Across Abbey Road · Scene 17 of 21 · Album 11 of 13

17 2:30–2:48 Era 11Yellow Submarine 1968–69

“But if you just listen, then you will know it sounds as good now as it did then”

For seventeen seconds the street turns into a cartoon, and Mike walks right through it.

All 21 scenes

The Scene

Scene 17 · Yellow Submarine · 18 seconds · five shotsThe tree trunk clears and the world has become a drawing, bright as a Saturday-morning cartoon: a tangerine road, a pink hedge, a red bus and a black taxi stopped in the street, and a whole crowd in yellow cheering behind the policemen. Only Mike is still real, walking the stripes with his guitar, his shadow falling across the painted road. A drawn lamp post passes in front of him and a cartoon girl blows him a kiss. Up close he sings “but if you just listen” while the cartoon kids crowd round and cup their ears. Along the pavement the street sings with him, a bandsman with a great brass horn, a policeman tapping his foot, and a bulldog trotting round his legs. He crouches beside an old lady to hear her yellow radio. Then he walks past a newsvendor’s board reading ROUND THE MOON, under a drawn crescent, and a tree trunk closes the cartoon.

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The Story

Yellow Submarine was the one time the band became a cartoon. The film opened in London on 17 July 1968 with thousands in the streets and the traffic at a standstill, and its new songs were singalongs: “All Together Now”, “Hey Bulldog”. So for one short scene our street becomes a cartoon too, on the night of that premiere, with everybody singing, and Mike walks through it as himself, the way the old films used to put a real actor among the drawings. The news board is for the first men to fly round the Moon, that Christmas, just before the album came out.

Shot by Shot

  1. 1 · The film becomes a cartoon · 2:30–2:34Our crossing drawn as a cartoon, a red bus and a black taxi stopped, a crowd in yellow, and the real Mike walking the stripes with the Les Paul as a lamp post passes in front of him.
  2. 2 · But if you just listen · 2:34–2:37Close on Mike singing the line, with cartoon teenagers leaning in around him to listen.
  3. 3 · All together now · 2:37–2:41Along the pavement the cartoon street sings: girls counting on their fingers, a bandsman with a brass horn, a policeman, an old lady clapping, and Mike clapping along with a bulldog at his feet.
  4. 4 · As good now · 2:41–2:44Under a striped awning he crouches beside the old lady to listen to her yellow radio, while a girl spins behind them.
  5. 5 · Round the Moon · 2:44–2:48He walks past a news board reading ROUND THE MOON under a crescent, and a drawn tree trunk closes the frame.

What to Look For

You can’t miss itMike is the only real thing in the picture. Watch the cartoons pass in front of him and behind him, and his shadow on the painted road.

Look closerThe bulldog round his legs has a song of his own on that album. The old lady is the same one from the bright street of 1965, and her radio has turned yellow, because it sounds as good now as it did then. And the crescent over the rooftops goes with the words on the news board.

HiddenNothing from the famous cartoon itself appears: no submarine, none of its characters. The style is the tribute.
All 21 scenes