The Beatles‘ Rubber Soul includes songs about a variety of topics. For example, John Lennon said one Rubber Soul song is about “the underlying theme to the universe.” John revealed the song was written as part of his “marijuana period.”
John Lennon said 1 of the songs from The Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’ was about ‘the answer’
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The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon includes an interview from 1980. In it, John discussed his views on love. “It sort of dawned on me that love was the answer when I was younger,” he recalled.
“On The Beatles’ Rubber Soul album, the first expression of it was a song called ‘The Word’: ‘The word is love / In the good and the bad books that I have read,’” John said, paraphrasing the track. “‘The word is love’ seemed like the underlying theme to the universe or to everything that was worthwhile, got down to this love, love, love thing. And it was the struggle to love, be loved, and express that.”
John Lennon said the song was part of his ‘marijuana period’
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John said he wanted to mimic some of the most admired men in history. “You know, there’s something about love that’s fantastic,” he said. “Even though I’m not always a loving person, I wanna be that, I wanna be as loving as possible. Or in the Christian sense, as Christ-like as possible. In the Hindu sense, as Gandhi-esque as possible.”
The book All We Are Saying; The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes another interview from 1980. In it, John revealed the origin of “The Word.” “‘The Word’ was written together, but it’s mainly mine,” he remembered. “You read the words, it’s all about — gettin’ smart. It’s the marijuana period. It’s love, it’s the love-and-peace thing.”
How The Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’ performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
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“The Word” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile, Rubber Soul topped the Billboard 200 for six weeks. The album stayed on the chart for 70 weeks in total.
According to The Official Charts Company, “The Word” didn’t chart in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand, Rubber Soul was a huge hit there. In the U.K., the album was No. 1 for eight of its 42 weeks on the chart.
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“The Word” wasn’t a hit but John felt it was profound.
