Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

Yellow Submarine
The Beatles
Apple  SW 153
1969

I bought this while living in Alameda in the mid-1970s.  I had not seen the film at the time and I don't remember why I picked it exactly, but I do remember liking the artwork and also not realizing that side two was not by the Beatles.  I saw the trippy song titles and figured they were more psychedelic wonders - boy was I wrong.  I was so disappointed when I played it.  I consider this the worst Beatles record, not really because of the music but because it is such an obvious ripoff.  The soundtrack albums for "A Hard Day's Night" on United Artists or the Capitol version of "Help!" are not much better but at least the Beatles had nothing to do with them.  This is an Apple product, fully sanctioned by the Beatles.  The two best songs, "Yellow Submarine" and "All You Need is Love" had already been released on other albums and the 4 outtakes they dug up to flesh out side one are far from essential additions to the Beatles catalog.  My favorite is Lennon's humorous "Hey Bulldog" but despite Paul McCartney's fabulous bass playing on the song, it is definitely minor.  I also like Harrison's "Sgt. Pepper" outtake "Only a Northern Song" which would be a much better song if it was not buried in murky production and annoying sound effects.  Harrison also contributes the whiny "It's All Too Much" which is a rocking tune with psychedelic touches expanded with excessive instrumentation and lots of repetition.  The worst of the four is Paul's insidiously catchy "All Together Now" which is so silly it makes "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" sound like Leonard Cohen in comparison.  George Martin's soundtrack music is conveniently on side two so you can ignore it if you choose, unlike the soundtrack albums for "Help" or "A Hard Day's Night."  I'm not a soundtrack music fan but even I can see that this is not particularly distinguished.  I kind of like "Sea of Time" which goes from toying with "Within You, Without You" to a corny waltz which is quite a trip.  Otherwise side two is just a waste of time for me and I play it about as much as I play "Two Virgins" which is just about never.  Just for the record I am not a big fan of the movie either - I dislike the Beatles impersonators' voices and I think the story is dumb although the imagery is wonderful.  I imagine it works better if one is high or at least a little buzzed.  Recommended for Beatles completists who don't mind getting mugged by the Fab Four.