Magical Mystery Tour

The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour movie poster

Magical Mystery Tour: The Movie

While the Beatles' first two movies were directed by Richard Lester and a fully professional production unit, Magical Mystery Tour, a film made for BBC TV (shown on Boxing day, 1967) was controlled entirely by The Beatles...who had absolutely no experience in film making, itself.

The film was a McCartney project (every much a disaster as his Give My Regards To Broadstreet movie of the early 1980s), influenced by the French New wave cinema and the exciting possibility of just waving a camera and creating Art. Well, it didn't quite work out that way...and what we have is a dreadful mess...in terms of a narrative.

Outside of those concerns, things start to look better. Magical Mystery Tour is very acid, very 1967...but it's also very pre-MTV, with a number of pretty good music videos, which were called promotional films at the time).

The plot: The Beatles go on a magical mystery tour bus...

...and strange things start to happen. Yes, things certainly get very atmospheric and very, very weird:

I Am The Walrus

Nevertheless, it's a curio worth taking a peek at. Mind you, the Magical Mystery Tour movie is somehow still not owned by Apple and the technical presentation is atrocious, so buy it if you wish...but don't expect modern standards in the slightest.

Magical Mystery Tour DVD

"...Magical Mystery Tour is a superb, mostly surrealistic film produced by The Beatles. Magical Mystery Tour employs all sorts of technological tricks, fantasy and reality to produce an appealing motion picture that you won't forget anytime soon-it's THAT good. The DVD is a print copied from film taken several decades ago, so prepare yourself for a DVD experience that's not exactly digital. The film works well anyway..." Amazon reviewer Matthew G. Sherwin

"...Make no mistake - this is a great CD - but a horrible DVD! Why I've created more credible concoctions in my morning toilet!..." Amazon reviewer T. Fray

I believe that there are several Magical Mystery Tour DVD editions floating around but my version has 2 B&W newsreels:

• opening The Beatles' Apple Boutique
• with The Maharishi in Rishikesh, India

Tony Barrow, The Beatles' press man:

The Making of Magical Mystery Tour book

"...Full of great insider info on how the Beatles managed to create a masterpiece of psychedelic cinema despite poor planning, total chaos and a complete lack of directing experience. The book does much to show just how brilliant the Fabs were, that they could basically take a camera and an idea and create a film that's just now getting the recognition and critical kudos it deserved 30+ years ago..." Amazon reviewer Jim Yoakum

Magical Mystery Tour Memories DVD

The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour is hardly a Beatles "album". It's a number of projects gathered onto one album for American release:

1   the Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever epoch-making single, March 1967 (see the Sgt. Pepper review)

2   the All You Need Is Love/Baby You're A Rich Man single July 1967 with All You Need Is Love premiered on the world's first global TV link

"...We had been told we'd be seen recording it by the whole world at the same time. So we had one message for the world - Love. We need more Love in the world..." Paul McCartney 1967 (see Beatles quotes Magical Mystery Tour, below):

Incidentally, my conjecture is that Baby You're A Rich Man is Lennon's well-disguised punning motivational statement to then-deeply depressed manager Brian Epstein, who didn't know how to cope when The Beatles decided to stop touring. The line:

"...You keep all your money in a big brown bag..."

references the under-the-table payments that Epstein indexed into most Beatle concert payments...and would, literally, be delivered to him in a brown paper bag. Epstein died, believed to have committed suicide, soon after the track was recorded.
 
3   The Magical Mystery Tour double EP (that meant Extended Play back then) December 1967, the highlights being:

Magical Mystery Tour...a fun scenesetter, with some cool John & George backing vocals

The Fool On The Hill...sublime McCartney ode to a guru...

"...I think I was writing about someone like the Maharishi. His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle, he wasn't taken too seriously..." Paul McCartney circa 1994 (see Beatles quotes Magical Mystery Tour, below):

"...Day after day
Alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin
Is keeping perfectly still

But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he's just a fool
And he never gives an answer

But the fool on hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
...See the world spinning round..."

