BEATLES HISTORY - "DRIVE MY CAR" - It Almost Wasn't Written - And Then It was Mostly Orphaned!

"Drive My Car" didn't start out with the car concept, nor did it have much of a start at all. With both Lennon and McCartney putting their heads together, the song became the opener for the UK version of the "Rubber Soul" album - but not in the U.S.!

[@GaryT1952]

Another winner TGT! Having owned and enjoyed RS since 1965, I bought the Parlophone UK version about a year ago and fell involve with it all over again...Drive My Car and Nowhere Man brings the listening effect to another level

[@monkeyshake3508]

Good job. Great cameo by Hurricane Smith.

[@sapelesteve]

Excellent video old guy! Rubber Soul is one of my favorite Beatles albums! It represented a turning point in the groups musical style.

[@gdholmfirth]

Really enjoyed your analysis. As a teenager listening to the American version of "Rubber Soul", I grew up feeling that is how the album should have sounded. Not only the opening with "I've Just Seen a Face", or the double false start on "I'm Looking through You", but the stereo with rhythm track on the left, and vocals and overdubs on the right. Listening to the album one channel at a time, I could hear for the first time how the songs were constructed. (I went on to work as an engineer at a record company in Nashville). "Drive My Car" seems so foreign as a song on "Rubber Soul" if you listened to the album several hundred times first, without the song.

[@SomeRandomDude2020]

I too am an old guy, but I must admit you have the look down. I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your videos. I like your presentation style and your subject matter.

[@the_guitar_trooper]

That’s really kind of you! Thanks so much!!

[@raymondsmart6204]

I really enjoy your videos

[@kenmabie8029]

Thanks Trooper. Great detail on this song. And yes, we were frustrated in the US by Capitol’s futzing around with the mentioned album’s songs and omissions. BTW, I have a peeled copy of Yesterday and Today. 🤓

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Thanks for watching, and thanks for the comment! You have a real treasure there!

[@TenMinuteDrumSolo]

As usual, a ton of research resulting in a TON of fascinating information. I'm really quite impressed at the level of detail you achieve re events that occurred so very long ago and so far from the public eye. Back then we were quite satisfied (and indeed thrilled!!) to simply have all the new music that dropped from the sky on what felt like a daily basis, but now that the music's in our DNA it's great fun getting these behind-the-scenes scoops on just how it got there...THANKS! BTW, we covered this song in my first band ever, "The Squires", beginning in 1966. As lead guitar player I was using my first ever rig, acquired a couple of years earlier from a local pawn shop for $35: a single pickup Kent (MIJ) guitar with a neck like an oak tree, and a '62 Fender Princeton - both of which I still have.

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Thanks for the view and the kind words! I’m pretty sure that Kent was one of the brands made by Matsu Moku, My first was a Conrad Bison double pickup made in ‘68 by that company. Even though the pickup selector switches were rocker type affairs and not very ergonomic, it was a fairly good guitar as I recall.

[@johnwright8612]

Always enjoy your videos, GT; especially when your subject is The Beatles!

[@anderskihlberg]

I love these indeep analysis that you do, always very interesting. From Sweden with Love 💕💕

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Thank you very much as always!

[@MrKaywyn]

Drive My Car is one of the finest opening tracks.

[@btsoomcb]

Really like all the videos. you ask for ideas how about one video on the mid-west band from the 50s-60s "Legends" or "Sam McCue and the Legends" they did songs like Lariat, Say Mama, Bop-A-Lena. Just a thought

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll look at them again. I think that I had scratched them due to them being chiefly a Milwaukee market success, so, in that case, the interest from the audience outside the U.S., or outside of Milwaukee, for that matter, would be limited. But I will check again. Thanks!

[@jeffcarney2375]

Another good one! My parents gave me the red album before I started collecting the individual albums, so this song always brings "Day Tripper" to mind.

[@MrKaywyn]

Norman Smith also became a singer in the '70s as Hurricane Smith.

[@Foul_Quince]

It may be largely symbolic, but the recording of Drive My Car is one of the half dozen most important records made since the end of WW2. Being first up on Rubber Soul, it really was the record that said this new music, that wasn't rock and roll any more but was something changing every day, every record - Drive my car drew the line and said that this new music, that we call now "Rock Music" began now. In truth, it had begun in a lot of places a few years ago, but this was the one record that everyone can point to and say "this is where we knew it had begun".

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Well said, Quince!

[@gdholmfirth]

And yet, with the American album opening with "I've Just Seen a Face" that also works and presents an entirely different mood for the new album.

