Review: The Beatles' 'Rubber Soul' Special Edition Vinyl Box Set

Apple Corps lets loose a big box of Beatles around this time every year, and for every year since 2023, I've been prefacing my reviews of those sets with a little reminder that that year's box was not the one most Beatlemaniacs have been screaming for since the Revolver Special Edition in 2022: a similarly super deluxe set devoted to Rubber Soul. As much as I liked the sets released during those years, I am relieved to say that I will no longer have to remind fans that they're not getting a Rubber Soul Special Edition this year. Why? Because they're getting a Rubber Soul Special Edition this year.

Was it worth the wait? That depends on your expectations and what you most desire from these super deluxe editions. I mainly come to them for the unique outtakes, preferably those with vocals. The Revolver set had these by the barrelful. The Revolver sessions were The Beatles' first fully experimental, exploratory ones, as the guys spent nearly three months running their strange assortment of new songs through a plethora of permutations. Rubber Soul only took a month to record at a time before The Beatles started partying with tape loops, backward tapes, horn arrangements, string octets, guest French horn players, and guest tabla players. Sure, it's the album on which George Harrison first took a crack at his sitar, but otherwise Rubber Soul consisted of guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards and songs that mostly didn't go through radical rearrangements. The two that changed most, "Norwegian Wood" and "I'm Looking Through You", had already been released in their most different forms on Anthology 2 thirty years ago.

Review: 'Ringo: A Fab Life'

Telling the story of a backline player, even one in a band as massive as The Beatles, can be tricky. Ringo Starr drove the band's beat, but he didn't drive them artistically, barely writing any songs or calling any shots regarding their musical direction. So as distinctive as he is as a person, there is always the danger that he will disappear way back on the riser when writing his biography, at least when covering his years in that band fronted by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

Review: 'The Dance Album of Carl Perkins' Vinyl Reissue

Intervention Records has crafted audiophile reissues of records from the very late sixties through the nineties. For their latest release, the label reaches as far back as it ever has to revive one of the key LPs of rock and roll's earliest days. Originally released in 1957, Carl Perkins's Dance Album lined up a superb set of radio classics, knocking the socks off bobby soxers, greasers, and four Liverpudlian history-changers in the process. But it would do Perkins a disservice to suggest his Dance Album's importance is solely due to The Beatles, as a unit and as solo artists, covering nearly everything on it. Perkins's songwriting stands strong alongside the era's best composers, namely Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry, his "Blue Suede Shoes" easily being one of rock and roll's defining songs and philosophical statements. He also stands out for the crystalline precision of his singing and six-string twanging. 

Review: The Beatles' 'The Anthology Collection'

And so we come to that time of the year when Camp-Beatles releases its annual big vinyl box. For those who have been (im)patiently waiting for that long-rumored Super Deluxe Edition of Rubber Soul, 'tis once again the season for frustrations. 

I'm not one of those though. The remixes of half of Rubber Soul's tracks on 2023's revised edition of 1962-1966 scratched whatever itch I had to hear anything from that album remixed. It has also long been my understanding that there isn't a ton of supplementary recordings from the month-long Rubber Soul sessions. The tastiest items were a fairly different first take of "Norwegian Wood" and a very different one of "I'm Looking Through You", and both of those had already been released three decades ago on The Beatles Anthology 2. 

Review: 'George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door'

John may have been the one who sang "I got a chip on my shoulder that's bigger than my feet," but that line could have just as easily applied to George. Why was he so sour? George Harrison hadn't tragically lost a parent at an impressionable age, as John Lennon and the far more affable Paul McCartney had. He did not spend his childhood fatherless and ill, as Ringo Starr had. Little George was loved by a doting family. He was not well-to-do, but he did not want either. He was a healthy, happy kid, and one who genuinely seemed to look up to his future bandmates John and Paul.

Review: 'The Beatles Anthology' 25th Anniversary Reprint

The Beatles never really went away after their epochal breakup in 1970, but they continued to assert themselves with extra splashiness when the Beatles Anthology project landed. It began in 1995 with a three-part, six-hour documentary series on ABC and the first volume of a three-part, double-CD series of outtakes compilations. It continued the following year with the next two installments of the CD series.

Review: 'Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers'

Everyone who says the drummer is the least important member of a band has never played in a band. They may not front the group (unless they're Dave Clark) or write the lyrics (unless they're Neil Peart) or play the solos (unless they're Keith Moon) or sing the songs (unless they're Micky Dolenz or Levon Helm or those guys from the Eagles and Grand Funk), but without a solid drummer, a band sounds like a dysfunctional mess. 

Review: 'Stupid TV, Be More Funny: How the Golden Era of The Simpsons Changed Television-And America-Forever''

When a schoolmate convinced me that The Simpsons was more than just some fad prime-time kid's cartoon/T-shirt sales device, and I actually watched the show, I was hooked and I was amazed. Even three decades later, having watched all of the episodes from its eight-season "golden age" countless times, The Simpsons still seems like magic to me. How did the writers pack so many jokes into those first 178 episodes? How did the rhythm seemingly never go slack (especially when we're talking about seasons 2 through 7)? How did it pile in so much wit, originality, and genuine hilarity when every other comedy on TV was lucky to squeak out a couple of good laughs over the course of an entire season? Were its writers some sort of alien beings like Kang and Kodos? Had they been enchanted like some sort of pacifier-producing monkey's paw? Were they the biggest men in the world and covered in gold...14-karat gold?

