4 Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed… Something Blue: The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine
Drawn to Sound - Animation Film Music and Sonicity - Rebecca Coyle †
Ian Inglis [+ ]
University of Northumbria
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Ian Inglis is Visiting Fellow in the School of Arts & Social Sciences at the University of Northumbria, Newcastle upon Tyne. His most recent books include The Words and Music of George Harrison (2010), Popular Music and Television in Britain (2010) and The Beatles in Hamburg (2012). His first novel Clay Lake is scheduled for publication in 2012.
Description
Yellow Submarine’s assembly of musical items – some old songs from the group’s previous records, some ‘borrowed’ and recycled from its store of discarded material, some new instrumental segments – was at the time difficult for a general popular-music audience to recognize as an authentic Beatles product. Furthermore, its collection of nursery-rhyme, music-hall, Indian-derived, rock, pop, psychedelic and orchestral styles defied any attempts at easy categorization. However, although audiences may have been deterred by these apparent inconsistencies, there is little doubt that for those involved in its production, the interplay between music and animation was crucial to its eventual ‘classic’ status.