When I was four years old, "Yellow Submarine" was my favorite Beatles song. While George Harrison was always my favorite Beatle, I did think that Ringo had the coolest name. For a short-time, I insisted people call me "Ringo-John." (Later, I insisted they call me "Jason," after the boy upon whom I had a crush. Yes, I was a five year old girl who wanted to be a boy, and I had a crush on a boy. What of it?) As I grew, my love of the Beatles remained ever true, but interest in "Yellow Submarine" gave way to "Day in the Life," "Taxman," and the medley on Side B of "Abbey Road," back when musical recordings had Side B's.
Lucia is almost five, Ringo is her favorite Beatle (she's partial to drummers, and likes to talk about Daron Henry from Recess Monkey), and "Yellow Submarine" is her favorite Beatles song. She asked me to play it for her birthday party in two weeks. My first thought was, "No, no, no." Then I looked at the chords and said, "Yes, yes, yes." Just look at them. The chords of each line in the verses are all the same. The chords in the chorus alternate between G and D. This is a good song to play! Compare it to George Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps. That F sharp minor, C sharp minor and B minor would have me weeping.
16 comments:
Guess what? My husband looks like George Harrison. Really. My daughter points to pictures of him and says "Daddy"(pictures of Chuck Norris, too, though, so that doesn't mean much, but he really does look like George Harrison). My husband is, shall we say, obsessed with the Beatles. My kids could always identify all four of them by age two (and deliver treatises on Paul's greed). The LSG used to get in trouble in Montessori because she kept inciting frenzies on the playground and in the classroom with her Sea of Monsters game. The children periodically respond to my requests with "all you need is love". I've always liked the Beatles as much as the next person - that is to say, a lot - but maybe not anymore. They are on the wall in my bathroom and stuff. Yellow submarines everywhere...help...St. Joan, take me away from here!
LSM: My husband looks like George Harrison too! Just kidding, though the eyebrows are a good match.
Lucia has good taste. My crazy urchins love 'Yellow Submarine' -- song and cartoon. 'Eleanor Rigby' has always been my favorite though. :)
Our house is called The Yellow Submarine. No, it isn't yellow, but we all live in it.
I first learned to play guitar in the sixth grade from a young nun at my Catholic grade school (she taught a class of about 40 of us for an hour after school and had the patience of Job) and this was on of the songs she taught us.
Another favorite was "Yes Indeedy Pumpkin Seedy," which I sadly can't find a reference to online.
Favorite Beatle: Paul
Favorite Beatle song: impossible to say, but I've always loved "Oh Darlin'" so I'll go with that one for now.
Hey, Ringo-John. I LOVE THAT.
Hasn't "Yellow Submarine" been analyzed to death about being about 5,000 other things it's not about when it's really just a simple children's songs? I read that some place, but maybe I just, uh, dreamt it.
Jules, 7-Imp
Noodle: For some reason, I didn't see "Yellow Submarine" until I was an adult. I felt chilly watching it. Of course, I only lasted 10 minutes with "Magical Mystery Tour." What a disaster of a movie.
GraceAnne: Fantastic! I never knew that.
Goddess o' Clarity: I love it that a nun taught you guitar (and not because of any obvious movie references). "Yes Indeedy Pumpkin Seedy" sounds familiar-- I'll take a look at my books and let you know.
Jules: Yeah, I think you're right. That, and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," which John Lennon maintained was inspired by a drawing a child made, not by LSD.
Ringo has sunk in my estimation. He has snubbed his home town of Liverpool, lives the high life in California but what is worse he lacks the humility of truly great men. He got famous on the back of Lennon and McCartney's talent and now he is trying to make out he was someone special - the little squirt.
YP: This is why the less we know about musicians and other famous people the better-- I like the Ringo of "A Hard Day's Night," and while that was Ringo the character, that's MY Ringo. Richard Starkey's Ringo is another kettle of fish altogether.
I'm sure that when you're famous, you'll probably still live in Sheffield.
(Can I still call you Jason?)
TadMack: What do you think, Ms. Clever-Clever (as my husband would say)?!
Lucia has great taste. Have fun planning her birthday party!
Joe wise sings a childern's son called yes indeedy the chorus is the yes indeedy pumpkin seedy part.
It is on I tunes if you want it :)
Ldyvic: Thanks so much for the tip. I'm on my way to iTunes to check it out.
You are most welcome.
I sing it to my kids all the time. My husband thought I made the song up. So I had to hunt it down to proof to him I did not make it up lol.
Ldyvic: It's a fun song. I ended up going to Amazon and downloading it as an mp3.
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