Yellow Submarine

When Paul McCartney got the initial idea for this song in early 1966, he immediately knew that it would serve as an excellent vehicle for Ringo.  Lennon agreed and helped him to finish it off.  Paul even swung by Donovan Leitch's apartment with the new tune, where the singer-songwriter contributed the line "Sky of blue, sea of green."

The Beatles met at Abbey Road Studios on May 26th, 1966 to begin work on the track.  Producer George Martin was not present, as he was feeling ill, although his soon-to-be wife Judy took his place in the control room.  According to engineer Geoff Emerick, her presence did not deter the boys from goofing about more than usual, but they still managed to get down to business eventually.  They recorded four takes with John on acoustic guitar, Paul on bass, Ringo on drums and George simply banging away on a tambourine.  They then overdubbed Ringo's lead vocal and the others' backing vocals onto take four.

Almost a full week passed before sessions resumed on June 1st.  Even with Martin back at the helm, this session was much looser than normal, thanks in large part to the playful nature of the song.  The afternoon was entirely devoted to a spoken word introduction from Ringo, inspired by an actual event concerning a charity walk from one end of England to the other.  John, Paul and George also chimed in, as Emerick revived the old radio sound effect of sliding coal in a cardboard box to simulate marching feet.

After a dinner break, the session resumed with the participation of Pattie Harrison, Marianne Faithfull, Mick Jagger and Brian Jones to help create a party atmosphere and add sound effects to the track.  A few Abbey Road staff members were also recruited to swirl chains around in a metal tub of water to simulate the sound of waves.  And even Martin and Emerick joined in when assistant Mal Evans strapped on a big bass drum and marched around the studio as everyone sang the final chorus over and over again.

Paul and John shouted off the cuff nautical phrases throughout, and John's enthusiasm spilled over to such an extent that he added what he later referred to as his "blunderbuss" bit, repeating Ringo's lines in the final verse.

In The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn states that session musicians were brought in at this session to play the brief brass band section in the song, but Emerick, in his book Here, There and Everywhere, says that this was achieved in much the same way as was done a year later for the calliope piece at the end of Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, with an old brass band tape cut into pieces and put back together at random. 

Yellow Submarine was considered to be an album track, but manager Brian Epstein wanted it to be released as a single, noting that other bands in recent years had taken to quickly recording new songs by the Beatles and getting hit singles out of them.  And so it was that this song was released in August of 1966 on a double A-sided single along with Eleanor Rigby on the same day as the album Revolver, even though both songs also appeared on the album.  This did not hurt sales in the UK, with the single hitting number one.  In the US, however, Yellow Submarine peaked at number two on the Billboard chart.

For the first time during their career, the Beatles did not have an album ready for the holiday season at the end of 1966, so the Parlophone label in the UK issued A Collection of Beatles Oldies in December.  Both sides of the August single were duly included.  And, in short order, somebody came up with the idea of an animated feature film based on the song Yellow Submarine.  The film premiered in the summer of 1968, but the soundtrack album did not appear until January of 1969, with the song naturally leading off side one as the title track.

  

The first post career collection from 1973, the Red Album, closes with Yellow Submarine.  The song also appears on Reel Music, the UK version of 20 Greatest Hits, the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack, and the 2000 collection 1.  For the video compilation 1+, a montage of images from the original film was assembled in 2015.  A great alternate take of the song appears on the EP Real Love, which was released as part of the Anthology series in 1996.  This includes the spoken introduction from Ringo, as well as many additional sound effects not used on the official track.

The song is as synonymous with Ringo as his other signature tune With a Little Help from My Friends.  Proof of this could be heard at The Concert for Bangladesh in 1971 when George introduced each member of the band.  At the mention of Ringo's name, the Madison Square Garden crowd cheered wildly as someone in the band felt inspired to briefly play the chorus of Yellow Submarine.

