Yes, all that stuff would have fitted on 2 CD's but a 3-LP album would have been needed. Past Masters is 93 minutes long and Magical Mystery Tour about 36. That makes a total of about 130 minutes of non-album songs. Too much stuff for 2 LP's. In the end EMI probably did the right thing, although there's a noticeable style gap on Past Masters between the pre-psychedelic Rain and the back-to-roots Lady Madonna.
I just realized (slightly off topic) that while I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, the 2 eight track Beatles tapes at my grandparents’ house on the weekend were Magical Mystery Tour and Hey Jude.
Perhaps a minor point, but I think one that is often overlooked, as @dlokazip points out: Not only was it released on tape in 1973 in the UK, but it was all true stereo, unlike the US LP and the later UK LP. It's actually the tape sequence that the CDs replicate. The well-known German LP was also all true stereo, but it used the US mix of I Am The Walrus (albeit with full intro); the CDs and UK tapes both use the UK mix.
You consider "Rain" to be pre-psychedelic? I believe it's the track to usher in The Beatles' psychedelic era, what with its lyrics, singing, playing, production (check out the backwards fade of the song). It's in the same vein as many of the Revolver tracks (unless you think Revolver is pre-psychedelic as well).
The Beatles 1966 music actually look more toward their 1967 sound. I know songs "Rain" and "She Said She Said" are songs built around hazy psychedelic sounding guitars, crazy drumming patterns and soaring vocal harmonies. I still think the blueprint of those songs is closer to "Ticket To Ride" than anything else around that time. However, the following songs "Tomorrow Never Knows" backing track mostly composed of tape loops that was manipulated live backwards, forwards and sped up over repetitive drum & bass pattern. "Love You To" harmonically and instrumentally is a genuine attempt to fuse Indian music with rock music rather than the raga appropriation of The Byrds, Yardbirds and Kinks attempted. Both songs recorded in April 1966 and anticipate 1967 and beyond. Magical Mystery Tour was always considered to me a proper album. Hey Jude is a disjointed greatest hits album. I think "Rain" and "Paperback Writer" sound out of place on Hey Jude though
I’ll just chime in with the popular answer... Hey Jude is a compilation album. MMT is not, despite its slapdash approach.
What they recorded, as far as I know, was the first version of Tomorrow Never Knows (released on Anthology 2) which is still a few acid trips away from the psychedelic masterpiece that closed Revolver. Anyway, I don't know if pre-psychedelic is the right term, but to me quite a few tracks on Revolver and the Paperback Writer/Rain single aren't as psychedelic as, say, Tomorrow Never Knows or A Day In The Life.
Actually both versions of "Tomorrow Never Knows" started to be recorded the same day (April 6, 1966). The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations In any case, I think "Tomorrow Never Knows" was the definitive psychedelic song (words and music); but it was a process that followed previous advances by the Byrds and the Yardbirds.
I actually think you are underrating "Tomorrow Never Knows" because the acid drenched tape loops and backward music has nothing in common in with Byrds and Yardbirds who I both love. If anything it's more closer to what electronic rock bands were doing in 1990's.
No, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is probably my very favorite song ever by any band or artist, so there's no way I could underrate it. I just can't deny the influence the Byrds and the Yardbirds had on the Beatles, as those two bands were the first ones to include clear psychedelic elements in their music, particularly in their singles "Eight Miles High" and "Shapes Of Things" (both released before the recording of the Beatles' song). Of course the Fab Four did a huge step forward, but they didn't start from nothing. For instance, I believe the random sounds of "Tomorrow Never Knows" were heavily inspired by the amorphous guitar playing of the Byrds' single.
Interesting. It's fascinating to think how this song evolved in just a couple of weeks, as it was finished on April 22.
Maybe I'm just from the wrong generation, but I find MMT to be an essential album. Hey Jude ... and even in Australia I saw it available and wondered what it was ... it seemed it little bit of an odd bunch of songs. I never listened to it, but it just didn't look like it would flow ... but that could be bad judgement on my part ... and it was like a collection of songs, not exactly a best of, but compile -ish
The Beatles were already experimenting with psychedelic or raga rock elements on Rubber Soul on at least two songs. Clearly one of the outtakes of "Norwegian Wood" is psychedelic which has still not been released but is available on YouTube. The use of backward tapes, manipulating of tape loops, vocals through leslie and tamboua drones on "Tomorrow Never Knows" have nothing in common with the Byrds or The Yardbirds it might as well as be a separate genre. Again this is not a dig on The Byrds or Yardbirds which I am sure were an influence on The Beatles Revolver.
I do. On my iTunes, I took the PastMasters and tacked the singles and b-sides onto their UK albums if they were from those sessions. There are exceptions like Christmastime being on MMT since it was the only 1967 track not from an album session. I did this for both stereo and mono. So there is no Yellow Submarine in the mono collection, thus those songs are with Pepper, MMT, and Lady Madonna. The other exception is Long Tall Sally is a stand-alone in mono, but tacked on to the stereo AHDN. Then each album has its set of outtakes from the Anthologies, Pepper and White Album sets. And finally there are the Capitol records. Since Hey Jude has songs spanning five-to-six year and is part of it, the remaining dozen songs get their own album.
Well, the Kinks and the Yardbirds also did raga rock experiments prior to the Beatles. Then the Beatles used an actual sitar, but we shouldn't disminish the importance of the previous steps by other bands. It was all a string of influences, and the Beatles were probably the biggest catalyst of the musical revolution, but they certainly were not the only one. "Tomorrow Never Knows" is different from anything done before, but I really doubt they would have attempted something like that if the Byrds and the Yardbirds wouldn't have made those groundbreaking singles. I strongly believe the mind of the Fab Four were opened to see that there were no limits in what can be done in rock music. It's not a coincidence that the Beatles started experimenting more than never just after those singles were released.
