March 19, 2008

Why I love the internet

I mentioned last night that there was one Beatles tune (actually two, I had forgotten about "The Inner Light") that I had seen listed on a discography but had never heard. Nightfly's comment prompted me to do a quick search to confirm "The Inner Light" was the B-side of the "Lady Madonna" single (it was), and I suspect that was the song I heard last night that I didn't recognize.

In any case, I was surprised that "Thingumybob" was not listed in that discography. There's a reason. Turns out that the "Yellow Submarine/Thingumybob" single was not recorded by the Beatles:

Thingumybob by John Foster & Sons Ltd. Black Dyke Mills Band, a brass marching band, was the second ever single on the Apple label in 1968. Thingumybob was a TV series theme song written by Paul, and the marching band did this very Pepperlandish rendition of Yellow Submarine for the flip side.

This 45 is very rare, and one early Apple catalogue incorrectly listed this Thingumybob/Yellow Submarine single as being by the Beatles.

I'm sure there's an interesting story behind that band's name. And I'm glad we could clear up that confusion. And now I'm back to exactly one Beatles song I've still never heard in its entirety.

Meanwhile, here's "Thingumybob" by the John Foster & Sons Ltd. Black Dyke Mills Band.

Posted by Ken S at March 19, 2008 07:30 AM | TrackBack (0) |
Comments

Did you get any of the lyrics?

Without going out of my door
I can know all things on earth
Without looking out of my window
I can know the ways of heaven
The farther one travels
The less one knows
The less one really knows

And at the end John and Paul kick in:

Arrive without traveling
See all without looking
Do all without doing

It rather sounds like Yoda wrote the thing, not George Harrison, but there it is. Tomorrow Never Knows and Blue Jay Way were both on albums so I'm going to rule them out. My brain nags me that I'm forgetting something - I hope it's related to this and not something my wife told me.

Posted by: nightfly at March 19, 2008 10:47 AM

I didn't pick up any of the lyrics, I only heard enough to know I didn't recognize the tune.

I know both "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Blue Jay Way" so they are definitely not the one.

Posted by: Ken S, Fifth String on the Banjo of Life at March 19, 2008 01:01 PM

Yup, it was The Inner Light.

Posted by: Nightfly at March 19, 2008 10:12 PM