After more than 300 reviews, the
dice gods have finally seen fit to send me another Beatles album for review. Um…thanks.
Disc 408 is…Magical Mystery Tour
Year of Release: 1967
What’s up with the Cover? This album cover has got to be top ten worst of all
time. There are at least three fonts
featured, each more unreadable than the last, including the band’s name spelled
out in stars, on top of a star background, making it almost impossible to
read. The band members themselves are dressed
up like demented, drunken furries. You know
you are the biggest band in the world when you can put out an album that looks
like this, and people will still buy it.
How I Came To Know It: I know some of
these songs simply because they’ve been played on the AM radio since I can
remember walking. The album, however, is
Sheila’s, as she is the Beatles fan in the house.
How It Stacks Up: We have seven Beatles albums, all dating between
1965 and 1969. “Magical Mystery Tour” is
not one of my favourites, so I’ll put it 6th out of 7.
Rating: 3 stars.
The last album I reviewed was the
Dixie Chicks’ “Wide Open Spaces,” which showed great promise for the first half
and was decidedly average for the second half.
“Magical Mystery Tour” is the opposite; decidedly average for the first
half, and ramping up as it closes out.
The first six tracks on the album
are the soundtrack to the Beatles’ movie, also titled “Magical Mystery Tour.” I’ve never seen this movie, and based on the
album cover and the songs included from it, I don’t want to.
The opening, and title track is a
frantic repetition of “the magical
mystery tour is coming to take you away” over and over again in
increasingly annoying tones. By the end
of the song, which is mercifully short, I felt like the lyrics were intended as
a threat.
“The Fool On the Hill” is pleasant enough, minus the self-conscious flute,
but mostly forgettable, and the instrumental that follows it (“Flying”) is forgettable entirely.
“Blue Jay Way” is a pretty cool song, with a pretty melody and even
some shockingly capable drumming from Ringo.
The addition of strings at the end of the song is pretty inspired. A lot of what holds “Magical Mystery Tour” back
for me is the overwrought production, and “Blue
Jay Way” doesn’t blow me away, but at least it stays within itself, while
still finding ways here and there to be interesting.
The album really picks up with a
song I have long underrated, and now recant my previous criticisms of, “I Am the Walrus.” The combination of strings, drums, squawk box
vocals, horns and occasional exclamations of dialogue, chuckles and grunts in
the back of the mix could have gone wrong in a hundred different ways. Instead, they all work perfectly. The lyrics are strange enough, but who hasn’t
been inspired to sing out “I am the egg
man!” because of this song? Also,
without this song, the non-sensical brilliance of later songs like Beck’s “I’m a Loser” might never have happened.
From here, the album picks up
nicely, with the catchy “Hello Goodbye”
where the band mercifully plays it straight again, and “Strawberry Fields Forever” with both songs demonstrating that you
can layer sound without making it sound like you’re deliberately trying to mess
with your audience.
“Penny Lane” is one of my favourite tracks on the album. Sure it sounds a little like something you
might hear on the Muppet Show, but simple melodies only sound simple after they’re
written – they’re actually hard to write for most people who aren’t named Paul
McCartney and John Lennon. This song
sounds as fresh today as the day it came out forty-five years ago.
The album ends on a true high
note, with “All You Need Is Love.” Of course, we all need more than just love,
including three squares a day and a roof over our head. That said, when I listen to “All You Need is Love” it is easy to
believe it is true.
“There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done
There’s nothing you can sing that can’t be sung
Nothing that you can say but you can learn to play the
game.
It’s easy.
There’s nothing you can make that can’t be made
There’s no one you can save that can’t be saved
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time.
It’s easy.
All you need is love.”
It is a song that encourages you
to surrender yourself to the things you can’t change in a celebratory tone,
rather than a resigned one. By the time
the guitar (presumably George Harrison) cuts in after the chorus, you’re a true
believer that love will get you through.
“Magical Mystery Tour” has a lot
of experimentation with sound, instrumentation and samples, which I don’t
necessarily oppose. I think some of that
experimentation should have been left on the editing room floor, instead of
wedged (however cleverly) into songs that would have been better without
it. That said, the Beatles did a lot of
innovative things here, and for the most part (after the first few tracks) it
comes together and works beautifully. I
didn’t love this album, but it grew on me as I listened to it, and got better
and better.
Best tracks: I Am the Walrus,
Penny Lane, Baby You’re a Rich Man, All You Need is Love.
1 comment:
Hey man! Lay off Ringo, buddy!!
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