"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. Rfreeman

    Rfreeman Senior Member

    Location:
    Lawrenceville, NJ
    I'm not saying it was their only market I am saying it was so much larger than their other markets in their peak period that what was more popular elsewhere basically amounted to a rounding error.

    And, to the OP's original statement, there is no way that MMT - which became "canon" in a revisionist move long after they broke up, is remotely as famous.
     
  2. genesim

    genesim Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Louis
    I think the significance of worldwide success is underrated vs North American success.
     
  3. Dylancat

    Dylancat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cincinnati, OH
    "Outsold by monkees."
    You know that's a myth right?
     
  4. jmxw

    jmxw Fab Forum Fan

    Maybe you accidentally picked up an import..?
     
    malco49 likes this.
  5. A well respected man

    A well respected man Some Mother's Son

    Location:
    Madrid, Spain
    -Even though that's an exaggeration, we are not comparing MTB in the US vs Sgt Pepper in the rest of the world. We are comparing MTB vs SP worldwide (including the US in both cases). No contest.

    -I agree with your second paragraph.
     
  6. Lownotes

    Lownotes Senior Member

    Location:
    Denver, CO
    Olympic Studios I belive
     
  7. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    I don't remember the first time I heard the "MMT" album, but I've yet to see the special (and judging from some comments I've read on here, it may be a good thing that I haven't.)
     
    Tuco likes this.
  8. vinylbeat

    vinylbeat Forum Resident

    I remember seeing "MMT" in the stores in late 67'. At first glance of the cover, I didn't even realize that it was The Beatles new LP!
     
  9. Hardy Melville

    Hardy Melville Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    Several excellent point here concerning Capitol making the right decisions. Of course a lot were of the if it ain't broke, don't fix it type, but still. Surely someone must have been tempted to have a different order to the songs, but they did the right thing, keeping all the EP songs on the first side (after all, Walrus was released in the US on a single, and could have been put somewhere else for that or some other reason). And the second side could quite easily have been different both in content and sequence. Someone must have thought Hello Goodbye would be right to start it off, perhaps the tie to Walrus led to it, or perhaps the realization the song works as a first song on the side type of song, or both. And ending it with Love was also an excellent move.

    These things don't just happen.
     
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  10. jmxw

    jmxw Fab Forum Fan

    Starting side 1 with Hello Goodbye might have had to do with the fact that it would have been their latest hit single. I'm sure in the record company's eyes that's always a good way to lead off a side.

    Capitol did re-arrange the track on sides 1 so they are not in the same order as they were on the EP set. But the EP programming, presumably, would have been influenced more by track length than flow...

    Ending the sides with All You Need Is Love and I Am The Walrus is in keeping with the philosophy of "lead the side with a real pot-boiler and finish it with something hard to follow" that George Martin employed on most of the Beatles LPs.
     
  11. Davmoco

    Davmoco Forum Resident

    Location:
    Morrison, CO, USA
    I got it for Christmas in '67.

    I loved it. I still love most of it, but I do skip a few songs.

    Right now, I still have my original vinyl and CD.

    I have always preferred the stereo version. Some of the panning and other little tricks add to the psychedelic vibe as far as I'm concerned. Since headphones weren't all that common at the time, I would occasionally listen to it laying on the ground with my head between the detachable speakers from my first portable stereo.
     
  12. slane

    slane Forum Resident

    Location:
    Merrie England
    Capitol didn't even re-arrange the EP tracks that drastically - they logically kept the title track as first song, but otherwise just reversed the order of the EPs.
     
    Onder likes this.
  13. malco49

    malco49 Forum Resident

    I am guessing that is what i had.so the import was only a EP then?
     
  14. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Yes, the double EP was the only issue in the UK at the time.

    Still unless you bought the double-EP record at a specialty store, I do NOT think that many record retailers carried MMT as an import in early 1968.
     
  15. Dinstun

    Dinstun Forum Resident

    Location:
    Middle Tennessee
    It's been posited before, but I suspect that side one of the LP was the intended order for MMT, which follows the film order of songs except Walrus is moved to the end.

    For the EPs, they were forced to shuffle the tracks to get the best fit on four sides. And it may have been the intent to stack the two 45s, so the order would be:

    1-1. Magical Mystery Tour
    1-2. Your Mother Should Know
    3-1. The Fool On The Hill
    3-2. Flying
    -------- flip --------
    4. Blue Jay Way
    2. I Am The Walrus
     
  16. Michael

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

    amazing work...
     
  17. NothingBrightAboutIt

    NothingBrightAboutIt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canada
    Little known fact that they almost did, but they got hungry while doing so:

     
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  18. Holy Diver

    Holy Diver Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I bought the cassette back in the '80s. I loved it right away. For me, it may be only second to The White Album. I love the movie, as well. Good times. :cool:
     
  19. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Indeed, the sound quality on "Baby You're A Rich Man" sorta makes you wish they recorded at Olympic more often!
     
  20. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan

    As much as I want too. I really don't like the film much. But I'm glad it exists, I wish it was feature length though, so I'm all in favor of inserting the outtakes scenes & some of the non movie music promo films. Such as Penny Lane/SFF.

    As to the album, I think I was n my 20's in the 80's before I realized it was never an actual album until Capitol reworked it.

