Probably their most underrated, which is a sad case of the British and European mindset that God forbid Capitol actually made any right decisions!
……as you’re no doubt aware, in the UK it appeared as a double EP without all the tracks on side 2 of the LP. Not underrated IMHO. Walrus is the standout. Fool On The Hill if you like those McCartney ballads. Always had a soft spot for Blue Jay Way.
I think the reasons it became canon can be guessed at: 1. It is a sensible compilation. The Beatles okayed it in 1967 for the American market. All the songs were released in 1967 so it "hangs together" nicely. 2. If it were not canon, all 11 songs would end up on an overstuffed Past Masters volume 2 [or equivalent]... Perhaps some of the earlier vol. 2 tracks would have moved to vol.1 for better balance, but... I doubt they wanted to push the CDs that long by adding another 36.5 minutes to them... Edit: Of course, if it were not canon and all the tracks were on PM, they would have had an excuse to give us the MMT album in the US albums box set and we might now have the original stereo Strawberry Fields Forever mix on CD...
Replying to my own comment to get this back out there. I am hoping the experts here, can help. I have the Beatles mono box set , a few of the stereo CD's of that same release time, along with the 96/24 downloads of the current Peppers, White, and Abbey Rd. Also have a MMT BluRay on hold to pickup locally. What am I missing digitally(Disc or Stream download) in Beatles that would be the best ? Especially on Magical Mystery Tour. Still don't understand why they did not make a new remastered version , with a HiRES download like Peppers, White, and Abbey Rd ?
I bought the MoFi Lp when it came out. Somewhere during life, I lost it . It has haunted me for years !
Whether Magical Mystery Tour is highly rated as an album or not, its contents are certainly not forgotten. Seven of its 11 tracks are on the 1967-1970 "Blue" album, and three of them are on the explosively successful 1 compilation. It's not languishing in obscurity.
In that hypothetical scenario, I'd say there's at least a 50% chance they would have screwed up and used the 1971 remix on the US Albums version of MMT.
It's a great album; I play it a lot. But no, I wouldn't say it's an underrated album. It gets the credit it deserves. I'd say "Blue Jay Way" is an underrated track, however.
That sequence and selection makes a lot of sense - if only there were a way to complete it with a version of Across The Universe!
Moved to bonus track on Pepper, being that it was recorded during those sessions. So whenever I listen to Pepper, it starts with the Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane single and ends with Only a Northern Song.
Could add the Anthology 2 or LIB Naked version of Across the Universe to get a "early 1968" version of ATU.
My opinion is pretty much the same! I'd add Baby You're a Rich Man to my list of favourites, and maybe that weirdly, foggily ominous Blue Jay Way (not to be confused with a well-known street in Toronto). Oh, and Your Mother Should Know
As a sign that I’ve almost exclusively listened to the mono mixes since 2009, I’m listening to the stereo MMT and “I Am The Walrus” came on, surprising me with the extra bar at the beginning.
It's the one essential Capitol assemblage and indeed I say it functions more as a concept album than Pepper’s does. Not just the songs on side one which appear in the loose travelogue / collection of music promos (later, aka, "videos") where the slim narrative framework is taking a trip with the Beatles and friends on a bus — the stuff on second side, too. Each song's about coming or going / traveling, or a destination: place/time/status. Side one) Opener — statement of theme; invitation to join the tour Second track — alone on a hill, with the world spinning 'round Third track — aerial instrumental Fourth track — friends lost on way to a place (out here) Fifth track — a long long time ago Final track — more flying, waiting for a van, then of course an English garden, climbing the famous tower. Kinda disorienting going all over like this. The perfect closer Side two) Opener — High? Low? Stop? Go go go go Second track — in a tree, again high or low, again being asked to come along, this time to a childhood place, reflective of theme that at some stage was to and/or still did inform Pepper's, but most overt right here and with next number… Third track — to and from colorful places up and down the lane, under the blue sky, and back Fourth track — How often have you been / What did you see when you were … there? Not to mention, inside a zoo Finale — debuts on first global / multinational broadcast (which even had a space segment), commences with a national anthem, and determines (one could say, in context of album's sequence, after all this traveling…) there's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be. An ideal(istic) conclusion to our voyage More thematic unity than Pepper's which pretty much just has the framing device of opener / reprise / cover art costumes to let us know they're a different band. And musically as cohesive as the earlier album, collecting the rest of their 1967 releases. Far as concept albums go, this one's effectively a psychedelic Come Fly With Me.
The “theme” in Pepper, to my mind, was that of the album being a stage performance piece as opposed to any sort of thread running through the songs themselves. In this sense, I always found it conceptually coherent even though some (including John) say otherwise. But that said, your MMT description/script works very nicely.
