The Beatles' 'Yellow Submarine' Was Once a Sad John Lennon Song
Producer George Martin's son compared The Beatles' "Yellow Submarine" demo with John Lennon's vocals to gold. Ringo Starr discussed the tune's evolution.
The son of a famous producer found a demo of The Beatles‘ “Yellow Submarine” with John Lennon singing the lead vocal. The demo includes some morose lyrics. Ringo Starr revealed that other members of the band decided to “liven up” the song before they had him sing it.
In 2022, USA Today reported John moped a lot in a demo of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.” In the demo, he sangs lines like “In the place where I was born, no one cared, no one cared,” “and the name that I was born, no one cared,” and “in the town where I come from, no one cared.”
Giles Martin, son of Fab Four producer George Martin, discussed the demo. “I had no idea it existed,” he said. “It was a complete discovery and I was surprised. One of the thrills I get when doing this is for people to experience the same thing I experience. Going through the cobwebs and finding the gold — that’s what I want to transfer to other people.”
Martin felt the sad version of “Yellow Submarine” didn’t have as much appeal as the version we all know and love. “It wouldn’t have been as commercial in that original form, and you can hear them working together and pushing each other in different directions,” Martin said. “Which, of course, was their downfall in the end. But at this stage, they were delighted by the way they were creatively pushing each other.”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com
