we're here because we love the album, from the first cough and count to the last of the beginning ( which is the end). though i never skip them i think I'm guilty of tuning out a little when doctor robert and i want to tell you arrive. there is great singing on doctor robert though and i want to tell you has a nice switch into the middle eight. y'know it's the beatles man. however, it does kind of have implications for the pacing of the album and the OUTRAGEOUS simply OUTRAGEOUS 😮claim that revolver is the best beatles album (and she's always seems so nice). signed yours truly, outraged of england. possibly in hiding. somewhere where you can't send the cat to hunt me down.
Never! "Least good" maybe but not "worst"; though even least good is subjective. One of my favourites on the album is I Want To Tell You, which most people seem to rate quite low. But I love the driving rhythm and Paul's weird discordant piano part; and also the fact that it inspired the great Neil Innes to become a songwriter.
No worst, or least good, song on the lp, which I think is in contention for best Beatles album... However, Nancy, I'm surprised that you didn't mention the YellowSub movie, which was also treated as a kids film, and where we teen attendees dressed&acted like children, and "where I'm sure no substances were involved"!
I've *always* loved "Yellow Submarine" for its hilarity, silliness, and quirkiness. How can anyone listen to this song without feeling the joy they all experienced in making it? Thank you for the rehabilitation!
Neil Aspinall (school mate of Paul and George from the Liverpool Institute) was the original Beatles roadie. As their needs grew Mal Evans was recruited as roadie and Neil was "promoted" to handle other slightly more formal tasks as personal assistant.
I love “Yellow Submarine.” It never ceases to make me smile- I love that the space where an instrumental solo would sit is replaced by crazy sound effects and a party. Of course, I was four-years old when it was released, so I was bang-on for the target demographic.
I do not have much to add beyond that this video brought me 23 minutes and 1 second of pure joy. I love your enthusiasm and insight. It made me appreciate a song I have heard many times before in a new way. I appreciate the work that goes into these.
The Beatles didn't try to be clever and some people don't get joy and play. By the mid 60's sea shanties were quite appropriate . Ringo sings the every man and he's got real heart. It made it to the campfire and loved by children and grandparents,every one joined in. I used to sing and dance round the living room with my daughter when she was wee and we both played ,jumped and marched with the brass band. You captured it all ,
I wouldn't say it was a "deeper meaning" necessarily, but I think the concept of the Beatles all living together in a Yellow Submarine does borrow from, and feed into, the fact and the myth of the Beatles as a self-contained band of brothers insulated from our "real world" inside their bubble of fame and magic, the cuddly "four headed monster" that we see in newsreel films, and A Hard Day's Night, and in Magical Mystery Tour where the magicians live in the sky together. It recalls the fact that they thought about buying a Greek island or a group of little islands and all living there together. The world treated the Beatles as public property but at the same time they were apart from us and untouchable, in a place where they preserved an innocence that was a big part of the glamour of the Beatles. Yellow Submarine fits right in.
Love this point - it remind me as well of the scene in Help! where its revealed that they all live together in a giant, open- plan flat. As a kid, I was convinced that this was historically accurate.
Without Yellow Submarine, Revolver would've sounded too self-serious. It restores the balance. It's also The Beatles' tribute to Spike Milligan & The Goon Show, something they listened to on BBC radio when they were growing up. The Goon Show of course, was also a big influence on the Monty Python gang. And then George ended up financing their Life Of Brian film, etc. That kind of humour was as integral to The Beatles' psyche as rock n' roll itself.
Great video deep-dive. Thank you for doing it and sharing it. As for the obvious real meaning of “Yellow Submarine”, it’s the true story of The Beatles being abducted on an actual Yellow Submarine to try and save Pepperland from The Blue Meanies. Or it could just be a children’s song.
@@leerogers9949 I think the censors believed it was drug related. Singapore is weird that way. Lots of others banned too. Lucy in the Sky, Day in the Life, Love is a Warm Gun , Magical Mystery Tour, etc Not sure if the ban still stands. May have been slackened in the 1990s.
Revolver is a masterpiece. While I personally wouldn't say that YS is 'not a favorite' it's certainly ok for others to feel that way. However, to express any disdain or to even give it an eye roll seems pretentious. To be so deaf to the joy you wonderfully describe, or to dismiss it completely loses all the fun; the important fun. It's like a dark movie script needing a moment of comic relief. Those moments help the whole piece profoundly. And I'm not suggesting that Revolver is dark, but it is in many ways their heaviest album thematically speaking. The somber life of Elenore and Father McKenzie. John's need to check out and just sleep. The loss of love that should've lasted years and even the weight of finally having a love so profound that one needs it everywhere, as if life without it isn't one worth living. Some woman (Peter Fonda) knowing what it's like to be dead! Don't get me started on the almost haunting aggressions of Love You To and Tomorrow Never Knows... sounds that were so exotic that there wasn't a pop music fan on the globe that had heard anything like it at the time! Revolver begs for a little levity. It is my belief that the people that think like that need to 'work on THEIR sobriety' from time to time. It also reminds me of the ire some people have towards Sloop John B. being on Pet Sounds. Even Bruce Johnston has bemoaned that he thinks Pet Sounds would've been a flawless record if SJB wasn't included.... WHAT?!! I suppose that's a comment for a different post.
