01	Magical Mystery Tour						02:51
	02	The Fool On The Hill						03:00
	03	Flying						02:16
	04	Blue Jay Way						03:56
	05	Your Mother Should Know						02:29
	06	I Am The Walrus						04:37
	07	Hello, Goodbye						03:31
	08	Strawberry Fields Forever						04:10
	09	Penny Lane						03:03
	10	Baby You're A Rich Man						03:03
	11	All You Need Is Love						03:48

Released Nov 27, 1967
John Lennon (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, harmonica, piano, harpsichord, organ, clavioline, Mellotron, maracas, tambourine, tape loops);
George Harrison (vocals, guitar, violin, harmonica, Hammond organ, timpani, congas, firebell, tambourine, tabla);
Paul McCartney (vocals, guitar, flute, recorder, piano, acoustic & electric basses, bongos, congas); Ringo Starr (vocals, drums, maracas, tambourine, finger cymbals, tape loops).
Additional personnel includes:
Dave Mason (piccolo trumpet);
Philip Jones (trumpet);
George Martin (piano);
Mal Evans (tambourine);
Mick Jagger, Gary Leeds, Keith Richards, Marianne Faithfull, Jane Asher, Patti Harrison, Keith Moon, Graham Nash (background vocals).
Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Olympic Sound Studios, De Lane Lea and Chappell Recording Studios, London, England between November 24, 1966 and November 7, 1967.
All songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney except "Blue Jay Way" (George Harrison) and "Flying" (John Lennon/Paul McCartney/George Harrison/Richard Starkey).

Side one of MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR--the first six songs on the CD--was the soundtrack to the Beatles' TV film of the same name. The film was an experimental mess, the album a hodge-podge of experimental pop. But it was a Beatles hodge-podge, and in closing out their baroque SGT. PEPPER era they commited to record some of their most memorable productions. The soundtrack side was dominated by Paul McCartney pop tunes, including "Fool On The Hill," a piano-and-recorder ballad, and "Your Mother Should Know," an impossibly catchy bit of Vaudevillian pop. But it also featured George Harrison's mystical "Blue Jay Way" (about his house in Hollywood) and John Lennon's "I Am The Walrus," which wed a stream-of-consciousness lyric to a fierce drum beat, layers of strings, odd voices and some dialogue from Shakespeare's "King Lear." McCartney's "Hello Goodbye," which led off the assorted singles side with some neatly arranged contrapuntal vocals, may well have been about his and Lennon's dissolving songwriting partnership. But they worked well alone (while continuing to share songwriting credits), and the two songs that followed are among their best. Lennon's strangely arranged "Strawberry Fields Forever," whose two halves blend different takes of the same song, one slowed down to match the pitch of the other, was a trippy reverie; its bridges, orchestrated with horns, cellos and backward cymbal hits, are sheer brilliance. And "Penny Lane," a wistful fantasy featuring a beautiful trumpet solo, was McCartney at his melodic best, the AM foil to Lennon's FM psychedelia.



Beatles, The - Magical Mystery Tour

Member: Schroeder

Coming off the heels of The Fab Four's groundbreaking Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band LP and originally planned as an EP containing original tracks taken from a bizarre but amusing self-made British Christmas TV-movie of the same name, Magical Mystery Tour remains one of the band's most controversial and idiosyncratic of albums released during their lifetime. It also remains one of their most progressive of releases-with virtually the same four-track recording equipment, instrumentation and many of the same technical staff-persons as that used on With The Beatles four years previously, the group progessed from two guitar-bass-drums "mop-tops" to psychedelic visionaries by late 1967.

MMT contains, along with the significant movie tracks, the remaining five tracks recorded in 1967 for commercial release. While giving a historically scattershot view of where the group was at that point, it has to be said that by early '67 the group so far ahead of it's time that the tracks seamlessly blend in to their post-Pepper output.

"Magical Mystery Tour": Intruguing mix of stomping rock/R+B rhythms and jazzy sections, particularly jazzy in the coda. Great use of trumpets; the vocal trade-offs between Paul and George are also notable. The group employ use of a BBC sound effects tape of traffic riding past a microphone to good effect, too, panning in across the stereo spectrum at various points of the recording.

"The Fool On The Hill": Melodious, poignant McCartney fable/ballad about standing out in a crowd and sticking to one's guns in face of adversity; nice use of beautiful multi-tracked recorders/flutes on the track. Ringo complements the melody switching between finger cymbals to drums.

"Flying": Group-written three chord moody instrumental; John Lennon plays trumpet-melody/chords on then-novel dual-manual Mellotron Mark II which would be a commonplace instrument for them that year. Ending features innovative use of backwards tape loops, initiating a trippy effect.

"Blue Jay Way": Harrison's sole compostion; written light-heartedly while waiting for friends to arrive at his rented house during a vacation in L.A., the track is among it's most psychedelic. With Abbey Road staff flanging (by hand)the recording tape (very innovative sound for '67!) the dirgy, spacey track is driven along by a swirly George-played Hammond organ and Ringo's plodding drums. Cello accompaniment and backwards backing vocals add tension to what is already one of the Fab's most macabre efforts.

"Your Mother Should Know": Infectiously catchy Macca throwback to 1930's Tin Pan Alley dittys, done Summer-Of-Love-style.

"I Am The Walrus": The prog gem. Four minutes and thirty-five seconds of Lennon madness/genius (with producer George Martin's help). Stomping, electric piano-driven beat married to avant-garde tape loops, taped radio broadcasts, strings, brass, choirs. distorted lead vocal and Mellotron. Lennon's fantastically nonsensical lyrics add to the organized chaos. Great headphone-listen.

"Hello Goodbye": Tuneful Macca pop song, notable for wall-of-sound production, cellos and echoed vocals. Beautiful high harmonies by John and George.

"Strawberry Fields Forever": Childhood-memories-enhanced-by-acid-trip-inspired cut, noted for first notable use of Mellotron in musical applications (the flute sound; brass towards the end). The Beatles'/George Martin's technical advancement is in full "view" here, from backwards cymbals to exotic instrumentation to tape loops to tape-speed manipulation to over-compressed drums and bass to outside orchestration. The arrangement is effectively dynamic and atmospheric. Spooky tacked-on false ending, too.

"Penny Lane": The calm after the storm that is SFF (in fact "Fields"'s A-side), Paul's PL is a melodic and peppy recalling of a bustling Liverpool street. Compare Paul's upbeat lyrics and music with John's nightmare-on-vinyl. Quite possibly Pet Sounds-influenced, but unmistakably Beatle-ish.

"Baby You're A Rich Man": Somewhat back to the more chaotic, a big-beated psychedelic rocker making good use of John Lennon's Clavoline (a unique, monophonic keyboard instrument) doodlings (the Arabic-sounding blasts in the background). John and Paul share lead vocals and are credited with co-writing the apropos sections that would merge into the song. Eddie Kramer of Hendrix/Led Zep engineering fame also engineers this song.

"All You Need Is Love": Tightly constructed pop song, a peace anthem with inspirational lyrics and great orchestration by George Martin. Features all-star choir featuring Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Graham Nash, Marianne Faithfull, Donovan and other pop luminaries of the day. Also noted for being (with the exception of the basic track) recored and filmed entirely in a live setting, principally for an innovative around-the-world international TV broadcast called "Our World", one of the first closed-circuit TV shows ever filmed. The Beatles were to represent England, and did so in great style given short notice.
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