# Best of the Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 7, 2014, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067 "2014-03-07T01:00:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/41 "2014-03-08T14:42:28Z")
As mentioned, this one has a sort of inverted canonicity, being a recompiled album as per Capitol’s habit for US first release, but then ascended into official worldwide standing for the later rereleases and remasters. That retcon does have the advantage for our purposes of putting a number of works from both pre- and post-Pepper periods into one place, rather than bumping a bunch of them all the way to Past Masters. > [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > If they produced Walrus and SF on the same equipment, they could serve as the curriculum for a class in “Recording Engineering”. Reminds me: In the Cirque du Soleil “Love” soundtrack album, the Strawberry Fields track is presented as a verse by verse “assembly” progression, from John solo to final version. ETA: And a lot of us at any given time could, and in some cases still would, swear on a stack of Bibles that we clearly and distinctly heard [insert whatever applies here] in one of these records, only to then have multitudes tell us that it is not so. Part of the experience, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/42 "2014-03-08T14:44:57Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > It is perhaps worth pointing out that “fag” is _not_ a British slang term for a homosexual. We have our own ways of denigrating homosexuals, thank you very much. In fact, “fag” in British slang, means a cigarette. A sentence like “I could just murder a fag,” carries no homophobic connotations in Britain at all. > > I doubt whether the American slang sense of “fag” was even particularly well known in Britain in 1967, as it probably would have been censored from most movie and TV scripts, which is where most Bits get most of their knowledge of American English from. As The Beatles had spent a fair bit of time in America by this time, it is quite likely that they would have been familiar with the American meaning of “fag”, but it does not seem likely that it would have come naturally to Lennon to actually use the word that way. Good point. This reinforces my hazy notion that Lennon, years after the fact, might have mentioned that the alternate words _occurred_ to him…so, if this is true, it’s likely that they _occurred_ to him years later, too, perhaps the very day he mentioned this, while living in New York in the 1970s. Basically, an older Lennon making a nasty little joke by parodying a moment from his younger self’s creative output. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/43 "2014-03-08T14:51:57Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Another no-brainer for me. _Fool On The Hill_ has been my favorite MMT track since 1967. > > The “best” track on the album IMO is _I Am The Waitress_. _I Am the **Waitress**?!?_ Was that on the _Magical Mystery Restaurant_ album? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/44 "2014-03-08T14:59:43Z")
> [@dba\_Fred](#): > > _I Am the **Waitress**?!?_ > Was that on the _Magical Mystery Restaurant_ album? No, it’s on [_Tragical History Tour_](http://images1.fanpop.com/images/photos/1300000/Tragical-History-Tour-the-rutles-1383131-567-559.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/45 "2014-03-08T17:23:09Z")
> [@dba\_Fred](#): > > _I Am the **Waitress**?!?_ > Was that on the _Magical Mystery Restaurant_ album? (Thanks and a tip o’the hat to BiffyTheElephantShrew for the album cover link) Eric Idle’s (or Neil Innes?) new lyrics were hilarious. \*“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together” \*became _“I know you know what you know but you should know by now that you’re not me”_ not to mention “goo-goo-ga-joob” becoming “Do a poo-poo” ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/46 "2014-03-08T17:43:20Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Lennon’s habit of using repeated notes in melodies is always pointed out in musicological studies of the Beatles’ songwriting, but surely Macca deserves a Johnny-One-Note prize for “Silly Love Songs,” which begins with a G repeated 13 times in a row. Thinking about it a bit more, George probably holds the Beatle record for this. By my count, the intro to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” repeats this same note **33** times in a row. It somehow seems more noticeably weird in “Strawberry Fields” though. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/47 "2014-03-08T19:40:50Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Thinking about it a bit more, George probably holds the Beatle record for this. By my count, the intro to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” repeats this same note **33** times in a row. True…but I think the other examples (John’s and Paul’s) were about \*sung \*melodies. If we get into riffs, instrumental bits, and the like, things will get complicated. Your example is a good one…but note that it’s en example of one instrument (in this case, the piano) playing the same note repeatedly, while the other instruments do a descending chromatic pattern (resembling the Spanish-tinged chord pattern in Led Zeppelin’s “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You.”) This is a pretty standard device – think of the guitar riff in “Michelle,” where the “odd” beats contain the descending tones while the “even” beats repeat the pedal point (I think that’s the technical term). ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/48 "2014-03-10T13:38:38Z")
