Skip to main content

170. The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

Now we continue our journey through the back catalog of a little-known '60s band I've recently discovered.

Just as quickly as The Beatles made their definitive album statement with Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, they immediately took it back with the cobbled-together Magical Mystery Tour. Maybe that's why they never got famous.

Magical Mystery Tour was the brainchild of Paul McCartney, conceived primarily a film project. It was to be a surreal journey across England with a bus full of musicians and carnies, with the results edited into a one hour special for the BBC. Why people kept giving such a commercially unproven (some might say failed) band chances to make films is beyond me. Of course, the lads created some new songs for the film.

Well, the movie turned out to be terrible. The songs were not, but the album still suffers in comparison to its predecessor. In fact, many of the songs have analogues to Sgt.Pepper or Revolver compositions, and are usually weaker, sullied-up versions.

The album's first side, consisting of songs from the film - is most guilty of this. Witness:

Magical Mystery Tour = Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band
Both songs are title tracks, and serve as meta-introductions to the album. Both have a fun, spirited nature.

The Fool On The Hill = Nowhere Man

Blue Jay Way = Within You Without You
More swirley navel-gazing from guitarist George Harrison.

Your Mother Should Know = When I'm Sixty-Four
Both charming throwbacks by McCartney.

I Am The Walrus = Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Both full of trippy surreal imagery.

The instrumental Flying is the only exception. It's minor, but notable in that it features the first full-band composing credit. It's also worth noting that I Am The Walrus is John's only writing contribution to the album's first side. The band, for now at least, had become McCartney's show.

The album's second side is a collection of singles and b-sides from 1967. McCartney's Hello Goodbye features a more straightforward sound for the band, though the chanted outro does get slightly freaky.

Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were a double A-side single actually recorded before Sgt.Pepper. Like A Day In The Life before them, the two songs serve as a fascinating windows into the styles and temperaments of Lennon and McCartney. Both songs are on the same theme of childhood nostalgia, and each focuses on a place, but the results couldn't be more different. Lennon's Strawberry Fields Forever is a masterpiece of editing, evoking the feeling of being awoken just at the moment you enter R.E.M. sleep. McCartney's Penny Lane, on the other hand, is predictably chipper, cheery and catchy.

Side 2 is rounded out by Baby, You're A Rich Man and its A-Side, All You Need Is Love. The former is slight but fun, and the latter is a simple clomping, affecting singalong featuring a supporting cast far more famous than The Beatles themselves, including Graham Nash, Keith Moon, Marianne Faithfull and members of The Rolling Stones.

Magical Mystery Tour now exists as a contradiction worthy of Hello Goodbye itself. The first side is just shy of inessential. The Beatles never mailed anything in, but here they did send it by messenger. The second side, however, is invaluable for any Beatles cultist. If the band was well known enough to warrant their songs and albums being put on iTunes, I would tell you to cherry-pick only the best tracks. Instead, you'll have to make the decision, all or nothing, for yourself.

Grade Side 1: C
Grade Side 2: A
Fave Song: All You Need Is Love

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Unlikely Musical Life of Tom Kelly

You may not know the name Tom Kelly, but I guarantee that you've sung along to songs he wrote.  Born in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1952, Tom moved to Effingham, Illinois when he was 11 years old, just in time to witness the Beatles' debut on Ed Sullivan. Bit by the rock music bug, he joined a local band called the Trifaris, singing and playing bass. His family moved back to Indiana in '66. When Tom finished high school, he decided to go to college in Illinois, but his choice was made based on extracurricular factors, not academic ones. "I started at Eastern [Illinois University] because there was a band,” he told the Effingham Daily News in 2011, “Then I transferred to Southern [Illinois University] because there was another band.”  Champaign, Illinois  Continuing his college hopping, Tom headed closer to home to attend Purdue, and there he had a group called The Gaping Huggers, comprised of former fellow Trifari JC Marshall on drums, and University of Illino...
Post a Comment
Read more

12 More by Collective Soul

  Sometimes an artist just needs 12  more  songs to summarize their career. Case in point... Collective Soul released a pretty decent best of compilation - 7even Year Itch: 1994-2001 - nearly a quarter of a century ago, but there's been nothing to summarize their output since then. Considering that output consists of seven albums and a couple of EPs, we've got our work cut out for us. (Since the band stopped having "hits" in 2009, most of these are just my personal preference, though I did give the singles first consideration). 1. "Better Now" (from Youth , 2004) "Better Now" is buzzy burst of optimism that has stood the test of time/\. 2. "There's a Way" (from Youth , 2004) Great riff, great chorus, great bridge, great song. 3. "What Can I Give You" (from Afterwords , 2007) Fascinating structure on this one: It starts out somewhat pedestrian, then goes into a soaring chorus followed by an even more melodic post-chorus, the...
Post a Comment
Read more

86. The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers (2005)

Very few things in life can sustain the same level of excitement from beginning to end, and The Magic Numbers' debut album is no exception. Like a party that's loud, full and hoppin' from the get-go and then eventually dwindles down to a quiet few, the CD makes its statement early and then fades away. Mornings Eleven is a helluva opener. It consists of two separate sections; the first makes you want to shake your ass, the second makes you want to swoon. Going from country-rock boogie to '50s doo-wop harmony, the two movements spend the song alternating back and forth, and it's effective enough to make the 5-and-a-half minute running time seem too short. As the album continues that becomes a recurring theme. The songs are long, but rarely overstay their welcome. That's a tribute to Romeo Stodart's compositions, but another factor may be that the group consists of two sets of brothers and sisters (the Allman Brothers would be proud). I believe that familial s...
12 comments
Read more