The Beatles – ‘Yellow Submarine’
The Beatles were always meant to be a multi-media band. As the group got their start in the seedy clubs of Liverpool, they also focused their attention on the potential of pop movies like their idol Elvis Presley. Although A Hard Day’s Night and Help! showcased the Fab Four’s madcap comedy, their next film would delve into the world of animation.
Every great Beatles movie comes with a soundtrack, but Yellow Submarine feels like a low light in their catalogue. Released right after the making of The White Album, most of The Beatles’ songs on this album are meant to complement the animation of the film rather than being their own fleshed-out ideas. In short, we’re dealing with a certified soundtrack here as opposed to a conventional LP.
The Beatles always prided themselves as entertainers, and the opening track came as a joyful holdover from 1966’s Revolver. As Paul McCartney drifted off to sleep one night, he had the image of a yellow submarine pop into his head. Once he brought the idea to John Lennon, they put together a lovely piece of absurdity about living underwater with a full cabin crew to talk to every day. Giving it to Ringo Starr to sing, the drummer brings a lovable charm to this whimsical story, almost serving as the shipmate in this tale of adventure.
The rest of the album is made up of odds and ends, but some of the best moments on the record come from George Harrison. Given the fact that Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting team had kept Harrison’s songs at bay, both ‘Only a Northern Song’ and ‘It’s All Too Much’ are the most inventive efforts that he had to date. These tracks punctuate the album with a sense of vitality and freshness.
‘Northern Song’ began life during the Sgt. Pepper period, as Harrison got fed up with the legal BS that went into their publishing house, Northern Publishing. Dripping with sarcasm, this song is Harrison trolling his audience, saying that it doesn’t matter what comes out of his mouth since the money is all going to the same place. Although the song remained a wonderfully weird addition to this album, George Martin was right to nix it for Sgt. Pepper, is a touch too dreary to include on that psychedelic head trip.
In fact, George Martin had a much bigger hand in this album than The Beatles did themselves. While the first side is all Beatles material, the back half is filled out with a score from Martin to accompany the film. Being a student of comedy recordings, Martin’s themes like ‘Pepperland’ and ‘Sea of Time’ add a delightfully whimsical side to the album. Despite the great songs on this section of the project, having two completely different albums on both sides of the record makes for tonal whiplash.
The orchestral score’s antiquated sound pales compared to Harrison’s ‘It’s All Too Much’, which is the closest the Beatles got to hard rock. Echoing what Paul McCartney was doing on ‘Helter Skelter’, Harrison’s guitar is white hot, driving feedback throughout most of the song as he sings about the philosophical nature of what life is all about. Harrison’s interest in mystical things crops up again here, albeit with a child-like twist, saying, “all the world is birthday cake/ so take a piece but not too much.” Alas, therein lies the beauty of The Beatles, they were happy to bring such things to the masses and throughout the album, there is no sense of being hung up on what is cool.
McCartney understood the assignment of working on a children’s film the best, and that shows with ‘All Together Now’, showcasing his mercurial ways. With a simple chord pivot throughout the song, a preschool teacher could teach this to their students as they engage in a sing-song. While McCartney’s charm is on parade throughout, the constant hammering of the chorus tends to get old after a little while.
Despite the band’s contributions being minimal, John Lennon brought a healthy dose of snarl with him on ‘Hey Bulldog’. Starting with a mojo-filled piano figure, Lennon’s contribution to the album is a delightful ode to nonsense, taken from words he had lying around his house and finishing off in the studio. The lyrics might read as gibberish, but some of the individual lines are poetic on their own like ‘some kind of innocence is measured out in years’.
Aside from the main riff, the rest of the band sounds like they’re having a ball on this track, as the song ends with Lennon and McCartney on the same microphone barking like wild dogs. While ‘All Together Now’ might capture an artificial kind of whimsy, listeners can get excited with this song based on how much fun The Beatles sound like they’re having.
The Fab Four’s contributions end with ‘All You Need is Love’, which also serves as one of the final musical numbers in the film. While released as a single before the album, Lennon’s ode to humanity persevering through the power of love is an excellent closer. The song’s best moment comes towards the very end, as the band interpolates other classic melodies like ‘Greensleeves’, Glenn Miller’s ‘In the Mood’, and a verse of ‘She Loves You’ added in.
Aside from the music, the animated film is still a children’s classic, with some of the most inventive animation from the time this side of Disney and the real-life Beatles making a cameo towards the end of the film. While The Fab Four were about to get into their own set of problems, this is one of the few Beatles moments where the film is better than the album that accompanied it.
Overall, Yellow Submarine is an enjoyable listen, but the core mission behind it feels lost a lot of the time. While listeners are given bits and pieces of The Beatles’ brilliance in the studio, it’s kneecapped by the broken-up tracklisting. Despite the band’s name on the album sleeve, this feels like a Beatles-manufactured product rather than a real labour of love, hamstrung by careless disorder.
Some of The Beatles’ finest moments are scattered across this record, but they often feel like tracks that were thrown together to fill out the album rather than a solid collection of songs. Compared to their other movie soundtracks, Yellow Submarine would have made for a fairly decent EP of songs rather than filling out their quota for the film.
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