Wooo, 100k subscribers! Thank you so much for being a part of this incredible journey through The Beatles musical library. I hope you enjoy this special new episode about one of my favorite (and tragically overlooked) Beatles songs: It's All Too Much. And as always, let me know what you think in the comments!

I read years ago that the lyrics represent George’s reaction to a particularly strong acid trip. Having taken acid myself, I can definitely see that being accurate.

It was clearly Ringo, finally showcasing his distinctive lead guitar prowess

I think he was speaking to George saying "to your muff," as in "this song is dedicated to your woman," with muff as a slang and bawdy term for "woman." George wrote the song for Patti, and John had that kind of sense of humor.

Its amazing that such an amazing song - up there with Tomorrow Never Knows - is so relatively unknown. It's a great surprise to Beatles fans of a certain era.

this channel is the definition of ''quality over quantity''.

I was blown away when I saw Yellow Submarine at the theater, not only by "It's All Too Much", but by "It's Only A Northern Song" & "Hey Bulldog"! At that point, I thought I had heard (and owned) every Beatle song made. The opening of "All Too Much" actually gave me chills!

The Yellow Submarine soundtrack album was released as an almost novelty album and yet it contains five of their best songs.

I was on a Beatles binge going through every song in their catalog looking for gems and this was the one that floored me that I had to stop and listen again. Such an insane song.

The world is a better place because of those four lovely lads from Liverpool.

Definitely the most hidden of the gems. It’s accompanying scene in Yellow Submarine is joyfully mesmerizing

"All the world is birthday cake so take a piece but not too much" was my senior yearbook quote. 🧡

If you listen to the guitar parts John plays on "The End," where John, George, and Paul are all taking turns playing lead, you can definitely hear a stylistic similarity to the guitar work on "It's All Too Much."

What's truly astonishing (although hardly surprising) is that we still analyse Beatles tracks in minute detail after 50+ years (You wouldn't think there was anything left that hadn't been analysed to death) and do it in a way that reminds us how new and fresh those tracks were and somehow still are. Thank you.

Just one of the many overlooked and underappreciated beatles songs

The one time I did mushrooms I watched this movie and this song made me cry, it just felt so beautiful and it was explaining exactly what I was feeling both in that moment and about life in general.

I always heard it as " too your much " , which I took as a cheeky way of switching around the words " you're too much "

The opening sounds like he was just playing with the "too much" lyric as he does for the rest of the song. Whether on purpose or not, I think he's saying "to your much" instead of "you're too much."

This is one of my favourite songs. I've never understood how this, Hey Bulldog and Old Brown Shoe aren't right up there among their most beloved.

Along with Hey Bulldog, one of my favorite Beatles tracks just because it hasn't been played to death.

With George providing an Indian-style drone on Hammond organ, John on distorted lead guitar, and Paul and Ringo on their usual instruments of bass and drums, the group recorded four proper takes of the song once they were fully acquainted with it. 'Take four' was deemed the best, which at this point was 8:09 long. At 2:30 am the next morning the session was complete, the full rhythm track for what was then called “Too Much” being put to tape.---Beatles Music History

Interesting that Apple Music has the opening line as being definitive “To Your Mother”

It's one of my favourite Beatles songs, extremely underrated, VERY unknown.

LSD did absolute WONDERS for their songwriting.

You can tell from the sound that it's a single coil guitar, most likely a Strat because it also definitely has a floating bridge trem. John and George both played such Strats at that time (John had the pale blue Strat, George had "Rocky".) Paul McCartney's single coil guitar of choice with The Beatles was a Tele with no trem. Also, it's definitely him on bass, probably the Ricky 4001. For it to have been anyone else in the band they'd have needed a right-hand strung bass. And that little octave play at the end is VERY McCartney. So, by default, I reckon it was John on guitar. And he did like the Fender amp fuzz sound a LOT.

I always thought, and still think John is saying, "To your mother!"

