The Beatles, Album by Album--Magical Mystery Tour

Somewhat of an anomaly in the Beatles' catalogue, Magical Mystery Tour is an American-only LP. It consists of the shorter British Magical Mystery Tour double-EP combined with other 1967 singles which were not included on an LP. This gives it a somewhat hodgepodge feel and it lacks the unified vision of Revolver and Sgt. Pepper. It does consist of several great songs, though the album does have a sort of "greatest hits" feel to it that the more cohesive LPs lack. I actually think it's a rather interesting album for a number of reasons. I've heard it called the sequel to Sgt. Pepper, which can often be a tag of disdain, but I find the sound of it to be different, although related. There is certainly more variety to the songs on here and the group feels more comfortable using all manners of sound effects and esoteric instrumentation to fit the nature of the song, instead of having everything sound the same. "Blue Jay Way" has a heavier, darker psychedelic feel to it, while "Penny Lane" uses bright, sparkling instrumentation to recreate the semi-fantasy world of Paul's childhood. I like the variety of sounds on here, which is one of the album's strongest attributes. Also the songwriting has taken a step up since Sgt. Pepper.

"Magical Mystery Tour" and "The Fool on the Hill" do somewhat feel like Sgt. Pepper's spiritual children--they both have that lightweight feel of the previous album combined with similar instrumentation. Not my favorites, but not bad songs. "Flying" represents a whole new sound for the Beatles. It opens with a very heavy, murky groove with fine bass playing and drumming. It reminds me of a blues instrumental by someone like the Stones (something like "2120 South Michigan Avenue"). The sound of the Beatles playing their own instruments was largely lacking on the previous album, besides the title tracks (which have pretty cool heavy riffs for their time). "Blue Jay Way" also has a unique sound. It combines George's Eastern influence with a dark psychedelia. The drumming by Ringo on here is very trippy and although it has too long of an outro, it's an underrated song in my opinion. "Your Mother Should Know" is a favorite of mine. As I've said before, any song that features Paul's wordless ad libs is alright in my book. Doesn't everyone want to take Paul home to meet their mom? "I Am the Walrus" closes out the songs featured in the television film Magical Mystery Tour (these six songs are also the ones featured on the original British double-EP) and is perhaps their finest straight psychedelic song. It has so much atmosphere that was lacking on the more lightweight Sgt. Pepper tunes. It's hilarious that music critics actually tried to decipher the nonsense lyrics of this back in the day. It also features the first great Beatles outro, complete with some King Lear thrown in at the end, as well as God knows what else. A great example of how to use crazy strings and sound effects effectively. But what obviously makes it a great song is simply that--it's a great song, beneath all of the sound effects.

The second side of the album is the side which rounds up all the singles, but almost all of them are great. "Hello Goodbye" is a bit lightweight, but that ending almost makes up for it. "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane" I have mentioned earlier as being perhaps the finest single of all time and they are obviously the highlights on this side. Both attempt to capture aspects of their songwriters' childhoods (John and Paul, respectively), and the ways that they are different showcases the two diametric personalities of their creators. "Strawberry Fields" is ghostly yet beautiful. It seems to be more about a fantasy world, perhaps away from the pressures and alienation of being famous, than it is about childhood. "Penny Lane" is Paul's great portrait of an idealized suburban England where a fireman keeps "in his pocket a portrait of the queen" and a pretty nurse "feels as if she's in a play." Though both are rather fantastical, John's song feels like a retreat into fantasy to escape the drudgery of the real world, while Paul's feels like a celebration of the everyday details that make life beautiful. It is interesting that John sings, "Living is easy with eyes closed/Misunderstanding all you see," while at the same time singing about some sort of fantasy retreat where he is in his own tree. He says he knows when it's a dream, but I'm not sure if that is necessarily true. Anyways, the differences between these two songs serve as a great comparison between their creators.

Finally, "Baby You're a Rich Man" and "All You Need Is Love" close out the album. The former is a satire of richness and famousness itself, complete with a snake-charmer sounding instrument in there. "All You Need Is Love" is an anthem for the Summer of Love, but as Paul has noted, John throws in some confusing (obscurantist?) lyrics into the verses (which are sung beautifully over what sounds like a harpsichord). Really, "Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game"? This seems like a Bob Dylan trick, to throw in that catchy, simple chorus to get everyone to sing along and gloss over the ambiguity and cloudiness of the verses. Perhaps this shows John's skepticism at the hippies he saw springing up left and right who looked up to him as their leader and mouthpiece. I'm not really sure. Maybe those verses mean something to him. The outro throws in a bunch of musical quotes, including John's spectral version of his own "She Loves You," which again adds a darker feeling to a song supposedly about free love. I almost feel like the whole thing was a big joke meant to trick all of the naive hippies. While I feel like Sgt. Pepper represents the blind, naive optimism of the '60s, there is a darker undercurrent to parts of Magical Mystery Tour which I like ("I Am the Walrus" or "Blue Jay Way," for instance). Of course, no band better captured the quick death of the '60s optimism better than the Stones with songs like "Gimme Shelter" and albums like Let It Bleed, but that's another story for another day.

--Edward