    Song for song it's about as strong as Sgt Pepper more or less. But has kind of a whimsical feel not present on Sgt Pepper. It does & doesn't sound "thrown together" as a "fake" album. It's got too many classic psychedelic songs to be a fake long play. Yet that's what it is. Glad Capitol did it that way.

    I'm not really clear why All Together Now, Only A Northern Song & It's All Too Much weren't added as well. That opened a different can of worms later. Because the Yellow Submarine album is just 4 random new songs, which pleases no one.

    I've posted on that in other threads, so won't labor the point here & now.

    I'm really sincere when I say I want to love the film. But it's length of 50 minutes, lack of script, it's kind of just a bad movie. Help & AHDN are great, Yellow Submarine is great. Mystery Tour isin't.

    Couldn't they hire Dick Lester or someone to come in & re edit it & use outtakes scenes & improve it a bit ? Is that crazy ? An 85-90 minute running time would be a good start... Settle in for a normal movie length...As I recall there's a couple funny bits & scenes they left out, between those scenes & the PL/SFF videos, you'd be adding what ? 15-18 minutes right there ?
     
  21. jmxw

    jmxw Fab Forum Fan

    As much as we might like to, we cannot go back and rewrite history.

    MMT was a produced as a television special, not a feature film. It did not have a script as such, which is why it seems rambling and has no real development, no buildup to a climax [well, I guess they considered Your Mother Should Know to be some kind of climax, as the big dance scene...], no sense of conflict & resolution.

    Richard Lester is now 85 and has not done any directing since Paul McCartney's Get Back [no not that Get Back] in 1991.

    They didn't add additional unreleased songs because (a) Capitol had plenty of released songs and (b) the Beatles were contractually obligated to provide a number of unreleased songs for the Yellow Submarine project [although which songs was probably still up in the air in late 1967].

    I would love for MMT to be a better movie. I would also love for Run For Your Life to not be misogynistic. I would love for Let It Be to be a better album & film [and to have the film released on bluray/dvd]. But they are what they are. As much fun as it is for us to play with hypothetical track listings and such, history cannot be changed for better or worse.

    That said, I have my own ideas about how to consolidate the catalog [some of which are in this thread, some in others, and some just in my head so far]...
     
    Last edited: Dec 1, 2017
  22. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    Bought it when I first saw it in December of 1967. Fantastic Side 1 and I love the collection of orphan singles on Side 2. I still have my original vinyl album with the 24-page book and also have it on CD (a "hand-me-up" from my son after he replaced his Beatles CDs with the remasters). I also have the film on VHS and I agree with McCartney. I "appreciate it for the cool little art film that it is."
     
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  23. Folknik

    Folknik Forum Resident

    My stereo vinyl copy has about 3 seconds of a strange echoey sound at the beginning of Side 2 just before "Hello Goodbye." It's not on my CD copy. Did all of the stereo vinyl copies have this?
     
  24. johnny moondog 909

    johnny moondog 909 Beatles-Lennon & Classic rock fan

    Well I appreciate all those points & observations you make. I'm not wearing hat with tinfoil or living in a delusional state of mind. Nor am I unaware of the passage of time or the historical record . Of what the Beatles did & didin't do.

    However, works of art, music, albums, films, can all be restored, altered, expanded. Not unlike the people who go back & restore Da Vinci or other paintings because they're 500 years old & decaying. Or some architect discovers an error in a Frank Lloyd Wright building & redesigns the mailbox or something.

    Either Apple as a Beatles company, or fans privately can & redo Beatles audio mixes, & film edits all the time. Occasionally they're really worthwhile. Although often they aren't.

    According to you, I guess Mystery Tour was a 6 song double EP & not an album ?

    It opens a big can of worms, people painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa no doubt about it. On the other hand. Suppose modern technology & inexpensive Protools, allows someone to create a really fabulous new Beatles album. Consisting of all those Let it Be Twickenham scraps, or known & unknown outtakes & or demos ?... Apple as a company or some clever individual can't edit that new album together ? As both a legal matter & a travesty of good taste & the Beatles intentions ?

    I think possibly new Beatles art, songs, albums & films can be & have been compiled from their leftovers and scraps...The Anthology project for example..

    So if someone could add 20-30 minutes to Mystery Tour & make it feature length. Where is the harm ? The official 53 minute version is still there.

    I think people clinging to 50 year old Beatles, Stones & Doors records is twofold. One a love for that music, & 2nd a rejection of what radio & today's record industry offer as replacements.

    But everything you said is true. Dick Lester is too old & the Beatles never intended Mystery Tour to be a 90 minute feature length film. But if those things can be done now & done well why not ?
     
  25. jmxw

    jmxw Fab Forum Fan

    Sorry, I didn't mean to imply you were part of the tinfoil brigade.

    I guess I was just feeling a bit fatigued over 8 pages of this thread and however many pages of the "How would you have released the Magical Mystery Tour-era songs?" thread, plus the White Album deluxe speculation thread...

    I also didn't mean to imply that things must be set in stone and never be changed. [BTW, my true Magical Mystery Tour will always be the Capitol album.. regardless of how I reconfigure it in my spare time. :righton: ]

    Hey, if some young [or old] genius were to add footage to MMT and create a version with an actual plotline that makes sense: more power to them! Put it on YouTube or wherever, and I would love to see it! I, personally love the SPLCHB/Star Wars mashup that's out there. But, yeah, the original with all it's quirkiness will always be what it is.
     
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