Yellow Submarine George Martin score extended?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by dormouse, Apr 11, 2018.

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  1. paul62

    paul62 Forum Resident

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    DVD Audio Extractor is the software to use: you can download it for free and use it for a month for free. Once you have that on your computer you can rip the audio from the DVD. You will have to rip the audio five or six times, creating a folder on your desktop on each run. One of those folders will have audio commentary, for example, another folder will have the music-only soundtrack. You can rip the audio as six channels or as a two channel mix down.
     
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  2. Ryan Lux

    Ryan Lux Senior Member

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    Just popped in to say I love George’s work on the film. Highly underrated in my opinion as it’s been seen as the bastard stepchild, not belonging on a Beatles album. I’d love to see a symphony orchestra tackle it.
     
  3. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I found a segment about the recording of the Yellow Submarine soundtrack in George Martin's book All You Need Is Ears which was interesting. He claims that he wrote fifty five minutes of music for the film which is about 10 minutes more than on the final film. That may be down to misremembering the time but it also opens up the possibility of some unheard music that perhaps did not make the final cut.

    He also points out that he was given random reels of film to compose to as the animation progressed rather tha composing in advance or on completion of the film. Chaotic I'm sure but the film was completed in a much faster time than an equivalent Disney production.

    Although the LP soundtrack was re-recorded in a two day session in late October 1968 the film recordings were done earlier. Documentation of the sessions does not appear to be as easy to locate as Beatles' sessions so I'm still hunting around for information. I believe the LP recordings were carried out at Abbey Road but I think that the film recordings were done at CTS or Olympic. If anyone has more information or sources regarding this feel free to post.
     
  4. paul62

    paul62 Forum Resident

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    I've just been thinking how it would have been very interesting if George Martin had overdubbed orchestral parts to tracks like "When I'm 64" and "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" for usage in the film (I'm not suggesting that this may have been considered, but wish it had been!). The tracks from The Beatles would then blend in to George Martin's score more seamlessly.
     
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  5. Mark Wilson

    Mark Wilson Forum Resident

    And would have provided some more neat alternative mixes.

    Mark
     
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  6. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident Thread Starter

    It is odd that while most Beatles' sessions are meticulously documented the recording of the original orchestral Yellow Submarine score does not seem to have been logged formally in print as far as I can ascertain. Perhaps this is as a result of the manner in which George Martin received the completed segments of the film to compose to. It may have been that this resulted in rather ad-hoc recording dates and hence they are not apparently documented. It is generally reported that these original George Martin sessions took place at Olympic Sound Studios with engineers Keith Grant and George Chkiantz sometimes dated approximately May/June 1968. It would appear that these were mixed into mono for the original film soundtrack as released to cinemas in the late 1960s.

    George then decided to re-record parts of the score for release on side 2 of the Yellow Submarine album (the original intention was reportedly to issue the four new Beatles' songs as an EP). These new versions of the score were recorded at Abbey Road Studio 1 on 22 and 23 October 1968 with mixing taking place on 24 and 25 October. They were mixed in stereo with the mono version being a simple fold-down of the two channel mix.

    The later stereo and 5.1 dvd/bluray releases seem to have involved some sort of combination of the LP and original Olympic sessions.

    There seems to be a gap in detail regarding the whole process of George Martin's contribution to this album and film which is unusual as most Beatles related music has been documented in some detail in books such Mark Lewisohn's 'recording sessions' tome and other diary style examinations of the band.

    If anyone out there does have any further details it would be gratefully received. There are also other oddities such as A Beginning from Anthology 3 )which seems to have some odd attributions) and another unreleased track called Wild Harp.

    Although we have been gifted with some well curated video releases concerning Yellow Submarine and the remixed Songtrack it does appear that there is a missing link in respect of the film score. With Giles Martin having such an active role in various projects down the years it would appear that this would be an obvious task for him to embark upon. Obviously from a purely financial perspective it would probably not have been viewed as a money-spinner but perhaps as part of a consolidation of the film, music and general memorabilia surrounding the project it could make for a very nice anniversary super-deluxe package.
     
  7. boggs

    boggs Multichannel Machiavellian

    So......are we gonna get some type of 5.1 mix of COMPLETE songs from YS?
     
  8. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I don't see any reason why not. I must admit that although I do have the 5.1 option I have not really analysed its success or otherwise. Pepper had a 5.1 mix and there was the Love mixes so I can't see any reason why you wouldn't include it in a comprehensive deluxe version.
     
  9. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member


    If you want to be a completist, there is some music from the US cut of the film, not in the DVD. After Baby You're A Rich Man, there is a hard edit at "...what do you want to be?" and cuts to Paul who yells "Beatles to battle!" (not the same quieter "Beatles to Battle" he says on the current cut) and a whole fast music score with emphasis on saxes play over the battle, and then it returns back to when Ringo rescues Jeremy. I have the MGM Laserdisc and a VHS tape of a TV Broadcast from 1980 that shows this.

