It's All Too Much

Richard Furnstein: George strikes a crucial C, John yells "DOO YOUNG MUN!" into the unfriendly confines of De Lane Lea Studios, and a lonely organ (!) announces the Beatles' finest psychedelic moment to the world.

Unfortunately, it happened about two years too late. The Beatles cut this in the middle of their tablet thwonk phase (right after Sgt Pepper's) but didn't see fit to release the song until 1969's baloney Yellow Submarine soundtrack. Another damn shame is that the Beatles didn't release the extended mega jam versions that have been widely bootlegged. An eight minute version from The Lost Pepperland Reel boot is particularly scorching. Another song that really thrives in mono.

Robert Bunter: What do you get when you cross the Velvet Underground with Daevid Allen's pre-Gong solo efforts? The best Harrisong ever? Obviously, if you ignore the anomalous career peaks of Revolver and Abbey Road and the post-Fabs masterpiece "I Remember Jeep." Creepy George has taken the idea of tedious, overlong one chord drones (Within You Without You, Blue Jay Way) and finally hit paydirt. You can just see the LSD trails that were swimming around in this gawky poser's overamped brain when he wrote and recorded this Yellow Submarine filler track. For once, John and Paul make some valuable contributions to the 7-minute-long fadeout, such as going "CHUH .... CHUH ... CHUH ... too much ... too much ... too much."

Creepy George has taken the idea of tedious, overlong one chord drones and finally hit paydirt.

Richard Furnstein: The Beatles cut this one around the same time as "All You Need Is Love." "Love" is clearly the superior song, but I kind of wish this was the worldwide satellite release. George standing in a field of beautiful girls, pedaling a tambourine, while the rest of the Beatles were navigating through a swarm of acid ghosts. It would have blown minds. Another fun bit: George sends a little love note to the beautiful Patti: "with your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue." It's nice to see George was keeping his romantic interests vanilla in the middle of his Hare Hare heyday.

Robert Bunter: Every Beatles superfan has to wrestle with the question of whether they love or hate this song. For me, those deliberations are ongoing.