Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by the Beatles. It was recorded in just over four weeks to make the Christmas market, and was released on 3 December 1965. It was produced by George Martin. Unlike the five albums that preceded it, Rubber Soul was recorded during a continuous period, whereas the group had previously recorded albums during breaks in between tour dates or other projects. After this, Beatles albums would be made without the burden of other commitments, except for the production of short promotional films.
Rubber Soul incorporates R&B, pop, soul, folk rock, and psychedelic music styles. The album is regarded by musicologists as a major artistic achievement that continued the Beatles' artistic maturation while attaining widespread critical and commercial success. The album's name comes from the term plastic soul which popular African American soul musicians coined to describe Mick Jagger, a white musician singing soul music. It was the second Beatles album – after the British version of A Hard Day's Night – to contain only original material; the Beatles would record no more cover songs for their records until 1969, with the "Maggie Mae" excerpt appearing on Let It Be.
Rubber Soul is regarded by fans and critics alike as one of the greatest albums in popular music history. In 2012, Rubber Soul was ranked number five on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2013, after the British Phonographic Industry changed their sales award rules, the album was declared as having gone platinum.
Say the word and you'll be free
Say the word and be like me
Say the word I'm thinking of
Have you heard the word is love?
It's so fine, it's sunshine
It's the word, love
In the beginning I misunderstood
But now I've got it, the word is good
Spread the word and you'll be free
Spread the word and be like me
Spread the work I'm thinking of
Have you heard the word is love?
It's so fine, it's sunshine
It's the word, love
Everywhere I go I hear it said
In the good and bad books that I have read
Say the word and you'll be free
Say the word and be like me
Say the word I'm thinking of
Have you heard the word is love?
It's so fine, it's sunshine
It's the word, love
Now that I know what I feel must be right
I'm here to show everybody the light
Give the word a chance to say
That the word is just the way
It's the word I'm thinking of
And the only word is love
It's so fine, it's sunshine
It's the word, love
Say the word, love
Say the word, love
Say the word, love
Say the word, love
Rubber Soul is John Lennon’s initiatory declaration, of the philosophy that would come to characterise some of his greatest songs in the following years, from “All You Need is Love” and “Come Together” to “Imagine” and “Mind Games”: that “the word is ‘love.’” But more than this simple assertion, Lennon singing “Now that I know what I feel must be right, I’m here to show everybody the light” indicates that “love,” by which he seems to mean compassion, empathy, and care for others, is the result of a deeply felt epiphany, a kind of conversion experience. That he exhorts the listener to “say the word and you’ll be free” suggests that love for others is the way to free oneself from the limiting confinement of one’s self-centered fears and insecurities. The answer, he seems to assert, is to give one’s life to something greater than one’s individual needs and neuroses. "The Word" is part of exploring what it looks like to love others, to have empathy and compassion for others. We look again to Luke 10 in today's bible reading, and reflect on the parable of the good samaritan as we explore what the lawer said to Jesus.
Yesterday we looked a little at the parable of the good samaritan and looked at the theme of "Selfless Love" In the coming few days we will look a little deeper at the parable and reflect of Jesus core message.
This parable is unique in that so concrete and simple that anyone can understand its basic point, yet its insights and moral implications are profound. However, the real impact is lost on us today, since modern readers generally don’t understand the cultural context and the parable’s real impact. Samaritans were hated by Jews, and so this parable is absolutely full of irony. For the original audience, a “good Samaritan” would be an oxymoron, and for a Samaritan to be the moral hero of a story would be downright shocking.
Like other parables, this was told in response to a question or event. Here a religious lawyer – an expert on the Torah, or the Law (i.e., the first five books of the Old Testament) – questions Jesus about salvation1. In v25, Jesus asks, “What is your reading of it” – a technical term used by the scribes or lawyers in discussing interpretations of religious law. The lawyer gives a technically correct answer – the need to love God and your neighbour – but clearly does not actually understand what it means, though he probably believes he understands. The verses come from the Torah, from Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18, which Jesus himself taught and upheld. He then asks a flawed question, “Who is my neighbour?”, and like the rest of the religious establishment of his day, he probably assumes that no Gentile or non-Jew could be his neighbour.
Jesus tells the parable to set straight his misguided moral beliefs. The question is also flawed, because he assumes a person must work to earn salvation. But Jesus doesn’t deal with that here. Instead, he aims first to break down the man’s sense of self-righteousness The man wanted to justify himself, to look good, and also to be spiritually justified by obeying the law. In typical lawyer fashion, he tried to get around the law and make it more suitable for his tastes. Jesus agrees with him on the surface, but tells a parable about what it means, and to challenge his beliefs.
The different gospel accounts of this are similar, but in Luke Jesus also tells the man that he needs to follow him. The lawyer thought that loving God just meant obeying the commands of the law; for Jesus, it means following him, and thus full and sincere commitment to God. This is what salvation is about. Like Jesus, we have to challenge a popular notion that says, “Let me interpret the Bible my way, to suit my lifestyle”, rather than changing and conforming to biblical teaching.
The man’s original question was about inheriting eternal life. Jesus is saying, that inheriting eternal life requires you to reach out to the unloved (as God did for us). Jesus is not implying that we must earn eternal life by being good to others, but that such behaviour will demonstrate eternal life. Tomorrow we will be looking at the characters in the story and reflecting on the theme of "Responses"
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