Yellow Submarine
OK. I’ve just watched the Beatles “Yellow Submarine” for the 2nd time (the first/last time was just after it was released). I want to know, were the Beatles:
a) absolute creative geniuses
b) absolutely stoned
c) absolutely insane
d) any and/or all of the above?
Actually, they didn’t have much involvement with producing the movie itself.
d)
Welcome to the SDMB, chrisinuae. The GQ forum is for questions with factual answers. I’ll move this over to our arts forum, Cafe Society.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Their participation was limited to writing the songs and performing “All Together Now” at the end. The writers, interestingly, never really amounted to much, except for Erich “Love Story” Segel.
Most intriguing is the IMDB mentioning Roger McGough as being an uncredited writer. McGough is a top-notch poet (4 poems in The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry) and has shown the same sort of weird imagination that runs through YS. Take a look at his “Goodbat Nightman,” for instance.
He also has a connection of sorts with the Beatles – he played in the group “The Scaffold,” one member of which was Mike McCartney, Paul’s brother. It would seem likely he knew the rest of the Beatles.
:smack: Never trust the internet.
The link left out several lines of the poem. You can find the correct version here
I think I burnt me finger! The answer is “D”!
Lucas Electrics: Why the British drink warm beer and leave for home before sundown.
I recall reading that the Beatles didn’t want to get very involved with the making of a cartoon, but after having seen the film were fairly pleased with the final results.
And, stood next to the Beatle’s own “Magical Mystery Tour,” “Yellow Submarine,” was a masterpiece.
John’s 45 minute film of his winkie(“Self Portrait” I believe) was brilliant next to Magical Mystery Tour. Blech.
I’d have to say D… All.
Magical Mystery Tour wasn’t great, but it wasn’t all that bad, either. The songs make it worthwhile, and it gets special credit for the appearance of the Bonzo Dog Band performing “Death Cab for Cutie.”
"Someone’s going to make you, Pay the fare."
Right, they had no interest in the film until it was practically done. There are a couple of reasons.
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They were such important artists by the time that “Help” was done they were upset that the film production left them feeling like extras–what they didn’t understand is that all actors sit on the sidelines until called. Not being boys with small egos, being out of the center of attention bugged them. Am I blaming them? No. Somebody should have realized what valuable property they were, and bent the film making rules. Too bad if it cost twice as much.
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I remember that they were amused when the much earlier, really cheap, Beatles cartoons came out on TV. I don’t remember them specifically saying later that they weren’t happy with the cartooning, but I believe they did. (Might be something in “Lennon Remembers”.) By extension, they didn’t like other attempts to cartoon them.
“Magical Mystery Tour” is a better film than it was received. Audiences were expecting The Beatles to create a work that was as profound and artistic as their songs (and equivalent to “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help”). So the letdown was profound. “A Hard Day’s Night” may be among the best couple hundred movies ever made. “Magical Mystery Tour” is average. One genuine problem with the film was the cluttered/often unintelligible sound track. Getting film sound correct is a highly specialized craft, and The Beatles just didn’t understand that. Over the years my appreciation of “Magical Mystery Tour” has grown, not diminished. It would be a shame if it hadn’t been made.
What is a shame, is that they were so keen on making the movie, and the right people didn’t help them over the rough spots. Artistic failure begats failure, and it’s hard to imagine that “Magical Mystery Tour”'s hostile reception didn’t play a part in the growing internal artistic disharmony.
Be that as it may, critics were quick to observe the movie didn’t affect the sound track’s sales whatever.
I remember that when “Magical Mystery Tour” first appeared in Britain, it was announced that it would not be shown in the U.S. C’mon, I thought, it’s by the Beatles. How bad could it possibly be that no one in the U.S. would show a film by the most popular people in the entire world. It would have to be worse than just awful; you would have to invent new adjectives to describe it.
Then I finally saw it. It was worse than awful. I had to invent new adjectives to describe it. It was putridsuckadismal. It was dreckicalfeculescent. It was odiousfesteralstaggerflastible.
[Opus]Well, maybe it wasn’t that bad. But, Lord, was it bad.[/Opus]
I don’t see the need to invent new adjectives to describe Magical Mystery Tour.
Self-indulgent, pointless ego-masturbation pretty much wraps up the film.