MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

I'm sure that most of you are already familiar with the unscripted mess of a movie that was Magical Mystery Tour and the whole back-story behind the ordeal. Let's be honest, the Beatles were never about the feature films and even their better moments like A Hard Day's Night and Yellow Submarine had the music as their main plot devices. This problem becomes much more apparent when the film is completely improvised or too satirical for its own good (like Help!). I personally think that the difference between the good and bad the Beatles movies have become less apparent over the years since, in the end, it's all about the music anyway.

Since the less than an hour long Magical Mystery Tour movie didn't have enough songs to turn it into an LP it was released as a double EP in the United Kingdom. This strategy was considered unfavorable for a U.S. release and additional material was therefore added to fill out the LP space. Surprisingly enough it was this U.S. version of the album that became a much bigger hit with the audience and was therefore adopted as the official version once it was time for a CD reissue.

The added material consisted of many excellent tracks like Hello Goodbye, the previously released single Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane and All You Need Is Love. It is in fact this material that makes the Magical Mystery Tour album a great experience, while the original 6 track soundtrack falls short in comparison. Most of the soundtrack songs are fun but aren't really anything I would have considered essential from the band. The only exception comes with the song Your Mother Should Know which, in my opinion, is the easily the most underrated composition that Paul McCartney have written over the years. Yes it's repetitive, but so is Fool On The Hill and no one seems to overlook that performance.

The U.S. version of Magical Mystery Tour is another great release in a steak where the Beatles just could do no wrong, at least if we talk about the music. Simply an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.

***** star songs: Your Mother Should Know (2:29) Strawberry Fields Forever (4:10) Penny Lane (3:03) All You Need Is Love (3:47)

**** star songs: Magical Mystery Tour (2:51) Fool On The Hill (2:59) Flying (2:16) Blue Jay Way (3:56) I Am The Walrus (4:37) Hello Goodbye (3:31) Baby You're A Rich Man (3:03)

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