Episode 38 of The Beatles (1967).
The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine was released on Blu-ray earlier this month. The quality is as good as you’d expect, it looks and sounds fantastic with the songs really benefitting from their remixes and high-definition audio. The film atoned for Al Brodax and George Dunning’s earlier role as producers of the lamentable The Beatles animated TV series which ran for 39 episodes from 1965 to 1967. The series as a whole may be cheap and nasty but the penultimate number is notable for being the only one featuring two of John Lennon’s songs inspired by his acid trips: Tomorrow Never Knows and She Said, She Said. These tiny eruptions of psychedelic culture into children’s film and television have always fascinated me, and this is one example I’d missed until now. No wonder it had to end, the Fab Four were getting far too weird. Okay kids, sing along now: “I know what it’s like to be dead…”
Previously on { feuilleton }
• The Dukes declare it’s 25 O’Clock!
• Yellow Submarine comic books
• A splendid time is guaranteed for all
• Heinz Edelmann
• Please Mr. Postman
• All you need is…
“…and you’re making me feel like I’ve never been born…”
Lamentable it may have been, but as a youngster I absolutely adored the Beatles cartoon! I was quite disillusioned and depressed when I found out that the dialogue was not voiced by the Fab Four but by actors instead.
“Tomorrow Never Knows” is one of my favorite songs. I’m especially partial to Monsoon’s version. It’s fabulous! Oh, and the Chameleons did a great cover, too, which I played a lot in my DJ days. Hit the fog machine and watch the goths go wild!
Yes, I probably would have enjoyed these as a kid—I loved Yellow Submarine, after all—but they didn’t get shown here until the 1980s by which time they seemed horrible and cheap.
I love that Monsoon album, lucky to have it on CD. I still vividly remember the first time I heard Ever So Lonely when it entered the charts here. I wonder what Sheila Chandra’s up to these days, haven’t heard anything of hers for a while.
My other fave cover of TNK is the 801 version. Not sure I’ve heard the Chameleons’ one.
Here’s a Chandra post I did last year. And: the majestic cover by The Chameleons!
I was devoted to these on Saturday morning too and of course in love with the Beatles. (At 6 I had plans to marry Ringo, logic be damned.) I still remember the one when John was lecturing Ringo about the dangers of dropping his Gs and right after, a huge marque sign above them fell and bonked him on the head with the letter G. That’s age appropriate humor, I guess. I didn’t always get the jokes but the psychedelic aspect wasn’t that weird in the context of a cartoon. The voices are dreadful to hear now but at the time it was charming. Not nearly as bad as Dick Van Dyke who has apparently set the bar in that department.