The Beatles: Yellow Submarine EP

New Musical Express, January 25, 1969:

"NEW LENNON SONG ON EP - A previously unreleased John Lennon composition, 'Across The Universe', is a bonus track added to a 'Yellow Submarine' Beatles' EP to be released by Apple next month. Apart from the title song, the four other numbers were specially written for the cartoon film - 'Only A Northern Song', 'Altogether [sic] Now', 'Hey Bulldog' and 'It's All Too Much'. All these tracks are included, together with other soundtrack music, on the now-reeased Apple 'Yellow Submarine' LP."

 

Thanks for these NME reports, DinsdaleP, they are really fascinating.
So what was the title of this EP? Were there 5 songs on it or 6? It's not completely clear. Or did NME just presume that YS would be on there?

 

In my german book "Die Beatles - Geschichte und Chronology" (History & Chronology), written by Moers, Meier, Buehring and Budeus (released in 2000 by Rainer Moers / Argument Verlag) the following is written (I translate it here):

Thursday, March 13, 1969: EDWARD GATSBY-TONI
Recording sessions: EMI Abbey Road Studios, 3 Abbey Road, London NW8
Today, a master tape for a planned EP (33 rpm) was compiled:

- Only A Northern Song
- Hey Bulldog
- Across The Universe

- All Together Now
- It's All Too Much

(This special EP for the YELLOW SUBMARINE movie was never released. There were probably no testpressings etc. made, cause the project has been cancelled short time after they compiled the master tape).

This is the information I have here...and I am sure that the title track was never planned to be included on the EP, cause it was released on an album before...

If they planned to release an EP with non-LP tracks, it would make no sense to include YS again, so I think the track order with the 5 songs was the thing as it should be back in 1969.

 

Well, that NME report is Jan. 25th 1969, so it's nearly 2 months before the EP was even compiled. Is it possible that the 'title track' was under consideration at that point?

All this leads to another question: Why were the Beatles rehearsing ATU at Twickenham in Jan.69 for the LIB sessions? Or did the lackluster renditions of the song there make them decide to just release the 1968 version?

 

John wasn't happy with the 1968 version, it was in the LIB film so they revived and tinkered with the 1968 version so it could be used on the soundtrack.

 

Yes, I'm aware of it's history regarding LIB. But if by January 1969 it was being planned for record release (the 1968 version), then why rehearse it as a contender for the (at that time) 'Get Back' project? Or did the sloppy versions they rehearsed of the song at that time make them decide to finally just release the original version, and forget about trying to re-do it?

 

"...Or did the sloppy versions they rehearsed of the song at that time make them decide to finally just release the original version, and forget about trying to re-do it?..."

If you ask me: I think so...

 

I think it was intended for a charity LP (I know this goes against EP talk), maybe John wanted a different version on a Beatles LP where it would get more exposure?

 

From what I understand, the charity LP took ages to come out (nearly 2 years after ATU was recorded), so they thought they might be able to use the song themselves if nothing was happening with the charity album. John always said how much he liked the song, but how the original recording was not satisfactory to him (even blaming Paul with 'sabotage'). He was short of songs for the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, so he pulled the song back out. Any intentions of getting a better version seem to have been ruled out after the Twickenham rehearsals (was it tried at the Apple sessions in Jan.69? I don't think it was), so maybe they then decided to release the 1968 version on something. It's just a bit coincidental that the Twickenham rehearsals for the song, and the announcement that the original version was about to be released, happened within about 2 weeks of each other.

 

Kind of worked out well, glad it made the LIB LP, I actually quite like what Phil did with it, altho most seem to prefer the Wildlife version. I also like the Anthology version, I could imagine that one fitting well on the proposed EP.

 

I think you're right, John was still fond of the song, if not the February 1968 rendition, and thought they should take another crack at it in Twickenham, since the charity LP seemed to be nowhere in sight.

"Across The Universe" first pops up on January 6th, but nobody can really remember how it goes. John says "Let's get the words and we can do it better than last time". George asks, "Are they gonna put that out?" and John replies, "Sometime. They haven't sorted it out." George comments that John "always thought everyone was singing out of tune" on the original recording.

Later that day, John asks Mal to fetch the lyrics to the song and Mal responds that Peter Brown is getting a copy from Dick James's office.

On the 7th, John brings it up again, saying "we almost know that one" and trying to recall the lyrics, but after a tentative runthrough, concludes "I'll have to wait for the words". A few minutes later, the lyric sheet arrives, and John seems amused by his own wordplay ("Tumble blindly?").

