The four original Beatles songs on the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack: Are they classics or are they duds?

In any case, I love all those tracks.

"it's all too much" is good, the other two are meh.

"Hey Bulldog" would have been an incredible track on an alternate, rock-oriented, single-disc White Album. The piano riff's badass, and if my ear is remembering correctly, Paul's bass playing is pretty fabulous too. Guitar bits are kind of hammy but basically rock, and the Beatles don't get nasty nearly enough. "You think you know me but you haven't got a clue!"

"Only A Northern Song" should have been used on Pepper instead of "Within You, Without You" (or, better: instead of "She's Leaving Home")... it's a bit thin on ideas and possibly too literal for psychedelia but the sounds are fun. Which version is it that has the "You're correct, there's nobody there / And it's only there's no one there"? lyric? George doesn't usually go in for just complete weird abruptness like that, and it's a kind of spooky surprise...

It took me a few years to really come around on "It's All Too Much," but now I'd have to rank it as one of my favorite George songs...kind of the flipside of I Am The Walrus, take the overproduced psychedelic barrage and instead of a terrifying bad trip you get an overwhelmingly good one. The reverberating drums, the beefed-up keyboards, the wacky horns, the chanting vocals ("toOO much! toOO much!"), the backwards-echoed nonsense.. it's a monster. I think this is where a lot of the Elephant 6 people got on board, for better or worse... how long is this song anyway? What's the longest Beatles song? This? Anyway, it's great, should have been the b-side to something or other. It's a weird thing with the Beatles - I would imagine more fans at this point have gotten around to the Past Masters discs than to the Yellow Submarine album (in either form) and so it's arguable that these four songs are the most obscure Beatles recordings published during their time as a band. I guess maybe some of the early stuff has also slipped off the map, Beatles For Sale especially...but I'm rambling considerably.

"Why are there so many little Georges(spinning into the sky from George's opned skull)?"

"Umm...that's just what they do."

I second all the love for "Hey Bulldog."

"Only A Northern Song" makes me hate George like "Glass Onion" makes me hate John.

Are your fricking KIDDING ME? I don't know what records you're listening to. Paul has great, energetic bass parts in just about every late period George song, is continually present BELTING OUT harmony parts, and can be heard whooping and shouting in the background on "Savoy Truffle" and "Old Brown Shoe."

Perhaps too energetic; I'm with George regarding Paul's too-busy bass on "Something." But you are right, Tim, about "Old Brown Shoe."

not quite. northern songs was the company that the beatles sold their publishing to when they were young lads, and this, then, was just another george song to make a little extra pocket money for SOMEONE ELSE'S publishing company. it was meant as a joke, though clearly there's a bit of resentment underneath that joke.

Lots of love for "It's All Too Much," and it's worth noting that Three Dog Night (or rather, whoever wrote the song) completely nicked that riff for "Family of Man."

And I'd say "All Together Now" is no less fun or less memorable than "Yellow Submarine" itself.

So -- All-Around Classic.

checking my own facts: john and paul each owned a piece of northern songs, along with brian epstein and dick james. but george did not. which is to say, SOME of the beatles were making publishing money off george's songs, but not george himself.

Also see: every other guitarist who has ever written a song and had a bassist play something other than the basic chord notes.

Heck, I'd settle for it.

Also see: every other guitarist who has ever written a song and had a bassist play something other than the basic chord notes.
Ah, the bass player's point of view.

Has anyone heard the Patto, no, Boxer, cover of "Hey Bulldog"? And, was that song on The Beatles' Rock and Roll Music comp?

SIDE A

Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
With a Little Help From My Friends
Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Fixing A Hole
Getting Better
It's All Too Much

Side B

For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite
When I'm 64
Lovely Rita
Good Morning, Good Morning
Sgt. Pepper's Reprise
A Day In The Life

See? SEE???? By subbing It's All Too Much in for She's Leaving Home and Within You Without You, you get an album that's more rocking, more psychedelic, AND less mannered and precious! I bet there wouldn't be half as many "sgt pepperz iz overr4ted" type threads if that'd been the track listing. Plus, you can use the spare tracks to beef out Magical Mystery Tour and make it a proper album.

