The History Of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine Is More Complex Than You Realize

May 2024 ยท 2 minute read

Paul McCartney has consistently maintained that, for him, "Yellow Submarine" was a fun children's song. That's what he told the Ivor Novello Awards in 1967 and it's how he's quoted as remembering the song in "The Beatles Anthology." "I quite like children's things," he said, "so it didn't seem uncool to me to have a pretty surreal idea that was also a children's idea." He had Ringo Starr in mind as the singer because of the drummer's way with kids, though "Anthology" quotes Starr as saying, "I don't actually know where they got the idea for ["Yellow Submarine"]."

John Lennon was just as insistent that "Yellow Submarine" was primarily McCartney's work. "We virtually made the track come alive in the studio," he said (per "Anthology"), "but based on Paul's inspiration." He framed his contribution as help with the lyrics and the melody, which he already had in the works for something else. But early work tapes included on a re-release of "Revolver" in 2022 (via YouTube) show just what Lennon had in mind when he first composed that melody.

The lyrics Lennon sang to this early version aren't about a whimsical submarine, but a young man who was born into an uncaring environment. "I had no idea until I started going through the outtakes," producer Giles Martin told Rolling Stone. "But it's beautiful in a way, where you realize that there's so much depth behind it."

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