[@Foul_Quince]

@ Well, that was canny marketing. The suits in The House That Nat Built were thinking "You know what's big Right now? Folk Rock! Let's go with that!", whereas back in London, the Ol' Beatles are going "You know what's big right now? Whatever we SAYs big right now!"

[@josephblue4135]

I just listen to the British copy of Rubber Soul twice this week. Did British copy have the orange lettering My 1987 CD version is the golden lettering but the 2009 CD box set has orange. I never knew Paul played the piano on Drive My Car, which i think is a great opening song!😊

[@the_guitar_trooper]

The lettering? All of the Parlophone sleeves that I have seen have reddish orange lettering, more red than orange.

[@Mick_Ts_Chick]

Hey GT from very cold NC. On the upside we got the first snow in 2 years.😀 I love Rubber Soul. I agree with the Beatles about this having different versions in the US. It drives me dippy with all this hodge podge of albums. My best friend actually had the butcher cover album. She stored her records in a shed and the roof leaked and ruined them all.😭 I had borrowed her Ringo album Blast From Your Past, so it survived.

[@the_guitar_trooper]

The drama between the 2 markets is a very interesting byproduct of the seemingly innocent LP standard format difference. I would have never expected it develop as it did.

[@MartysPopParty]

Great stuff. I like the US version of Rubber Soul. I’m sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that that particular version is what I grew up with. Same with Yesterday and Today which I got in 1968 as a kid. I do think that the songs gel well as a unit on the US Rubber Soul. I’ve owned the proper UK versions since the 70’s but still like some of the US versions. Somewhere I heard a statistic that the US versions actually appeared overall in way greater proportions in many various countries combined. The story of the Butcher Cover would be a great subject for one of your long form videos. How that design ever got past Alan Livingston’s desk is still a mystery to me. Regardless of how huge the band was, you’d think common sense would have entered the picture…

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Hi Marty Great idea. I had a fleeting thought about it last year but wasn’t sure I had enough details about it to drive a story. I’ll take another look at it.

[@MartysPopParty]

@ Others have approached the subject but I’d like to hear your take on it as you usually come up with a few extra tidbits as your research is top notch. The go to book on this is Bruce Spizer’s The Beatles Story On Capitol Records” He provides the details about folks like George Osaki who was in charge of the artwork for that album. If I’m not mistaken, Osaki was also responsible for the now controversial “flames” cover on the initial release of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s album “Street Survivors”…

[@timnotbrianmay]

OF COURSE, YOU DID IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!! You know who's getting this! 😸😸😸... MORE COWBELL!!!!!!!!!!

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Hi Tim! Thanks, Man.

[@timnotbrianmay]

@the_guitar_trooper DE NADA!

[@joeyvocals1]

I'm glad you are back! I am subscribed, but I'm worried you may not be around for a while

[@the_guitar_trooper]

I'll keep the vids coming! Promise. Even if I end up changing tools!

[@heliopadula2825]

Hey Old Guy ! Great video as always. Keep the good job ! I was only frustrated that you didn't mention a word about the guitar / bass intro of this song, which is odd-tempoed and very tricky to perform. I believe many attempts were made until they got it right, I wonder if there are "wrong" takes preserved.....

[@the_guitar_trooper]

The earlier takes 1-3 were apparently recorded over, as I can find no copies of them anywhere. There are no records that I can find that describe the exact breakdown that occurred on any of those takes, but I would bet that at least one of them included the intro. Just a guess though.

[@greaser5691]

I found it interesting that Norman (I've heard he was nicknamed 'Normal' by the Beatles) Smith had a short recording career as 'Hurricane' Smith. I remember the song "Oh Babe , What Would You Say" from my childhood (1972), and knew of Norman Smith as the Beatles's engineer, but did not connect they were the same person until very recently. 😀

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Yep. He became quite active in the field.

[@buzzsmith8146]

Thanks, GT. (That was a very strange album cover.)

[@the_guitar_trooper]

You mean the butcher cover? Yeah. Kinda creepy

[@DLeadVox]

💛💛💛

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Thanks for the view!

[@Dills1995]

Yeah…. in the old days albums were 13 songs of crap and the one song you wanted to hear. Why did you buy if that was the case? Because you could hear your favorite song in stereo! Rubber Soul started a whole new era. 😊

[@johnlouisgood]

Idk if you'll see this but I have a video idea....When/Why Chuck Berry went to jail in the '50s.

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Great idea! Thanks a million!

[@donnysmith946]

More Cow Bell

[@the_guitar_trooper]

Yeah BAYBEEEEEE