Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour
1967
Parlophone Records
Format I Own it on: Vinyl and Compact Disc
Track Listing: 1. Magical Mystery Tour 2. The Fool on the Hill 3. Flying 4. Blue Jay Way 5. Your Mother Should Know 6. "I Am the Walrus 7. Hello, Goodbye 8. Strawberry Fields Forever 9. Penny Lane 10. Baby, You're a Rich Man 11. All You Need is Love
This album was originally a UK 6-song ep that functioned as the soundtrack for the band's Made-for-TV-movie...
The US version expands the track-listing to include all of the band's 1967 standalone singles...This version was so awesome that it eventually became the standard version, and marks the only time the American version actually improved on the original...
To be honest, I love this record just as much as "Sgt Pepper." I'd argue that it's even weirder and more far-out than that album...Each track is colorful and showcases the unique personality of the band members effectively...And I think the four distinct and unique personalities is what made this band so appealing...
You have John's "I am the Walrus" which is so jam-packed with surreal images and sound effects, that it's probably the most re-playable track in music history....So perfect, that psychedelia had no place else to go...Same goes for the "Strawberry Fields Forever" which is the audio equivalent of LSD, with its slo-mo vocals, brain -melting brass, and constantly shifting feel...If they had actually included this on "Sgt Pepper" as intended, it probably would have been the best song on there...Its quite the technical achievement too, stitched together from multiple takes and sped up and down to match various keys...
The always moody and mysterious George gives us the dark, paranoid drone, "Blue Jay Way" that honestly wouldn't sound out-of-place on a Flaming Lips disc...Boredom, as high art and one of the best things here...
Pop Paul gives us the immaculate pop of "Hello, Goodbye" which is probably the catchiest song on Earth...It's like pop-concentrate! A small dose of this will leave you humming for the rest of your life! Also included is the famous "Penny Lane" single where Paul turns an everyday street corner into a lysergic circus...
Why is Ringo sad? Well, first because the Beatles made him sing "I Wanna Be Your Man," but he eventually got over that...Now he's sad because he doesn't get to sing any songs on the "Magical Mystery Tour" record...Poor, Ringo...
Maybe looking at the awesome album cover might cheer him up...I love this thing so much! It has a giant 24 page book inside that features lots of cool photos from the movie...Most notably, that awesome scene where John feeds the fat lady spaghetti with a shovel...
They say if you turn the record cover upside-down, connect the stars that
spell "The Beatles" with a pencil, and then hold it to a mirror, it
gives you a special phone number you can call and speak with Billy Shears himself...
This was kind of the 60's version of a QR Code...
Okay, so let's check out "Strawberry Fields Forever:" by the Beatles...
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