"Roll Up!"; 50th Anniversary of Magical Mystery Tour - The Beatles

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by mBen989, Nov 28, 2017.

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  1. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan

    Arnie thanks for taking the time for that excellent post. Very crisp well put together surmise & educated guessing.

    I think my main point, which I've bungled getting across simply is this however.

    Regardless of the reasoning or decisions from The Beatles & their business associates in 66-69. Capitol did themselves & the band a solid by arriving at the full album Mystery Tour.

    Because most USA Beatle fans weren't then or now really comfortable with the EP as a substitute for an album.

    The Beatles at least partially, invented the whole idea in rock that an album was more than just a collection of singles. With Rubber Soul, Revolver & Sgt Pepper The Beatles sort of taught their fans what an album could be. So rightly for a lot of reasons Capitol hit the bullseye with Mystery Tour as LP. We can quibble about whether it should have been 11 songs or they should have added one or two more..

    But I think they blew it by not doing something similar with Yellow Submarine . Blew it big time... To quote Ringo Starr from I believe Anthology. " There is no Yellow Submarine album"

    Anyway this thread is to celebrate Magical Mystery Tour at 50. Not to talk about how Yellow Submarine should've & could've been turned into an album in a similar fashion.

    Mystery Tour is mostly great songs with the same type of Sgt Pepperish psychedelic sound & feel. But with only 11 tunes, I think Flying, Blue Jay Way, bring it down a peg. But that still leaves 9 good songs imo. 9 out of 11 ain't bad. Even Flying & Blue Jay have some cool things about them. Of all the Harrison penned tunes in the 66-68 psychedelic era. I think Blue Jay Way is the weakest one. But I have heard fanmade mixes of BlueJay I liked better. There's more playing going on than I can easily hear in the muddy official mix.
     
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  2. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Yes, I agree.
     
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  3. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    That was AFTER the LP had already been released though (if the documentation is correct).
     
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  4. Dee Zee

    Dee Zee Once Upon a Dream

    Hmm. That doesn’t make sense.
     
  5. bluemooze

    bluemooze Senior Member

    Location:
    Frenchtown NJ USA
    Because it's an album and there's nothing you can do to change that. :)
     
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  6. jmxw

    jmxw Fab Forum Fan

    There are a few holes in your song list [as of 1968]:
    5. Across Universe - Lennon was not happy with it, so it was shelved [until the WWF came calling]
    7. You know my name - was left unfinished until 30 April 1969
    8. Xmastime is here again - not a proper song.
    11 Not Guilty - had just been excluded from the White Album, so presumably the same reason would still apply
    12 New Mary Jane - see above
    13 Shirley's Accordian - not a proper song
    14 Junk - no proper band recording

    That quickly whittles your 17 tracks down to a mere 10.

    Usually enough for a Capitol album, but ... it was The Beatles who now controlled the LP set lists.

    And per wikipedia: "According to author and music journalist Peter Doggett, neither the proposed EP format nor an expanded soundtrack album (containing other previously issued Beatles songs that appear in the 1968 film) was possible at the time, since "both options would have denied George Martin his contractual right to appear alongside The Beatles – and robbed him of potentially the largest royalty payment of his career."[44]"
     
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  7. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    I believe that the consensus is that it Paul and John used it as a statement against the Vietnam War. George did not like the cover at all.
     
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  8. mBen989

    mBen989 Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Scranton, PA
    The reasoning was people who didn't want to buy an album for two repeats (even though "All You Need is Love" is now available in true stereo) and George Martin's score could buy the EP and get all the new songs from the movie and also have "Across the Universe".
     
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  9. numer9

    numer9 Beatles Apologist

    Location:
    Philly Burbs
  10. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan

    Well I respect your views of course. But don't quite agree with you're whittled down list of 10. Some of the ones you excluded could have certainly been used imo. There were 67 & 68 versions of You know my name. Universe is a great song & could certainly been used, perhaps with a new mix or overdub session. In fact it was used. Not guilty is a finished record more or less. Perhaps it needed a mix. But I don't want to go point by point.

    Legal contracts being prohibitive or the Beatles being against it being duy noted. There was certainly enough fresh material to compile a Mystery Tour style new album for Yellow Submarine.

    I certainly wouldn't wish to cost loyal long suffering George Martin his ( then ) long awaited payday. But there's other ways to have dealt with that. Simply giving Martin 1/2 a Beatles album is not my preference. I'd rather have all Beatles & add Lady Madonna, Inner Light, Across The Universe & so on.
     
  11. My older brother received Magical Mystery Tour for Christmas 1967. He thought it was weird, I thought it was wonderful. It became "mine" with his blessing.
     
