It's All Too Much
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “It's All Too Much” | |||||
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| Song by The Beatles | |||||
| Album | Yellow Submarine (1968), Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999) | ||||
| Released | 13 January 1969 (US) 17 January 1969 (UK) |
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| Recorded | De Lane Lea Studios 25, 26 May, 2 June 1967 |
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| Genre | Rock, Acid rock | ||||
| Length | 6:28 | ||||
| Label | Apple Records | ||||
| Writer | Harrison | ||||
| Producer | George Martin | ||||
| Yellow Submarine track listing | |||||
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| Yellow Submarine Songtrack track listing | |||||
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"It's All Too Much" is a song by The Beatles which first appeared on the 1969 Yellow Submarine film soundtrack album. It was written and sung by George Harrison. It was originally recorded in 1967, shortly before the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and had been slated to appear on the next album, Magical Mystery Tour, but it was pushed back.
The song was recorded at De Lane Lea studios, making it one of only a very few Beatles tracks not recorded at Abbey Road Studios. Harrison and John Lennon played lead guitars on the song, and Harrison played organ and bass harmonica. Other than their earlier hit I Feel Fine, this was the only other Beatles track to extensively use feedback. The track had the working title of "Too Much".
A mono mix, over eight minutes long and containing all of the lyrics plus a much longer ending than the eventual released versions, has never been released officially, but has been found on bootleg recordings.
The most well-known version of the song was further edited to over six minutes long and appears on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album. The version of the song that appeared in the film itself is slightly different and contained a lyric that was cut from the album version: "Nice to have the time to take this opportunity/Time for me to look at you and you to look at me." However, this lyric remains in the eight minute mono mix.
The song contains several lines taken from other works; the "With your long blonde hair and your eyes of blue" line was from The Merseys' "Sorrow", and the trumpets at many points emulate Jeremiah Clarke's "Prince of Denmark's March", also known as Trumpet Voluntary.
[edit] Cover versions
"It's All Too Much" has been covered by the Grateful Dead (live), Ratdog (live), The Church, Steve Hillage, Senator Flux, Paul Gilbert, The Violet Burning, Yukihiro Takahashi and in a heavily rewritten version by Journey.
[edit] References
- Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Hamlyn, 1988. ISBN 0-681-03189-1.