It's simply put, a fun song. Seeing where it came from in John's original "no one cared, no one cared" - it becomes a feature animated film, and any way that anyone wants to slice it - it's a classic.
When I was 9, we used to sing the singalong part in the locker room before sports. The year before we sang Ticket to Ride. Thus was in the Netherlands. They represented fun to us, unconservative fun, a new kind of fun. You were mice and geeky as a schoolgirl? Did you want to be a boy? Adorable.
Being the age of two years old in 1966 I was the perfect demographic for this song. What I think doesn't really get mentioned is that “children's songs” were a very popular genre unto themselves through most of the early 20th century, there was a canon of nursery rhymes with familiar melodies, and at that time in my life such an album was my favourite. What I'm really trying to say is that I mourn the death of children's songs as a genre. I think by the 1980s it was just young kids would get out of their prams and get straight onto Michael Jackson. However I would point to the sterling work of They Might be Giants.
Late to the conversation, but I'll have to say I've always loved this song. Musically there's not much too it, but the performance, lyrics and production are sublime.
In my opinion Yellow Submarine is simply about having a good time with your friends, which the backstory to the recording beautifully demonstrates. Ringo's Octopuses Garden is also about that, escaping the troubles of the world and living merrily with your friends, that one being more poignant because of the troubles the band was going through at the time.
Yes, this is a Children's song but I think it's also informed by the (then current) interest in pseudo-1920's-1930's kitsch pop songs. From The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (on TV, but not yet recorded), through 'Wincester Cathedral' by The New Vaudville Band, Whistling Jack Smith's 'I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman' and up to it's apotheosis (IMO) with Tiny Tim's 'Tip Toe Through The Tulips', this was a current trend in pop music. If you look at Revolver as a summation of styles, ideas & influences on The Beatles, this song fits in very neatly. Another detailed review, well done.
I had a mate, when I was at CalZtts, who built a recording studio in his loft with a periscope in the form of a yellow submarine- And yes, fathom, “sobriety” may have been involved!
It would have been interesting if they had performed “She Said, She Said” live. A truly great but bizarre song. Paul doesn’t play on it, so George is playing bass and guitar. I like when you demonstrate the melodies on piano and guitar. “I’m Only Sleeping” is my favorite on side A, but “She Said” is a close second………another excellent show, thank you!
I used to sing this song to my son, and later my granddaughter, when they were babies. When VHS became a thing, I watched the movie with her. She, a child of the 90s, asked me when were they going to make a “Yellow Submarine 2”?
Glorious celebration of an underdog track. I'm a second gen Beatles fan and already knew the song when I was growing up in the '70s. When I finally heard it in context (Revolver wasn't reissued in Australia until 1977) it stuck out awkwardly and made me wonder what the first people to hear the album made of it. But Revolver is still one to put on and leave on, for me, so this one is just part of the flow.
You know, It has never occurred to me that there were people who didn’t like this song. What else don’t they like? Don’t tell me. Nice video by the way. Keep up the good work.
Speaking of a children song by rock artists. There is a whole record of children songs by Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia and David Grisman made "Not for children only", a collection of old folk children songs. A very fine record and well played.
My generation (😁) chattered while we waited in snaking queues along the road leading to the Hallmark Record Shop, and the like, when a Beatles record was released. We sometimes stood inside in the shop’s row of booths with headphones on listening to tracks we might want to buy. Singles were 6s 8d (six shillings and eightpence) - exactly three records for a pound. A pound (£1) was one fifth of my weekly wage. Some of my peers would skip over ‘the Ringo track’, lift the needle to the following song. (As you know, you can see the difference in the grooves where a track ends.) They were fools. Now they are cynics. Yellow Submarine is iconic. You only have to walk around Liverpool to realise how fabulous, joyful, playful and childlike is the whole concept.
I believe Paul must have gotten the idea in his head from John telling him about that first LSD experience (where they all suddenly began feeling like they were in a submarine); anything else would’ve been too coincidental. But indeed it appears to be a most sincere children’s song!
Revolver is my favorite Beatles album. George's I Want To Tell You is my least favorite song. It's a shame that Paperback Writer and Rain weren't included. I used to put them in between side 1 and 2 on cassette and later on CD.
