MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

Though a popular album/EP, much of the actual film seems to be lost on many reviewers - first shown on TV in December 1967, most of us in the UK still only had monochrome TV receivers so much of the colourful effects were lost on us but not the Carry- on/Goon style humour, all very English and tongue-in-cheek, many would just not see it at all, particularly our parents . Magical Mystery Tour was shot in 35mm, an amateur/art film format even in those days and very evident by today's standards, for what was supposed to be a one-off fun film for TV with a few new songs. The double EP, a very popular format in the 60's in the UK, came in the form of a book featuring characters in the film and rough "storyline" - having a storyline didn't really matter here though, the experience was the thing! The US version included some well chosen singles which made up a full LP album, which made much more sense. A cameo appearance from "The Bonzo Dog Doo-dah Band" performing with a stripper adds to the "Works outing / mystery tour" mood of the film theme.

The content of the film confused many who thought the boys had "lost it" - the film borrowed many techniques from early silent comedy, it lacked the full Beatle-esque vitality of earlier feature films but still had a huge influence on comedic film making and had a good sense of the ridiculous ; the whole idea of the quirky British characters and situations predated "Little Britain" by 40 years, Victor Spinetti's crazy Army Sergeant character style humour came 2 years before Monty Python, and that zany car and coach chase is not a million miles from those fulcrum scenes in "The Italian Job" which came 2 years later.

The quality of the songwriting in general was average for the Beatles but still far outshone their contemporaries in 1967, especially the main outstanding song by John - the controversial "I Am the Walrus" ; there are a number of stories about this song, John heard a Police siren wailing through Weybridge's quiet countryside which gave him the idea for the melody, and after reading that his lyrics were being studied by University boffins looking for hidden meanings he really went to town to confuse them - let's see what they make of this!! Mocking authority in 1967 was a dangerous hobby, the ridiculous fim sequence accompanying this song also adds to the mystery. "The Walrus" also famously influenced Roy Wood into forming ELO using Cellos, "taking off from where Walrus left off.." its underlying dark cynicism cited as a favourite influence by many of today's rock legends including Ozzy Osbourne - our music wouldn't have been the same without it. Other songs in the film features Paul's "Your Mother Should Know", a line from the 60's kitchen sink drama "A Taste of Honey", a nod towards Paul's Dad's music he remembered from his childhood. George also remembers a time in Los Angeles, "Blue Jay Way", waiting for his friends lost in the fog, he must have been feeling rather lost himself during this period. Ringo has the most screen time, including arguing with his "Auntie"! There is a strange dream sequence from Auntie - which includes a romantic encounter with Buster Bloodvessel and that horrendous eating scene, with John piling on the Spaghetti with a shovel! Paul's "The Fool on the Hill" was written during the Sgt.Pepper sessions so was incuded here, and "Flying", the group's only instrumental apart from "Cry for a Shadow", using the Mellotron was originally named "Aerial Tour Instrumental" and originally written as incidental music for the film.

To really understand this project better you have to look back on the traumas the group had suffered earlier in their career, life on the road had become very dangerous - partly due to Lennon's misinterpreted comment on Jesus and a general lack of security for touring bands in those days, they had stopped touring completely leaving their manager Brian Epstein to fall into a drug fuelled depression leading to his early death, everyone expected the group to fall apart. The MMT project allowed them to look back to the comfortably secure values of their childhood - fat Aunties, kid's games, Wizards and and a good ol' sing song on the Charanbanc!

Though mercilessly panned by "critics" and "musicologists" then and now you have to ask if the Beatles would have kept going for the next few years producing brilliant studio albums if MMT hadn't been made - I immensely enjoyed the film and the music in 1967 and still do, and I feel the project was a healing process for the band. In this what has been described as an amateur effort are far-reaching influences in comedic film-making and the future of popular music, but that is only my opinion.

An excellent addition for Prog fans and film buffs alike.

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