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I suspect that this song began to make some closet Beatles fans out of the fabled "Older Generation" of the time. Among The Beatles' late 60's string of classic albums, "Magical Mystery Tour" often gets lost behind "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "The White Album," and "Abbey Road." That is a shame, because for my money, this album trails only "Abbey Road" of all the other ones mentioned for sheer brilliance.Every element of the sound of The Beatles is here, from the pleasantly experimental "Flying," to the daringly old-fashioned "Your Mother Should Know." The latter song is extremely catchy and entertainig while also being instructive material on the music of artists like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. Additionally, the band treats the listener to the brilliant "I Am the Walrus." I still argue that "I Am the Walrus" was the first rap song, with its slowed down cadence, and John's remarkable gift for musical talking on full display. Lastly, the title track is an odd combination of whimsicality and urgency that is an appropriate entry to such a varied album.Also featuring solid songs like "Penny Lane," "The Fool on the Hill" and the anthemic "All You Need Is Love," "Magical Mystery Tour" is an invaluable piece of The Beatles' musical lore.
The music was written for a 50 minutes TV-film about a magical but-trip, which was shown on BBC in December 1967. The reason that the album appear quite psychedelic is mainly due to the Lennon and Harrison contributions. McCartney, who was the main man behind the idea of TV-movie, contribute here with some of his best songs. Harrison was very inspired by oriental music at this time, which clearly shows on "Blue Jay Way" and "Flying" - the latter is in reality a 12-bar blues and basically not very interesting. This release was a huge success and the album has gone down in history as one of the group's core albums. Logically, the music is similar to both "Sgt Pepper's" and the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack, with some recordings made simultaneously. "Magical Mystery Tour", probably the Beatles' most psychedelic album, was released in late 1967 - the same year as the legendary "Sgt Pepper's". Both numbers are also among Lennon's best from this period.
"Hello Goodbye" is the musically a great recording, but lyrically it may seem a bit silly. There are lots of musical experimentation in both "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus" - while the lyrics opens for broad interpretation. "Baby You're a Rich" contributes to the overall psychedelic impression, and it is actually quite a nice number, though the chorus may not quite reach the ususal standards of the band. Also his "retro-song" "Your Mother Should Know" is quite charming. Actually it was not meant a real album release, and in England and most of Europe the music was originally released on a double EP, but since this format was declining in the U.S., the music was released as an album, with an addition of 5 single-tracks previously released in the course of 1967. "Blue Jay Way" is not the worst from Harrison in in this genre, but not the best either.
"Fool on the Hill" and "Penny Lane" are both lyrically and musically some of the finest on his part. Interesting too, that The Kinks also around this time, made a horn arrangement for one of their songs; "Dead End Street", which was actually released before "Penny Lane".The title track "Magical Mystery Tour" is the perfect opening number with its optimistic catchy melody and fine vocals from Lennon and McCartney. "Hello Goodbye" and "All You Need Is Love" were two great singles this year, and especially "All You Need Is Love" was one of the big songs in the 1967 'summer of love'. In any rate, the album is another gem in the Beatles catalogue.
Amazing remastered edition of a classic album, but my CD has the Let It Be documentary on it.Anyone else with this error.
This album was some kind of EP originally but then they added 5 songs (Hello Goodbye, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Baby You're a Rich Man, and All You Need Is Love). "The Fool on the Hill" is however a more peaceful song - not my favs but still a good song. "Blue Jay Way" is one of the weirdest tracks I've ever heard. The first six songs are from a movie or something I guess. "Your Mother Should Know" is a song about a song that it is so old that someone's mother wasn't born when it was a hit - still they think that his/her mother should know. But still.they are good pieces of music, at least most of them are. Actually I knew all those songs except for "Baby You're a Rich Man" which is also the weakest song of those five. "Flying" is an instrumental track.
The title song is a funny song. I actually sing it often when I'm alone. Some goes to "I Am the Walrus" - even name tells that it is so weird. By the Way, if you like The Beatles' (original) version of "Strawberry Fields Forever", you should also try to get The Runaways's version of it.Stars: Strawberry Fields Forever, I Am the Walrus, Hello Goodbye
I have the DVD Anthology from the some years ago and "I Am The Walrus" has a TRUE stereo ending.It's like that on "Love" and even The Beatles Rock Band.What in the hell happened. I've waited all this time for something good to happen and,well.
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