The Fool On The Hill

"'...I think I was writing about someone like the Maharishi. His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn't taken too seriously..."

Your Mother Should Know...An irresistable nostalgic piece of McCartney silliness

"...I've always hated generation gaps...but because we mess things up so readily they have one argument and hate each other for the rest of their lives, so I was advocating peace between the generations...I was basically trying to say your mother might know more than you think she does. Give her credit..." Paul McCartney circa 1994 (see Beatles quotes Magical Mystery Tour, below):

"...Let's all get up and dance to a song
That was a hit before your mother was born
Though she was born a long, long time ago
Your Mother Should Know
Your Mother Should Know..."

Your Mother Should Know

I Am The Walrus...Lennon begins to crawl out of the acid haze. Ugly, claustrophobic, utterly mesmerizing, almost stream-of-conciousness, nasty madness. There's no point highlighting any lyrics, none make sense...but together they're all brilliant

"...The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend..." Jon Lennon 1980 (see Beatles quotes Magical Mystery Tour, below)

"...Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog's eye
Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess
Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your knickers down
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen
I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob..."

              I Am The Walrus

"Goo-goo-g'-joob, indeed!" One of the great, great, great Beatle tracks. Possibly the best.

Magical Mystery Bear

The Hello Goodbye single. December 1967 McCartney pap. As a child I loved it. Now I should hate it...but I don't, I still love it. Go figure! Hello Goodbye may possibly be a reference to the increasing resentments that Lennon & Harrison were beginning to express to McCartney after the debacle of the Magical Mystery Tour film...but who cares?

"...There are Gemini-ian influences here...Duality:

• man / woman
• black / white
• high / low
• right / wrong
• up / down
• hello / goodbye

...It's just a song (about) Duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say "goodbye", I say "hello". You say "stop", I say "go". I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day..." Paul McCartney circa 1994 (see Beatles quotes Magical Mystery Tour, below)

Magical Mystery Tour is a wonderful collection of odds and sods and makes a great CD that every Beatle fan should have. I love it.

The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack

"...Magical Mystery Tour is actually an odd little masterpiece. All of the Beatles shine here:

• McCartney's bass playing is masterful
• Ringo's drumming unusually loose and, as always, driving,
• Lennon is at the height of his peace-n-love weirdness, and
• Harrison simply rips the place apart with the heavy duty Blue Jay Way. Is there anything on vinyl more ominous than the organ and bass intro and the first line: 'There's a fog upon L.A...'?..."

Amazon reviewer David Bradley

"...Gibson's, the department store where I bought this album, was on the way to my favorite pizza place. The night I bought Magical Mystery Tour, we also picked up some pizzas for dinner. To this day, I think of my favorite pizza everytime I see the album cover and/or hear the music..." Amazon reviewer J. Keeton

"...This is my favorite Beatles album. They took the psychedlic influence up a notch from Sgt. Pepper's. It is incredibly creative and experimental...Then they followed it up with the White album several months later. Amazing!..." Amazon reviewer Ron in CA

"...When I want to drift away to the moon or the stars, I put this album on. I am them immediately wisked away from this world into one in which everything is fantastic, euphonious, brilliant and beautiful..." Amazon reviewer A. Babul

For more info, see:

• wikipedia Magical Mystery Tour
• photos from The Fool On The Hill recording sessions, September 1967
• Scene And Heard interview with George Harrison on location for Magical Mystery Tour film. George talks about the film and his interest in Indian spirituality, September
• "Film-making isn't as difficult as many people imagine." New Musical Express interview with John, Paul & Ringo, November, while editing Magical Mystery Tour 
• Paul McCartney interviewed on The David Frost Show, December, the day after Magical Mystery Tour was first aired
• I Am The Walrus' lyrics looked at in considerable detail by Saki 
• The Beatles, quotes over the years about Magical Mystery Tour