What does Yellow Submarine mean?

Beatles: Yellow Submarine Meaning

Album cover for Yellow Submarine album cover

Song Released: 1969


Yellow Submarine Lyrics

In the town where I was born
Lived a man who sailed to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines.
So we sailed up to the sun
Till we found the sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In our yellow submarine.
We all live...

  1. anonymous
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    Feb 13th 2009 !⃝

    Yellow submarine is a code name for LSD and the sea of green represents weed

  2. CaptainVegetable
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    Feb 3rd 2009 !⃝

    I've no idea what the song is about, but I've always wondered. If "our friends are all on board", how can "many more of them live next door"? I thought they were ALL on board?!

  3. S.kid
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    Jan 2nd 2009 !⃝

    This song isn't about drugs! >:|. Paul decided to make a childrens' song!! and There u go yellow submarine is a childrens' song! :) the end!

  4. anonymous
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    Dec 15th 2008 !⃝

    This song is inspired by the first time the bealtes did LSD at their dentists house. They got slipped the LSD in their coffee without knowing and went to drive home in their van, which they thought was a yellow submarine. Its not the whole song meaning but its where the basic idea came from. Want proof? John lennon says it in an interview that you can view on youtube.
    -Iva

  5. ny7yankee
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    Nov 20th 2008 !⃝

    Yellow stands for piece. It was a kids song. Everything they did, there was not a deep hidden meaning.

  6. anonymous
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    Nov 8th 2008 !⃝

    I honestly think it could go either way...drugs or children's song...deos it really matter what the snog is about? I mean why can't you just enjoy the song without wondering what it means? In the end all it really comes down to is that the Beatles were revloutionary in the music world and are still extremely popular 40 yrs after the band was created.

  7. skateboards_music
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    Oct 18th 2008 !⃝

    I think this a fun song made for children meant to occupy their attention but singing about things they think were amazing like brightly painted submarines they could live in not their house were they had to go to schhol but in a submarine painted yellow.

    And please stop saying every single Beatles song is about an acid trip or a huge blunt like everyone in the 60s did drugs True story: my dad is a fire fighter who battled for 4 years in supreme court to be let on as a firefighter because he said he experimented with acid in the 60s on a form which asked if he ever did drugs. plain and simple there were drugs in the 60s and almost everyone did em the Beatles no exception.

  8. Cpl.Salt
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    Oct 10th 2008 !⃝

    It is my opinion yellow submarine, like all the other tracks on revolver, is about death. The yellow submarine is heaven, the friends who "(many more of them) live next door" are in hell, or possibly purgatory. or alternatively, those on the submarine are "enlightened" and in pursuit of nirvana, same idea, different continent. but you'd never figure that out unless you expand your mind into the realm the Beatles were in when they wrote it. drugs are not the only medium to transport us to the far regions of the mind, just the fastest and easiest method. and the idea that "it's just song with no hidden meaning" is ludicrous. all works of art contain allegorical levels, from Salvador Dali to Dr. Sueuss. even if the stated intention is to write a song to get people to find meaning where none was intended, the work is still a product of the world inside the artists head. even free association writing,were the subject doesn't consciously focus on the words, simply keeps the pen moving, contains many clues to the subconscious and is often filled with rich symbolism

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. m320753
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    Aug 4th 2008 !⃝

    This song is just a great song that was written for a future movie. It was great that the Beatles named the movie after the song because if they named it lucy in the sky people might take it to have something about drugs. Its nothing more or nothing less than another silly song they wrote that with a little tweaking became a great song to lead off their cartoon like movie. like Dylan Willie and many more they wrote silly songs to give us decades of time to try and interpret them which is a great way to spend a rainy afternoon with a joint and a cup of cocoa.

  10. anonymous
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    Jul 29th 2008 !⃝

    You know, this song might be about drugs. It might not. There is no denying that The Beatles are brilliant, and they come up with the craziest, coolest shit you'll ever hear, and, yes, they tripped acid. I think it doesn't matter if the song is about drugs or not. But I also think they probaly thought people would think it was, and that would make their song live on forever. I know The Beatles main goal was to make us feel good and at peace and personal interpretation is what does the job. It's definitely a good thing to have an opinion, but they didn't want us to argue over opinions or call someone a dumb ass like I saw someone did. An opinion is exactly that. (Not a fact.) Let people think what they want and share your ideas with them and be open-minded. The Beatles would be horrified if they saw us calling each other names because we didn't agree on every single thing!

  11. anonymous
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    Jul 29th 2008 !⃝

    Honestly, this is what I hear when I hear this song:

    They lived in a world that was dark and lonely. Then they decided to do something about it. Whether they did this through drugs or not, they went on a journey to find the meaning of life and they found that there was a much better place to live. In the movie it's Pepperland, but in real life, it was the place in themselves where they were truly happy and at peace. That's why George Harrison keeps saying, "It's all in the mind y'know."

    Please tell me that makes sense to at least one hippie out there.

  12. anonymous
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    Jul 2nd 2008 !⃝

    This song is NOT about drugs. Paul McCartney wrote this song as a childrens' song. He was in bed one night and decided to write a song that children could sing along to.

    It most definitely was NOT and LSD trip.
    Most people believed/and still do believe that it was written about drugs. And ironically, months after this song was written, a pill called "yellow submarine" was introduced. But the Beatles had stated that there was no significance to the song.

    They actually found it humorous that people always tried to find meaning out of all of their songs.
    Sometimes, there really is no meaning.
    And if you are told there is no meaning,
    Don't waste your life away looking for one that certainly isn't there.

  13. anonymous
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    Jun 16th 2008 !⃝

    All of their songs aren't about drugs. There are only a couple that really are. Honestly, people.

    I remember reading somewhere that John wanted to write more of a children's song. In a children's song book for piano (and this book is super old with songs I haven't even heard of) it has 'Yellow Submarine'.

    -Ashleigh

  14. JNT1513
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    Jun 12th 2008 !⃝

    It's actually about an LSD trip that one or more of the Beatles had while they were walking around the park. If you look at the album cover than you can see the distorted trees and the pond by the hill they are standing on.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. anonymous
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    May 20th 2008 !⃝

    I thought since its yellow and a submarine its like a yellow pill, like lsd

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway



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