Proposed Yellow Submarine Mono EP-Any Info?

I tried doing a search for this, but the word ep is not recognized. I apologize if this has been done already.

In The Complete Beatles Chronicle, Mark Lewisohn mentions the existence of a master tape of this ep, which was compiled on March 13 1969, two months after the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album came out (it's not mentioned in his Beatles Recording Sessions book). Side one has Only A Northern Song, Hey Bulldog, and Across The Universe. Side 2 has All Together Now and It's All Too Much. Lewisohn says that the Beatles were criticized for the Yellow Submarine album's lack of "value-for-money," so this ep was put together for that reason.

What I'm curious about here is why haven't I seen this written about anywhere else? Does it actually exist? Why wasn't it mentioned in the Recording Sessions book? It may be just a footnote in Beatles history, but you know how we Beatle freaks get about footnotes.

I'm also curious as to why it was only put together in mono, when MMT was released in both formats. I can only guess that the project was killed before it got that far.

If anyone else has anymore info on this, I would love to hear it.

 

Me too. This may have reached the acetate stage.

 

The existence of the master tape for the mono EP is mentioned in the Recording Sessions Book, under the entry for January 17 (the release of the Yellow Submarine LP).

 

Would have been nice for EMI to have included it as a bonus EP in the EP vinyl and EP CD box sets.

I finally heard the mono songs a few years ago. "Only A Northern Song" is nice to hear after all those years of the fake stereo and fake stereo fold-down versions from the soundtrack LP.

 

Thank you, I totally missed this. Pretty much verbatim too.

 

That would have been pretty cool.

 

Does the huge 'Recording The Beatles' book have anything about it?

 

There's a small write up on page 164 of Lewisohn's Recording Sessions book. In it he says EMI employeee Edward Gadsby-Toni compiled and banded a five song mono EP to run at 33 1/3 rpm. However, the story about the Beatles feeling badly about offering only 4 new songs (on the Yellow Submarine LP) for the 'fans' seems a bit of creative license. The LP was already out, why issue a mono-only EP two months later that would entice those same fans to buy the same four songs again, basically to get the previously unreleased bonus track (and unrelated to the film) of Across The Universe ? Perhaps EMI wanted to do this, but I can't imagine the Beatles would want anything to do with it. Ron

 

"New Musical Express", January 25, 1969:

"A previously-unheard John Lennon composition, 'Across The Universe', is a bonus track added to a 'Yellow Submarine' Beatles' EP to be released by Apple next month. Apart from the title song, the four other numbers were specially written for the cartoon film - 'Only A Northern Song', 'Altogether Now', 'Hey Bulldog' and 'It's All Too Much.' All these tracks are included, together with other soundtrack music, on the now-released Apple 'Yellow Submarine' LP."

There doesn't seem to be any follow-up story to this in NME announcing the cancellation of the EP.

- John

 

Wow! Nice work! I'm not sure anybody has ever said/known this item appeared in the NME back then. How in the world did you remember and/or find this thing? Thanks regardless!

 

I think this is a very interesting thread.

John wanted 'Across The Universe' out but he didn't know how and the EP could have been one way to get it released.
The Beatles weren't very interested in the whole 'Yellow Submarine'-cartoon project and to release an EP with the four 'new' songs (+ an unreleased bonus-number) from the film could have been a way to correct matters with the embarrashing less-value-for-money LP.
In the end they chose to wash their hands and forget about the whole thing.

Anyway, my question is: Does anybody know how much (or how little) The Beatles were involved with the 'Yellow Submarine' LP ?
Did they have anything else to do with it apart from holding it back so it wouldn't collide with the release of the 'White Album' ?
To me it looks as if the 'Yellow Submarine' LP was somebody elses job ...

Finally: Excellent post from Mr. Dinsdale about the NME announcement. Thanks for sharing.

 

Yeah, but if you stop and think about it, the release of an EP containing the same songs as were on the LP, plus one new one, would be even more of a rip-off of the public. In essence, those that bought the album would be shelling out EP sized money for one new song--and one that wasn't included in the soundtrack the EP was supposed to have represented.

Luckily, someone had second thoughts about this.

JcS

 

I don't think that is a correct assessment of the EP market in Great Britain. The Beatles released many EP's that were simply songs from their most recent album - two EP's from A Hard Day's Night! just check out the EP box, the EP's are almost all duplication from albums with only a few exceptions. The feeling was back then that the EP market was different than the LP market, and that people who didn't want to buy the LP but were singles buyers would purchase the EP. So putting out the YS songs on an EP would be rewarding those singles buyers with the new YS songs without the soundtrack music filler of the album.

 

You're welcome! I have some bound volumes reprinting all Beatle-related articles, photos, and ads from NME 1963-1970 (at least 1,000 pages worth). "Beatles Book Monthly" also had a blurb about this EP, I believe.

I wonder if the reference to a "title song" is just a clumsy allusion to "Yellow Submarine" (which wasn't supposed to be on the EP), or if the EP really would have been called "Across The Universe"?

There is a point on the Nagras from January, 1969 at Twickenham where John is playing an acetate of "Across The Universe" to re-learn the lyrics. This may be the mix prepared for the EP, although it actually has the bird noises at the start, a la "WWF" version.

- John

 

What a bald-faced lie from the Apple PR department. One has to admire their cheek, I suppose.

