Magical Mystery Tour


Track List
Info
Album Notes


Magical Mystery Tour
The Fool On The Hill
Flying
Blue Jay Way
Your Mother Should Know
I Am The Walrus
Hello Goodbye
Strawberry Fields Forever
Penny Lane
Baby You're A Rich Man
All You Need Is Love


L
abel: Parlophone
Release Date:December, 1967
Available Formats:CD, Cassette, Vinyl
Genre:Rock & Pop
Catalog Number:48062
Distributor:n/a
Spars Code:n/a
Mono/Stereo:Stereo
Studio/Live:Studio
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Album Notes
The Beatles: 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.
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