Across Abbey Road · Scene 08 of 21 · Album 6 of 13

08 1:16–1:23 Era 6Rubber Soul 1965

“But if you just listen, then you will know”

Late 1965: everything turns to suede, and a man watches from his window.

All 21 scenes

The Scene

Scene 08 · Rubber Soul · 7 seconds · two shotsLate 1965, and everything turns to suede. Mike steps out from behind a plane tree onto the crossing in a brown suede jacket and a black roll neck, a red twelve-string across his front, while a small pale-blue car waits for him to pass. Then the camera rises along the terrace: a man leans on his first-floor windowsill looking down at the crossing, and beside the road stands a red telephone box.

Watch the whole film →

The Story

Rubber Soul was recorded in four weeks at the end of 1965 and released that December: the first of their albums whose sleeve does not carry the band’s name, because by then it did not need to. Its cover is four men in brown suede and dark polo necks among big dark leaves. It is the record where they stopped performing and started writing. So the film slows down too: one man, one car that waits for him, and one listener at a window.

Shot by Shot

  1. 1 · Suede on the crossing · 1:16–1:20He steps out from behind a plane tree in brown suede and a black roll neck, playing, and a small blue car waits at the stripes to let him pass.
  2. 2 · The watcher at the window · 1:20–1:23Up along the brick terrace: a man at a first-floor window looks down over the crossing, a red telephone box at the kerb below.

What to Look For

You can’t miss itThe look. Brown suede, a black roll neck, greens and browns and almost nothing else: that album’s cover, on one man.

Look closerThe man at the window, alone above the street, watching. The song will name him in the next chorus. And the car that stops for the walker: on this crossing, the walker always has the right of way.

All 21 scenes