 

Well they were close - only Only a Northern Song is the only one they list that wasn't specifically written for Yellow Submarine, isn't it?

 

None of them were specifically written for Yellow Submarine, to the best of my knowledge. "It's All Too Much" was recorded in the interim between Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour, iirc. "Hey Bulldog" was a companion to "Lady Madonna" and "The Inner Light," again, iirc. The Beatles just gave the film a few odds and ends that they didn't care about. It's telling that two Harrison songs made the cut, as George had, as ususal, been screwed out of getting his songs on the band's "official" releases.

 

I think this is essentially true. They never sat down and recorded songs specifically for the project, even All Together Now was one of two McCartney's offerings (with Your Mother Should Know) for the Our World satellite broadcast. Even if people think All You Need Is Love is somewhat slight, can you imagine them all singing "Sail the ship, chop the tree, skip the rope, look at me" Ron

 

It might have been a good idea to release an EP, if they could have done it BEFORE the album came out. That being said:

Wasn't the EP pretty much a dying, or dead format by 1969?

Also, wouldn't it have to run at 33 1/3 because of length of sides?

I did some math. Based on the 5 possible songs (3 on side 1, 2 on side 2)....Side 1 ran just over 10 minutes, Side 2 ran about 8. and a half minutes. Isn't that kind of pushing it?

Why include Across the Universe? Would it have been included as a bonus track?

 

The recording sessions book states that "Baby You're a Rich Man" was written for the Yellow Submarine movie.. but thats not on the soundtrack.

 

I remember reading that too, but I'm not so sure it's accurate. First of all it's another example of two incomplete songs merged together by John and Paul and if it was written for the movie specifically, why wasn't it included on the LP when there was a dirth of new songs available? Certainly, All Together Now or even Only A Northern Song could have been the requiste b-side to All You Need Is Love, but it may be hard to prove either way.

To GMav... the EP was banded at 33 1/3 rpm. Apparently, John wanted Universe released, but this is just an assumption at this point. Ron

 

Really? This was recorded in May 1967 -- before production began on the movie, I believe. Do you mean another song?

 

On his wonderfull site Chazz Avery has pictures of an acetate of 'Across The Universe labeled "18 Feb 1969". This might have been made especially for this EP.

You can find the pictures here:
link removed


Here's what Chazz says about it:

Note the date stamped on the label..."18 Feb 1969".

The label says "RM2". Based on that date, at first I thought this was possibly some sort of reference acetate forthe unreleased "Yellow Submarine" 2 disc EP and it utilized the
February 8, 1968 RM2 mix.

According to John Barrett, the master reels for that EP were prepared on March 13, 1969.
But, of course, some of Barrett's dates can be misleading. Lewisohn only makes a reference
that an EP was planned (RS pg. 164).

But...note the seller's revision...

On 16-Mar-04 at 19:17:57 GMT, seller added the following information:
"O and YES IT is The One With The BIRDS on at the start and the end."

Well...both Barrett and Lewisohn document the World Wildlife Fund version (with birds etc.) as prepared October 2, 1969 (RS1 & RS2). In addition, Barrett notes "RS1 WITHOUT SFX". I take SFX to mean 'sound effects'. So it would seem that RS2 is the ONLY mix with the bird effects.

Based on documentation, I don't see that's it's possible for an RM2 to exist with the bird effects.

But...we have a playback of "Across The Universe" from the Twickenham session of Jan. 7, 1969 [DDSI 7.135] that includes the birds.

Hmm...so when was the bird mix done. It's interesting that Barrett labels the early "Across
The Universe" tapes as "(WILDLIFE VERSION)" but does not label the 2 October 1969 as
such (the date Lewisohn says the bird version was made). Apparently, the idea for a charity album was born as early as December 1967 by Spike Mulligan and John agreed to contributing this song as early as February 1968.

Which mix was planned for the "Yellow Sub" EP. Is there an undocumented, late 1968, remix? Barrett dates the master reels for the EP as 13 March 1969. Did he misdate 13 March 1968?
Is it possible that the birds were added as an effect for the "Yellow Sub" movie and subsequently not used but then thought appropriate for the charity album?

Based on the available early mixes, it would seem the birds are not on the first recordings as could be implied by Barrett.

Also, "Making Of Across The Long And Winding Road" Disc 1 link removed
lists track 10 as "Across The Universe - Acetate bird version, February 4 & 8, 1968".

However, Bootleg Zone, while calling it "RM2", states that it is simply the "Hum's Wild" version.

I don't have "The Making Of..." release. Can anyone clarify?

 

Lewisohn does mention it was specifically recorded for Yellow Submarine. He also says the Beatles made an agreement with United Artists in May to provide "at least three new songs and allowing use of some others already released". But he doesn't provide details as to why he thinks BYARM was written and recorded specifically for the YS soundtrack. Recording sessions had already commenced for Magical Mystery Tour in April and BYARM, All Together Now, You Know My Name (backing track only), and It's All Too Much were recorded 11 May-25 May. Only A Northern Song was also remixed into mono days before MMT was recorded. A very busy time, but I think it's near-impossible to prove or disprove which songs may have been recorded with YS or MMT in mind. Ron

 

Brainwashed wrote: "Even if people think All You Need Is Love is somewhat slight, can you imagine them all singing "Sail the ship, chop the tree, skip the rope, look at me" "