I like Your Mother Should Know as much as any of Paul’s other cute songs a remake of When I’m Sixty-Four with Paul’s music hall sensibilities.

Yet even this song can be seen as emblematic of the Beatles chance-taking and transitions, in this case to Harrison’s stunning contributions to the White Album (Long, Long, Long, Savoy Truffle, Piggies and While My Guitar Gently Weeps). It fits the mood of the album, with string parts reminiscent of I Am The Walrus, but George deserved whatever ridicule he received at the merciless hands of John and Paul for this one. Blue Jay Way is a dog you might enjoy it if you’re stoned. George uses a campy surf guitar reverb tone not heard in any other Beatles song. The Fool On The Hill is as good as any of Paul’s signature ballad hits, right after Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby-just not released as a single, and it has the added feature of the staccato accordion, used to great effect, minus the preciousness Paul would come to affect soon enough.įlying is movie music. Never released as a single in the US, it reached #2 in the UK and stayed on the charts for nine weeks. Everything is in place and great: the mix, the use of the piano as a power chord instrument, Paul in the mix giving dimension to John’s lead, strong background vocals, rolling wheels special effects, hooks, amazing horn parts, and everything we love about the collective voice of the Beatles. The opening title song is a pop masterpiece.

Overall, the side contains all of the pop loveliness that Paul McCartney can ooze, but placed in the crazed, playful context of John Lennon’s world.

I don’t care that it commercially flopped as a film-we’ll get to that-the music is exquisite. Side One is the soundtrack to the surreal and boundary-smashing television film of the same title. Peppers may have seemed (and even been) a bit ‘patched together’ but time has erased that perception. Magical Mystery Tour, coming on the heels of Sgt. No other Beatles album can match it in all of these areas. It is the only album that so completely reveals the entire range of their abilities: the masterful pop single, thematic work, sophisticated and innovative song structure, and poetry. But Magical Mystery Tour in fact has more of what was great about the Beatles in its grooves than any of their other releases. The Beatles were such incredible tunesmiths that it would be specious to assert that they ever put out a bad album, British or US versions notwithstanding. Magical Mystery Tour Is The Beatles Best Album

The magical mystery tour movie