Nice pointing out of the original wife-recording-studio-entering incident! Also, in the last of the AI images, I spot Liam Gallagher on the right! Finally, on the strength of this video, I'm bumping my rating of this song from 1/5 to 2/5!
Another video with me smiling all the way through. I didn't know any of that detail about the background sounds. (And I can never watch that clip of Heather (17:38) without laughing along with her). Liverpool Football Club play in all red with white trim and supporters in the Kop stand sing "We All Live in a Red and White Kop" and when Jamie Carragher played for them sang "We All Dream of a Team of Carraghers". Twelve thousand singing along makes it sound wonderful. I've been in the echo chamber in Studio 2 at Abbey Road - it's still in use as an echo chamber - they said it's practically the only real one left though.
Psychedelic music took different paths in the UK than the US. In the UK there was a lot of looking back to childhood memories and stories. John wrote about Strawberry Fields, he was into Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear's writings and nursery rhymes. He used 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' in 'Cry Baby Cry' and 'Cleanup Time'. Other bands like Pink Floyd and Traffic used childhood images too. In the US psychedelic music was more improvisational, extended solos and bizarre images.
We learned two things today: Yoko Ono was not the first wife/girlfriend in the studio (Patty Boyd was) and Yoko Ono was not the first wife/girlfriend in the studio to shriek (Patty Boyd once again).
In fact, on the original soundtrack LP, he doesn't sing "A life of ease", either. His response vocal doesn't enter the mix until he says, "Every one of us...", and it fades in late, so you can't really hear the beginning of it. They fixed it on the 1999 Songtrack album, but the original Apple LP has the different mix.
Always nice to hear a shout-out to Geoff Emerick! I don't think I'll ever grow out of giggling at the megaphone call-and-response bit.... P.S. I actually stumbled across a pretty good Yellow Submarine knockoff on Spotify recently - Jolly Mary by a band called July.
I think that later on John was happy to disavow YS for some reason and Paul was only too happy to go along with it and claim it for himself. But there is an interview from 1967, where they do explain how they put the song together from two separate songs.
Your copy of Revolver has "stereo" written on the cover, but it's the mono version we can hear. The giveaway is the presence of the opening chord before Ringo sings; that's not on the stereo version.
Vinyl Friday and Taskmaster - Thursday (UK time) is the best TV day! I get the feeling Yellow Submarine wasn't hated at the time; I think it's the snobbish Rolling Stone magazine idea of "legitimate rock" that seemed to seep into popular culture in the late 60s (and only got worse with punk), that you have to hate anything frivolous or silly or meant for younger people (or girls, ew, girls smell) otherwise you weren't "cool". This notion of Yellow Submarine being a "bad" song because it's not All Along the Watchtower or Smoke on the Water... whereas in reality, YS is part of the rich tapestry of popular music and is great because, like you say, it's drawing on George Martin's 1950s career as the foremost comedy record producer. Also, I've become fascinated in recent years by the low harmony or counter-melody in the chorus. Have you ever noticed that? It sounds like George to me... it's over on the right hand in the remix version.
I can't believe I forgot to mention the countermelody! I completely agree with your thoughts on the rock community's rampant snobbery - thanks for your contribution to the conversation!
It’s a totally fun song. People who don’t like it absolutely have no youth in them. And, can you imagine another band that could have made better use of Ringo’s somewhat limited vocal talents? And not only the narrator for the point, of course, Thomas!
Yet another wkly ex of why we love Nancy/Fathom... I usta bounce around in the back seat -- no seat belt laws back then -- joining in the lyrics every time YellowSub came on the radio, which was quite often, gleefully making my dad grumpy (?!?) and me mum happy to see&hear her tweener happy. And, we all DO live in a YellowSub!
I always loved the sound effects and always wondered how they did them, especially the submarine engine sound effects, in particular, the one that goes "wwwwwwwssshhhhhhh........jiiiii-bioink" (LOL) I've always liked that weird "lololololololololololol" laugh which I think is Patti Boyd! Yes, they positively, definitely weren't under the influence of anything like Mary Jane on this track in any way, shape or form whatsoever! 🤣🤣🤣
I disagree - The Kinks and The Who did some very silly songs. Until the failure of Dogs as a single made them go all serious, The Who were pretty much the funniest band out there in terms of musical output.
@@fathommusicnz don't get me wrong I love the kinks waterloo sunset is one of the best songs ever. It's up there with the beatles best love from ireland👍
hey! hey! hey! do you hear that? do you hear that? me neither! must've been nothing. Also! I like Magical Mystery tour. it has my favorite songs!!! yay!!!
