How The Beatles made ‘Rubber Soul’ and broke up with their past
NPR Music
Giles Martin joins Robin Hilton to discuss the newly released super deluxe box set of The Beatles' 1965 album Rubber Soul, exploring how it marked a pivotal creative shift away from
Key takeaways
- Giles Martin reveals Rubber Soul was recorded in roughly a month after Shea Stadium, showing the band's rapid transition from live performers to studio innovators.
- The new mixes utilize AI demixing technology originally developed for Peter Jackson's Get Back documentary to separate instruments previously locked on single tracks.
Main topics
- Rubber Soul super deluxe box set release
- AI demixing technology and audio restoration
Notable quotes
We're witnessing... the invention of a different form of music. That's what this is.
Conclusion
The episode highlights how technological restoration and careful curation can
Transcript preview
Speaker 7 (0:01) This election season, you can streamline your news intake with Up First. Our team of reporters and editors works overnight, so you can start every morning with three stories you need to know. In short episodes, 12-14 minutes long, to save you time and your sanity. Follow Up First on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 1 (0:22) This episode of All Songs Considered comes to you from NPR Music. I'm Robin Hilton, and this week on the show, we're going to take a break from brand new music and talk about a legendary album that's been given a whole new life. Rubber Soul by The Beatles. Speaker 1 (1:01) A super deluxe box set of the 1965 album Rubber Soul just came out, and it's got a lot of the stuff that you usually get with these sorts of things. You know, lots of previously unreleased outtakes and demos. There's a book of photos and essays about every track. But it's also got a completely remixed version of the album. Remixed, which means it sounds like nothing you've ever heard before from these songs. Giles Martin, son of the late Beatles producer George Martin, he's been working with the surviving members of the band to remix all of the Beatles albums. He started with Sgt. Pepper's in 2017. He's done the White Album, Abbey Road, and some others. But when it came to the older recordings, like the ones on Rubber Soul, there was a problem. All of the parts, the drums, the bass, guitars, the vocals, they very often were recorded on top of each other or at the same time on a single track, which made it virtually impossible to remix. Then, while working on the Get Back documentary that came out in 2021, the director Peter Jackson spearheaded the development of new tech that allowed him to strip out and separate all the different instruments and voices. It's kind of like if you took a cake and you unmixed all of the ingredients, separating the flour, sugar, and everything, so that you could remix it, rebake it, and make it taste better. Giles Martin first used this mind-blowing tech to remix the Beatles' Revolver album in 2022, and now with Rubber Soul. You know, a lot of people think Sgt. Pepper's that album was the big turning point for the Beatles, you know, when they took this massive, unimaginable creative leap. But really, it started with Rubber Soul. Up to this point in the band's run, they were still playing a lot of cover songs, they were touring and focused on stuff that they could play live. Beatlemania was in full swing, and they were feeling kind of done with it all. By the time they entered the studio to make Rubber Soul, they were ready to say goodbye to all of that and move in a whole new direction. So I sat down with Giles Martin to talk about the new mixes and what they reveal about this dramatic shift for the Beatles, how the music was changing, and why Rubber Soul was one of the most significant turning points in the band's career. Speaker 2 (3:39) We're witnessing... the invention of a different form of music. That's what this is. It's the genesis of this creativity where, you know, the studio starts becoming an instrument where there's a sort of a danger to things where other instruments can be used, you know, like, you know, the sitar famously, you know. But at the time, it's just purely, you know, I think Ringo said, you know, if an elephant could sing, we'd probably bring it to the studios and try and record it in those days. Speaker 6 (4:07) It's amazing. And the... pace they were working at was breathtaking. I think they play Shea Stadium in August. They get back to the UK. They record Rubber Soul in October, November, and it's out by December 3rd. Speaker 2 (4:22) Yeah, it took about a month in total, I think, which for them was a long time. They didn't really make that many mistakes in the studios. They knew what sounds they were making. They knew, and vocally, they were so strong. So there's no reason to take too much time. Speaker 6 (4:36) And the pressure was really high and the expectations were really high. I was reminded while reading the extensive liner notes in the book that's included in this deluxe version, you know, Paul said in a 65 interview that the hardest thing was just being who they were. And, you know, George said that the standards were cruelly high. Speaker 2 (4:54) Well, I mean, absolutely, absolutely. The standards are cruelly high because of the expectations they put on themselves. People think that. recording artists or musicians, these sort of like peaceful hippies that wander around and going, oh, that's just lucky that happened. I wrote the song. There's much more deliberation. And the Beatles wanted to be, as John Lennon said, the topmost, the popmost. And they got there. They got there and they became the world's first