|
I know I’ve probably said this for every Beatles album, but this is unlike any other Beatles albums. It was the soundtrack to the Yellow Submarine animated movie and the Beatles really didn’t put much into it. There are only 4 new songs on the album. The other two that they perform are on other albums (and I just copied and pasted the reviews onto here and the love/yeahs don’t count since, I already counted it). The remaining 7 songs are instrumentals written and conducted by George Martin.
The Album
1) Yellow Submarine
A very famous song by The Beatles. This was a song that Paul thought of before going to bed. He wrote it and gave it to Ringo to sing. Almost every child growing up hears this song and it will live on long after the Beatles pass on. Great classic fun song, so great in fact that they decided to make an animated movie out of it!
2) Only A Northern Song
This song is really George writing about the Beatles old publishing company. Its an inside joke type deal with George complaining about Northern Songs. Ahh biting commentary set to an organ. It’s a pretty decent song.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
3) All Together Now
This is another song that doesn’t make sense at all, but it’s a sing along song and it was great end to the album, with the live action Beatles making an appearance in the movie. Catchy little ditty.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 3
4) Hey Bulldog
This is easily my favorite song on the album. Great intro riff, great verse and chorus chord sequence and a kick-ass solo. The song is totally quirky too, and it has to be heard for its full glory.
Yeah Count: 1
Love Count: 0
5) It’s All Too Much
This is George Harrison doing Jimi Hendrix apparently. Great rocking song with a sick lead guitar part and for 1968 was pretty far out. People wouldn’t expect Harrison of a song like this, but here it is.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 4
6) All You Need is Love
This really is the anthem for the summer of love isn’t it? The Beatles performed this song live in a broadcast to the entire world and it was the first time anyone heard it. It’s message is that of love. As Paul said in the anthology series, “almost all our songs dealt with peace, love and understanding.” Love is the greatest thing and this song says that. Great song with a great meaning.
7) Pepperland
Very soothing sounding song, like you’re floating in water.
8) Sea Of Time
This one quotes from Within In You Without You, it sounds like.
9) Sea Of Holes
This is probably one of my favorites on the B-side, actually. It’s very suspenseful, actually.
10) Sea Of Monsters
11) March of the Meanies
Since it’s the meanies, you need a pretty mean sounding march song, and this is it.
12) Pepperland laid waste
Pretty good song that conveys the mood of destruction well.
13) Yellow Submarine in Pepperland
Yellow Submarine does as a victory type song.
The Liner Notes
The liner notes are 8 pages long. The front is the cover, the back and page two the track listings. Page 3 has a short introduction written by Derek Taylor while pages 4, 5, and 6 have an essay written by Tony Palmer about the White Album. Page 7 has the CD information.
The Sound
This was recorded WAY back in 1968 using analog tapes and only 4 track tapes to boot. It sounds really good for its age. Nowhere near the standards of today, but the Beatles sounding like this is better than anything released now, in my totally unbiased opinion!
The Final Review
The album is not bad, but it’s hard to rank it any higher than 12th due to the lack of any new material. There’s only 4 new songs on the album, and granted they are all really good, 4 new songs doesn’t make an album, especially considering the 30 they put out months before. I realize there weren’t involved in the movie really at all so that shows the complete lack of effort on their part. Still, the 4 songs are great and if you really need the instrumental music, this is the choice, but the new re-release is far superior than this one. Now, I really like the instrumental music, it’s just not the Beatles, you know.
Final Rating:
7
12th out of 13
Final Yeah Count: 1
Final Love Count: 7
Cumulative Yeah Count: 193
Cumalative Love Count: 295
|
