You wouldn’t think it, given the roasting temperatures outside, but autumn is not too far away. And with it, another Beatles reissue.
This year it’s Rubber Soul that’s to be given the boxset treatment. Apple Corps has announced that a Special Edition of the 1965 album is coming in early October.
So what’s on offer for this one? Well, it’s very much a question of ‘what’s your budget?’ If your wallet is large enough, you might want to invest in the ‘Special Edition Super Deluxe’, which encompasses five LPs or four CDs. These include sessions and demos, a new stereo mix of the album, the original mono master, the original US version of the album AND an 88-page hardbound book. Oh, and 7-inch of the concurrent Daytripper/ We Can Work It Out double A-side single.
One step down is the ‘Special Edition Deluxe’. For that you just get the new stereo mix and sessions on two CDs or LPs. Then there’s the ‘Special Edition Standard’, which is just a single LP or CD.
Or you could – if you wish – go for the Blu-Ray edition, which will include a new Dolby Atmos mix, “high resolution stereo audio”, and the promo films for both Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out. You pays your money, you takes your choice...
For oh-so-jaded Beatles fans who have now seen decades of this sort of repackaging there is but one genuine selling point. Buried among the sessions and demos disc is a previously unheard John Lennon demo called Little Girl. Up until recently, this song was “not even rumoured” to exist, according to Apple Corps. We don’t yet know what sort of quality it is, or even whether it’s an update of Hello Little Girl, an early Lennon song that was one of the first to be credited to the Lennon/McCartney partnership.
We’ll see soon enough whether it could ever have been a contender for the Beatles’ first really adult album. Rubber Soul was a determined step upwards from Help!, with several of the songs being openly influenced by Motown and other US soul records (hence the title, of course), and with their individual personalities shining through more in John, Paul and George’s songs.
In recent years, Abbey Road has been the hip Beatles album to namecheck. But after spells when Sgt Pepper, Revolver and the White Album have all been the connoisseurs’ choice, perhaps now it’s Rubber Soul’s turn in the spotlight. For what it’s worth, it was apparently always George Harrison’s favourite.
Pre-orders for the Rubber Soul Special Edition are being taken now.