I really enjoy your video’s, I subscribe and always like. But I think “ Yellow Submarine,” is Revolver’s ‘Best’ song. If you were around at the time, then you reveled in it. The joy and merriment that it brought to the moment was just the frosting on the cake of 1966. I guess you had to be there. ☹️
Enjoyed that. One comment, if i may: when you say "when John sang it in that early demo he sounded a little bit too plaintive" you speak as though John's tape is an early demo of Yellow Submarine, but i think this encourages misunderstandings that are already too rife on the internet. "Turns out John wrote the verses to that song" tends if anything to reinforce them. Truth is, there's a good reason why John said "Paul's baby, I had a hand in shaping the lyrics, but it was Paul's concept, Paul's title and chorus, so i think of it as a Paul composition". John's "in the town where I was born" fragment was an idea for a completely *different* song that John never wrote. Yellow Submarine did not exist in any form until Paul came up with the concept and brought in the chorus. John said (WTTE) "I've got this bit of tune that might do for the verse", and so they wrote the rest of the lyric *together* using that, following Paul's concept. This would be merely pedantic, were it not for the fact that the internet is filled with claims that "John's Yellow Submarine demo" proves it was "really John's song" etc etc.
Thanks for your take, I appreciate your contribution to the conversation 😊 I would maintain that even if, thematically, the song wasn't yet "Yellow Submarine" in John's early iteration, the final product might not be all that interesting without that melodic verse. For me, it makes the song.
@@fathommusicnz True, that's possible. Of course, we don't know what other verse tune they might have come up with if John had not had that fragment handy - one we might never hve known existed had it not found a home in Yellow Submarine.
You shouldn't take Emerick's book as fact, unfortunately. The details are mostly made up - Ken Scott had a lot of not very nice things to say about it :/ The "tossed tape bits in the air" might have happened for the mr Kite sessions, but this brass snippet is far too coherent to have been cut up that way. There were brass session musician present on the 1 June 1966 overdub session and it's likely that they actually played on the record. George Martin even said as much (even though his memory wasn't always reliable either): "There was also a brass band. This wasn’t a sound effect on tape, the band was right there in the studio".
I haven't read Geoff's book, so I'd never heard that claim before. As far as I knew, it was just a straight up sample. But you're saying the brass was live according to GM. Curiouser and curiouser.
an achievement, talking about yellow submarine for 23 mins and not forgetting the second. i never doubted you. in english culture there can be a bit of a crossover between silliness, an address to perhaps a younger audience and an adult audience at one and the same time. the goons, python, lewis carroll. the songs appeal like a tale begun in other days when summer suns were glowing (through the looking- glass) liverpool, historically, is a massive seaport and john's dad was, i think a merchant seaman: so an adventure seawards has an autobiographical impetus. the whimsical twist in the track run, startling, but true in it's cultural context. given that, next up, the riff for she said she said burrows itself into the brain, it's time to borrow a title from a crowded house tune and make the claim that the beatles truly were four seasons in one day.
Bonus points for the NZ music reference, Alan! It is, after all, New Zealand Music Month! Love the link you're drawing with the Goons, and with Carroll in particular. Well noted.
In your view, does Revolver even have a "worst" song? If so, which is it?
we're here because we love the album, from the first cough and count to the last of the beginning ( which is the end). though i never skip them i think I'm guilty of tuning out a little when doctor robert and i want to tell you arrive. there is great singing on doctor robert though and i want to tell you has a nice switch into the middle eight. y'know it's the beatles man.
however, it does kind of have implications for the pacing of the album and the OUTRAGEOUS simply OUTRAGEOUS 😮claim that revolver is the best beatles album (and she's always seems so nice).
signed yours truly, outraged of england. possibly in hiding. somewhere where you can't send the cat to hunt me down.
It's Good Day Sunshine
Never! "Least good" maybe but not "worst"; though even least good is subjective. One of my favourites on the album is I Want To Tell You, which most people seem to rate quite low. But I love the driving rhythm and Paul's weird discordant piano part; and also the fact that it inspired the great Neil Innes to become a songwriter.
No worst, or least good, song on the lp, which I think is in contention for best Beatles album...
However, Nancy, I'm surprised that you didn't mention the YellowSub movie, which was also treated as a kids film, and where we teen attendees dressed&acted like children, and "where I'm sure no substances were involved"!
@@fredkrissman6527 Absolutely - I think it's rock solid from start to finish.
I've *always* loved "Yellow Submarine" for its hilarity, silliness, and quirkiness. How can anyone listen to this song without feeling the joy they all experienced in making it? Thank you for the rehabilitation!
I want that lunchbox!
By the by, Yellow Submarine is so very clearly a protest song against the Blue Meanies.
Neil Aspinall (school mate of Paul and George from the Liverpool Institute) was the original Beatles roadie. As their needs grew Mal Evans was recruited as roadie and Neil was "promoted" to handle other slightly more formal tasks as personal assistant.
