![]() ![]() Template:Sfn One idea considered was to issue an EP which played at 33 ⅓ rpm but this would have caused a loss of fidelity that was deemed unacceptable. The number of songs used in the film posed a problem for The Beatles and their UK record company EMI, as there were too few for an LP album but too many for an EP. The soundtrack was a critical and commercial success, a #1 album in the US and Grammy-nominated, despite the relative critical and commercial failure of the Magical Mystery Tour film. The album was remastered 9 September 2009 for the first time since its CD release. The US LP was later adopted as the official version of the record when The Beatles' catalogue was updated for the 1980s digital Compact Disc releases. The record format released in the United Kingdom on 8 December 1967, was a six-track double EP on the Parlophone label, whilst in the United States the record, released 11 days earlier, on 27 November 1967, was an eleven-track LP created by Capitol Records, adding the band's 1967 single releases. Magical Mystery Tour is an double EP by The Beatles, produced by George Martin, both including the six-song soundtrack to the 1967 film of the same name. If, for some reason, you have either never heard the full LP or haven’t heard it in a while, I recommend you do – even if you do like I did at age nine and skip past “Flying.25 April – 7 November 1967, EMI and Olympic Studios, London ![]() The rights to the music are tightly controlled, and my usual practice of pointing you to a link to watch a video don’t work here. I’d love to share some of these songs with you. And, of course, there’s the movie’s title track (covered decently by Cheap Trick), and “I Am The Walrus,” which is still fun to listen to all the way to the King Lear recitation at the end. My association with the song now is its perfect use at the end of The Social Network, when Mark Zuckerberg as played by Jesse Eisenberg just wants Erica to take his friend request. The second side includes “Baby, You’re a Rich Man,” the song supposedly about then-recently-deceased manager Brian Epstein. The film gives us pieces like “Fool On the Hill” – granted, I will always lean to the Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 version of this if for no other reason to see Lani Hall sing – and “Your Mother Should Know.” The latter is a song I dug out just this week and was reminded of how good a record it is. If we look past smash hits like “ Penny Lane,” “Hello Goodbye,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever,” there’s still great music on this album. The music, though, on the LP is outstanding. I don’t expect that I’ll ever fully understand it, but I respect its place in the rock and roll canon. Later in life I watched it again, assuming that being more worldly, it would make more sense. I also remember finally seeing the film Magical Mystery Tour in high school, and being highly, highly disappointed. (Above: if you reach far enough, you can find a coincidence.) Yeah, as an eleven-year old, I thought it was weird. ![]() He’s in front of a sign at a tour company that says “The best way to go is by M&D Co.” MDC = Mark David Chapman, Lennon’s assassin. Much creepier to my way of thinking is a photo of John Lennon, smoking a cigarette while little Nicola blows up a balloon. (“We’re out of naturally-occurring flowers. ![]() Supposedly, they ran out of the red ones, leaving only a black one for Paul. (No, I never called it.) Much easier to spot is Paul’s black carnation amidst the red ones the band was wearing. That’s Billy Shears’ number, you see, and he’ll tell you everything. Supposedly, if you turn the cover over, you see the phone number 537-1438. It starts on the cover – the word “Beatles” is done in a weird font made of stars. There’s several on the MMT cover and in the booklet with stills and the story of the movie. One afternoon I learned the story of the “Paul is dead” rumor, and about all of the “clues” to be found in the LPs. By the time I was in about the fifth grade or so – we’re talking 1978 – the albums made the slow migration to my room, where they still remain despite my room moving many, many times in forty years. For several years I was allowed to play the LPs, which stayed in a cabinet in the living room near their hi-fi. Shortly after getting my first record player, and then commandeering my parents’ 45s from their high school days, I raided their LPs as well. It was one of my original albums as well when discovering the band. The LP is an interesting mish-mash, in a sense: Side One is the soundtrack of the made-for-TV film of the same name, and Side Two is a collection of positively amazing tracks. (Above: An album cover that – I gotta admit – freaked me out a bit as a kid.)įifty years ago this week The Beatles released the LP Magical Mystery Tour. ![]()
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