Listen to a rediscovered outtake of John Lennon singing ‘Yellow Submarine’
Back in September, The Beatles announced the reissue of their 1966 album Revolver. Now, ahead of the Super Deluxe Edition release, we’ve been treated to this: an acoustic demo of John Lennon singing ‘Yellow Submarine’, a track that famously featured drummer Ringo Starr on lead vocals.
This studio outtake is especially exciting for Beatles fans as it’s never been bootlegged. In fact, few people knew it existed until quite recently. It’s just one of the 31 outtakes and three home demos from The Beatles’ recording archive that appear on the new deluxe reissue, which also includes the Paperback Writer and Rain EPs.
Discussing the forthcoming reissue with USA Today, Ringo Starr and producer Giles Martin explained how ‘Yellow Submarine’ was born: “The boys used to write a song for me and they’d present whatever they thought would be good for me,” Starr recalled. “They had this song and they decided to liven it up.”
Giles Martin, son of original Beatles’ producer George Martin, continued: “I had no idea [the work tape] existed…. It wouldn’t have been as commercial in that original form, and you can hear them working together and pushing each other in different directions.”
Though Paul McCartney was responsible for the song’s jubilatory chorus, Lennon was also heavily involved in the song’s composition. “I had no idea until I started going through the outtakes,” Martin confessed [via Rolling Stone]. “This was a Lennon-McCartney thing. I said to Paul, ‘I always thought this was a song that you wrote and gave to Ringo and that John was like, ‘Oh, bloody ‘Yellow Submarine.’ Not at all.”
The much-anticipated Revolver reissue is slated for release on October 28th. Physical and deluxe versions will feature newly mixed and remastered songs taken from the album’s 1966 mono master tape.
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