'Rubber Soul' (1965), along with 'Revolver' (1966), clearly represents the transitional period between the "early" Beatles and the groundbreaking "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band." It is also the first album on which their U.S. record label showed some restraint in its notorious compulsion to edit and reformat the group's UK/Parlaphone releases. Although songs were still deleted and resequenced as in earlier practice, an increasing respect was demonstrated for a completed album as the artist/author's prerogative and domain.



In terms of performance, this was the shift from a live band to a studio band, and the influence of producer George Martin is obvious on several of these songs. The growing sophistication of John Lennon and Paul McCartney as songwriters is equally apparent, propelled as much by the expanding influences of world music and experimental instrumentation -- e.g., Harrison's sitar work on 'Norwegian Wood' is only one example. After the introduction of a string quartet in 'Yesterday' for the album 'HELP!,' the new and inexplicable sounds that would appear on forthcoming songs and albums became the norm : harpsichords, harmoniums, tamburas, electronic innovations like fuzz box and moog synthesizer, and so on (a double string quartet was introduced for 'Eleanor Rigby' on 'Revolver').

The group was driven by internal competition, a once underground and now burgeoning pop drug culture (e.g., "The Word") and by a growing self consciousnes of themselves as artists with a desire to write more than simply pop hits. 'Rubber Soul' was to offer up a conventional melodic love song like "Michelle" and a simple rocker like "Drive My Car," but there is also the poignant lyricism (and jangling double-tracked electric guitars) of "Nowhere Man" and "In My Life." On the one hand, the Beatles are still singing mostly songs of love and loss on "Rubber Soul," but on the other hand, there is a leap forward in terms of what is said about love this time around.

It can also be argued that on "Rubber Soul" John Lennon and Paul McCartney begin to really distinguish themselves from each other as individual songwriters. This has been attributed to the result, on both Lenon and McCartney, of the stong influence of Bob Dylan at that time -- a plausible explanation to be sure and one which both Lennon and McCartney later referenced.