Review: 'All You Need Is Love: The Beatles In Their Own Words'

According to its press release, Peter Brown and Steven Gaines's All You Need Is Love: The Beatles In Their Own Words is "A LANDMARK ORAL HISTORY ON THE BEATLES" (their caps). 

There are several problems in that last sentence: 

A) Only 20% of All You Need Is Love consists of The Beatles' own words (The Beatles being Paul, George, and Ringo, but not John). The other words are supplied by Yoko Ono, Cynthia Lennon, Pattie Boyd, Maureen Starkey, Derek Taylor, Neil Aspinall, "Magic" Alex Mardas, and twenty or so others in or around The Beatles' circle.

Review: Wings' 'Band on the Run' 50th Anniversary Set

If there's a word that sums up Paul McCartney's work-approach with The Beatles, that word could be "perfectionism." That was one of the things that drove his band-mates up a tree when he insisted on take after take of things like "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", although the cutesiness of those songs surely rubbed John, George, and Ringo the wrong way too. So it was a shock when McCartney began his solo career by bucking that perfectionism, if not the cutesiness. McCartney was a homemade, one-man-band record full of non-songs and only intermittent flashes of his perfect song craft, "Maybe I'm Amazed" being the most obvious example. If RAM suggested that the perfect old Paul was back, then Macca continued to confound with an album of jams with a new band called Wings, which he then followed with a Whitman's sampler of nutrient-free confectionary experiments he titled Red Rose Speedway.

Review: New Editions of The Beatles' '1962-1966' and '1967-1970'

After the super deluxe edition of Revolver was released this time last year, many Beatlemaniacs believed that the next big holiday release would be a similar set devoted to Rubber Soul. Surprise! Instead we're getting new editions of the two essential Beatles compilations, 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, both of which are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary this year. An odd choice, you may think, but this release is mainly serving one very specific purpose, a job that it wouldn't make sense for a deluxe edition of Rubber Soul to do. 

Review: 'Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks That Shook the World'

Along with their myriad musical innovations, The Beatles completely changed the way men were allowed to look when the group invaded the globe with their moppy tops and slender suits. They re-popularized facial hair, made the Cuban heel ubiquitous, and made it okay for guys to wear what were traditionally gals' clothes. For fashion-focused folks, these are developments every bit as earth-quaking as the tape loops of "Tomorrow Never Knows" or the orchestral crescendos of "A Day in the Life". To them, Deirdre Kelly's new book Fashioning the Beatles: The Looks That Shook the World will be what Revolution in the Head is to people who enjoy the group's music.

Review: 'The Inner Light: How India Influenced The Beatles'

The influence of Indian culture on The Beatles' lives and music was far reaching. George Harrison's overwhelming love of Indian classical music drove him to study the sitar seriously, which helped to expand an appreciation for that music-- and his teacher, Ravi Shankar-- throughout the world. His interest in Indian philosophy led him and the rest of The Beatles to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with whom they studied Transcendental Meditation (TM). The universal love philosophy that has more in common with Indian philosophy than western ideals was integral to The Beatles' psychedelic-era persona. After The Beatles, John Lennon sang about karma and George Harrison's worked to raise awareness of the suffering of India's neighbor Bangladesh. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr continue to stump for David Lynch's TM promoting foundation today.

Review: The Beatles' 'Revolver' Special Edition Vinyl Box Set

From the garage band simplicity of their first couple of albums to the more refined folk rock of their next few, and on to the genuine sophistication of Rubber Soul, the first half of The Beatles' career was a constant succession of progressions.

Review: The Beatles' 'Let It Be' Special Edition (Super Deluxe Vinyl Box Set)

As most Beatles fans know, the album ultimately released as Let It Be was not supposed to be The Beatles’ last. A peculiar set of circumstances caused the recordings, mostly made in January of 1969, to sit on the shelf for nearly a year. Consciously aware of how his band was supposed to break new ground with each new project, Paul McCartney envisioned their latest to be a multi-media event. Filmmaker Michael-Lindsay Hogg would document the sessions for the big screen. There would be a high-profile concert—The Beatles’ first in nearly three years—in an exotic location. There would also be an album, of course, but the discomfort of recording in a strange location (Twickenham Film Studios), at weird hours, and under the constant gaze of Lindsay-Hogg’s crew, all while suffering their own personal and business issues, made a mess of the sessions. Trying to hold it together, Paul got bossy. George Harrison quit. John Lennon cracked jokes. 

Review: 'The Beatles: Get Back'

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was The Beatles' first genuinely self-conscious attempt to claim the crown of pop's highest high artists, and that album's instantaneous and international take-over of the pop scene seemingly justified its creation. It also painted The Beatles as Big-A Artists into a corner and all they could do next was bring it all back home as Bob Dylan and The Band did as 1967 drew to a close. 