Words of Love

The Beatles were influenced by many of the early giants of rock and roll - Elvis, of course, plus Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and the Everly Brothers - but perhaps none of them was more influential than Buddy Holly and the Crickets.  John and Paul were extremely impressed by the fact that Buddy wrote his own material, which was not the norm at that time, and this encouraged them to try their hand at songwriting.  When the Quarry Men pooled their money to make their very first recording in 1958, they chose Holly's initial hit song That'll Be the Day, as can be heard on Anthology 1.  And, when his group was looking for a new name, John came up with one similar to the name of Holly's backing group because he liked that Crickets had a double meaning (even though the American group probably never gave a thought to the British game of cricket).  Still, he was inspired to combine another insect with beat music and give birth to the name the Beatles. 

When it came time for producer George Martin and the Beatles to select cover songs for their first few albums, Holly somehow never made the cut.  Finally, on October 18th, 1964, while working on their fourth album Beatles for Sale, they chose to record a song that had been a staple of their live act from 1958 to 1962 - Words of Love.  Being very familiar with the piece, they nailed it on the second take.  They then double-tracked the vocals and George's distinctive twanging guitar part, as Ringo added some more percussion by banging on what is reported to be a packing case, though this merely sounds like handclaps.

On the original recording from 1957, Holly double-tracked his vocals, harmonizing with himself, which was a first for any pop record.  John and Paul imitate his breathy vocal delivery, with John singing very low in his register.  Engineer Geoff Emerick worked on this session, and he claims that George also sang on the track, with the three Beatles gathered around a single microphone.

As stated above, Words of Love was recorded for the December 1964 British album Beatles for Sale, appearing as the second track on side two.  American fans had to wait until June of 1965 before the song was released on the album Beatles VI, as the final track on side one.  The song also appeared on the 1977 post-career compilation album Love Songs, where it had the distinction of being the only cover song.

They only played Words of Love on the radio on one occasion, recording it on July 16th, 1963, for the tenth edition of their program Pop Go the Beatles.  This can be heard on the collection On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2.  To promote the release of this collection in 2013, a video of Words of Love was made, featuring some animation along with a lot of footage of the group from the early days of their career.  This can be seen on the video collection 1+.

The Word

All You Need Is Love was the perfect anthem for the Summer of Love when the Beatles sang it on the first-ever global satellite broadcast Our World in 1967.  However, diehard fans of the group knew even then that the theme of universal love was not a new one for the Fab Four.  The boys had already covered the same ground about a year and a half earlier on the album Rubber Soul with the deep cut The Word.

As to why Lennon and McCartney were attracted to that idea in late 1965, one of the only explanations they came up with in later interviews was that they were very much into marijuana at the time.  Lennon was the primary writer of the track, and, after McCartney helped him finish it up, the two reportedly lit up a joint as Paul wrote out the lyric sheet and adorned it with watercolors.

The group recorded The Word on November 10th, 1965, at the penultimate session for Rubber Soul.  As was often the case, they must have rehearsed a good deal before rolling the tapes, because it only required three takes to achieve the master.  This master features Paul on piano, Ringo on drums, and John and George playing their guitars.  It is the many overdubs, however, that truly distinguish the track.

First up was John's lead vocal, which he then double-tracked.  Then came the three-part harmonies from John, Paul and George, which grow in complexity as the song progresses.  These were also double-tracked, with Paul adding yet a third layer to his vocal contribution.  Ringo was also busy overdubbing two separate parts on maracas.

Producer George Martin was kept busy, as well, adding a chord on harmonium that he builds upon impressively for both the instrumental break and the fadeout of the song.  Rhythmically, my favorite part is Paul's overdubbed bass line.  His playing during the refrains creates what is probably the only time that a track by the Beatles can be described as funky.

There are many different mixes available for The Word.  On the mono mix, John's lead vocal is single-tracked.  The first stereo mix was sent to Capitol Records in America, but George Martin made a new stereo mix for the British release.  When Rubber Soul was issued on CD for the first time in the 1980's, Martin saw fit to make a new stereo mix of the entire album.  Whether you are hearing the lead vocals, the backing vocals, or the maracas on one side or both sides all depends on which version of the stereo mix you are listening to.

The Word is only available on the album Rubber Soul, late on side one between Harrison's Think For Yourself and McCartney's Michelle.  It is a shame that it has never appeared on any compilations over the years, because it is truly a terrific song (in my mind, even better than All You Need Is Love), and deserves to be heard on a wider basis.

