Yellow Submarine

A lot of people think that this album was just a crass attempt by the powers that be to mine up some old Beatles tunes, released and unreleased, and cobble it together with some George Martin musical scores filling up side 2 so as to trick the kids into thinking there was a "new Beatles album".

These people would be right.

However, it's not completely dismissable. As a film, Yellow Submarine is as perfectly realized a trip as Sgt. Pepper was as an album: it captures the psychedelic ethos just as well. Of course, the Fabs helped lay this template out, but in a twist of irony, the best of the post-Beatlemania films doesn't even have the Beatles in it. (No matter what some reference books tell you, those are NOT their voices you're hearing.)

Only A Northern Song While musically this Pepper reject would have worked well, being just as experimental in its dissonance as "Within You Without You" and of better overall quality, lyrically it's a bit dark and dour, more emblematic of the White Album. The song is often seen as George's first warning flag over his dissatisfaction; Northern Songs were owned by John and Paul primarily, and therefore George was working for them, in a sense.

All Together Now You'd think John would hate a simplistic, smiley Paul song like this, but he loved it -- it was the closest thing to pure skiffle the boys had ever released. A real highlight of the film, coming at the live-action epilogue, it was later heard at soccer matches in Britain. Sort of a "Jock Jam" of its day!

Hey Bulldog Original Title: Hey Bullfrog

One of the lost classics. It was tossed off rather quickly, but with someone as mercurial as John, that was often the best way for him to write a song. Or rather, co-write it, as this was the last song that was a real collaboration between John and Paul. Another precursor to hard rock, this song features a King Kong of a main riff, manic barking noises from the usually reserved Paul (which led to the title change), and a chorus that is Pure Essence Of John. Fantastic. Worth the price of the CD.

It's All Too Much A psychedelic experiment from George that's the highlight of the film, this epic track was tailor-made for the Summer Of Love but was incomprehensibly tossed aside until YS. It's sloppy, all right, even chaotic, but that's sort of the point: George (and therefore, us) being bowled over by the counterculture. Or if you like, a girl. Works either way.