Comments on: Yellow Submarine

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 27 Sep 2018 08:32:33 +0000

What do people think of this interview from 1967 where John and Paul talk about Yellow Submarine?

http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1967.0320IN.beatles.html

An excerpt:

Q: “Good. Who was principly reponsible, Paul or John?”

JOHN: “Paul.”

PAUL: “John, really.”

JOHN & PAUL: “No. No.”

A later excerpt:

Q: “John, earlier before we started recording, you said it was in effect written as two separate songs.”

JOHN: “Yeah. I seem to remember, like, the submarine… the chorus bit, you coming in with it.”

PAUL: “Yeah.”

JOHN: “And wasn’t the other bit something that I had already going, and we put them together?”

PAUL: “Well, yeah. Right. Yeah.”

JOHN: “And it made sense to make it into…”

PAUL: “Yeah, the bit… (sings melody to verse) ‘Dut-ta-da, da-dut-ta-da.'”

JOHN: “With Ringo in mind, again.”

By: CJ

CJ — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 04:05:18 +0000

The seagulls were Paul laughing and sped up.

By: curt b

curt b — Sat, 15 Sep 2018 04:03:15 +0000

Paul lived near the studio and George out of town so it does not seem likely. Possible though.

By: Frank

Frank — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 21:15:22 +0000

Hi I can hear at some point Marcia Indietro and Posti di Divisa both Italian expression then one I can’t understand(Force at…) and then possibly Get Back Get Back…

By: BeatleKen

BeatleKen — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 22:07:06 +0000

Doesnt anyone hear Ringo shout “Paul’s a queer”

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 26 May 2016 19:32:53 +0000

It is Paul shouts in the final verse of course, you’re absolutely right.

By: Onder

Onder — Wed, 18 May 2016 09:13:30 +0000

Emerick is incorrect. The brass band is not several pieces edited together, one can only listen to find out that it is one continuous piece of music. Emerick’s book features more nonsense similar to this.

By: Arrick Smith

Arrick Smith — Sun, 31 Jan 2016 04:35:08 +0000

I own both the forty five record and the Revolver album and I’ve found that in the final verse after the sound effects when Ringo says “As we live a life of ease” the shouting voice that repeats Ringo says “life of ease” on the forty five but not on the Revolver album. I’ve searched online for any hint about that but haven’t seen anything

By: Graham Paterson

Graham Paterson — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 09:45:35 +0000

This song is great fun and represents the Goons influence on the Beatles. Primarily written by Paul for Ringo, it works a treat. John Lennon’s vocal contributions are a highlight. Others may not, but I love the fact it is on”Revolver”.

By: wireshock

wireshock — Sat, 23 May 2015 21:59:31 +0000

Am I the only one who thinks it’s Paul doing the echo singing on the final verse? I’ve always thought it was him and even though I try and fit John in as the singer, because everyone says it’s him, and can see some resemblance, nonetheless the way “in our yellow” is voiced it still sounds like Paul. Where exactly is the source of this identification that it is John? I note that on the second recording date page of this site (June 1, 1966 – recording-yellow-submarine-2) there is mention of an unidentified brass band playing on the track, but I’ve read in Emerick’s book, and elsewhere, that this was actually a recording that was edited so as to obscure its original nature. So not al the info on this site seems to be accurate all the time.

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 16:04:57 +0000

That’s probably a reference to the Black Dyke Mills Band’s version of Yellow Sub, the b-side to Thingumybob. It was one of the first four Apple singles, produced and written by Paul McCartney.

By: Mario Pasquini

Mario Pasquini — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 22:01:03 +0000

OK…..here’s this. On the 1973 vinyl release of “The Beatles 1967-1970” there was an insert included that listed all Beatles albums and singles released by Capitol Records. The B-side of “Yellow Submarine” is listed as being “Thingumybob”. Release date was 8-66. This is the only reference to this song that I have seen in my 50 years as a Beatle fan. Has anyone ever heard this song? There are a couple of minor mistakes on this insert and I’m wondering if maybe this was the biggest of those.

By: ForgetScowl

ForgetScowl — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 02:39:40 +0000

So true, Don. My 2 grandson’s love watching “Yellow Submarine”. The animation is beautiful and they love the soundtrack.

By: Julian

Julian — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 14:48:34 +0000

No. That was recorded a couple of months before Paul came up with the “Sgt. Pepper” idea.

By: c64wood

c64wood — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 16:08:28 +0000

When Ringo sings, “And the band begins to play”, is this a cameo appearance of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band?

By: S. B. Fields

S. B. Fields — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 23:03:45 +0000

Summer camp in Maine in late August of 1966…
I’m a 16 yr old counselor-in-training…
Every cabin has a couple of transistor radios…
We only listen to WBZ from Boston…
I’m out in the middle of the lake teaching a ten year old how to sail a sunfish…
The BZ jockey spins the new Beatles single …
In a rousing rush of joy, our buddies back on land are belting out the chorus, “We all live in a yellow submarine” …
It bounds out of the woods from our camp, crossing our bow…
The kid and I, in the doldrums, sail limp, dangling our feet, we laugh and sing too…
Then, an amazing audio wave washes us from the stern…
In a group response, an ethereal echo, also singing the chorus, is wafting out to greet us…
It is flowing from the girls’ camp on the other shore…
Chilling and warming to remember this…natural stereo…with the speakers separated by a mile of open water…
Radio, and the Beatles, were the uniting glue for us all…
———————————————————————–
I hope you appreciate the above recollection. In case it isn’t obvious, the “chilling” part of it was that because we were closer to the boys’ camp, than the girls’ side, the sound of the female “choir” was just a beat later.

Both populations were hearing their radios at the same moment, but the singing reached us at slightly different moments. From our position, we heard it as a boisterous guy-chant being chased by an angelic echo. I know this site is visited by a lot of music recording aficionados (is it ok to call you “geeks”?). It would be fantastic if someone could figure out how to replicate the effect, a capella, then we can all truly live a life of ease, and every one of us will have all we need.

By: John Pool

John Pool — Wed, 28 May 2014 11:17:10 +0000

Could anybody tell me what the final (spoken) words of the lyrics are? It has always sounded to me like a man shouting something in Dutch: “Wat zijn de berichten?” [“What are the messages”]. Then somebody else seems to answer “Uitzeilen, uitzeilen” [“Set sail, set sail”]

TIA — John (Dutch)

By: Colin

Colin — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 16:13:57 +0000

I’ve only just heard the remixed version on the Real Love CD for the first time. The ‘Land O’Groats’ intro is very clumsily edited : is that really how it was meant to be?

By: John

John — Mon, 29 Jul 2013 21:36:52 +0000

It’s a nice simple song; its a bit of fun and the band clearly had a great time recording it. I think you need songs like this on Beatles records; it portrays their sense of humour and reminds everyone they’re not taking themselves too seriously.

By: Gregory Morrison

Gregory Morrison — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 06:03:56 +0000

Paul wrote Yellow Submarine in the same key Ringo tuned his drums, which he found easiest to sing in.