"The White Album" was a bit of a transitional project split between big productions worthy of '67 such as "Martha My Dear", "Dear Prudence", "Piggies", and "Good Night" and completely stripped roots returns like "Why Don't We Do It in the Road", "Helter Skelter", and "Your Blues". The Beatles resolved to get back to basics even more emphatically with Get Back, but the project's multimedia nature meant they were actually treading into new waters. They would create their follow up to "The White Album" in an unfamiliar location--Twickenham Film Studios--instead of Abbey Road Recording Studios. They would make their record under the constant eye of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg's film crew, and the results of that work and a planned return to the stage for the first time in nearly three years would appear in an accompanying documentary movie. 

Review: 'Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine'

Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine are somewhat less conventional than Sgt. Pepper's or Abbey Road because the former soundtrack was intended to be released as a double-EP set and the latter was split between Beatles recordings and George Martin's incidental music. However, the latest entry in Bruce Spizer's "Beatles Album" series is as worthwhile as any of the others. Perhaps it is more so since Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine are the rare Beatles projects to actually receive some negative criticism. Spizer allows the critics to speak their piece via excerpts from period reviews (a particularly nasty assessment of the Magical Mystery Tour record comes from Rex Reed, the film critic famous for hating absolutely everything... and starring in the infamous stink-bomb Myra Breckenridge. A-hem). However, the tone is mostly informational and celebratory. 20-pages of fan recollections are suitably rapturous. More worthwhile is the welter of full-color photos of record sleeves and labels, period adverts, promo materials, and magazine covers and the wealth of information about the recordings and releases of the discs Spizer provides. 

Spizer also sweeps the period recordings "Lady Madonna", "The Inner Light", "Across the Universe", and "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)", as well as all of the singles included on the Magical Mystery Tour L.P. released in the U.S., into the conversation. He even makes room for details about George Martin's Yellow Submarine orchestrations, the incidental music used in Magical Mystery Tour, and the Beatles Saturday morning cartoon that was a somewhat misleading precursor to the far finer Yellow Submarine feature film. Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine also hosts some guest essays, though I generally prefer Spizer's contributions. He humbly credits himself as "compiler" on the book's cover, but he is most definitely an author and sincerely fab one at that. 

Review: 'The Beatles Acting Naturally: Obscure, Rare, Unfinished and Abandoned Film and TV Projects of the Fab Four'

Is there any item in the pop culture canon that has been more over-examined than The Beatles' music? Doubtful, but the Fabs' work on film has not received quite as much attention. Yet The Beatles not only starred in four movies, but they also made a number of promotional videos for their singles, made a multitude of TV appearances, been the topic of many documentaries, and even inspired a slew of fictional works from The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash to Danny Boyle's recent movie Yesterday. 

DJ, writer, film, producer, and filmmaker Rory Hoy amasses all of these appearances in his exhaustive new filmography The Beatles Acting Naturally, which means its subtitle, Obscure, Rare, Unfinished and Abandoned Film and TV Projects of the Fab Four, is a bit inadequate since he discusses both the obscure and the overly familiar. There are full chapters on A Hard Day's Night, Help!, Yellow Submarine, and the other readily available Beatles film projects as there are entries on oddities such as the guys' proposed production of The Lord of the Rings, a strange 1982 short featuring Ringo and Paul called The Cooler, their appearances on The Simpsons and cameos in the video for Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust" video and just about every other Beatle-related visual project you could imagine. 

One does not necessarily expect a filmography to brim with personality, but Acting Naturally does. Hoy's voice is fully developed, effortlessly charming, and enthusiastic. His winning style makes this book both informative and a pleasure to read. 

Review: 'And in the End: The Last Days of The Beatles'

After providing so much joy for the world, The Beatles went out in a morass of misery. There were the acrimonious management disputes, the publishing problems, the power struggles, the interpersonal irritations, the hard drug problems, and the weird and disruptive romantic relationships. Also, apparently, Paul was dead. All in all, 1969 was not a happy year for The Beatles.

Review: The Beatles' 'Abbey Road Anniversary Edition' on Vinyl

Perhaps The Beatles didn’t intend Abbey Road to be their final album, but that’s the way things turned out, and it’s difficult to listen to the album and not take its finality as a conscious statement from the band that rearranged the face of pop. The Beatles were still rearranging it at the end with the ingenious medley that salvaged several of Lennon and McCartney song scraps.

More significantly, the songs point to where each Beatle would head during his solo career. Lennon exorcised his demons Plastic Ono Band-style with “I Want You [(She’s So Heavy)” and played the dreamer Imagine-style with “Because”. McCartney served up a neat pastiche with “Oh! Darling” and the kind of fluff that would cause critics to pile on him—often unfairly—throughout the seventies with “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”. With “Octopus’s Garden”, Ringo delivered the good-natured tunefulness apparent in the band’s most surprising solo success. George also showed he had the stuff to make what could be the seventies’ greatest album—All Things Must Pass—with his first-rate contributions “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun”.