Editing Rubber Soul (section)

===Side one===
===="Drive My Car"====
{{listen|pos=right|filename=Beatles drive my car.ogg|title="Drive My Car"|description=The chorus of "Drive My Car"}}
The album opens with a pair of lead guitar parts that are soon rendered off-[[Metre (music)|metre]] by the arrival of McCartney's bass.{{sfn|Riley|2002|p=157}} "[[Drive My Car (song)|Drive My Car]]" is a McCartney composition with substantial contribution from Lennon with the lyrics.{{sfn|Spitz|2005|pp=585–86}}{{sfn|Sounes|2010|p=139}} Harrison, as the Beatles' most knowledgeable soul-music enthusiast, contributed heavily to the recording by suggesting they arrange the song with a dual guitar–bass riff in the style of [[Otis Redding]]'s contemporary single "[[Respect (song)|Respect]]".{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|pp=148–49}} In their joint lead vocals, McCartney and Lennon sing [[Dissonance (music)|dissonant]] harmonies,{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=297}} a quality that is furthered by Harrison's entrance and signifies what Everett terms a "new jazzy sophistication … in the vocal arrangement".{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=315}}

The lyrics convey an actress's desire to become a film star and her promise to the narrator that he can be her chauffeur.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=50}} According to Riley, the song satirises the "ethics of materialism" and serves as a "parody of the Beatles' celebrity status and the status-seekers they meet".{{sfn|Riley|2002|pp=156, 157}} Author and critic [[Kenneth Womack]] describes the lyrics as being "loaded with sexual innuendo", and he says that the female protagonist challenged the gendered expectations of a mid-1960s pop audience, as an "everywoman" with ego and a clear agenda.{{sfn|Womack|2007|p=115}}

===="Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"====
{{listen|pos=left|filename=|title="Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)"|description=The opening verse of "Norwegian Wood"}}
Lennon said he wrote "[[Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)|Norwegian Wood]]" about an extramarital affair and that he worded the narrative to hide the truth from his wife, [[Cynthia Lennon|Cynthia]].{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=217}} The lyrics sketch a failed meeting between the singer and a mysterious girl, where she goes to bed and he sleeps in the bath;<ref name="Unterberger/NW">{{cite web|last=Unterberger|first=Richie|title=The Beatles 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)'|url=http://www.allmusic.com/song/t819431|publisher=[[AllMusic]]|access-date=2 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229091108/http://www.allmusic.com/song/t819431|archive-date=29 December 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> in retaliation at the girl's aloofness, the singer decides to burn down her pine-panelled home.{{sfn|Jackson|2015|p=257}}{{refn|group=nb|According to music journalist [[Rob Sheffield]], the lyrics are so cryptic that the listener is left wondering: "does he light up a joint at the end or burn the girl's house down?"{{sfn|Brackett|Hoard|2004|p=53}}}} Arranged in {{music|time|12|8}} time,<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Norwegian Wood|title=The Beatles '65|publisher=Music Sales|location=London|year=1977|pages=38–39}}</ref> and in the English folk style, the song has a [[Mixolydian mode|Mixolydian]] melody that results in a [[Drone (music)|drone]] effect in the acoustic guitars, complementing the sitar part, though switches to parallel scale of E Dorian during its middle eight.{{sfn|Everett|2001|pp=313–14}} The narrative draws heavily on Dylan's style through its use of ambiguity.<ref name="Unterberger/NW" />{{sfn|Luhrssen|Larson|2017|p=25}} In author Jonathan Gould's description, the song is an "emotional black comedy",{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=297}} while Decker recognises it as a continuation of the "interrogation of sexual ambiguities" and "muddled sense of power" displayed in "Drive My Car".{{sfn|Decker|2009|p=79}}
{{Clear}}

===="You Won't See Me"====
Written by McCartney, "[[You Won't See Me]]" reflects the difficulties he was experiencing in his relationship with actress [[Jane Asher]] due to her refusal to put her acting career second to his needs.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=160}}{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=138–39}} Gould identifies the song as the third consecutive track in which the narrative conveys miscommunication.{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=298}} McCartney described its music as "very Motown-flavored", with a "feel" inspired by Motown bassist [[James Jamerson]].{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=332}} The verses use the same chord sequence as [[the Four Tops]]' hit "[[It's the Same Old Song]]",{{sfn|Womack|2007|p=118}} which was titled by its writers, the [[Holland–Dozier–Holland]] team, in acknowledgement that they had already used the same pattern in their composition "[[I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)|I Can't Help Myself]]".{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=160}}