The Gnome from The Piper at the Gates of Dawn by Pink Floyd -- another example of a children's song on a famous rock record.
I love “Yellow Submarine.” It never ceases to make me smile- I love that the space where an instrumental solo would sit is replaced by crazy sound effects and a party. Of course, I was four-years old when it was released, so I was bang-on for the target demographic.
I do not have much to add beyond that this video brought me 23 minutes and 1 second of pure joy. I love your enthusiasm and insight. It made me appreciate a song I have heard many times before in a new way. I appreciate the work that goes into these.
@@matthewatherton6537 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
The Beatles didn't try to be clever and some people don't get joy and play.
By the mid 60's sea shanties were quite appropriate .
Ringo sings the every man and he's got real heart.
It made it to the campfire and loved by children and grandparents,every one joined in.
I used to sing and dance round the living room with my daughter when she was wee and we both played ,jumped and marched with the brass band.
You captured it all ,
I wouldn't say it was a "deeper meaning" necessarily, but I think the concept of the Beatles all living together in a Yellow Submarine does borrow from, and feed into, the fact and the myth of the Beatles as a self-contained band of brothers insulated from our "real world" inside their bubble of fame and magic, the cuddly "four headed monster" that we see in newsreel films, and A Hard Day's Night, and in Magical Mystery Tour where the magicians live in the sky together. It recalls the fact that they thought about buying a Greek island or a group of little islands and all living there together. The world treated the Beatles as public property but at the same time they were apart from us and untouchable, in a place where they preserved an innocence that was a big part of the glamour of the Beatles. Yellow Submarine fits right in.
Love this point - it remind me as well of the scene in Help! where its revealed that they all live together in a giant, open- plan flat. As a kid, I was convinced that this was historically accurate.
Without Yellow Submarine, Revolver would've sounded too self-serious. It restores the balance. It's also The Beatles' tribute to Spike Milligan & The Goon Show, something they listened to on BBC radio when they were growing up. The Goon Show of course, was also a big influence on the Monty Python gang. And then George ended up financing their Life Of Brian film, etc. That kind of humour was as integral to The Beatles' psyche as rock n' roll itself.
I loved "Yellow Submarine" as a 10 year old, when it came out, and I still feel that way.
Totally agree. This was the first Beatles song I liked as a little kid, and I still get a kick out of it.
Great video deep-dive. Thank you for doing it and sharing it.
As for the obvious real meaning of “Yellow Submarine”, it’s the true story of The Beatles being abducted on an actual Yellow Submarine to try and save Pepperland from The Blue Meanies.
Or it could just be a children’s song.
I Love Ringo!
Yellow Submarine was banned in Singapore. When I bought my Revolver LP, the censors had deleted Yellow Submarine track
Really? What on Earth for?
@@leerogers9949 I think the censors believed it was drug related. Singapore is weird that way. Lots of others banned too. Lucy in the Sky, Day in the Life, Love is a Warm Gun , Magical Mystery Tour, etc
Not sure if the ban still stands. May have been slackened in the 1990s.
OMG my friend Steve and I were the only Beatles nerds at my High School. We would have been besties. :)
Revolver is a masterpiece. While I personally wouldn't say that YS is 'not a favorite' it's certainly ok for others to feel that way. However, to express any disdain or to even give it an eye roll seems pretentious. To be so deaf to the joy you wonderfully describe, or to dismiss it completely loses all the fun; the important fun. It's like a dark movie script needing a moment of comic relief. Those moments help the whole piece profoundly. And I'm not suggesting that Revolver is dark, but it is in many ways their heaviest album thematically speaking. The somber life of Elenore and Father McKenzie. John's need to check out and just sleep. The loss of love that should've lasted years and even the weight of finally having a love so profound that one needs it everywhere, as if life without it isn't one worth living. Some woman (Peter Fonda) knowing what it's like to be dead! Don't get me started on the almost haunting aggressions of Love You To and Tomorrow Never Knows... sounds that were so exotic that there wasn't a pop music fan on the globe that had heard anything like it at the time! Revolver begs for a little levity. It is my belief that the people that think like that need to 'work on THEIR sobriety' from time to time. It also reminds me of the ire some people have towards Sloop John B. being on Pet Sounds. Even Bruce Johnston has bemoaned that he thinks Pet Sounds would've been a flawless record if SJB wasn't included.... WHAT?!! I suppose that's a comment for a different post.
It's simply put, a fun song. Seeing where it came from in John's original "no one cared, no one cared" - it becomes a feature animated film, and any way that anyone wants to slice it - it's a classic.
I'm one of those Beatles fans who loves Yellow Submarine and I think Ringo sings just perfectly.
Your work is lovely.
When I was 9, we used to sing the singalong part in the locker room before sports. The year before we sang Ticket to Ride.
