On
November 27th, 1967, 55 years ago today, The Beatles released the
Magical Mystery Tour LP in the US. The double 7’ EP variation followed
in the UK on December 8th. Following on from their paradigm shifting
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, it continued their exploration of
psychedelic experimentation, though for some, it may have been a bit
too self-indulgent.
After completing Sgt. Pepper, Paul
McCartney conceived of the idea of creating a film for TV along with its
accompanying soundtrack. The concept was inspired by the activities of
author Ken Kesey’s “Merry Pranksters”, who had become infamous among
the "hippie" generation for their roving busload of freaks on LSD,
touring the country and turning people on with their “Acid Test”
parties. Paul had thought of doing something similar, though giving it a
Liverpudlian twist by incorporating John’s recollections of seaside
holidays from his youth. It was to be an unscripted, stream of
consciousness experience which would be aimed at elucidating the
psychedelic experience for the program’s viewers. The band were at the
peak of their dalliances with the substance at the time and were also
deeply involved with Transcendental Meditation as taught by Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi. The basic framework for the narrative was to have
“ordinary” people having “magical” experiences.
Work on the
project began in late April, but was soon sidetracked as the group
became distracted by their meditation studies, launching their Apple
Records imprint and working on songs for the pending Yellow Submarine
animated film project. Things only refocused on on Mystery Tour after
the sudden unexpected death of the band’s manager, Brian Epstein, who
had given his approval to the project before his passing. Again, it was
McCartney who drove the project forward, despite the resistance of the
other band members. Paul’s ambitions toward film production and
changing the direction of the band were fired up by the project and he
soon became an unstoppable force.
Recording of the music and
production of the film occurred in tandem and the entire endeavor is
reported to have been rather unfocused and undisciplined. Without
Epstein’s guidance, the group were largely left to their own devices to
motivate themselves and the overall milieu resulting from the frequent
“tripping” going on within the group encouraged a state of barely
organized chaos as they sought to take advantage of happenstance and
spontaneous improvisation. Work on the soundtrack was completed on
November 8th and the finished film was aired in the UK on December 26th.
The
response to the film was decidedly weak from both fans and critics.
The film was intended to be a colorful adventure, but because BBC1
weren’t able to broadcast in color, it was aired in black & white
and looked terrible. It was rebroadcast again in color a few months
later, but it didn’t make much difference because so few people had
color TVs. The lack of any clear story certainly didn’t help. It was
the group’s first major critical failure and the poor reviews dissuaded
any US networks from airing the special. Fortunately, the music fared
significantly better.
In the US, it was released as an LP with
the A-side containing all the soundtrack music while the B-side was
filled out by all the non-LP singles which had been produced and
released during the time of production. This included songs like
Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane and All You Need Is Love. The UK release
only included the music used in the soundtrack, so there were only 6
songs, not enough for an LP. The innovation here was to issue it as a
double 7” EP, which was the first time such a format was used in the UK.
Both versions included a booklet with photos and a comic strip.
However, when the Beatles LP catalogue was standardized internationally,
the US LP version was taken as the standard over the UK edition, the
only time this was done for a Beatles LP.
Despite all the
muddle from a confused production process, the group were still able to
deliver some of their most important music. Though it may have been a
misadventure spurred on by artists who were a bit lost in their grief,
coupled with ambitions distorted by narcotic indulgences, The music
created during this period is nevertheless representative of the band’s
genius during one of their most creative and inventive periods.
