(Personal reflections inspired by Beatles songs)
Song: “All Together Now”
Album: Yellow Submarine
Release Date: January 1969
This past week I watched my fourth (of 5) Beatles movies for this Fab Foundations blog series; Yellow Submarine. John, Paul, George, and Ringo did not actually participate in the making of this film, but they did compose and perform every song that was used in it - including 4 originals - and they all ended up being very pleased with the results. In a gesture of solidarity, the Fab Four appear at the end of the film – my favorite part. I’ll get to that soon enough.
I watched this movie once before, a very long time ago on the telly. I cannot remember the context or the year, but I’m thinking it was with family members (and maybe even a few cousins) way back when we were all pre-teens. It may have even been not long after the movie was released. If so, it would have been one of my very first Beatles experiences. The film was impressionable on me back then, and I’m happy to say after my viewing this week that it still is.
Yellow Submarine was a labor of love. It was directed by animation producer George Dunning, who hailed from Canada (why am I not surprised by this – see Fab Foundations # 29). In a nutshell, Dunning was stunning. He and his animation crew capture the spirit of the Beatles and the spirit of the times in a production that was a technical marvel for its day and age. It’s a wonderful period piece, but also manages to translate well to our current times.
The basic plot is about an extraordinary underwater utopian world called Pepperland (similar enough in name to my hometown of Pepperell to have me imagine I was living there this week) that comes under attack by the bloated, distorted “Blue Meanies” and their evil minions. The Blue Meanies despise anything that is creative, musical and artistic, in other words… anything they can’t wrap their feeble minds around. A ship captain from Pepperland, “Old Fred”, manages to escape in the community’s Yellow Submarine, taking it to the seaport city of Liverpool where he enlists the Beatles for help. The trip back is rife with peril, but in the end the 5 of them make it and free the magical Pepperland from its captors.
I recalled this week that when I was a kid watching the movie, I found the Blue Meanies more comical than anything. This time around I found them a bit more disturbing. Back then I did not understand that when it comes to limited minds in power, art is one of the many things that comes under attack. Now I understand this full well.
However, Yellow Submarine is primarily a positive experience, and what it captures better than anything is the casual, almost friendly way in which the Beatles confront their adversaries. In the real world, the Fab Four had a natural wit and wisdom about them that rubbed off on an entire generation. This comes across fantastically well in the film, despite the fact that other actors were used to portray their animated selves. Indeed, it’s become clear to me in this my personal year of the Beatles, that being a Beatle was not only about creating music. It was also about how this band projected themselves as they created, which played out throughout their ~ 10 year existence. Each one of them was extremely comfortable in his own skin. This, along with the music, put them in rarified air.
Quite often during this Fab Foundations series, I’ve thought about how it all clicked so well for the Beatles, and I believe a big part of it comes down to their extremely unique collective mentality. In fact, I’ve dwelled on this general concept throughout my 10 years of blog writing…. this notion of “in what forum is there more potential: One where you create something in a collective way or one where you create something on your own?”. There’s no easy answer, but my leanings continue to be in the group setting.
Collectively, the Beatles caught everyone’s attention in a very big way. When they went their own separate ways, they lost much of that. After the breakup, their individual personalities projected more to the general public. Paul McCartney projected more as the superstar, jet-setter extrovert. George Harrison projected more as the spiritual recluse. Ringo Starr projected more as the good time Charlie (for a spell). John Lennon projected more as the idealist hippie beatnik. The projection was real. They all continued to be successful, but to various degree they lost their mojo (keeping in mind that that mojo had supersized – virtually impossible – shoes to fill).
Yes, creativity can come either collectively or individually (which the Beatles proved when they went their own ways), but a group setting allows for the creativity to be more dynamic. Even in the cases of the individualist musicians I’ve written about – Bob Dylan and Neil Young – it kinda played out this way. Dylan is an extremely unique case, but his period with the Band in the late 60s allowed him to break free from the shackles of being Dylan. In the process he released collaborative music from that period that to this day stands out in a distinctively palpable way. As for Neil Young, his discography highlights the every-so-often need for collaborative solace with his band Crazy Horse (and less frequently with CSN), and he continues to value the period of time he spent in Buffalo Springfield in the late 60s (a true group effort). Young knows the value of collaboration. You can hear it in that Crazy Horse sound.
There are many collaboratives in our lives. A marriage is an example. So too is a family. Friendships and work teams are other examples. Are these the only kinds of experiences in our lives where we can optimize on dynamic potential? Is there much space for dynamism when we are doing something on our own (for example, in my case when I write entries for this blog)? Again, it’s not an easy proposition to contemplate. Perhaps what it comes down to is that the two environments (group and individual) complement one another.
We will always have ourselves to rely on (or at least we have that in our control) but when it comes to a collective experience - which in essence is built on our individual efforts - we must rely on an “all in” group mentality. There’s more risk involved. You need a solemn vow so to speak (either spoken or unspoken) to make it really work. The more people involved, the harder that is to pull off or maintain in the long run, especially when it comes to creativity. But when you do manage to pull it off, magic happens. The Beatles figured this out.
In Yellow Submarine’s Pepperland, harmony comes with that collective, creative spirit. It’s interesting that the best of the 4 original Beatles songs to come out of the film’s soundtrack was the aptly titled (on all accounts) “All Together Now” ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM8S4Y7FPMk&list=RDSM8S4Y7FPMk&start_radio=1 ). Was this intentional(in terms of the song and it's title fitting so well the general narrative of the film)? In the masterfully creative world of the collective Beatles, I believe so. It may not have been spoken, but the spirit of the solemn vow made it so. As the case with the song “Yellow Submarine”, it works too that “All Together Now” is for the most part a children’s song. It all fits. Much of our creativity evolves out of our connection with our youthful innocence. The Beatles are a band that formed in youth. The movie Yellow Submarine is at heart a children’s movie. And the title song, along with the best original song (“All Together Now”) tie in with all this (arguably these two songs are the only two children’s songs that the Beatles ever wrote).
As mentioned at the beginning of this entry, the ending of Yellow Submarine with the actual Beatles is my favorite part of the movie (a portion of that clip is in the above link). Afterall, this was late 1968, when the band was going through internal strife. And yet the clip is a playful one. All four Beatles come across as much more youthful versions of themselves than what you see in other clips of them from that period. I replayed it over and over this week. I love George’s little moments, especially the way he says “how’s that” just before they launch into song. I love Ringo’s little moments, especially when he leads off the singing with that immediate and natural “One!”. I love Paul’s little moments, especially when he says, “what’s the matter, John love, Blue Meanies?” . And I love John’s little moments especially when he pronounces that the only way to get things right is by “Singing!”. There’s not a hint of jadedness with any of them. It’s all very Beatle-esque.
In my imagination this week, I thought of myself watching Yellow Submarine as a kid with my siblings and my cousins. We were a bundle of energy back then, likely bouncing off the walls before, during, and after we watched. The reason? A very likely one is that there was so much potential for our future, which eventually played out in fantastical ways for each of us. And so, we were excited! The Beatles showcased this potential in their animated selves. They helped unlock all that.
- Pete
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