Yellow Submarine
My Nominee for the Greatest Music Video Ever Made
Okay, here's how dense I can be sometimes. I've seen Yellow Submarine at least a dozen times (low-end estimate) and I just got a joke for the first time. Ringo says in the beginning that he's a born lever puller. That joke's gone over my head every other time. Now, to the point of this article, the greatest music video...
Pitching a Viewing of the Movie
Do I need to convince you to watch it? It's brilliant, beautiful, significant, resonant. If you don't like the Beatles, stay away. If you do, sit down and watch it. What are you waiting for? Watch it. (Tempting to go all caps there) Silly jokes, good music and digressions into theories of time. It's all there.Musical or Music Video?
The line is somewhat blurred. Yellow Submarine is by far more a music video than a proper musical.
Not everyone sings in Yellow Submarine. Only the Beatles (and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) sing. Though the people of Pepperland play instruments briefly. The songs don't often progress the plot. They inspire the plot. Nowhere Man was recorded October 21 and 22, 1965 (How cool is it that the date is so easy to find? #factgeek) and inspired the creation of Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D.
The film incorporates different styles of animation to create a fantastical psychedelic journey into a world inspired by the songs. The songs were written and recorded, some years, before production started. A few songs were produced for the film and a soundtrack was released but there's no plot in the songs. The "Senile Delinquents" break out into giant beards and "When I'm 64" while they're going back in time. It's a brilliant song, cute scene but the song and the event in the plot do not connect.
Back before MTV (I miss wanting my MTV. I still remember the first music video I ever saw on MTV. A-ha "Take on me". Coincidentally, Yellow Submarine also uses rotoscoping but "Take on me" is far more elaborate.) and back when viral videos were lengths of scandalous films you watched in your friend's garage on a projector and white sheet, Yellow Submarine was a blockbuster in the theaters. They were everywhere and if you couldn't see them in person or they weren't on television that night, you were down to about one option, going to the movies.
Influence
The film does everything a music video and a great music video should do. It promotes the songs and it elevates the songs with amazing visuals.
The movie made a cultural impression. There have been toys, homages and thankfully failed attempts at remakes. Danger Mouse did an episode inspired by Yellow Submarine. Teen Titans evoked the film in the episode Mad Mod with a supervillain trapped (mentally) in the past.
The style of the film is so iconic and vibrant, it demands to be referenced in cartoons. The film featured psychedelic, op art, and pop art. The sea of holes plays with op art expertly to create a dimensional setting with just the characters and black dots.
Lingering Questions
Who are in the other submarines?
Did that cat ever get home?
Where can I buy an Unidentified Flying Cupcake? Sounds tasty.
Did Ringo ever sneeze?
Is "Blue Meanie" a slang for some kind of pill? If not, it should be.
Would you go in a Yellow Submarine?
Did the Vacuum Flask Beast suck itself into oblivion?
Why does no one acknowledge Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. is a god? He can create something from nothing. He's not nowhere. He's trying to fill the hours of eternity with education and creation.
If Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band were in the orb and their gear was in the house then what were they wearing and playing when they got orbed?
What does it mean to oblueterate someone?
Did that blue dog have a butt?
Is the Yellow Submarine really Miss Frizzle's bus?
Is the Yellow Submarine really Miss Frizzle's bus?
Do I overthink things? Yes, there's nothing lingering about that question. I overthink everything and I enjoy the sensation.
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