The Beatles’ Rubber Soul was the band’s sixth album, released in the UK in December 1965. It’s one of my favorite Beatles albums and includes “Drive My Car,” “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” “Nowhere Man,” “Michelle,” and “In My Life.”
Like millions of people, I’ve listened to every song countless times. However, I’ve never heard them with the vocals, guitar, piano, and horns stripped out, like these versions, lovingly created by Rock Band Stems. Only the bass and drums remain, giving me a new way to appreciate these songs.
I always thought the album’s title, “Rubber Soul,” was about how psychedelics can expand consciousness, but according to Wikipedia, it was “a pun, combining the falseness intrinsic to pop music and rubber-soled shoes.”
Lennon said the title was McCartney’s idea and referred to “English soul.” In a 1966 press conference, Starr said they called the album Rubber Soul to acknowledge that, in comparison to American soul artists, “we are white and haven’t got what they’ve got,” and he added that this was true of all the British acts who attempted to play soul music. McCartney recalled that he conceived the title after overhearing an American musician describing Mick Jagger’s singing style as “plastic soul.” In Phillip Norman’s view, the title served as “a sly dig at their arch rivals (and private best mates) the Rolling Stones,” with the added implication that the Beatles’ “variety” of soul music “at least was stamped out by a good strong northern [English] Wellington boot.”