Thus was in the Netherlands. They represented fun to us, unconservative fun, a new kind of fun.
You were mice and geeky as a schoolgirl? Did you want to be a boy? Adorable.
as a kid, i used to skip around, singing this song at the top of my lungs, during recess. i was very cool.
Being the age of two years old in 1966 I was the perfect demographic for this song. What I think doesn't really get mentioned is that “children's songs” were a very popular genre unto themselves through most of the early 20th century, there was a canon of nursery rhymes with familiar melodies, and at that time in my life such an album was my favourite. What I'm really trying to say is that I mourn the death of children's songs as a genre. I think by the 1980s it was just young kids would get out of their prams and get straight onto Michael Jackson. However I would point to the sterling work of They Might be Giants.
Late to the conversation, but I'll have to say I've always loved this song. Musically there's not much too it, but the performance, lyrics and production are sublime.
In my opinion Yellow Submarine is simply about having a good time with your friends, which the backstory to the recording beautifully demonstrates. Ringo's Octopuses Garden is also about that, escaping the troubles of the world and living merrily with your friends, that one being more poignant because of the troubles the band was going through at the time.
Yes, this is a Children's song but I think it's also informed by the (then current) interest in pseudo-1920's-1930's kitsch pop songs. From The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (on TV, but not yet recorded), through 'Wincester Cathedral' by The New Vaudville Band, Whistling Jack Smith's 'I Was Kaiser Bill's Batman' and up to it's apotheosis (IMO) with Tiny Tim's 'Tip Toe Through The Tulips', this was a current trend in pop music. If you look at Revolver as a summation of styles, ideas & influences on The Beatles, this song fits in very neatly. Another detailed review, well done.
I had a mate, when I was at CalZtts, who built a recording studio in his loft with a periscope in the form of a yellow submarine-
And yes, fathom, “sobriety” may have been involved!
It would have been interesting if they had performed “She Said, She Said” live. A truly great but bizarre song. Paul doesn’t play on it, so George is playing bass and guitar. I like when you demonstrate the melodies on piano and guitar. “I’m Only Sleeping” is my favorite on side A, but “She Said” is a close second………another excellent show, thank you!
Thank you, great song, you express the fun of it perfectly. Definitely belongs on Revolver.
It’s a 20th Century sea shanty!
I used to sing this song to my son, and later my granddaughter, when they were babies. When VHS became a thing, I watched the movie with her. She, a child of the 90s, asked me when were they going to make a “Yellow Submarine 2”?
Glorious celebration of an underdog track. I'm a second gen Beatles fan and already knew the song when I was growing up in the '70s. When I finally heard it in context (Revolver wasn't reissued in Australia until 1977) it stuck out awkwardly and made me wonder what the first people to hear the album made of it. But Revolver is still one to put on and leave on, for me, so this one is just part of the flow.
You know, It has never occurred to me that there were people who didn’t like this song. What else don’t they like? Don’t tell me. Nice video by the way. Keep up the good work.
Speaking of a children song by rock artists. There is a whole record of children songs by Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead.
Jerry Garcia and David Grisman made "Not for children only", a collection of old folk children songs. A very fine record and well played.
Another awesome episode. I've learned more details about this track (which I've always loved) than ever before.
My generation (😁) chattered while we waited in snaking queues along the road leading to the Hallmark Record Shop, and the like, when a Beatles record was released. We sometimes stood inside in the shop’s row of booths with headphones on listening to tracks we might want to buy.
Singles were 6s 8d (six shillings and eightpence) - exactly three records for a pound.
A pound (£1) was one fifth of my weekly wage.
Some of my peers would skip over ‘the Ringo track’, lift the needle to the following song. (As you know, you can see the difference in the grooves where a track ends.) They were fools. Now they are cynics.
Yellow Submarine is iconic. You only have to walk around Liverpool to realise how fabulous, joyful, playful and childlike is the whole concept.
I believe Paul must have gotten the idea in his head from John telling him about that first LSD experience (where they all suddenly began feeling like they were in a submarine); anything else would’ve been too coincidental. But indeed it appears to be a most sincere children’s song!
"Me and My Arrow" by Nillson is a great kids song.
"The Point" is fabulous.
Revolver is my favorite Beatles album. George's I Want To Tell You is my least favorite song.
It's a shame that Paperback Writer and Rain weren't included. I used to put them in between side 1 and 2 on cassette and later on CD.
Well I enjoy this song. Always have. Just so much fun! Thanks for including the recent discovery of John's beginning.
Nice pointing out of the original wife-recording-studio-entering incident!
Also, in the last of the AI images, I spot Liam Gallagher on the right!
Finally, on the strength of this video, I'm bumping my rating of this song from 1/5 to 2/5!
