11/18/2023 0 Comments Magical mystery tour album![]() ![]() ![]() A heavily jetlagged Harrison was waiting for publicist Derek Taylor to come to his rented flat on Blue Jay Walk in LA, but fog in the area had made him very delayed, so Harrison played around with an organ and wrote the song to pass the time. Harrison’s constant chanting of “don’t be long” feels almost ominous, and the way he speeds up singing it as well as the cello and organ get more urgent make this feel decidedly creepy in tone.ĭespite this, the song has very unspooky origins. Unlike before with its sitar usage, this uses the traditional guitar/drum set up with added organ and cello, with some great drumming from Ringo actually. Harrison contributes ‘ Blue Jay Walk‘, following on from his more psychedelic and Indian influenced output on the last two albums, comes one in the same vein. Next up is somewhat of an anomaly, ‘ Flying‘ is an instrumental mainly, with slight backing vocals put in, that is credited to Ringo, George, Paul and John. This is rarity in the Beatles back catalogue with only ‘ Dig It‘ off the ‘ Let it Be‘ album being the other official album release to have all members credited. The result is a nice chilled jam, with a jazz element throughout that introduces the use of a saxophone for the first time to a Beatles song. It also inspired one of my favourite McCartney videos in which he looks more stoned than the cast of Cheech and Chong: On one hand it has inspired over 100 cover versions, including most notably Aretha Franklin and Bjork, but on the other side Tim Riley a music critic who wrote a book on Beatles’ songs (and in my opinion slightly overly critical) said it was one of the “most unworthy Beatles standards.” I personally can see both points of view, I think the lyrics are slightly incoherent and sketchy, but it is beautifully sung by McCartney in a dreamy manner and the musical flow of the tune is lovely. ‘ The Fool on the Hill‘, which is a McCartney song about a sage-like figure seen as a fool by society but actually wise, seems to divide fans. The song obviously has drug references throughout too with ‘roll up’ clearly having the potential to mean ‘roll up a joint’ and the idea of a mysterious trip is clearly alluding to LSD on some level. I actually personally prefer this song to ‘Sgt Pepper’, the joint harmonies on roll-up are lovely and the song has a uplifting feel-good factor that is hard not to get engaged in. McCartney wrote most of the song and based it on the ‘roll up, roll up’ merchants selling games at carnivals, but with a psychedelic edge. This similarity led some US critics, unaware of the album’s non-canon origin, to proclaim this as a poor man’s Sgt Pepper. The title track ‘ Magical Mystery Tour‘ opens the album and, much like ‘ Sgt Pepper’s‘ is as much an introduction to the theme of the album as a song. The album on the other hand, although not exactly canon, is one of their strongest collections of songs. With this LP version and ‘Sgt Pepper’s’, you pretty much get the Beatles’ entire output from 1967, one of their most creative years, so it is great that all this fantastic work can be easily accessible to future generations getting into the Beatles. ![]() As a time capsule to see the Beatles on film in this time, it is worth watching but if you want an entertaining film best stick to ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ (by far their best endeavour into the moving pictures). McCartney wanted it to be spontaneous so much of it is improvised, unfortunately it shows causing it to lack much coherence. The film was savaged by critics at the time and is a bit of a mess. In 1976, this version was released in the UK and in 1987 when the Beatles back catalogue was to be released on compact disc across the world, this American version was released making it the only album not standardised to the British album playlists. This version was so popular it actually charted at number 31 in the UK charts in January 1968 through imported versions from the states alone. However, due to the negative media coverage of the film, there was trouble getting US TV distribution at the time (it would later get a limited theatrical release in 1974) so Capitol Records decided to create a full length LP with the six songs from the soundtrack and all five of the single releases that year. A different way to release new material which was an innovation in itself. They recorded six new songs as the soundtrack (the six first songs on the current ‘ Magical Mystery Tour‘ album) and released it in the UK as a double EP packaged in a gatefold sleeve with a book featuring lyrics and pictures. Having soured on touring, they decided to do a mostly improvised TV movie. After completing ‘ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band‘, the Beatles wanted a new project. ‘ Magical Mystery Tour‘ was not originally an album, but has since become seen that way. ![]()
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