Music Banter - It’s Coming To Take You Away: Magical Mystery Tour

Welcome to the 3rd installment of my reviews of Beatles albums. I’ve been on vacation, so I quit the internet for a while.

http://www.beatles.com/hub/gfx/albums/front/Mag-A.jpg

Magical Mystery tour, probably the most underrated Beatles album(does that exist?) There isn’t a mediocre song on this album. To me, this album is an extension of Sgt. Pepper. Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour make up the “Psychedelic Stretch”, The Beatles’ studio albums can be divided in two parts, the first half consisting of Please Please Me - Help! It consists of their early 50s Rock & Roll stuff and the Beatlemania phase. The quality of work could be great but wasn’t consistent. It was mostly about girls. The next phase was Rubber Soul - Let It Be. The quality sky rocketed and they matured, straying away from the love songs of their past. They stopped touring and revolutionized the way music was recorded. They were among the first to see an album as a piece of art and not a collection of songs.

Track Listing

1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. The Fool on the Hill
3. Flying (Lennon-McCartney-Harrison-Starkey)
4. Blue Jay Way (Harrison)
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

Magical Mystery Tour:
“The magical mystery tour is coming to take you away/ The magical mystery tour is dying to take you away” Many people accuse this song of being just a rip off of the opening to Sgt. Pepper. That may be, but I like this song anyway. It’s got a weird vibe to it, it starts off light and happy but by the end, I get a sense that this song is twisted in a way. Like weird circus music. Maybe it’s just I have a sort of twisted mind, but this albums definitely does not start off with the joy that Sgt. Pepper did. People may see that as a bad thing, but not me. I think The Beatles intended this album to be something different than what it turned out to be.

YouTube - Magical mystery tour

The Fool On The Hill:
“But the fool on the hill/Sees the sun going down/And the eyes in his head/See the world spinning around.” It is interesting to note that Paul does not write ONE SINGLE LOVE SONG on this album. This is one of the best Paul songs in terms of lyrics. Once again, note that this song really isn’t too happy.
YouTube - fool on the hill

Flying:
A rare thing: A Beatles instrumental. It just has to be listened to, it’s tough to describe. Notice though, the slowed down and sedated nature of the song. This isn’t happy.
YouTube - The Beatles - Flying

Blue Jay Way:
George probably made the most psychedelic songs by The Beatles. But they are never upbeat, they are always slow, meditative and weird. By this time George has completely branched off in a new direction, creating his own distinctive sound within the group.
YouTube - The Beatles - Blue Jay Way

Your Mother Should Know
“Lift up your hearts and sing me a song/That was a hit before your mother was born/Though she was born a long, long time ago/Your mother should know” One of my favorite songs on the album. One of those really underrated songs. Once again, note the twisted mood bubbling just beneath the surface.
YouTube - The Beatles - Your Mother Should Know

I Am The Walrus
http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/7...ewalruszl8.jpg
Masterpiece t-shirt by the man the man Lennon man. Police and all the rows and all the tigers and ouch, can’t even see what I’m believing help out the firefighters! I have 5 cheetahs in cages how many tubas do you have in your silk pouch mister Governor sir? GOO GOO G’JOOB!
YouTube - The Beatles - I Am The Walrus

Hello Goodbye
Hello hello! This is a masterpiece by Paul. It has the classic Paul upbeat melody. Notice the guitar thing kick in(I don’t know what it is) but it’s in that area when he is singing “Hello hello!” This song sort of breaks the mold of the sedated sort of weird feeling, and it would fit in on Sgt. Pepper. That’s because it was recorded during the Sgt. Pepper session. Nonetheless, the ending of the song fits in with the rest of the album, and there are certain weird things, like this voices of John and George singing “Hello Goodbye, Hello Goodbye” with a strange distortion on them.
YouTube - The Beatles Hello Goodbye

Strawberry Fields Forever
George Martin said that when John Lennon first previewed this song for him, he was completely moved, it was the best song any of them had written according to him. He hugely regretted that he didn’t record it. George recalled how haunting John’s voice was. And it’s true, if you hear some of the earlier demos of Strawberry Fields, they are beautiful. The finished product still remains great, but I regret that it was not released as just John on his guitar and him singing. It’s kind of like if Bob Marley decided to release Redemption Song with a whole band and drums behind him. It’s not as powerful. Strawberry Fields Forever is my favorite song on this album, and one of Lennon’s best songs, and if it was released in the method I suggested previously, without a doubt one of the greatest songs ever.
Demos of the Song: YouTube - John Lennon - Strawberry Fields Demos (1966)
Finished Song: YouTube - The Beatles - Strawberry Fields Forever (colour)

Penny Lane:
This is Paul’s best song. It’s about the neighborhood they grew up in. What Paul does is take these mundane everyday situations and juice them up poetically. It’s the best nostalgia song ever. It’s my favorite Paul song. I don’t really know what else to say about it. Just listen.
YouTube - Penny Lane - The Beatles

Baby You’re A Rich Man:
This is another of those songs that isn’t talked about much. It’s so good. You can tell that this song is mostly Lennon. It’s got that bitter tone that a lot of his later work has. A brilliant and underrated song, like this album.
YouTube - The Beatles - Baby You're a Rich Man

All You Need Is Love:
One of the most interesting things about the 60s is the mass disillusionment and downfall of the hippies. For a brief period there was a utopia, Woodstock, then as soon as that utopia came, it was gone, with the Altamont Free Concert put on by the Rolling Stones, The Manson Murders and the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison and Janis Joplin. To me, this is not an uplifting song. The tones Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour almost represent an arc. It’s interesting to note that this was released the same year as Sgt. Pepper, 1967. I think unintentionally The Beatles made an album that, tone-wise, was a representation of the darkside of psychedelia.
YouTube - All You Need Is Love - The Beatles