     
    Last edited: Apr 17, 2018
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  10. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident Thread Starter

    It is interesting how the two sets of recordings for Yellow Submarine materialised.Iit appears that the longer but more fragmented score was recorded first and that the LP version is quite different. I have not yet compared the two versions in detail but it appears from a quick comparison of the first track that the later LP version is longer than that in the film. It will take a little time to see what George Martin did when he rerecorded the music. Did he extend some of the short cues in longer suites purely for record release?

    I wonder if this comparision has already been carried out anywhere? I do not recall this being documented. It also makes the reported combination of the original mono score with the later stereo version to produce the multi channel dvd version more confusing if they are not exact arrangements.
     
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  11. Mark Wilson

    Mark Wilson Forum Resident

    Quite possibly. It's also possible that some of the cues in the film were originally longer pieces that were edited down to match the film edits. I believe you mentioned it was scored out of order and not always after the associated film element was complete, so he may've recorded some parts a little longer than likely needed to be safe. (Being easier to edit a piece than add to it.)

    Great thread by the way. Very interesting.

    Mark
     
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  12. dormouse

    dormouse Forum Resident Thread Starter

    The longer pieces edited down to fit is of course possible although he has been quoted as saying that he was being given various reels of film to score to. It was a very unusual method of scoring music which was dictated by the speed of production and the non standard film animation production methods.

    It is a very interesting aspect of the Beatles story which does not seem to have been investigated in as much detail as the band were not directly involved. I really wish that I had thought about it prior to George's passing. I could have written to him to enquire about the recordings and given that he does seem to have been a genuinely nice guy I'm sure he would have responded.
     
  13. paul62

    paul62 Forum Resident

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    I was just thinking how all of the tracks by The Beatles on the original soundtrack LP have either ad lib spoken bits or studio chatter embedded in them (or have a "live in the studio" ambience) which gives Side One a kind of consistency (and makes these tracks suitable for the film soundtrack, as it were).
     
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  14. paul62

    paul62 Forum Resident

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    I wonder if that is Sheila Bromberg (of "She's Leaving Home" fame) playing harp on "Pepperland" from the YS record/CD? If it is, then that's a nice link, methinks.
     
  15. BlueJay

    BlueJay Forum Resident

    It's surprising in a way that this wasn't thought of back in 1999 when the Beatles YS Songtrack album was released. A George Martin orchestral soundtrack album would have made a perfect companion to the Beatles' songtrack album. I've always liked the YS Songtrack album but of course it lacks the film score which was added the original album, so it's not really a soundtrack album but more a 'Best Of' of the Beatles' psychedelic era. I would love now to see YS Songtrack re-promoted for the 50th anniversary and a new George Martin score album released to coincide. But I guess Apple is too preoccupied with the White Album reissue to worry about YS. Too bad.
     
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  16. Raf

    Raf Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    One of the 1999 press releases for Yellow Submarine Songtrack mentions a companion orchestral score CD, also remixed, to be released at an unspecified future date. It was never brought up again since.
     
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  17. empirelvr

    empirelvr "That's *just* the way it IS!" - Paul Anka

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    That's because George Martin had nothing to do with the score for "Help!" It was Ken Thorne's project from day one.
     
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  18. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident

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    The amazing thing is the fact that the Beatles released these two projects within a couple months of one another. When you look back, it just further illustrates why the Beatles were "The Beatles". Not only was the White Album a swift turnaround from the colors of pyschedelia that preceeded it, but then they release an animation film and record right on its tail! I guess only with the Beatles could you spin the likes of "Helter Skelter" and "Revolution 9" and then run out the next day and watch Jeremy and our heroes in Pepperland! :p

    I guess when they say that the Beatles endure because they still have something from anyone ages 2 to 100, this is a perfect and polar illustration. :)
     
  19. slane

    slane Forum Resident

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    The film was released first (July), followed by the WA (November), followed by the YS album (Jan 69).
     
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  20. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident

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    Yes. The record was primarily what I meant. And the point that both were released in very close proximity.
     
  21. slane

    slane Forum Resident

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    Mainly because they wanted the YS album out, but not before the White Album.
     
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  22. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident

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    That hits on what I meant by it coming off as so...polar...release-wise. You had people just trying to get a handle on this puzzling work in the plain white cover, and no sooner does it come out and the band has an animation record in the racks. It speaks not just to the diversity of the band's releases, but the almost absurd diversity. :)
     
  23. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

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    All true.

    But it also points to the lack of a MANAGER! With Brian Epstein gone, there was often no rhyme or reason, and no coordination, in how these things got scheduled and released.
     
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  24. BlueJay

    BlueJay Forum Resident

    Yes, and even more evident in 1969 with the Get Back/Let It Be debacle.
     
  25. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
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    Oh yes. 1969 was a mess. But in 1968, it was still salvageable, if they had gotten someone to be in charge. Of course, Magical Mystery Tour (the film) started the whole lack of coordination in late 1967. Despite his faults in other areas, Brian Epstein was very good at PLANNING things.
     
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