stadium band, as you say at Shea Stadium. They became the biggest band in the world. And they were the first real global band, you know, as far as, you know, traveling the world. Everywhere was Beatles, but it suffocated them and they rejected it. And they also, the demands were hard on them because they never wanted to do a sequel. They never wanted to sustain their success by doing the same thing. They always wanted to morph into something else. And that was the secret of their success. And that's why the music is so enduring. And that's why they're so sticky as a band for new generations. Because if you don't like a hard day's night, you might like something. Because they're two different bands. You know, like Alan the Rigby, you might like, you know, Helter Skelter. You know, they're a fascinating bunch of artists that refuse to stand still. Speaker 6 (6:14) Well, I think you hear this in the outtakes that you included in the Super Deluxe version. There's one in particular, Day Tripper Takes Two and Three, well, it's called Day Tripper Takes Two and Three Instrumental Backing Track, where you hear this level of discipline and focus and... kind of a seriousness that surprised me a little bit. Speaker 6 (6:48) They're clearly pushing themselves and taking it very seriously. Like I've heard in a lot of other demos and outtakes, like in the revolver sessions, where they're really laughing and joking and having fun. And there's some of that here. But just, yeah, a level of seriousness. Speaker 2 (7:06) Yeah, that's also Paul as well. I mean, that's Paul driving, you know. And he does the same thing now. It's like he's extraordinary. I mean, you know, Ringo says, you know, we would never have made the amount of albums we did if it wasn't for Paul phoning us up and going, come on. But people often ask, they go, you know, what is the secret? What's the secret behind the Beatles? No, is it, you know, is it? Abbey Road or is it my dad or is it you know is it the compressors they used or the desk or the secret no it's them it's them in a room making a noise and they're really good at it and that's what this shows I think take three is the is the final master actually I think they don't play it much more you know it's not like they they get it down they know what they're playing they're rehearsed and they're disciplined and You don't make that many records without being disciplined. That's going back to the pressure that was there was more on themselves than putting pressure on themselves. Speaker 6 (7:57) There's another moment on a track called Beatles Talk Think for Yourself Vocal Overdubs where you hear them working out the harmonies. Speaker 3 (8:08) Close Speaker 8 (8:08) our eyes. Speaker 3 (8:08) Close our eyes. And we're on. We're going to. Speaker 8 (8:13) Close our eyes. Okay, I think I might have it now. Speaker 3 (8:18) I know. Speaker 8 (8:21) I got something in my head, you know, and all the walls of Rome couldn't stop me. Is it alright, pickled onion? Speaker 3 (8:32) Shh, keep quiet. Speaker 6 (8:34) This whole sequence in this track is nearly eight minutes long. It really struck me because... One of the things that I've always marveled at when I listen to outtakes and things with the Beatles is how locked in and in sync they seem to be right out the gate, like almost immediately. And I heard this and I thought, OK, this makes more sense. They're actually working this out here. Speaker 2 (8:56) Well, that's right. I mean, that's the they're working out quite quickly. If I include this, people say to me, why do you include so much chat? And I go, because I think there's so much dehumanization. in music now. There's so much like, you know, is it really people doing it? And actually, it often isn't, is the answer, you know. And I think there's a beauty and a timelessness to the fact that you can hear the creator, you can hear them getting things wrong and then getting things right and working out how they do it and what goes into making these great records. And that's what it is. The way, when I approach these box sets, it's a bit like, you know, I went around a Rembrandt. exhibition once and they were pencil drawings of paintings and I love that because you see the pencil drawing wasn't as beautiful as the painting and by no means is take two and three of day trip as good as day trip but it shows the pencil drawing that happened you know that's it's of the painting and I and I think that sort of it makes it more beautiful for me in understanding that it is just almost blood sweat and tears that makes it happen and not someone flicking a switch And I love, that's why I love the conversation. I love the fact that people going from, there's an outtake, I think, in the White Album with, you know, George Z or, you know, Cheese and Marmite Sandwich or maybe it was, anyway, there's that sort of conversation where you just go, oh, they're completely normal. They're having their cups of tea and then they're going to do something that lasts beyond sort of 60, 70 years. And they never thought that would be the case. They didn't plan on, you know, when I growing up as a kid, my dad never thought that the Beatles would be as revered as they are now. Speaker 6 (10:29) Well, that's the thing when I listen to these outtakes. They've always seemed larger than life. And then you listen to these and there are these really human moments where you realize, oh, right, these are young guys really trying to figure out very complicated music when the stakes are really, really high. And there's another moment on this same Beatles talk track where you hear from John, it's almost like a... revealing almost a kind of