> [@Name some of your favorite fragments of Beatles songs](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-some-of-your-favorite-fragments-of-beatles-songs/682672/62): > > I’ve always liked the line in ‘Why Don’t We Do It In the Road?’ where [Paul sounds like Prince](http://youtu.be/KM02WcvlKn0?t=1m10s). This was supposed to go in the Beatles fragment thread. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Melchior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Melchior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melchior)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/49 "2014-03-10T13:41:42Z")
Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were recorded with the Sgt. Peppers material but were left off because they wanted to release them as singles before Sgt. Peppers. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/50 "2014-03-10T14:40:33Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > This was supposed to go in the Beatles fragment thread. :smack: I’ve moved that post to the right thread. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/51 "2014-03-10T14:52:31Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > I’ve moved that post to the right thread. Now that’s service! ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/52 "2014-03-10T17:46:25Z")
> [@Melchior](#): > > Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane were recorded with the Sgt. Peppers material but were left off because they wanted to release them as singles before Sgt. Peppers. That’s the usual story, but a look at the recording chronology as detailed by Lewisohn suggests the Beatles didn’t really begin _Sgt Pepper_ in earnest until after “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” had already been recorded and earmarked for a single. After completing _Revolver_ in June 1966, the Beatles took a five-month break from the studio. They don’t seem to have spent much of the time writing new material: upon returning to the studio in late November, they spent a month working on just two songs\*: “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “When I’m 64,” the latter being a reworking of a song Paul had written years earlier. Once these were finished, at the end of December, Paul brought in “Penny Lane,” which they worked on for the next three weeks. It was evidently decided before the track was even finished that this would be one side of the new single, as a mix was prepared to ship to Capitol in the USA the same day the final overdubs were recorded. With “Penny Lane” in the can, the Beatles spent two days on the basic tracks for “A Day in the Life,” but recorded nothing else in the last half of January. All of the remaining _Pepper_ songs (plus “Only a Northern Song”) were recorded in the two-month period from February 1 to April 1, 1967, with some overdubbing and mixing continuing over the following three weeks. So even though the Beatles were _technically_ working on _Pepper_ material as far back as November 1966, _Pepper_ as an album project didn’t really exist until February 1967. \*Not counting the 1966 Christmas record, which was thrown together in a day during this period, or the improvised freak-out “Carnival of Light,” which was likewise tossed off in a single session. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/53 "2014-03-10T18:06:39Z")
SFF, the lyrics are just fantastic… I think I know I mean a “Yes” but it’s all wrong That is I think I disagree ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/54 "2014-03-10T19:14:34Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > SFF, the lyrics are just fantastic… > > I think I know I mean a “Yes” but it’s all wrong > That is I think I disagree And there are several different ways to read it, which is so cool. (I’ve always interpreted it as “err, yes,” not “a yes,” but that only adds another layer.) There’s “I think I know,” meaning he thinks he knows. There’s “I think- I know,” where he starts by saying he thinks and then decides he wants to be more definitive. It’s brilliant writing that crams a lot of thinking and indecision into just a few words. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/55 "2014-03-10T19:26:32Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > SFF, the lyrics are just fantastic… > > I think I know I mean a “Yes” but it’s all wrong > That is I think I disagree As noted, these lines have long been debated, and I don’t know that John himself ever settled exactly what he sang here. I find the above to be quite awkward. The interpretation that makes the most sense to me is: “I think, er no, I mean, er yes, but it’s all wrong” This seems most consistent with John’s muddled state at the time, and dovetails nicely with “_That is_, I _think_ I disagree.” He’s quite uncertain throughout this passage, and is stuttering his way through it. ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/56 "2014-03-10T19:38:15Z")
