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Author and longtime Rolling Stone<\/a> music journalist, Rob Sheffield, joined host Kenneth Womack for our special seventh season finale of \u201cEverything Fab Four<\/a>,\u201d a podcast co-produced by me and Womack (a music scholar who also writes about pop music for Salon) and distributed by Salon.<\/p>\n Sheffield was a guest at the recent \u201cEverything Fab Four\u201d Fest<\/a> in early November in Asbury Park, NJ, where he shared an onstage conversation with Womack and our previous podcast guest, Jamie Bernstein. The event celebrated The Beatles<\/a>\u2019 \u201cRubber Soul<\/a>,\u201d an album which not only turns 60 this week but that Sheffield says is his favorite and \u201cgoes with us everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t care if they made \u2018better\u2019 albums,\u201d he said. \u201cTo me, \u2018Rubber Soul\u2019 is the one. The Beatles shocked themselves with how great it was, and it\u2019s still shocking me. It\u2019s an album that continues to inspire and influence musicians to this day.\u201d From the Fab Four\u2019s 1960s contemporaries Brian Wilson<\/a> and The Rolling Stones<\/a> to more current artists such as Ariana Grande<\/a> and Phoebe Bridgers, Sheffield believes people appreciate that the band was \u201cwilling to experiment and not repeat the formula.\u201d<\/p>\n For Womack\u2019s part, he expressed admiration for Sheffield\u2019s work and the \u201cvulnerability\u201d he shows when writing about music \u2013 something Sheffield attributes to the former Beatles. \u201cEnthusiasm. Music has always brought it out of me, and you can blame Paul McCartney<\/a> for that. He and Ringo<\/a> both, in 2025, still have this pure, undimmed, unjaded enthusiasm.\u201d He went on to explain that Taylor Swift<\/a> (whose work he examines in his latest book, \u201cHeartbreak is the National Anthem<\/a>\u201d) also seems to share that as a songwriter. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved her ability to jump into every emotion \u2013 to summon that enthusiasm. She and Paul are both so similar in their fanaticism about writing pop music. They can take an everyday scene and make it something memorable.\u201d<\/p>\n LISTEN:<\/strong><\/p>\n