I’m playing the Guitar, hope that clears things up

What a treat that I can love this song, know the song, discover it a first time, then because of the sheer mass of genius held out for me to take, I lose track of it, only to be reacquainted with it months later and fall in love again. I just love love love The Beatles

My guess is john. This is because I saw him at the one-to-one concert in 1972. He did a section of about 10 or 15 minutes with just Him and yoko. Yoko was doing her usual routine and Lennon was playing a Gibson Firebird and did nothing but unbelievable feedback for 10 or 15 minutes long. It was beyond Hendrix feedback. He really knew how to get incredible feedback and that would be my guess that he's doing it on this track. I know there are not a lot of Yoko fans out there and that's probably why that part of the concert was never released but it really was something to hear especially live.

"You know my name" - Another unappreciated song that deserves your analysis :-)

When I was a kid, my oldest brother would play Beatles records on the family stereo for us when my parents were out playing bridge with the neighbors (it was the only time he could get away with it). The two albums he played the most were Sgt Pepper and Yellow Submarine, so I grew up with It's All Too Much. it's my favorite Beatle song

Couldn't someone just ask Paul ? I mean, he is still with us thankfully

we need an Anthology 4 for shit like this… we need this full 8 minute cut, and theres tons of other stuff that i know Beatles fans are dying to hear!!

According to "The Beatles Bible" web site: George Harrison: vocals, Hammond organ John Lennon: harmony vocals, lead guitar Paul McCartney: harmony vocals, bass Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine David Mason and three others: trumpets Paul Harvey: bass clarinet

How did they leave 2 of their best songs( Too Much and Bulldog), almost as Easter eggs, for their best fans only practically, to be found on YS? Brilliance. Kindness. A great gift.

Paul played the guitar part. Paul played an Epiphone Casino; a hollowbody guitar he bought specifically for its' ability to feed back. His Casino had a Bigsby tailpiece which allowed the wild and wide vibrato bends. And, besides, Paul frequently played lead on George's songs.

All these years, I have always heard the opening shout as "Too you're much!" a sort of inverted "you're too much." I never tried to listen closely or thought about it that much, but that's what it's always been for me.

I've always thought George was referring to Patty when he said "with your long blond hair and your eyes of blue." The bass part is very simple (I can play it in my sleep) and would perfectly line up with John's very simplistic, basic style of bass playing. I am sure it is Paul on guitar, it is very much his style. 'I Feel Fine' is not John or anybody else. The Beatles had laid their guitars & bass against the amps that were turned up and Paul's bass started feeding back, being a hollowbody. It caused the guitar to start vibrating and the note started buzzing. George Martin captured the sound on tape. It's All too Much also has backward vocals on it, that's why you cannot understand them. The extra verse in the movie, I've been told, was written by Donovan. Whether this is true or not, I'm not sure. This is one of my favourite Beatle songs of all and I certainly regard this as one of the greatest Psychedelic songs ever written.

If the next Paul interview I hear doesn't include the question about the lead work of this song I'll be ticked

I love how you say "too much" in the right time

Hasn’t Paul ever been asked about these mysteries?

Not only did I now hear what this mystery is, I got to know this song. Thanks YCUT!

If it’s John on guitar, he’s playing George’s guitar. There’s clearly some vibrato bar work going on, and John’s Epiphone didn’t have a bar on it. Paul’s did, but it would have been strung lefty. George’s also had a bar, strung righty.

It certainly is not an overlook-able performance. I feel it's incredible that it was played live, all of them at once. The soaring power of it is gigantic. I love the song AND the track. Did you say there is an 8 - minute version? Now THAT, I gotta hear.

I love how you escort me through each Beatles song - bringing back old memories and revealing secrets that previously were hidden to me. I love the Beatles so much that listening over and over to every little sound or sound gap still amazes me as much as it did the first time I ever heard any Beatles treasure. The only reason I own a high quality set of headphones is to hear this music - to hear the breath taken between words while picking out each individual voice in the harmonies, to the beat, the bass, the guitars. It is like heaven entering your mind through your ears.