SEE?????????

They don't have a lot of songs that get zany like that one.

Maybe "You Know My Name (look up the number).

The others are decent also

The rest? Not too keen on "Hey Bulldog" either, and the others are forgettable to say the least.

all fookin listen mate if you were fookin actually from fookin anywhere near the fookin mersey la then fookin youd no that the beatles were fookin tops mate fookin tops la fookin fab four innit fookin cant buy me love fookin fixin a hole fookin getter fookin better all the fookin time ya CUNT

I'd rather listen to side one of Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour over Sgt. Pepper's

It's like you just held a mirror up to my Beatles-related feelings.

magical mystery tour will always be my favorite

If it weren't for the plodding wheezy blahness of "All You Need Is Love" squatting at the end of a side on each of these I'd be right there with y'all.

It's not a favourite of mine, but I think it works well as an LP closer.

magical mystery tour is not an lp.

it is in America

ok, magical mystery tour is an lp iff "i'm only sleeping" is not a track on _revolver_.

The MMT lp is canon now; it's in all the reissues and box sets (which are otherwise the UK tracklistings).

The vocal melodies in "Blue Jay Way" are fucking awful.

The whole song is fucking awful. And "All Together Now" is bollocks too btw.

You know what's fucking awful? You know what's fucking awful? Do you want me to say it?

Don't make me say it, guys.

When The Beatles albums were issued on CD in 1987, they chose to go with the UK versions and compiled the remainder into the Past Masters LP's. Except for Magical Mystery Tour, for which they retained the US config. The correct choice, IMO.

Everyone is mis-spelling "incredible" regarding 'Blue Jay Way'

MMT is awesome, got the double 7" version recently

George's "don't be long/don't belong" pun sounds like something John might have written.

Haters of "All Together Now" need to spend more time with 3-year-olds.

does anyone like the George Martin film score tracks?

― his eye is on despair-o (Jon not Jon), Friday, February 17, 2017 7:47 AM (seven hours ago)

"Pepperland" is a gorgeous piece of music.

I love the George Martin score

Just looking at something I wrote about Yellow Submarine Songtrack when that came out and I said that the new mixes of "Only a Northern Song" and "It's All Too Much" were two of the most appealing. Want to hear those again.

I did a version of "Hey Bulldog" for one of the ILX comps, and used the intro from the first track on side 2 as an, um, intro.

― Mark G, Friday, February 17, 2017 10:05 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That intro's one sweet segue.

https://soundcloud.com/ilx-beatles-comp/alsatian-davies-hey-bulldog

Ahhh I should pull out the ILX Beatles album tomorrow, I remember there being some really cool shit in there.

I dig the verse melody of Blue Jay Way but if I had to knock anything about the song it's that for me the chorus melody is droney in the bad way, just kinda blah and I feel like the arrangement and backing vocals are audibly struggling to add interest. Not something that really bugs me, but yeah, sometimes George only had 1/2 to 2/3 of a great song in hand, and while the others would usually throw down great playing regardless, it doesn't seem he got much real songwriting help in the way of John and Paul hooking each other up with a missing bridge or a rhyming line. (Not that there was much of that going on by this point either, mind you.)

it doesn't seem he got much real songwriting help in the way of John and Paul hooking each other up with a missing bridge or a rhyming line. (Not that there was much of that going on by this point either, mind you.)

the story of George's life. Even George Martin acknowledged this was the case -- and he didn't help much either.

In the '80s Paul asked George about collaborating; George basically told him to go fuck himself, asking why suddenly after 20+ years he finally deemed George worthy of writing with.

a lot of MMT (the soundtrack section, not the stuff added on for the U.S. album) feels kind of half-baked to me, like they couldn't be bothered to finish some of these songs. the title track feels like they came up with 30 seconds' worth of a song and then went "eh, fuck it." i like the mood and feel of blue jay way but it's undermined by the dorky lyrics. even more polished tracks like your mother should know and the fool on the hill have some pretty lazy lyrics. ("they don't like him, the fool on the hill" sounds like a meaningless placeholder line that paul never bothered to replace with a real one.) i am the walrus is the only one that feels like they're firing on all cylinders.

i should add that i at least kind of enjoy all of these tracks, they've got a spooky and unique ambience that feels unique among beatles songs, but the tightness of the songwriting from revolver or even most of sgt pepper isn't there.

