We go places with Lennon that we wouldn’t go on our own. The same can be said of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “I Am the Walrus,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” “Come Together.” Lennon the artist was the guide who shepherded us to other worlds. The official version of “Yellow Submarine” does have another Lennon quality-namely, narrative, with a guide to lead. Listen to John Lennon’s songwriting demo for “Yellow Submarine” We must now add Lennon’s demo for “Yellow Submarine.” Unlike with, say, that first take of “A Day in the Life”-the recording I wanted to hear more than any other in my own life-I had no idea that this piece of music existed, let alone that it portended what it does. First take of “A Day in the Life.” The country and western version of “Can’t Buy Me Love.” George Harrison’s acoustic version of “While My Guitar Gently Sleeps.” The unadorned sixth take of “Across the Universe” is one of the best things the Beatles-or John Lennon-ever made, and they didn’t even release it until it was big boxed set round-up time. The first take of “Strawberry Fields Forever,” for instance. There have been surprises that have rocked every last fiber in me, in terms of unreleased Beatles music, much of which I discovered on bootlegs over the years. The Beatles were musical time travelers, but the point of time traveling is to be in one place at one time, not with a dangling foot left behind in a period the rest of you has already departed.Įverything is now different for “Yellow Submarine,” or at least insofar as the shipyard in which it was built, on account of the 2022 Revolver boxed set. The mind boggles, but then again, it also does when we hear “Long Tall Sally” still being performed in August 1966 on tour. Starr made a remark at the time that the duo was finding a song for him to sing, but if that didn’t come to fruition, he’d have to run down a country and western number from someone else’s record and cover that.Ĭan you even imagine? Starr singing a Carl Perkins or Hank Williams number on Revolver nestled between “Here, There and Everywhere” and “She Said She Said”? Incongruity overload. The latter was about wit and edge, not wholesomeness. We think of him as doing out-and-out fun better than Lennon. The song does seem like such a McCartney thing to do. According to the history books and assorted recollections, the song more or less grew up then and there, on the spot, probably like McCartney’s “Get Back,” as we saw in the eponymous docu-series. I trust both the idea and the messenger.įor a long time, we’ve thought that McCartney was most responsible for “Yellow Submarine.” Starr needed his vocal set-piece for the record, McCartney went to work, with assistance from Lennon, and a key line worthy of the lilting, imagistic grace of Yeats-“Sky of blue and sea of green”-was provided by Donovan. I’ve always wished I could hear Lennon singing “Good Night.” There was a recording of exactly that, and McCartney swore it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever heard. Art has a way of fostering surprises, and also making the seemingly impossible very possible indeed, because it opens other worlds within our overarching one. It’s always pleased me that John Lennon wrote “Good Night,” because it doesn’t seem like he would have, unless you really know him as much as one can without personally knowing someone.īut then again, nothing makes everything known to us like art, even when it isn’t biographical in nature. Or else doing a piece of music based upon an old air of a bygone era and style that their mother used to love. One imagines John Lennon or Paul McCartney listening to the radio as kids, hearing a different strain of music, and thinking, “I’d like to do one like that someday,” then going on to do it.
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