"Too your much" at the beginning maybe? He couldve just been saying gibberish combined with lyrics to get into the vibe of the song

This is an extraordinary series! I hope you can continue to find nuggets of such exhilarating intrigue and mystery for many years. Thanks for every one of these.

The guitar feedback on the beginning of "I feel fine" was produced by what I believe to have been a guitar leaning against an amplifier/speaker, (possibly the bass amp) A bass string was plucked. The guitar string vibrated in sympathy with the bass, through the guitar. The guitar string vibrated excessively, rattling against a fret, causing the sound we hear. I experienced the exact same phenomenon quite by accident in the same circumstances with my bass and an acoustic guitar leaning against my amp. (2×15" speaker cab.) The feedback on "All too much" is a different type and I'm pretty sure it's Paul on his Epiphone Casino, which he used on "Taxman". It has a Bigsby tremolo fitted which action can be heard. John's Casino didn't have a tremelo.

While I think John overall had more interesting lyrics and incredible 'woah dude' compositions, Paul was hip and dabbled in so many different sounds. Incredible duo.

I think it's a re-ordered "You're Too Much" into "Too You're Much!"

Good lordy, I love your channel so much. Thank you for caring so deeply for this music, and for treating it seriously, but also so, so lovingly. And congratulations for hitting 100K six months ago. Now you’re at 118K... and soon you’ll be at a bazillion.

I think John's saying "to your mother" because they recorded "Your Mother Should Know" just a few months later. Paul had possibly been playing around with an earlier version of it in the studio at the time.

Ringo's drum intro makes it worthwhile to listen to this one, apart form all of the other interesting aspects

To my ears, that is 100% a Paul bass track and a John guitar line.

First off, a hearty CONGRATULATIONS on your amazing viewing figures! You have earned them! Ah! One of my all-time favorite Beatles songs! As for the opening voice cueing the guitar chord that launches the song, I've always heard it as GEORGE'S voice and not John's. Thanks to the isolation of the vocal track in question, this confirms my observation even more (to my ears, at least). The other thing is that both the spoken kick-off and the playout voiceover I always though were playing backward (recorded forwardly against the entire track while it was playing backward, then the tape run forward again so as to make only the spoken voice run backward). As for the lead guitar, I'm still convinced it was Paul until some other evidence or assertion (perhaps by Paul himself?) officially states otherwise. That said, I've loved this song since I first heard it in 1968 and it remains among my favorites. As a fun footnote, my final concert performance as a professional drummer was with a Beatles tribute group called The Day Trippers (the industry "retired" me after that) and the encore we did to finally close out the big outdoor concert back in 2006 was "It's All Too Much". I totally ripped off every single "Ringoism" possible for this song which went over hugely with the audience. A nice way to end my career as a pro power drummer. The morning I was packing to leave for the concert (my drums had already arrived at the gig), I got the phone call from producer Sam Reich over at College Humor that I had been chosen to play the role of Zangief on that which would be the worldwide hit series, "Street Fighter: The Later Years". Another great memory to add to my enduring love for "It's All Too Much".

I agree that the psychedelic Yellow Submarine songs, "It's All Too Much," "Hey Bulldog," and "Only a Northern Song" represent a peak in The Beatles' career. The songs were too weird to fit on Sgt. Pepper, they never got much in the way of AM airplay, so mostly how they came into the lives of me and my peers (I was 8 when Yellow Submarine came out) was when our parents bought us the Yellow Submarine soundtrack for Christmas that year. For me and plenty of others, it was the first non-children's album they owned. Older teens took it as a kids' record, paid more attention to Sgt. Pepper and The White Album. The songs on Submarine were considered castoffs and outtakes, not worthy of making it onto the regular records. It's only been in the past 20 years or so that they've become so widely loved. But MAN, us kids back then sure loved them. On one level, it was cool to have Beatles songs that were sort of "ours," it was our first taste of the classic thrill of digging something that's not on the mainstream radar (or that you think isn't!). Then the songs themselves were playful and weird and kind of scary and funny all at the same time. How could a kid not love John and Paul singing about jackknives and wigwams and barking like dogs? George singing about birthday cake? I'm in. And sounds we'd never heard in any kind of music anywhere, but they sounded bad ass. The terrifying Strat whammied feedback wailing and then turning into the sweet churchy-sounding organ? It was like a Halloween scare. We'd sing along with the "ugh ooh ooh" stuff on the fadeout. I'd do the "whaddaya say? I said 'ruff.' You know any more?" bit with my friend. 15 years later I went to see an underground band play at a dorm party and was amazed when they ripped into a ferocious version of "It's All Too Much." I drunkenly jumped on the stage and sang along on the fadeout. Wound up playing bass in the same band a couple of years down the road but they didn't want to do the song anymore. 😞

