Comments on: THE BEATLES - “Eleanor Rigby”/”Yellow Submarine”

By: Dan R

Dan R — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:37:57 +0000

And two years later, I add a thought. While there are more flashily drug-influenced and psychedelic Beatles songs - most of them written by Lennon - Yellow Submarine has always struck me as the most ’stoned’ sounding Beatles song. It’s particularly the draggy beat, but also the monotony of ‘we all live in’ and ‘yellow submarine’, the way the voices barely harmonise and merely seem to drag each other down.

By: FreakyTrigger » My Own Trumpet

FreakyTrigger » My Own Trumpet — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:45:41 +0000

[...] Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006: look ma! It’s me! Regular readers of Popular will of course have no need to buy this excellent book (erm, other than to read all the even better stuff by Greil Marcus, Frank Kogan, Miss AMP, J Edward Keyes, Dave Tompkins and lots of other people) as they’ve already read my piece on “Yellow Submarine” and “Eleanor Rigby”. But this is still quite exciting for me as I’ve seen the previous editions of the series in real actual bookshops. [...]

By: Wizz

Wizz — Mon, 15 May 2006 18:56:00 +0000

Like the reviews Mate. Keep them coming. ‘Eleanor Rigby’ IS one of my favourite songs by the Beatles. I do find that due to my constant mood change, their earlier tracks have more of a ‘real life’ feel about them, and even today, I heard a Beatles song whilst dozing and heard more than I ever thought there was within the music??????? (It seemed someone had put an extra instrument on the track, when in fact, it’s been there all the time).

By: Mark Gamon

Mark Gamon — Sat, 04 Feb 2006 12:32:00 +0000

Good review, Tom, and amen to that 10.

I don’t want to break the rules or anything, but this immediately set me thinking about the greatest of all the Beatles singles - which, curiously, only made it to Number 2 (as I’m sure you’re aware).

Couldn’t you make an exception for Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields? There are parallels with Eleanor Rigby / Yellow Submarine. I’m not sure which piece of rubbish kept it off the top spot (Humperdinck?) but I don’t think we’d miss very much if you muddled the numbers just for the one week…

By: Frank Kogan

Frank Kogan — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 04:34:00 +0000

I forgot to mention the most important thing about “Eleanor Rigby” (well, most important to Jordana, Lia, and Michaela Ryerson in 1999), which is that Paul pronounces church as “chuhch.”

By: rjm

rjm — Fri, 06 Jan 2006 03:50:00 +0000

Tom, this is an amazing piece of criticism, really first rate. I never thought of these songs going together in quite this way either. Maybe as reality/escape, but never quite as near the same thing. I’m not sure that Yellow Submarine is about community, though, except as a “Let’s all get out of here together” drug utopia sort of thing (wasn’t Yellow Submarine a name for a particular type of amphetimine?). Someone mentioned Octopus’s Garden, and the two could almost be seen as a progression (with the cold bath of Magical Mystery Tour somewhere in the middle) from an optimistic belief in group escape to a desire to hide away from just about everybody except your most intimate friends. I’m not sure you’d find Eleanor Rigby on board the Yellow Submarine, but you might well find her moping in the Octopus’s Garden.

By: bza

bza — Thu, 05 Jan 2006 17:47:00 +0000

Stephen, with Revolution No 9, that’s only true if you don’t count the fader as an instrument. :)

By: Lena

Lena — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 20:30:00 +0000

I have little to add here, except that I never want to shop to “Eleanor Rigby” (not a prettified instrumental version but the real thing) again as it is just too sad; a world of people doing things for no apparent reason, like you said Tom, with poor Eleanor ignored even after her death! I don’t know if I can give it a 10 because it actually is so depressing, but I can’t find much fault with it.

I like “Yellow Submarine” as a nonsense song, though I was so scared by the Blue Meanies in the movie as a kid that I was relieved by the (necessary) jolly seaside hoedown and don’t/didn’t see it as too mindless.

Welcome back Tom!

By: Marcello

Marcello — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 17:37:00 +0000

This post has been removed by the author.

By: p^nk s

p^nk s — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 14:08:00 +0000

lex you are surely just PRETENDING to know what a “flipside” is

By: Lex

Lex — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 12:56:00 +0000

I didn’t know these were the flipsides of the same single! That’s interesting cos ‘Eleanor Rigby’ is just about the only Beatles song I can stand while ‘Yellow Submarine’ kinda encapsulates most of what I loathe about them.

Even then Aretha’s version of ‘Eleanor Rigby’ >>>> original.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:59:00 +0000

Google say it’s Adam Faith’s “What Do You Want”, which is 98 seconds.