I hadn’t intended to comment on this “album,” because in fact it’s really an EP of purpose-recorded songs (some of which I find rather weak) with a bunch of singles tacked on. I only rate the title track and “Fool on the Hill” from side one. “Flying” is pleasant but a throwaway, and I’ve never thought much of “Blue Jay Way” or “Your Mother Should Know.” I have a certain respect for “I Am the Walrus,” but don’t think as highly of it as many. I find “Hello Goodbye” to be among the most annoying songs in the entire Beatles canon. OK, Paul, we get that you’ve mastered the C major scale already! **On the other hand…** “Strawberry Fields Forever” may be the most amazing achievement in the history of rock. I don’t know that I can too coherently say why I feel that way, other than how utterly different it was from anything that came before, and that it takes me to an amazing place every time I hear it. That moment in February 1967 when I first heard it on the radio (late at night on a distant AM station) was life-changing for me — and that’s no exaggeration. When it came back from the false ending with those completely unprecedented backwards mellotron bits and the stinging guitar, it’s as if I knew at the moment the world had shifted on its axis, and things would never be quite the same. This leaves “Penny Lane,” a wonderful if slightly more conventional achievement, “Baby You’re a Rich Man,” which I quite like, and “All You Need Is Love,” which is well-intentioned but in reality a rather ordinary song tarted up with psychedelic trappings at the end. It’s no wonder The Beatles went back to basics on their next single and album, as I think they knew they’d already stepped over the line from magically creative to throwing anything up against the wall. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/57 "2014-03-10T20:58:52Z")
“Back to basics” as in “Revolution 9”? (I know, you meant things like “Blackbird,” “Yer Blues,” “Lady Madonna,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”) ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/58 "2014-03-11T05:06:38Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > “Back to basics” as in “Revolution 9”? (I know, you meant things like “Blackbird,” “Yer Blues,” “Lady Madonna,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”) Back to basics as far as tracks on an album that have to do with music. Hard to put “Revolution 9” in that category. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/59 "2014-03-11T12:19:35Z")
Understood. So, maybe half of the White Album is “back to basics,” while the next album they recorded, Let it Be, is almost 100% “back to basics” (ignoring the Spector overlays). Interesting that for their final project, “Abbey Road,” they shifted back a bit. Not as “back to basics” as Let It Be, but more than the 1967 albums. On average, maybe about the same as the a White Album? No, I’d say the White Album feels more raw, and Abbey Road a bit more fussily produced. A step closer to 1967 than the White Album, in other words. I guess they got most of their “back to basics” jones out when making “Let It Be” (called “Get Back” at the time). Interesting they decided not to release it (yet). Seems they enjoyed PLAYING “raw stuff,” but assumed the record-buying public would prefer not to hear it – that their audience expected something more slickly produced. Maybe? ---
**Author:** ![DChord568](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@DChord568](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DChord568)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067/60 "2014-03-11T14:18:42Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Understood. So, maybe half of the White Album is “back to basics,” while the next album they recorded, Let it Be, is almost 100% “back to basics” (ignoring the Spector overlays). Interesting that for their final project, “Abbey Road,” they shifted back a bit. Not as “back to basics” as Let It Be, but more than the 1967 albums. On average, maybe about the same as the a White Album? No, I’d say the White Album feels more raw, and Abbey Road a bit more fussily produced. A step closer to 1967 than the White Album, in other words. I guess they got most of their “back to basics” jones out when making “Let It Be” (called “Get Back” at the time). Interesting they decided not to release it (yet). Seems they enjoyed PLAYING “raw stuff,” but assumed the record-buying public would prefer not to hear it – that their audience expected something more slickly produced. Maybe? I think it’s simpler than that. The stuff from the _Get Back_ sessions just wasn’t very good, and the making of the album (the rooftop session excepted) was overall an unpleasant experience. I think The Beatles knew that their work on these sessions was substandard, and all just walked away from it and wanted nothing to do with it. Spector was called in to “rescue” the sessions a year after the fact, and though McCartney was steamed at what he did, at the time the others pronounced themselves satisfied with his work (though I think they may have changed that view over time). George Martin was asked to produce _Abbey Road_, and he agreed upon the condition that it would be “like the old days” where he would have a significant voice in things — a voice that had been somewhat diminished on the _White Album_ sessions (it’s safe to say he would have preferred a single album, for example). I think the point I was making earlier was that there was a conscious stepping back from the precipice that the psychedelic aspects of “Blue Jay Way” and (the endings of) “I Am the Walrus” and “All You Need Is Love” represented — which seem pretty arbitrary in retrospect. Despite its production sheen, _Abbey Road_ does contain identifiable _songs_ with structures and a minimum of dissonant or non-musical flourishes. I think The Beatles realized, and indeed had on most of _The White Album_ too, that this is where their strengths lay. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-of-the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour/683067.md?page=4)