Job done! 🤣
Another video with me smiling all the way through. I didn't know any of that detail about the background sounds. (And I can never watch that clip of Heather (17:38) without laughing along with her). Liverpool Football Club play in all red with white trim and supporters in the Kop stand sing "We All Live in a Red and White Kop" and when Jamie Carragher played for them sang "We All Dream of a Team of Carraghers". Twelve thousand singing along makes it sound wonderful.
I've been in the echo chamber in Studio 2 at Abbey Road - it's still in use as an echo chamber - they said it's practically the only real one left though.
Thank you: Yellow Submarine is as much fun as it always has been.
"You all live in a convict colony..." - The Barmy Army in Australia during the Ashes tours.
Psychedelic music took different paths in the UK than the US. In the UK there was a lot of looking back to childhood memories and stories. John wrote about Strawberry Fields, he was into Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear's writings and nursery rhymes. He used 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' in 'Cry Baby Cry' and 'Cleanup Time'. Other bands like Pink Floyd and Traffic used childhood images too.
In the US psychedelic music was more improvisational, extended solos and bizarre images.
This is an interesting point, you're absolutely right.
I read that Andy Partridge from XTC thought YS was a major song.
We learned two things today: Yoko Ono was not the first wife/girlfriend in the studio (Patty Boyd was) and Yoko Ono was not the first wife/girlfriend in the studio to shriek (Patty Boyd once again).
Hm. I always thought it was Paul doing the shouting responses. Oh well. Ya learn something new every day.
In fact, on the original soundtrack LP, he doesn't sing "A life of ease", either. His response vocal doesn't enter the mix until he says, "Every one of us...", and it fades in late, so you can't really hear the beginning of it. They fixed it on the 1999 Songtrack album, but the original Apple LP has the different mix.
Always nice to hear a shout-out to Geoff Emerick! I don't think I'll ever grow out of giggling at the megaphone call-and-response bit....
P.S. I actually stumbled across a pretty good Yellow Submarine knockoff on Spotify recently - Jolly Mary by a band called July.
I think that later on John was happy to disavow YS for some reason and Paul was only too happy to go along with it and claim it for himself. But there is an interview from 1967, where they do explain how they put the song together from two separate songs.
Beatles were hilarius! I love that!
That was big fun ! Well done Fathom.
Your copy of Revolver has "stereo" written on the cover, but it's the mono version we can hear. The giveaway is the presence of the opening chord before Ringo sings; that's not on the stereo version.
Vinyl Friday and Taskmaster - Thursday (UK time) is the best TV day!
I get the feeling Yellow Submarine wasn't hated at the time; I think it's the snobbish Rolling Stone magazine idea of "legitimate rock" that seemed to seep into popular culture in the late 60s (and only got worse with punk), that you have to hate anything frivolous or silly or meant for younger people (or girls, ew, girls smell) otherwise you weren't "cool". This notion of Yellow Submarine being a "bad" song because it's not All Along the Watchtower or Smoke on the Water... whereas in reality, YS is part of the rich tapestry of popular music and is great because, like you say, it's drawing on George Martin's 1950s career as the foremost comedy record producer.
Also, I've become fascinated in recent years by the low harmony or counter-melody in the chorus. Have you ever noticed that? It sounds like George to me... it's over on the right hand in the remix version.
I can't believe I forgot to mention the countermelody!
I completely agree with your thoughts on the rock community's rampant snobbery - thanks for your contribution to the conversation!
Yes, it's George.
I've always enjoyed this song! So lighthearted & fun! Yellow Submarine, come & take me away! LOL 😆😆😆
Another gem
Thank you Nancy for the history lesson! Still it is my least favourite from Revolver.
It’s a totally fun song. People who don’t like it absolutely have no youth in them.
And, can you imagine another band that could have made better use of Ringo’s somewhat limited vocal talents? And not only the narrator for the point, of course, Thomas!
The brass makes me think of Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
It's the Ringo-song of this Beatle album.
Yet another wkly ex of why we love Nancy/Fathom...
I usta bounce around in the back seat -- no seat belt laws back then -- joining in the lyrics every time YellowSub came on the radio, which was quite often, gleefully making my dad grumpy (?!?) and me mum happy to see&hear her tweener happy.
And, we all DO live in a YellowSub!
I always loved the sound effects and always wondered how they did them, especially the submarine engine sound effects, in particular, the one that goes "wwwwwwwssshhhhhhh........jiiiii-bioink" (LOL) I've always liked that weird "lololololololololololol" laugh which I think is Patti Boyd! Yes, they positively, definitely weren't under the influence of anything like Mary Jane on this track in any way, shape or form whatsoever! 🤣🤣🤣
I know the exact sound effect youre referring to! Unfortunately, I have no idea what makes that specific sound. It remains a mystery.
@@fathommusicnz Nope! It's probably described in some Beatles geek book or video somewhere.