I’ve never wondered this question. Now it’s all I think about, “who DID play the guitar in Its All Too Much”

The recording of the song begins with the tape being cut, while George was in mid-sentence. It's clearly George, not John, and it's just George talking to one of the others as the tape starts rolling. This happens when bands are in the studio, they talk to each other - and often, the Beatles just left that sort of studio chatter in. In this case, it's clearly not a "hidden message," it's just studio chatter.

Thank you for such a wonderful homage to one of my top top five Beatles favs.

Probably the first song that comes to mind when I think of hidden gems in the Beatles' catalog. Should get much more attention than it does.

The beginning feedback of the guitar sounds like John's "The End" solo to me

I would propose that John is saying, "Too Much," in the beginning. That was the original name of the song and might have been John's joke or a way of getting into it before the song really got going.

I totally agree with you. One, if not THE most underrated song out of their entire catalogue. The perfect psychedelic song. Ringo’s drums in the intro are monstrous, and the vocals are simply amazing, and a LOT of fun, like that ‘toooooo mu-cha’ mantra, or when John and Paul repeat in unisson the borrowed ‘With your long.... ...of blue’ line right after George. I also enjoy the brass, though I believe George mentioned in an interview in later years that he wasn’t a big fan of their contribution.

Thanks for your analysis of this song. I too have been immensely impressed by the music that the Beatles made (Bought the White album, my first Beatle album, in 1979). i recently watched the "Get Back" mini-series on a popular streaming channel and was blown away by watching their creative energies captured on film in a candid fashion.

It's all too much is one of my favorite Beatles songs, "Show me that I'm everywhere, and get me home for tea" is one of George's best lines, it really sums up his whole aesthetic

Sounds like "to your muff," which would be a particularly John thing to say.

Hey man... thx from Spain for your incredible work with this fantastic videos. You make may day happy again! Love U!

I really enjoyed watching and listening to this. Very nicely done!

Congrats on 100k subs!! 🎉

FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE UDNERSTANDS THE MAGISTY OF THIS SONG

The group taped four takes of the basic track, the final version of which extended to over eight minutes, with Harrison playing Hammond organ, Lennon on lead guitar, Paul McCartney on bass, and Ringo Starr on drums. The following day, they added overdubs, comprising vocals, percussion and handclaps.

I love this song! Especially the long version. It is in my opinion one of their best and most underrated songs.

It’s All Too Much is the most underrated Beatles song, not necessary the best of the lesser known category, but the number one that deserves more attention

Why don't people just ask Paul? It's not like he died or something

One of my favorite Beatles' songs. Everytime it comes on the radio I revel in it.

Thanks for a deep dive into my favorite band’s intricacies. I was a boy of ten when The Beatles burst onto the scene, and their musical and cultural progression coincided with my coming of age. Oh, what a wonderful time it was!

1st of all, in my humble opinion, this is arguably your best episode yet, although the song is in my Top 3 favorite Beatles songs, so, there’s that. And I could not agree with you more, when you say that even as we discuss, debate, and speculate the possible & probable answers to these random ‘Beatle Mysteries’, the more important aspect is that we the people are still enthralled by the topic, 50-some years after It’s inception. I loved that you pointed that out. Thank You

Almost any other 60's or 70's band had released this track it would be one of their most loved tracks and closed their concerts for the last 40 odd years. As it's the Beatles it's an unloved song on their most obscure (proper) album that I'm sure a good percentage of people who consider themselves Beatles fans haven't even heard.