===="Nowhere Man"====
{{listen|pos=right|filename=Beatles nowhere man.ogg|title="Nowhere Man"|description=Sample from "Nowhere Man"}}
Lennon recalled that "[[Nowhere Man (song)|Nowhere Man]]" came to him fully formed one night at his home in Surrey,{{sfn|Norman|2008|pp=416–17}} after he had struggled to write anything for several hours.{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=217}}{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1996|pp=118, 154}} The song reflects the [[Existentialism|existential]] concerns raised by his experiences with LSD, and, like "[[I'm a Loser]]" and "[[Help! (song)|Help!]]", his self-loathing{{sfn|Kruth|2015|p=127}} during a time he later called his "fat Elvis period".{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|pp=153–54}} It was the first Beatles song to completely avoid boy–girl relationships,{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=50}}{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=322}} and through Lennon conveying his feelings of inadequacy in the third person,{{sfn|Spitz|2005|p=586}} the first example of a [[literary character]] in the Beatles' work.{{sfn|Womack|2007|pp=118–19}} Riley views the message as a precursor to the "I'd love to turn you on" theme of "[[A Day in the Life]]" and, aided by the band's performance, optimistic in tone as Lennon "sings for the unsung, the people who have shut themselves off from life".{{sfn|Riley|2002|pp=161, 162}}

Heavy equalisation was applied to the electric guitar parts through a series of faders,{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=323}} giving them a treble-rich texture that, as with the harmony vocals,{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=217}} recalls the Byrds' sound.{{sfn|Jackson|2015|pp=261–62}} In Prendergast's description, the track "burst[s] forth with all the gusto of newly discovered psychedelia", as Lennon's lead vocal "luxuriates in an opiated haze of production and Harrison's Fender Stratocaster solo fuzzes with all the right hallucinatory sparkle".{{sfn|Prendergast|2003|p=192}}

===="Think for Yourself"====
Harrison's lyrics to "[[Think for Yourself]]" suggest the influence of Dylan's September 1965 single "[[Positively 4th Street]]", as Harrison appears to rebuke a friend or lover.{{sfn|Kruth|2015|pp=164, 165}} The song's accusatory message was unprecedented in the Beatles' work;{{sfn|Kruth|2015|pp=164, 165}} Jackson identifies it as the band's contribution to a "subgenre" of [[protest song]]s that emerged in 1965, in which artists railed against "oppressive conformity itself" rather than political issues.{{sfn|Jackson|2015|p=90}} Everett describes the composition as "a tour de force of altered [[Degree (music)|scale degrees]]". He adds that, such is the ambiguity throughout, "its tonal quality forms the perfect conspirator with the text's and the rhythm's hesitations and unexpected turns."{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=19}} Gould writes that, in its dialogue with Harrison's vocal, McCartney's fuzz bass suggests "the snarls of an enraged [[schnauzer]], snapping and striking at its lead".{{sfn|Gould|2007|p=299}}

===="The Word"====
{{quote box|quote= ["The Word" is] all about gettin' smart. It's the marijuana period{{nbsp}}... it's the love-and-peace thing. The word is "love," right? It seems like the underlying theme to the universe. Everything that was worthwhile got down to this one, love, love thing.{{sfn|Guesdon|Margotin|2013|p=290}}|source=– John Lennon|width=25%|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}
In his book ''1965: The Year Modern Britain Was Born'', Bray recognises "[[The Word (song)|The Word]]" as marking the start of the Beatles' "high psychedelic period".{{sfn|Bray|2014|p=271}} Lennon's exhortation that "The word is love" anticipates the ethos behind the counterculture's 1967 [[Summer of Love]].{{sfn|Riley|2002|p=163}} The lyrics focus on the concept of universal love as a path to spiritual enlightenment, with what Decker terms "proselytizing zeal" on the narrator's part.{{sfn|Decker|2009|p=83}} Author [[Ian MacDonald]] recognises the "distant influence" of [[Wilson Pickett]]'s "[[In the Midnight Hour]]" and [[James Brown]]'s "[[Papa's Got a Brand New Bag]]" on the song's rhythm, and highlights Starr's drumming (for its "feast of eccentric 'backwards fills{{'"}}) and McCartney's dextrous bass playing.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|p=160}} The arrangement also includes seven vocal parts and Martin playing suspended chords on harmonium.{{sfn|Everett|2001|p=332}}

===="Michelle"====
"[[Michelle (song)|Michelle]]" was conceived by McCartney in the late 1950s. During a writing session for ''Rubber Soul'', Lennon added a new middle eight, part of which was taken from [[Nina Simone]]'s recent cover of "[[I Put a Spell on You]]".<ref name="Halpin/Louder">{{cite web|url=http://louderthanwar.com/rubber-soul-50th-anniversary-beatles-classic-album/|first=Michael|last=Halpin|title=Rubber Soul – 50th Anniversary of The Beatles Classic Album|website=[[Louder Than War (website)|Louder Than War]]|date=3 December 2015|access-date=7 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171026222045/http://louderthanwar.com/rubber-soul-50th-anniversary-beatles-classic-album/|archive-date=26 October 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> MacDonald identifies the song as another example of the Beatles' "comedy song" approach, which, in a contemporary interview, McCartney had suggested was a possible new direction for the group.{{sfn|MacDonald|1998|pp=144, 156}} In Womack's view, the French phrases in the lyrics accentuate the premise whereby a language barrier separates two lovers, and the narrative conveys an acceptance that their relationship is doomed to fail, such that the singer is already looking back nostalgically at what could have been.{{sfn|Womack|2007|p=120}} Gould describes the performance as "sentimental … French cabaret" which, following McCartney's declaration of "I love you", leads into a guitar solo by Harrison that represents "one of [[Jean-Paul Sartre]]'s existential café workers".{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=301–02}}