The group then discusses the pros and cons of the '68 recording. John liked the tamboura, but not the girls singing (which George did like). Paul asks if it ever got on the Wildlife Fund album, and John says "they haven't got it together yet". They try another take, and John says it needs to be played slow so he can get all the words out; he suggests George could play organ to recreate the tamboura drone.

John asks for a record player, wanting to hear an acetate of the '68 performance. With a few more passes, George settles on doing the drone on guitar, but the song is still in poor shape. John tells George to play the beginning using his wah-wah pedal, and they soon tire of doing the song in favor of some "fast ones" to liven up things ("Rock And Roll Music" and "Lucille"); ultimately, they move on to "One After 909".

After a while, the record player is found, and they play back the acetate. This is interesting because it contains the bird and horse effects at the start, and seems to be the same mix used on "Mono Masters". George says he doesn't like the "flapping bit" at the beginning, figuring it takes too long to get the the actual song.

They ignore "Universe" entirely on the 8th, but come back to it on the 9th for one last attempt. This rehearsal starts off too slow, and then George complains that he doesn't like the harmonies, so they work on those. John tells Ringo to change up the beat on the refrains to make it heavier. They then turn in what is probably the best attempt of all the Twickenham sessions, but still nothing to write home about.

After a romp through Carl Perkins's "Tennessee", Paul starts to sing "words are flowing out..." and John takes over with a grotesque Goonish voice, shouting the rest of the line. Paul is taken aback: "My goodness me!" John admits he doesn't want to do that song anymore, and that would be it.

Two weeks later, "Across The Universe" was earmarked for the "Yellow Submarine" EP.

 

Thanks again DinsdaleP, great info. It's been a while since I've listened to the Twickenham rehearsals, but your desciption has brought it back to me.

So the bird effects had been superimposed onto the 1968 mix by the 7th Jan.69. I presume that must have been done so it would be ready IF the charity LP should ever come to fruition. Wonder what would have happened if the '69 rehearsals of ATU had gone really well? I suppose they might have withdrawn it from the charity album.

PS. Paul seems really ignorant about it's non-release at the time, he obviously didn't think about these things as much as we do!

 

I really love this forum here
Always great and detailed information in a very short time !!!
Thank you very much, guys !!!

 

John liked what Phil did with it also.

 

I know I'm a little late on this, however I want to return to the earlier statement "The bird effects were added sometime after the original February 1968 session and before or during the Get Back sessions in January 1969. It's possible that George Martin added the effects in early January 1969 back at EMI whilst the Beatles were at Twickenham because an acetate played during the first few weeks of the session include the effects".

According to Lewison's Complete Beatles Recording Sessions p193 - Thursday 2 October, 1969, the bird sound effects were added on THIS day, as well, the song was sped up.

SO, the 2009 "The Beatles in Mono" version containing the effects (and fast speed) as part of the unissued Yellow Submarine EP would seem to contradict the 2 October information.

 

Yes, there is a BIG contradiction in the dates. We've had discussions in this thread and in other threads here trying to resolve this difference. Clearly, Mark Lewisohn made an error (!!!) in saying the bird effects were added in October 1969. People have said this was a typo, and maybe it should have said "1968". Some have pointed to info indicating the bird effects were added in Feb or March 1968 (shortly after the recording was made), but no one has clearly come up with an answer that solves the problem.

You might like to check out this long thread: http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/across-the-universe-what-happened.275888/

 

It all depends what is meant by 'added'. Were the bird sounds:

A) Recorded onto the 4-track tape, and so part of the actual mixes from the 4-track
B) Overlayed onto an already completed mix(es)
C) Played into the song from another tape, as the song was being mixed (the sounds at the start could be an edit)

I don't think it's A. I'd say the stereo mix is C, but the mono mix could be B (i.e. the mono mix was already done, and the bird sounds were later overlayed). Though it could be C also. We just don't know when the actual mono mix was made.

I think Lewisohn just made a (wrong) assumption in his books about the bird sounds being added ONLY in October 1969. That is probably true of the stereo mix, but he overlooked the earlier mono mix.

 

Just to add this in (in context) the EP sleeve - front and rear and the label - were all mocked up by Frank Daniels for the Spizer book he co-authored The Beatles on Parlophone. He front of sleeve was in the book but not the rest. It was based on the Walls Ice Cream EP design and fonts.

He revealed the rest of the pictures to members of the Beatles Collectors UK forum many years ago and thats where all of the pics have come from.

That 45cat entry is utterly false - there is no EP floating around "out there" - he did not find one at the markets. Hence there is no side 2 shown - Frank did not mock up a side 2.