(The longest Number 1 is Oasis’ apalling “All Around The World”.)

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:50:00 +0000

Some of the 50s and 60s hits clock in at about 1 minute 40, can’t remember which though.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 11:47:00 +0000

I know what I wanted to ask. Eleanor Rigby is pretty short for a single - a tad over two minutes I think - but what is the *shortest* single to get to number one?

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:52:00 +0000

Something of their spirit lives on in the Harvester chain.

I never had a bad time at a Berni inn. I have a really vivid memory of Dad’s birthday falling on a Sunday one year and listening to the Top 40 in the back of the car on the way to one. “A View To A Kill” went straight in at number 2 I believe.

Thanks for the comments, I will reply to some a bit later I hope.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:44:00 +0000

Berni Inns were a chain of restaurants where you could get a prawn cocktail and a steak and a reasonable glass of plonk at a time when eating out was a novelty for most people. They were a cut above the Wimpy Bar and a family shoppi8ng trip to Watford or St Albans wasn’t complete without lunch at the Joseph Benskin or Tudor Tavern respectively.

In retrospect they seem unbelievably naff but it would be unfair to mock them. They were very much of their time.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 10:15:00 +0000

What were the berni inns

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 05:46:00 +0000

Doctor Mod said:

Tom, this is a stunning review, and I’m not going to try to improve on it. Glad to see you back in such fine form!

I’ll admit that I’d never seen the connection between the two sides of the single which, on the surface, seem as unalike as could be. But yes–what you say is true.

“Yellow Submarine” was the party we all wanted to go to–and “Eleanor Rigby” contains our fear that we aren’t invited.

It just so happens that I bought the Sandbrook book myself last month for use in my ongoing research. I think you’re right that most people were a mix of the two sides of the dichtomy he attempts to create–and dichotomies are generally just a template for sorting out the phenomena of existence, rarely an accurate description of the realities of life. The two sides of the record would seem to see how the two sides of this paradigm are connected.

A perfect 10.

By: Frank Kogan

Frank Kogan — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 01:49:00 +0000

Tom, we’re just getting to where my real time is starting. I was a folkie at age 12 (hi Rosie, we must be in the same grade; who’s your home-room teacher?), scared of pop. Then I returned to it (still scared). This was on the radio and had made it to number three. I hated “Yellow Submarine,” loved “Eleanor Rigby,” which was basically a folk song - which in my mind apparently had nothing to do with the Anglo-American folk tradition, but with intense songs about life’s problems. I probably heard this as a protest song. It’s just a step from here to Simon & Garfunkel, and once there - face it - you’re on your way to the Velvets and “Heroin” and the Stooges and the rest. All the lonely people. Another year with nothing to do. I’m gonna try and nullify my life. But anyway, I later was embarrassed that I ever found this song profound, and I no longer love it. And I no longer hate “Yellow Submarine.” Not that I like it all that much, but it’s sure better than “Octopus’s Garden.”

By: Rosie

Rosie — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 23:32:00 +0000

I can’t follow those comments - brilliant and I couldn’t have put it better even if I’d thoughht of it.

But hey - I spent the 1960s divided almost exactly between Greasby, on the Wirral, and Welwyn Garden City. Neither place exactly the hub of the univers. But I don’t feel at all that the canonical 1960s passed me by. To be young was very heaven!

By: Stephen

Stephen — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 22:52:00 +0000

Bza: Revolution No. 9?

Also, Tom this was terrific. More writing about the Beatles like this please!

By: bza

bza — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 22:47:00 +0000

I could be wrong, but isn’t “Eleanor Rigby” the only beatles song where none of the beatles play any instruments?

By: Joe Williams

Joe Williams — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 21:14:00 +0000

I think the story is that the string arrangement was written by George Martin and Paul McCartney while they were recording.

It’s strange that at this time of their careers, the Beatles should release a single containing two of their simpler songs, musically speaking (off the top of my head I think both use only three chords). I suppose the point is that they were trying to do things differently, which didn’t necessarily mean more complex.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 20:12:00 +0000

As you say, a perfect pairing. This is my favourite Beatles single.

Who wrote the string quartet arrangement for “Rigby”? It’s amazing - I can’t think of another pop song that uses this voice/quartet combination so well/interestingly.

I doubt anyone will moan at this 10 but FWIW I think that so far you’ve saved them for just the right singles.

Jeff W

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 03 Jan 2006 19:38:00 +0000

The digression is interesting (and I’m glad you kept it in there), but the review is really, really amazement. I think I can live with the death of NYPLM if that means Popular is going to be this exciting and incisive!