Add this: There are some backwards vocals, here. Well, John's opening statement "It's All Too Much" is not backwards, but randomized Malapropism/Ringoism-like comment.

I love this song and think it's 1 of their best works. It makes me feel happy for some reason. Listening to it is an experience. If you've never heard it, take a listen.

Definitely on my list of "Best Beatles Songs that never Get Put on any List of Best Beatles Songs"

This has John written all over it. And it's obviously John talking. I think it's two separate tracks smashed together to create a sort of a shock intro! George played organ on lots of his own tunes, so it makes sense that the basic track would have John on Gtr and George on organ

congrats on 100,000!

I'm glad to have found this. Indeed, "It's All Too Much", as on the Yellow Submarine LP, is one of my favorite Beatles and George Harrison songs, and, yes, I always wondered why it did not and has not gotten the attention it deserves. I, for one, was and am impressed by it. This discussion does not discuss the guitar licks that must have been dubbed after the basic track was done. I love those quick licks, and always imagined Paul played them. They are quite precise and have a good range of notes in them. I'm thinking of the ones with notes mostly of the G chord (the key of the song), except for a 'passing' note C. Hard to describe here. But they are prominent right in the body of the song. They are bold and awesome, and psychedelic.

John gave his feedback sound to George's"That's all too much" saying "To your Much !"

I think John's shout in the beginning is more to do with his penchant for babbling/shouting total gibberish for comic effect. See also the Esher demo for "Glass Onion" and the infamous "oh my god it sounds like he's saying Paul is dead backwards" babbling at the end of "I'm So Tired." It's just - you know - what he did.

I just found this channel a couple days ago. I call it The Magical Beatles Mystery Tour...as we know that almost all the Beatles songs full of mysteries, and it shows us how genious they are....

"Do your most..." I thought this as a teen when I bought the record in the late 60s, and it still sounds like that now. That, along with the radical blast of guitar feedback that accompanies the voice, serves as an intro, and announcement that this recording is going over the top in psychedelia.

I always heard the beginning as "To Your Much". Maybe an intentional mix of words "Your Too Much" or a tribute to the title of the song?

I have always been fascinated by this song, and I agree that it is much underrated. Your analysis is very interesting, as is the amazing creativity in this song on all levels. A true masterpiece.

Outstanding work. Thanks for being a Beatle fan! I used to have to guess at information like this 😎

"Underappreciated" is an understatement! That vocal bit by Paul sounds reversed. I think the guitar is shared by John & Paul in bits. Maybe they played with our heads and switched up while recording! Wouldn't put it past them! Great vid!

100k congrats!!!

"To young muck" muck is a Liverpudlian slang phrase like 'geezer', 'love', 'guy', 'mate' etc. 'Alright muck' means ''alright mate'. Me old mucker. That's what I heard anyways

When I got my very first long playing record for my thirteenth birthday in October of the release year, I knew I had something special. I'd only had singles up to then. The album, of course, was Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It's absolutely stunning that we are still talking about that band. People tell me that The Beatles were overrated. I tell them, that's because you weren't there. Everything, EVERYTHING, since has some Beatles influence. Even my absolute fave, a woman as unique as The Beatles, Kate Bush, was influenced. Brilliant as she was and is, she may not have ever appeared if The Beatles had not broken the ground. .Thank you so much for this channel, which I have only just discovered, and of course subscribed to.

Wonderfully Stated and so Informative. Thank You, It's all to much!

Truly one of the greatest gems of the catalog...sparkling and immersive.

Welcome back!!! I love your videos!!

Just ask Paul who did it. I've always been a big Beatles fan and I've seen Yellow Submarine more than once, however, I just don't recall this song. Anyway, I'm still in shock at learning that Paul performed some of my favourite guitar licks that I always attributed to George (Taxman, Good Morning).

Thanks for this perfect analysis of my favorite all-time song.