‘Yellow Submarine’ – John Lennon sang his own dark version

The Beatles’ remake of “Revolver” will be released on October 28th. In addition to the original songs, which have been reissued in stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes, you can also hear some demo tapes and session recordings. So also a version of “Yellow Submarine”, in which not Ringo Starr, but John Lennon sings. The text is also different.

Lennon’s version begins with the lines “In the place where I was born/ No one cared, no one cared /And the name that I was born /No one cared, no one cared” while the 1966 version begins with the lines: “In the town where I was born/ Lived a man who sailed to sea/ And he told us of his life/ In the land of submarines”. The almost one-minute demo sounds more melancholic than the original. So Lennon’s version would fit the overall mood of REVOLVER better than the childish “Yellow Submarine”.

The reissue was mixed by Giles Martin, son of the record’s original producer George Martin, and engineer Sam Okell. Giles Martin said of Lennon’s version in an interview: “I had no idea about it until I started going through the outtakes. It was a Lennon McCartney thing. I said to Paul, “I always thought that was a song that you wrote and then gave to Ringo and John was like, oh damn, no way ‘Yellow Submarine’.”

Paul McCartney wrote in the foreword to Revolver: Special Edition: “One night, as I lay in bed before falling asleep, a song came to my mind that I thought would suit Ringo and at the same time capture the heady mood of the time reflect time. ‘Yellow Submarine’ – a nursery rhyme with a touch of stoner influence that Ringo continues to delight audiences with today.”

The “Revolver: Special Edition” contains, among other things, 31 outtakes, three demos from recording archives and an EP with 4 songs, including “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”.

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