I just learned from reading Allan Pollack that "Blue Jay Way" is not in a Western mode. Pollack says it's a major scale variant with a raised second and a raised fourth. That's true but Harrison also uses the natural second in the chorus.

It's in C, so it's:

C, D, D#, E, F#, G, A, B

Wonder if this was a raga he had been playing.

i am the walrus is the only one that feels like they're firing on all cylinders.

This was the first song they worked on for MMT and the first thing they did after Brian Epstein died. They were in a very weird space where they were universally recognized as geniuses, they thought everything they did was brilliant, and they couldn't have been less certain of their future.

i feel like paul and john had different ways of half-assing it during this period. john wrote one song to every three of paul's and wrote either wrote deliberately lyrics or songs about being too lazy/stoned to get out of bed. paul would barely polish his songs from their original demos and blatantly sing placeholder lyrics. listening to their work in this period and later one really gets the sense of how they complemented each other as songwriters, fixed up each other's weak parts.

pplains, bless you!

Anyway, as regards the TV show..

I remember seeing it back in 1967, we all had sat down to watch it, by the end I was the only one left. I thought to myself "That was good, looking forward to next week's episode"

Can't help thinking I was right

In the '80s Paul asked George about collaborating; George basically told him to go fuck himself, asking why suddenly after 20+ years he finally deemed George worthy of writing with.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, February 18, 2017 2:48 AM (twenty hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

As much of a McCartney fan I am, George OTM.

One thing that really annoys me about McCartney is that he goes to great pains to try to distract people from how much of an arsehole he can be, and he fails miserably at this. At least Lennon was upfront about it.

McCartney is a nice bloke, but underneath is a bit of a got.

Lennon was a git, but underneath that was a nice bloke.

Got to hear the Yellow Submarine Songtrack again with the 1999 mixes. The separation really works with "All Together Now," and it ends up feeling more substantial. Won over by its charm again. And "It's All Too Much" is great. The separation of the organ and lead guitar is really nice and the brass sounds great.

That album is really great on the whole.

really, the only dud thing is that there's only four of them.

really really love both george tracks

Context helps. For children's songs, catchy ditties like "Hey Bulldog" and "All Together Now" are more than fine. Just compare them to the "Shark Song" for crying out loud, they sound like Bach in comparison. "It's All Too Much" is pretty decent but sounds tremendous in this company. If there's a dud, it's "Only a Northern Song" which is boring as shit.

I kind of hate “all together now” but the rest are good, some even great.

mccartney song is a bad mccartney song & presages the worst handclappy twee nonsense of later decades
lennon song is a good lennon song: nervy & compelling but kind of unpleasant vibes so i can't love it
harrison songs intriguingly messy & loose in a way this band rarely seemed to let themselves get on record, they suggest a more interesting future than the "let's be a rock and roll band again" we ended up getting with these guys (& so many their contemporaries)

Only a northern song has that stop and start awesome organ, never boring

It was supposed to be his contribution to Pepper's until George Martin said uhhh

it’s so freakin awesome, george Martin produced America what does he know

the tape loop shit is the exact opposite of boring

how is “hey bulldog” a kid’s song?

it’s kind of a nasty rocker

otm

it’s so freakin awesome, george Martin produced America what does he know

― brimstead

"Only a Northern Song"? A travesty. The worst Beatles-era Harrisong.

cause it's lowly midst Harrisongs

how is “hey bulldog” a kid’s song?

How is anything a kid's song? Honestly, I think context defines it more than anything else, and even then there's no easy definition - what a toddler listens to isn't the same as a five or ten year old, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17p49u5M2eE

the tape loop shit is the exact opposite of boring

This. “Only A Northern Song” is the only one that sounds like the film looks. In the late ‘70s pre-VCR days, when you were lucky to catch the movie at a second-run or revival house, or at 2am on a UHF station, “Northern” was the next best thing to watching the movie.