Coyle/Drawn to Sound, 4. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed… Something Blue: The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine’s assembly of musical items – some old songs from the group’s previous records, some ‘borrowed’ and recycled from its store of discarded material, some new instrumental segments – was at the time difficult for a general popular-music audience to recognize as an authentic Beatles product. Furthermore, its collection of nursery-rhyme, music-hall, Indian-derived, rock, pop, psychedelic and orchestral styles defied any attempts at easy categorization. However, although audiences may have been deterred by these apparent inconsistencies, there is little doubt that for those involved in its production, the interplay between music and animation was crucial to its eventual ‘classic’ status.