MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

My favorite Beatles album. The emotional journey I went on when listening to this album was so wild it was like the greatest rollercoaster ever devised: Joy, Beauty, engagement, laughter, amazement, fear, creepiness, terror, nightmare-producing, hysterics, awe, silliness, mind- and mood-altering, escapist, world-view challenging, memorable, lyrical, impressionistic, complex simplicity, beautiful eeriness, edgy calmness, hallucinatory persiflage, hypnotic zombitude, distorted perspicacity, unqualified histrionics, profound psychobabble, etc., etc. It is quite simply a master work of audience manipulation, an extraordinary escape from the oppression of everyday dross. Pure genius. "I am the Walrus" has got to be one of the greatest, most powerful weird songs of all time. Side Two in particular drew me back over and over and over. Listening to "Strawberry Fields Forever" was like a drug--like watching a scary movie: mesmerizing and addictive. The "I buried Paul" in the psycho-bleed from SFF to "Penny Lane" was enough to give me nightmares. (I was ten years old.) The dichotomy of going from the former to the latter was enough to forever cast Penny Lane with a pall of shadow for me. "Baby, You're a Rich Man" is a cool non-Beatlesish song far ahead (or behind) its time. Just what I needed to continue the de-escalation from the Strawbery Fields experience of fear and terror. And then, thank you very much, the end with LOVE! LOVE! LOVE! Nowadays I listen to Side One with pure joy and admiration. (I've never seen the movie. Is it worth seeing?) Though MAgical Mystery Tour is my favorite Beatles album, I recognize that it is NOT their most sophisticated or innovate or envelope-pushing or prog-birthing album. Still, it is, IMHO, an excellent addition to any prog music collection.