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The Beatles Remasters, Part 9
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The Beatles get even stranger
Magical Mystery Tour, originally released in November 1967 in the United States, was the soundtrack to the Beatles’ third film. The film of the same name was doomed from the beginning, and the songs used in the project were initially released as a double EP in the UK, but the US version filled out an LP with the band’s 1967 popular singles. It is the only American release to be adopted into the official list of Beatle works. The remasters use it as well, and the mono is absolutely superior because most of the tracks here were originally mixed in “fake” stereo for effect. The true mix is mono, and this is the last Beatles album where mono is preferable because of the time spent in the mixing process.
The original packaging had a gatefold with lyrics and a booklet of shots from the movie. The music is equally as zany but more loosely conceived as a follow up to the great Sgt. Pepper. “Magical Mystery Tour” is certainly just as good as “Sgt. Pepper” in the opening slot, but “The Fool On the Hill,” a leftover from the Pepper sessions, sends the album into a solemn, lonely pit. The instrumental “Flying” and Harrison’s “Blue Jay Way” doesn’t help, but McCartney’s strange vaudeville act in “Your Mother Should Know” lifts the mood again. Lennon’s “I Am the Walrus” closes side one, and it is yet another masterful poetic dream song from John. Built on the philosophy that nothing is what it is, and everything is what it is not, the song is both confounding and wonderful. Author Philip Norman thinks the song is only rivaled by “A Day in the Life” as John’s masterpiece performance.
The second side contained the hugely popular singles from the year: “Hello Goodbye,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” and “All You Need Is Love” have each found their places in the pantheons of our culture over the last forty years. They simply do not need an introduction. Yet, sandwiched in between all these mega hits is “Baby You’re a Rich Man Too.” The song is hilarious, and lightens the mood. The Rolling Stones were at the recording session for this song, and possibly joined in on the chorus, as Barry Miles notes that one of the tapes has Mick Jagger’s name written on it as a performer.
The Beatles would return in 1968 for their first double LP. The cover would be white, and they would never be the same band again. Magical Mystery Tour was not really conceived as a full-length album, but as a group of songs to coincide with the film. The Beatles, otherwise known as the White Album, would be the actual planned follow up to Sgt. Pepper, and it would stand apart from anything they had ever done.
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