and less lovey-dovey for the sake of it. It felt like it had a purpose outside of pleasing an eventual audience. A seriousness came to light, although an innocence remained - a necessity in becoming something more; keeping the freshness of a new soul at hand; remaining in reach of a fresh perspective. 

An incorporation of styles and sounds picked up along their journey began to appear in instruments such as the sitar, and with it sprinkles of Eastern musical tradition, and a keen need to move things on from constraints - elements and modes of operation that would further seep into later works such as Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's. 

The love song was now a conduit to exist through rather than a reason to write song; something to be a part of rather than a result of; in control of rather than chained to. A shift in paradigm. You've got to be it to see it, and vice versa. Kind of like seeing through things as opposed to being on one side or another - simultaneously on both sides of the glass. 

Just 'cos your minds opaque....

You won’t find another run of records like this ever again.