Magical Mystery Tour--A Sgt. Pepper's Hangover?

This is one Beatles album that I really have mixed feelings about. The overall tone of the album is somewhat dolorous and melancholy, although a few of my favorite Beatle tracks appear here. Magical Mystery Tour, along with Yellow Submarine, represent the post-Sgt. Pepper's period, before the release of the White Album. It seems that the Beatles took a bit of a hiatus after Pepper, because the quality of Magical Mystery Tour just doesn't quite match up to what came before it, or what was to follow.

Magical Mystery Tour is also a "concept" album, like Sgt. Pepper's, but it lacks the cohesiveness and underlying theme that made Pepper such an innovative success.

Here is a list of songs on the album, and a few comments about each:

1. Magical Mystery Tour--Some majestic trumpets kick off the title track to the album. Paul McCartney, your tour leader, asks you to "roll up" for the tour and we're on our way. Paul and John Lennon share lead vocals, and the musical solo with muted trumpets and some melodic bass guitar lines positively glitters. A time change brings us back into the song and the song ends with a mysterious-sounding piano that just seems to disintegrate with the rest of the music.

2. The Fool On The Hill--This song is some of Paul McCartney's best work. Lyrically, we are left to wonder if the "fool" is mentally defective or just a whole helluva lot smarter than the rest of us. The intrumental solo features horns in an "oomp-pah" rhythm, led by a beautiful flute part. Paul's voice has never been more agile, and he delivers a fine performance on this tune.

3. Flying--This song was co-written by the members of the group, and is the only intrumental in the entire Beatles repertoire. It's a pretty aimless tune, with some pretentious-sounding voices la-laing in the background. It too disintegrates with flutes and clarinets. It doesn't last very long, which is a good thing.

4. Blue Jay Way--A George Harrison composition, and George provides the lead vocal also. The song is droning and somnambulent, and you can tell that the players are trying to project a feeling of exhaustion, which they succeed quite well in doing. The song has a murky, muddy sound, and although the Indian music influences on Harrison are overt, he isn't very effective in translating them to the rock form. All in all, a pretty pointless song.

5. Your Mother Should Know--This song is written in a minor key and the effect isomewhat depressing. This is one of my least favorite McCartney songs, and I can't see where it really serves any good purpose on this or any other album. This song concludes a three song interlude of some of the poorest music this band ever recorded. It only gets better from here.

6. I Am The Walrus--This one showcases John Lennon's songwriting skills--lyrically, this song was the model for other Lennon gibberish songs, such as Glass Onion and Come Together. The beat is heavy and ponderous, and the keyboards accompanied by the strings on the intro accent the effect. After a bridge where the tempo, and feel, of the song changes, Lennon reenters with his "schoolmarmish" sounding vocals, and the song literally falls apart, with all sorts of sounds and voices, which add to the disjointed effect.

7. Hello Goodbye--A bright piece of formulaic pop which Paul McCartney had a knack for is the best description of this song. A driving piano, bass and guitar provide the melodic backdrop, while Ringo Starr provides the steady beat upon which all this sound is layered. Paul's vocal delivery is impeccable, and the backing vocals by John and George are perfect. The song ends, then starts back in a different mode, which I think really gives the song its signature. Paul's adlibs show us just how talented a singer he really is.

8. Strawberry Fields Forever--A dolorous mellotron opens this song, which is about an orphanage near where John Lennon grew up. The lyrics are gorgeous, and illustrate the dichotomy that John Lennon was--confident, yet unsure ("it's alright, that is, I think it's not too bad", and "yes, but it's all wrong, that is, I think I disagree"). George Harrison does some of his best work on lead guitar, and the trumpets in the song add a "doomsday" effect. The end of the song features some of the production tricks they learned on Sgt. Pepper's, literally spinning the record backwards against itself. One of my favorite Beatles tunes--a lot of people say its about drugs, but I just think it's an abstract piece of music.

9. Penny Lane--Another tune about the memories of childhood, this time written by Paul McCartney. The song has an interesting bass line and some horns that really dress it up. "Fish and finger pie" is an obscure British reference to--well, you know--and this just goes to show you that these guys could be a little naughty when they wanted to.

10. Baby You're A Rich Man--This song is an instrumental delight, with bass, oboe, drums and a hammering piano line. Paul and John split lead vocals on this one, which tells me that this a tune that they truly co-wrote. The lyrics are a series of conundrums ("how often have you been there?, often enough to know" and "what did you see while you were there?, nothing that doesn't show") These are clearly Lennon's lines, while Paul's lines are the more tame chorus lines ("Baby you're a rich man, you keep all your money in a big brown bag, inside a zoo"). While the lyrics are interesting, there's alot going on instrumentally in this tune also.

11. All You Need Is Love--This tune starts of with a majestic trumpet line copped from the French national anthem or something. The song is in a off-meter, features a lot of lyrical word-play ("nothing you can know that isn't known, nothing you can see that isn't shown"), a Lennon trademark. George Harrison has a beautiful, albeit brief, guitar solo, and the song breaks down at the end, with a lot of whooping and instrumental wanderings; Paul McCartney even sings lines from She Loves You.

Perhaps the Beatles were suffering from a brief artistic blackout following the brilliant success of Sgt. Pepper's. Although this album has some gems, there is an inexplicable three-song stretch on the record that is just pointless, and probably represents some of their poorest work. You almost get the feeling that these three songs were "filler" material, added just to get enough songs to make an album. I know this isn't true, but you get my drift. Perhaps the Beatles did it and got away with it simply because they were the Beatles.