Music Pop Culture of Yellow Submarine Movie
The Beatles Cartoon World Unique Among Beatles Movies
Feb 1, 2009
With a flowing story line, that advances with shape and vivid color, the Yellow Submarine movie takes place in the magical Pepperland when the Blue Meanies declare war on everything good, particularly music.
The Liverpool heroes ride in their yellow submarine to rescue the residents of Pepperland at the request of Old Fred and along the way, meet a kaleidoscope of characters and beasts including Jeremy Hilary Boob PhD, the dreaded “vacuum cleaner” beast, the Apple Bonkers, the Dreadful Flying Glove and Snapping Turks.
A Beatles Cartoon, Unlike Hard Days Night, Beatles Help and Let It Be Movies
The band’s other three movies, Hard Day's Night, Help and Let It Be, besides being live action, are the products of intense involvement by the Beatles.
John Lennon noted in The Beatles Anthology that the movie’s makers would often chat with him about his ideas and many made their way onto the cartoon screen, such as the giant Hoover machine that sucks up everything, including the movie scene (Chronicle, 2000).
Paul McCartney said that the Fab Four loved the idea of the movie but really did not want to get involved. As a result, the movie relied on people like cabaret artist Lance Percival and Eddie Yates from Coronation Street to provide the heavily laden Liverpool accented voices of the Beatles.
The real-life Beatles appear only briefly at the movie’s end, performing a type of United Nations All Together Now.
The songs included in the movie are Yellow Submarine, Just A Northern Song, Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Eleanor Rigby, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Nowhere Man, A Day in the Life, as well as several orchestral numbers by noted Beatle producer George Martin.
Beatles Movies All Feature Centrepiece Songs
Along with Yellow Submarine itself, five new songs were written for the movie:
- All Together Now
- It's All Too Much, written by George Harrison
- Baby You're a Rich Man, (the first song recorded specifically for this film, but made its first appearance on the Magical Mystery Tour album)
- Only a Northern Song, written by George Harrison
- Hey Bulldog, written by John Lennon
Yellow Submarine would become a pivotal song on the album Revolver and was written as a children’s song for Ringo Starr to perform. It was written over two days, May 26 and June 1, 1966. All Together Now was written in a scant six hours.
Hey Bulldog, a song that was restored for the U.S. theatrical reissue of the movie in 1999, was recorded during the filming of the Lady Madonna promotional video. Both songs have similar piano riffs and staccato beats. The song’s working title was Hey Bullfrog but was changed when Paul McCartney spontaneously began barking during its recording.
Only a Northern Song was written by George Harrison as a reference to the band’s hometown, located in the northwest of England.
Yellow Submarine earned the Beatles a Grammy nomination in 1970 for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show. They lost to Burt Bacharach for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid however, the music of Yellow Submarine is now as entrenched in music pop culture as the movie itself.
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