Within You Without You

George Harrison's interest in the sitar had begun by chance on the set of the group's 1965 film Help! when he became fascinated by the Indian instruments in a restaurant scene.  After George purchased a sitar for himself and began noodling around on it, John Lennon felt confident enough in George's ability by the end of that year to ask him to play it on the song Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown).  As every lead guitar player in the world then rushed out to get a sitar, George sought out his first formal instruction, and by mid-1966, he wrote an Indian-flavored composition called Love You To for the album Revolver.  He was not able to play all of the intricate part he desired on that track, however, and he had some session musicians brought in for authenticity, though only tabla player Anil Bhagwat received credit in the liner notes.

In late '66, Geoge finally began studying with master of the sitar Ravi Shankar, and immersed himself in Indian culture and religion, as well.  Upon his return to the Beatles, he admits that he only half-heartedly committed to the Sgt. Pepper project.  This is quite evident in his first composition presented at those sessions, a lightweight piece called Only a Northern Song, whose lyrics pretty much sum up his attitude at that time.  The song was rejected for Sgt. Pepper and later surfaced as part of the soundtrack for the Yellow Submarine animated film.

So, what would Harrison's contribution to the album-in-progress be?  The answer came at a dinner party at the home of old Hamburg friend Klaus Voorman.  An evening of discussing the state of the world led to George sitting at a harmonium in the house of Klaus and working out a tune, then starting to add some lyrics beginning with the phrase "We were talking..."  Fans and critics over the years who have described the lyrics as preachy never realized that they grew naturally out of some of the actual conversations from that gathering of friends.

The music was something else.  George had the tune, which was vaguely Indian, but for the backing, he set out to create a hybrid of sorts - a true meeting of Eastern and Western musical styles.  The other Beatles could not help him, not even Paul with his innate musical ability.  George first had to recruit some Indian players to provide the overall backing track, then he had to teach them the unusual straddling of musical styles that he wanted them to play.  This was all done on March 15th, 1967.  After many hours of rehearsal, the musicians nailed their part in a single take, as can be heard on the 50th anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper.  A tamboura establishes the drone, over which a tabla and a swaramandala play, as a dilruba provides the melody.  On March 22nd, two additional dilruba parts were overdubbed.

The final day of the Sgt. Pepper recording sessions took place on April 3rd, and it proved to be a very complex one.  The other three Beatles had been around to witness some of the earlier work on Within You Without You, but only George was present on this day.  Producer George Martin had written a score for violins and cellos to complement the Indian instrumentation and complete the East meets West conceit of the piece.  Martin often chided himself in later years for shortchanging many of Harrison's compositions, but his collaboration with George in this instance is superb.  He had to learn to write the music in a sliding, swooping manner to match the dilruba, then convince the Western musicians to play it as he had arranged it.  Not only did he succeed in doing so on this night, but Martin continued to use this style in the coming year on his work for the soundtrack of the animated film Yellow Submarine.

Once the session musicians had completed their work, George proceeded to not only add his sitar part, but to finally sing his lead vocal, as well.  One other addition to the piece occurred at the mixing stage on April 4th, when George suggested a brief burst of laughter be placed at the end of the song to lighten the mood before the next number on the album, which turned out to be When I'm Sixty-four, providing the most striking contrast in styles possible.

George Martin's eventual pride in what they had accomplished resulted in the release of a special version of the song on Anthology 2 in the 1990's.  George Harrison's vocal is omitted, and we are allowed to hear the complicated arrangement in (almost) all of its glory.  The violins and cellos do not appear until the instrumental break in this version, which by the way is the longest instrumental break on any recording by the Beatles.

When sequencing the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Martin decided that the only logical place for Within You Without You was as the opening track of side two.  While Harrison certainly went on to write greater compositions such as While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Here Comes the Sun and Something, I believe that this unique creation of Eastern and Western musical styles could serve as his magnum opus, in much the same way that A Day in the Life (a song on which he only plays maracas) serves as the magnum opus of the Lennon/McCartney collaboration.