  12. joeconn4

    joeconn4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    burlington, vt
    Ah Magical Mystery Tour... a favorite of mine, but I'd say that about any Beatles album. This one was the 2nd my parents bought me when I was a kid. I think I was about 8 or 9, they bought me Meet The Beatles for Christmas. The next year the bought me MMT. My parents were not Beatles fans, they grew up in the 1950's but they stopped getting into pop music slightly before the Beatles came around. But they indulged my latent interest in music when I was just figuring out what AM radio was. I think they got me MMT because of the cover, looked kind of cartoony. I remember opening the shrink wrap, oh my gosh there's a book inside with pictures and cartoons!! And you put that album on and MMT cracks out of the speakers, this is going to me a good one. Such a varied collection of songs. I've always liked side 1 more than side 2, love love love all 6 tracks on side 1. Might be my favorite side on a Beatles album? Side 2 I liked more when I was younger. 'Baby, You're a Rich Man' is my favorite track on side 2. I still listen closely to side 1, but I haven't given side 2 a thoughtful listen in ages.

    Thank Mom & Dad for going out on a limb with this one for me!!
     
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  13. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    Debatable in the States but elsewhere it's 100% the most famous Capitol album.
     
  14. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means

    Location:
    New York
    This was always my favorite photograph of the Beatles when I was a kid because they had stopped touring the year before and I wanted to see what they would look like performing in psychedelic gear.
    Performing "I Am the Walrus"
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  15. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means

    Location:
    New York
    Reading about the film, I checked on Wiki and I didn't know they filmed over 10 hours of footage. I would have loved to see more additional footage in the boxset though they gave us some good stuff.

    From Wiki:
    The next eleven weeks were mostly spent on editing the film from ten hours to 52 minutes. Scenes that were filmed but not included in the final cut include:

    • A sequence where ice cream, fruit and lollipops were sold to the Beatles and other coach passengers;
    • Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr each looking through a telescope;
    • Happy Nat the Rubber Man (Nat Jackley, especially recruited for his 'funny walks', which the Beatles had long been drawn to) chasing women around the Atlantic Hotel's outdoor swimming pool, a sequence which Lennon directed;[12]
    • Mr Bloodvessel performing I'm Going in a Field; and
    • The band Traffic performing their song "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush".
     
  16. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Some of those "extra" segments are bonus features in the box set edition.
     
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  17. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means

    Location:
    New York
    I'm probably going to watch the extras today cause I haven't seen them in a while.
     
  18. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means

    Location:
    New York
    These are some great shots of them recording "The Fool on the Hill" I don't remember seeing...

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    There's some more great photos from the session at Getty Images website but I can't post them here. You can Google Beatles Fool on the Hill.

    Beatles At EMI Studio Pictures | Getty Images
     
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  19. Buddys Dad

    Buddys Dad Forum Resident

    Location:
    melton mowbray
    After several days of intense negotiation I managed to get my parents to agree to watch MMT on Boxing Day, 26th December 1967. In Black & White.
    Rather like The Monkees TV series the film wasn't that great, but you lived for the songs.
    I loved it, my school mates loved it. Anyone out of their teens HATED it.
    It was murdered by the newspapers & critics.
    The main opinion being The Beatles had got too big for their own boots & over reached themselves.


    Who cares.... the songs are great, and when watched in colour, its not that bad a film. As pop/rock films go....its damn good!
     
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  20. Dee Zee

    Dee Zee Once Upon a Dream

    It was suppose to air in the US but was dropped after the intense critical reaction it generated in the UK screening. Even in Chicago where I lived the news was all abuzz about how bad this Beatles film was. I was very disappointed it didn’t air in the US. I was looking forward to it and had the album already.
     
  21. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    The video for I Am The Walrus IMO is the Beatles at their weird zenith. The end with all the freaks trailing behind the Beatles in their animal masks as they dance off into the distance still creeps me out
     
  22. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    The album should have had the same cover only substituting the Meat & Dolls with cash all over them and all around them...the true meaning of the American albums to the Beatles camp. : ) the American albums were truly their cash cow...
     
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  23. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
    They must have been torn between extra albums = more $ and having their works of art dismembered. Early on they tolerated them for the extra $ but by 1967 they were swimming in $ so changed the contract. Thankfully as I dread what would have happened to Pepper.
     
  24. Colocally

    Colocally One Of The New Wave Boys

    Location:
    Surrey BC.
    Fantasy Sgt. Pepper Album, Had It Been Butchered By Capitol
     
  25. AFOS

    AFOS Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brisbane,Australia
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