Here we are nearly 2 years into a pandemic and the feeling of things being “too much” is ever-present. That overwhelming feeling is the subject of George’s composition that would get used in the Yellow Submarine film and soundtrack (which is half an album, and while that’s the official release, I prefer The Yellow Submarine Songtrack as it is much more comprehensive though it does not include George Martin’s score).
While the use of LSD was the catalyst for writing the song, it was really the trip to India that really helped to inform Harrison’s frame of reference. Recorded in 1967 just after the sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band during the period that would generate songs for Magical Mystery Tour this is a prime example of the Beatles middle psychedelic period, stretching the use of the studio and what could be done in a rock and roll song.
A bit of a different instrumentation, led by the use of a Hammond organ, one almost expects to hear a sitar. then towards the end trumpets kick in. The song is almost a dirge and a prayer, an optimistic lament.
It’s been…. a long time. The summer of 2019 I took the older kids to Ireland for a family reunion, but not everybody got to go. The last time we went on vacation as a family was in 2018, with a planned March of 2020 excursion during spring break and a summer trip but they fell apart because of the pandemic. With everybody finally getting vaccinated we decided a couple of months ago to take the opportunity to get out of town, and while we would still largely quarantine and stay separated from people, and not do a lot of activities, we could still go on a small getaway.
One of our favorite spots to go is the Oregon coast. it’s close enough to get to relatively easily, it’s a beautiful area, and we can do just about everything we would at home, just with a different view.
As we were making appointments to get the youngest of our kids vaccinated we made planes and booked a place along the coast in Oregon, a location that is in between two other spots that we have stayed at before. As the calendar year was coming to a close and the news grew even dimmer with increased cases, we were unsure about going out of town, but we figured we could quarantine in a vacation rental just as easily as at home. Thankfully with it being December, the crowds on the beach would likely be absent. And the house we would be staying at has a hot tub.
Getting out of town even for just a couple of days has been helpful to us a s a family. While we have, for the most part, stayed inside, it’s a different place. And we did get out to walk to the beach (a half a block away) to be greeted with a non-existent crowd.
There have been trips to the beach, to the hot tub,and then we spent a couple of hours driving out and looking for whales – which we did in fact, see. All the while we have successfully avoided crowds, and really other people, except when I went to the grocery store, and let’s face it, that’s risky even at home.
This has been a great release, something we needed to keep it from being all too much.