Serious pop/rock artists that made a children's' single?
David Bowie - The Laughing Gnome
W. C. Fields.
The kinks or the who wouldn't dare to do this even lennon and Harrison enjoyed making it❤
I disagree - The Kinks and The Who did some very silly songs. Until the failure of Dogs as a single made them go all serious, The Who were pretty much the funniest band out there in terms of musical output.
@@Adam-qi7no yeah ur right happy jack and I'm a boy are pretty funny and the drumming is mad as well👍
Interestingly, Ray Davies called this song "a load of rubbish." 😆
@@fathommusicnz Certainly an interesting appraisal from the man who made Phenomenal Cat only a year or so later.
@@fathommusicnz don't get me wrong I love the kinks waterloo sunset is one of the best songs ever. It's up there with the beatles best love from ireland👍
what about the second voice's tone in the unusual 6th at the end of the chorus - a real psychedelic note!
Thanks for pointing this out. I considered including this point but ultimately was going over time!
Perfect, good luck with sub...XXX
hey! hey! hey! do you hear that? do you hear that? me neither! must've been nothing. Also! I like Magical Mystery tour. it has my favorite songs!!! yay!!!
Also, can I have $378?
I like it more than Doctor Robert
I really enjoy your video’s, I subscribe and always like. But I think “ Yellow Submarine,” is Revolver’s ‘Best’ song. If you were around at the time, then you reveled in it. The joy and merriment that it brought to the moment was just the frosting on the cake of 1966. I guess you had to be there. ☹️
That was interesting and very funny...thanks
Enjoyed that. One comment, if i may: when you say "when John sang it in that early demo he sounded a little bit too plaintive" you speak as though John's tape is an early demo of Yellow Submarine, but i think this encourages misunderstandings that are already too rife on the internet. "Turns out John wrote the verses to that song" tends if anything to reinforce them.
Truth is, there's a good reason why John said "Paul's baby, I had a hand in shaping the lyrics, but it was Paul's concept, Paul's title and chorus, so i think of it as a Paul composition". John's "in the town where I was born" fragment was an idea for a completely *different* song that John never wrote. Yellow Submarine did not exist in any form until Paul came up with the concept and brought in the chorus. John said (WTTE) "I've got this bit of tune that might do for the verse", and so they wrote the rest of the lyric *together* using that, following Paul's concept.
This would be merely pedantic, were it not for the fact that the internet is filled with claims that "John's Yellow Submarine demo" proves it was "really John's song" etc etc.
Thanks for your take, I appreciate your contribution to the conversation 😊
I would maintain that even if, thematically, the song wasn't yet "Yellow Submarine" in John's early iteration, the final product might not be all that interesting without that melodic verse. For me, it makes the song.
@@fathommusicnz True, that's possible. Of course, we don't know what other verse tune they might have come up with if John had not had that fragment handy - one we might never hve known existed had it not found a home in Yellow Submarine.
You shouldn't take Emerick's book as fact, unfortunately. The details are mostly made up - Ken Scott had a lot of not very nice things to say about it :/ The "tossed tape bits in the air" might have happened for the mr Kite sessions, but this brass snippet is far too coherent to have been cut up that way. There were brass session musician present on the 1 June 1966 overdub session and it's likely that they actually played on the record. George Martin even said as much (even though his memory wasn't always reliable either): "There was also a brass band. This wasn’t a sound effect on tape, the band was right there in the studio".
Interesting, thanks for sharing. I do try to take his book with a grain of salt - his anti-George bias really gets up my nose sometimes!
I haven't read Geoff's book, so I'd never heard that claim before. As far as I knew, it was just a straight up sample. But you're saying the brass was live according to GM. Curiouser and curiouser.
Not bigger but more popular than Jesus. There is a difference. John said "more popular".
an achievement, talking about yellow submarine for 23 mins and not forgetting the second. i never doubted you.
in english culture there can be a bit of a crossover between silliness, an address to perhaps a younger audience and an adult audience at one and the same time. the goons, python, lewis carroll. the songs appeal like
a tale begun in other days
when summer suns were
glowing
(through the looking- glass)
liverpool, historically, is a massive seaport and john's dad was, i think a merchant seaman: so an adventure seawards has an autobiographical impetus. the whimsical twist in the track run, startling, but true in it's cultural context.
given that, next up, the riff for she said she said burrows itself into the brain, it's time to borrow a title from a crowded house tune and make the claim that the beatles truly were four seasons in one day.
Bonus points for the NZ music reference, Alan! It is, after all, New Zealand Music Month!
Love the link you're drawing with the Goons, and with Carroll in particular. Well noted.
@@fathommusicnz i'll get ladyhawke into the conversation someday!
And John said they were more POPULAR than Jesus.