Mom, Pop and Rubber Soul

 

New Beatles album's arrival

This Bird Has Flown -- A Book Review

I have mentioned on this blog that of all the Beatles' albums, my personal favorite is "Rubber Soul."   And while I do love every single album the Beatles put out, there is just something special about the songs on "Rubber Soul" that I enjoy.  So when I found out through the "Beatles-Book Club" on Facebook that the March book was going to be This Bird Has Flown: The Enduring Beauty of Rubber Soul, Fifty Years On by John Kruth, I was pretty excited to read it.    My 2nd favorite Beatles album is "Revolver," and I read Rob Rodriquez's book; I found it to be enjoyable and educational, and I hoped to have a similar experience with this book.

The first thing I should say is that it took me a full month to read this book. Anyone who knows me, will know right off the bat that there is a problem.  I am a very fast reader and I typically read a  book in 4 days, especially if I really like it.

This book on Rubber Soul examines each song on both the U.S. and the U.K. versions of the album.   Each chapter is about each individual song, and it gives the background of the song and how it was written, how it was recorded, and some information about cover versions of the song.  However, it took a while for the book to dig into those songs.  The background information went way into Bob Dylan, and I read more about Dylan than I ever cared to read.  It was interesting to read about how the name "Rubber Soul" came about and the famous story of how they got the photo taken and the card moved back and elongated their faces, and they wanted it like that.

But by the time we got to the "meat" of the book, I was bored. But I pushed through and kept reading.   I liked reading about the history of the use of  the sitar and how it was used on Norwegian Wood.   The whole chapter on that song was my favorite in the book.

But the rest of the book seemed to wander all over the place.  For example--in the chapter about "Nowhere Man" the author wrote a long thing about John Lennon's father (I guess he was suggesting that Alf was the Nowhere Man?) and then went into how in the 1970s John got kicked out of a bar when he had a tampon strapped to his forehead during a Smother's Brothers performance (wow----that was totally incorrect and what did that have to do with Nowhere Man?)

After a while, I felt like the author, while doing his research on Rubber Soul, was finding all sorts of neat Beatles tidbits and decided to throw them into the book, even though they didn't directly relate to Rubber Soul. I am really not sure why he had a whole section devoted to the Butcher Album.

But what really bothered me, I guess, was that it became obvious that the author disliked George Harrison. He even retold Geoff Emmrick's story about how Paul used to come back and re-record George's guitar parts on certain songs. Now, that story isn't one that anyone but Mr. Emmrick believes, and I just really did not like it being retold in this book.

This Bird Has Flown wasn't a terrible book, but it wasn't the great book that I was really hoping it would be.  You can order it and decide for yourself from Amazon.


 The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/3T9LjuG

50 years of Rubber Soul

My favorite Beatles album, Rubber Soul, was released 50 years ago today.    I love every song on this album and I love the cover photo.    It might be 50 years old, but the music is still amazing and sounds "fresh."    Any other RS lovers out there?

Clean cut Beatle fan

Obviously not all Beatle boys went for the mop top hair style, although I bet before 1964, this young man had a different hairstyle than he does here a little over a year later.      I love how he is showing off his Beatle albums! 

One of the craziest fans

Anytime anyone says that I do crazy things as a Beatles fan to get closer to Paul or Ringo, I am going to show them the news article about this girl.   I haven't crossed the line where I am willing to mail myself to one of them.

I found this on this great tumblr!  Where she translated the German for all of her blog readers.  

Scan - A newspaper clipping (pictured in the German book “Internationale Pilzvergiftung”) from a Swiss publication, “Blick”, dated 20 June 1966, about the Beatlemaniac who tried to mail herself to The Beatles…
It reads:

«As a package to the howlers

In case of emergency, one can live from air and love for a time. With a lot of love and very little air, it’s not so easy anymore. Twelve-year-old Carol Dryden (pictured) of Sunderland (England) found this out when she wanted to mail herself to The Beatles in a tea chest. She forgot to drill air holes in her “package”: after a few minutes the adventure ended.
Because she would have loved to see The Beatles up close, Carol saved her pocket money (5 Swiss francs per week) for postage for the rail freight to London (35 Swiss francs). She let her best friend package her into the box. But at the train station of her hometown, she was already unable to stand it. She began to struggle.
The train employee who discovered the hopping box: ‘She would soon have become unconscious’ (because of the air). The same thing would have happened if the box had reached The Beatles. Carol: ‘I would have fainted’ (because of the love).»

Behind you!

Oh I hope the guy behind him didn't throw the snowball and make him drop and break his Rubber Soul album.  

It is going to be cold out there tomorrow (well if you live where I do it sure is!).  So keep warm and don't get hit by snowballs while you are holding Beatles records.   Unless you live in Brazil or Australia or somewhere that is warm, then in that case...keep cool and don't drop your Beatles albums in the pool.

What a job!

Am I correct in assuming that it was this person's job to listen to all of these Rubber Soul albums to make sure there aren't any flaws in the vinyl?    If so...then what a job to have!   Sure you have to listen to the same album over and over and over.   However.....this woman was getting paid to listen to the Beatles!   And I would guess that she got to hear Rubber Soul before it was officially released.  When asked what my favorite Beatles album is, I usually say "Rubber Soul."    I am not sure if I really have one single "favorite" Beatles album.   They are all good in their own way.    But I don't want to have these discussions with people who aren't real fans anyhow, so I just say Rubber Soul because it seems to be the album I listen to the most.  

Contender for a Beatles art contest!

Here is a vintage photo from 1966 of one fan's artwork of the Rubber Soul album cover. This is lovely! It could easily win a Beatles art contest!

More Beatles with albums

With the Please Please me album in the background. I have a photo from this performance / photo session where the guys are holding the album. But it wasn't easy to find right now, so this one with do.

Paul with my favorite Beatles album, Rubber Soul in 1966.

Beatles publicity photos. Holding Please please me, Help, Beatles for Sale and A Hard Day's Night (all British versions)

Paul signs a copy of "Meet the Beatles" (I think it is the American version at least) for George's sister, Louise while on the train to Washington D.C.

John signs the Magical Mystery Tour EP for a fan at a party for fan club secretaries attended by George and John in December 1967. The fans that went could only have the MMT EP or the 1967 Christmas fan club flexi autographed.

Posing with the Sgt. Pepper album open at the release party

All four Beatles pose with the Sgt. Pepper album at the release party.

Brian holding a cover of "Yesterday and Today" (the Trunk cover version)

I am having too much fun now. After the last post, I decided to do a quick go through of all of my files and try to find more photos that aren't fan photos of Beatles with their albums. Don't ask..just go with it.