Tag Archives: Yellow Submarine

Up Periscope

English: The Beatles Yellow Submarine Logo

English: The Beatles Yellow Submarine Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yellow submarine replica (The Beatles Story)

Yellow submarine replica (The Beatles Story) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve been meaning to blog for days, but with the constant demands of the Clams’ summer tour, working 40 hours a week, hosting out of town musicians and yardwork, I haven’t had a minute. I better keep up with this book review stuff- I read ’em faster than I can review ’em. Just started Peter Criss’s “Makeup to Breakup,” but that’s gonna have to wait.

Upon finishing “Inside the Yellow Submarine” by Dr. Robert Hieronimus I started “Up Periscope Yellow” by Al Brodax. It’s possible that Al wrote his book because he gets a bad rap in the former. Brodax is the guy who produced the cheesy Beatles cartoons- does anyone remember those?

The basic story of “Inside the Yellow Submarine” is that the Beatles had very little to do with the film- that the studio of animators who actually created the film are its unsung heroes, and that Brodax was a big shot American producer who didn’t care if the feature came out looking just like the cartoons. Maybe Al read this book and decided to write his own, sorta set the story straight?

The difference between the two books couldn’t be wider. “Inside” is obviously written by an obsessive fan, albeit a highly intelligent one, who not only tells the story of the film in the co-creators’ own words, but also goes into almost excruciating detail of every piece of Yellow Submarine merch. Evidently written a few years after the digitized re-release of the film, it also appears that the author spent almost 30 years obsessing over the movie and its memorabilia.

Brodax takes the high road and “Up Periscope Yellow” is a poetic memoir. He was keeping diaries at the time, and only fleshed them out slightly for this book, which makes some sections almost impenetrable, and yet highly enjoyable. The two books are based on the same facts, but many times it seems that they recount two different stories. Brodax says he and writer Erich Segal came up with the idea for the Blue Meanies, and Hieronimus quotes Heinz Edelmann taking the credit. Many differences like this point to Brodax writing his book in retaliation, but his is still more personal and original- after all, it was he who made the deal for “Yellow Submarine” to fulfill the Beatles’ 3 picture contract with United Artists.
Read both of these books for the full story, and again, WATCH THE MOVIE, the digitized re-release is out on dvd and it will knock your socks off.

Welcome to Jeff Sanchez- Words and Music

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It’ll be words about music: reviews of music books, music films, reviews of books about music films, and the local Wilmington music scene. I’ve been listening to and collecting records for almost forty years, and since my lovely wife Monika has reached DEFCON 1 in her ability to listen to me anymore I have finally begun blogging. I play with at least two local bands here in Wilmington, and sometimes three- The Clams, Upstarts and Rogues, and the famous Allen Glaser Project.

I watched “Yellow Submarine” the other night after picking up “Inside the Yellow Submarine” by Dr. Robert Hieronimus.  I saw it with new eyes, because the book emphasizes the animators rather than the subjects. Finished in 11 months, the film represents work that usually takes 4-5 years, in the case of most Disney films. It was liberating to watch the film after reading this book, since I now saw it as an amazing piece of work by little known and under-appreciated animators and designers, rather than a silly kids movie by the Beatles.   And the remastered soundtrack is worth the price of admission alone.
The book itself seems to have had a limited publication, and boasts tons of new inside information and interviews with the people responsible, largely in their own words. Read the book and re-watch the movie- highly recommended. And has anybody noticed the “pair of Funky Boot Beasts” scene with Ringo?? Cyndi?? Harvey??
Since the beginning of this year I’ve read at least 15 rock n roll biographies or auto biographies- Cyndi Lauper, Jerry Garcia, Mama Cass, Howard Kaylan, Frank Zappa (Pauline Butcher Bird), OZZY, Mackenzie Phillips, etc., and in my next post I’ll give some synopses from my synapses. Just what the world needs- another rock n roll blog.