When I was growing up, I was aware of the Beatles in a general sense,
but my familiarity with their catalog was limited. One of the few
Beatles songs I could sing along with pretty well was Yellow Submarine, written by Paul McCartney but a showcase for Ringo Starr, who I knew as the congenial conductor on Thomas the Tank Engine, as well as a participant in several fun commercials. I was an adult before I finally saw the film Yellow Submarine,
and I found it much too trippy for my tastes. But it didn't lessen my
appreciation for the theme song, which is as relentlessly cheerful as
the bright shade of yellow adorning the outside of the submarine.
My younger brother Nathan became obsessed with the Beatles in the fall
of 2001, following George Harrison's death. At the time, my favorite
radio station, Froggy, which played all oldies, had not yet been
banished from the Erie airwaves, so we found ourselves listening to it a
lot in search of Beatles tunes, with Nathan often calling in requests.
He had a particular fondness for When I'm 64, which is the only number from the movie Yellow Submarine
besides the title song that stands out vividly in my memory. Though
Beatlemania didn't really hit him until that fall, when I went to
Liverpool in the summer of 2001, I brought him a Yellow Submarine pin
and a Yellow Submarine pen from the Beatles Museum, and later, when
McFarlane Toys came out with Yellow Submarine figures, I bought
him one of those as well. Though he soon discovered how rich the variety
of the Beatles' music was, he paid homage to his early fondness for the
song by creating a ceramic Yellow Submarine wall hanging with a mirror
in the center.
Of all the Beatles songs, Yellow Submarine
has perhaps the most striking image associated with it. Other songs are
deeper, more lyrically complex, more musically inventive. But with the
possible exception of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,
there is no other Beatles hit that I think of in such visual terms.
Ringo's bouncy vocals and all that underwater imagery make it a good
companion for Octopus's Garden, another jaunty Ringo-led tune
about the fun to be had "beneath the waves". I always have a tendency to
think of the two together.
The chorus of Yellow Submarine
is almost absurdly simple, which is part of what makes the song so easy
to recite. "We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a
yellow submarine..." isn't much of a challenge to the memory. According
to Songfacts.com, McCartney wrote it specifically with children in mind
and hoped that they would sing it. We were encouraged to belt out the
song at a rally day during my high school's Freshman Welcome Week, and I
didn't see a closed mouth in that gym. The verses are a bit more
demanding, but not much. I am a bit puzzled by the line "And our friends
are all aboard; / Many more of them live next door"; if they're living
under the sea, how do they have next-door neighbors? Are all of their
friends fish? Or have they come up to the surface and parked their sub
in a residential area? But who am I to question such camaraderie?
And camaraderie is the chief feeling that comes through in this song,
along with most of Ringo’s starring numbers. It gives off the impression
that Ringo is a very friendly guy, and that the Beatles were a very
chummy group. Thoughts of submarines usually make me feel
claustrophobic, but I don’t think I could object to an afternoon out for
a pleasure cruise with those Liverpool lads. As so often happens with
Beatles songs, the ending drags on a bit, but they all sound like
they’re having such fun goofing around together that I never really find
myself thinking, “All right, boys, knock it off already!”
I love the aquatic sound effects, the tinny-sounding echoes throughout one of the choruses, which Peter Paul and Mary spoof in I Dig Rock and Roll Music,
and the chipper trumpet music that follows “And the band begins to
play.” I love the iconic picture that pops into my head whenever I hear
the song and the words that spring to my mouth. Yellow Submarine
is peppy and happy, guaranteed to put a smile on my face, and all these
years later, it remains one of my favorite Beatles songs.
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