Magical Mystery Tour (song)
| "Magical Mystery Tour" | ||||||||
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| Song by The Beatles from the album Magical Mystery Tour | ||||||||
| Released | 27 November 1967 (US) (LP) 8 December 1967 (UK) (EP) 19 November 1976 (UK) (LP) |
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| Recorded | 25-27 April. 3 May 1967 | |||||||
| Genre | Psychedelic rock, folk rock[1] | |||||||
| Length | 2:51 | |||||||
| Label | Parlophone, Capitol, EMI | |||||||
| Writer | Lennon–McCartney | |||||||
| Producer | George Martin | |||||||
| Magical Mystery Tour track listing | ||||||||
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"Magical Mystery Tour" is a song by The Beatles, the opening track and theme song for the album, double EP and TV film of the same name. Unlike the theme songs for their other film projects, it was not released as a single.[2]
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[edit] Composition
The song is credited to Lennon–McCartney, though written primarily by Paul McCartney. McCartney said it was co-written.[3] John Lennon said, "Paul's song. Maybe I did part of it, but it was his concept."[4] In 1972, Lennon said, "Paul wrote it. I helped with some of the lyric."[5] The remaining lyrics explain in a general way the premise of the film: a mystery tour of the type that was popular in Britain when the Beatles were young. Lennon and McCartney expanded the tour to make it magical, which allowed it to be "a little more surreal than the real ones."[3]
There are also other interpretations of the song as an explicit reference to drugs, since the Beatles were experiencing acid in those years.[6][7] Paul McCartney himself said about the song:
"Because those were psychedelic times it had to become a magical mystery tour, a little bit more surreal than the real ones to give us a licence to do it. But it employs all the circus and fairground barkers, 'Roll up! Roll up!', which was also a reference to rolling up a joint. We were always sticking those little things in that we knew our friends would get; veiled references to drugs and to trips. 'Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away,' so that's a kind of drug, 'it's dying to take you away' so that's a Tibetan Book of the Dead reference. [...] Magical Mystery Tour was the equivalent of a drug trip and we made the film based on that."[8]
[edit] Recording
Recording began on 25 April 1967, less than a week after the final sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song was not complete when the session began and much of the evening was spent in rehearsals, but by the end of the evening the basic rhythm track was complete. The Beatles added bass guitar and vocal overdubs on 26 and 27 April.[9] On 3 May, the brass fanfare and other parts were added in a disorganized session where the trumpet players began the evening without a score. According to Philip Jones, a friend of one of the players who was present, one of the players eventually took matters into his own hands and wrote a score out for them.[10]
[edit] Release and reception
"Magical Mystery Tour" was released on a six-song double EP in the United Kingdom on 8 December 1967. In the United States the double EP was stretched to an LP by including five songs previously released as singles. During the CD era, the LP version was issued on CD in both countries.[11]
Richie Unterberger of Allmusic called it "a pleasant, get-up-and-go tune, but not one of the Beatles' very best songs."
[edit] Personnel
- Paul McCartney – lead vocals, piano, bass
- John Lennon – vocals, acoustic rhythm guitar, percussion
- George Harrison – vocals, lead guitar, percussion
- Ringo Starr – drums, percussion
- Mal Evans – percussion
- Neil Aspinall – percussion
- David Mason – trumpet
- Elgar Howarth – trumpet
- Roy Copestake – trumpet
- John Wilbraham – trumpet
- Personnel per The Beatles Bible[12]
[edit] Cover versions
| Year | Artist | Release | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Ambrosia | All This and World War II | ||
| 1991 | Cheap Trick | Greatest Hits | ||
| 2001 | Transatlantic | Live in America | Live; Part of a medley with "Mystery Train" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" | |
| 2003 | The Punkles | Pistol | ||
| 2006 | Yngwie Malmsteen | Butchering The Beatles | With vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, bassist Jeff Pilson, drummer Frankie Banali and guitarist Bob Kulick. | |
| 2007 | Bonnie Pink | Water Me | ||
| 2009 | Beelzebubs | The Sing-Off |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Pollack 1992.
- ^ Unterberger 2007.
- ^ a b Miles 1997, pp. 352–353.
- ^ Sheff 2000, p. 185.
- ^ Beatles Interview Database 2010.
- ^ Michael Campbell and James Brody, Rock and roll: an introduction, p.171. ISBN 0-534-64295-0
- ^ Parragon, Incorporated, Beatles, p.193, ISBN 1-4054-0716-6
- ^ Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, Vintage, 1998, cited in Magical Mistery Tour - The Beatles Bible, consulted on February 24, 2012.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 110.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 111.
- ^ Lewisohn 1988, p. 200.
- ^ The Beatles Bible 2008.
[edit] References
- Pollack, Alan (1992). "Alan Pollack review of "The Fool on the Hill"". http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/foth.shtml.
- Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1.
- "Magical Mystery Tour". The Beatles Bible. 2008. http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/magical-mystery-tour/. Retrieved 14 April 2008.
- ""Magical Mystery Tour"". The Beatles Interview Database. 2010. http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/dba13tour.html. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
- Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt and Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
- Unterberger, Richie (2007). "Review of "Magical Mystery Tour"". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/song/t995683. Retrieved 7 March 2007.
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