So why is The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
When I was in my twenties or maybe early thirties, I went through a phase of being intensely interested in the beat generation.
Jack Kerouac’s On the Road had inspired me in some deep yet hard to define way. What I do know is that, like him, I wound up leaving the east coast to head west to seek out adventures and new experiences (though I’ll be clear here that Jack’s adventures were far more adventurous than my own, all told!).
I became fascinated with Neal Cassady, the real-life figure who took the form of Dean Moriarty in On the Road. I think it was Kerouac’s description of Cassady/Moriarty as a guy whospent a third of his life in the pool hall, a third in jail, and a third in the public library that first hooked me in.
While Cassady wasn’t as talented a writer as Kerouac, he had his own flair for the craft, and eventually I got around to reading his memoir of his early life, The First Third.
Now, at another point in time, I went through a heavy Tom Wolfe phase*.
* These days, when I have the time to read novels, my tastes tend more toward crime fiction, historical fiction, and the vast output of Stephen King.
I greatly enjoyed The Bonfire of the Vanities (later made into a godawful movie starring Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis), and eventually met Wolfe briefly during his book tour for I Am Charlotte Simmons (which is not that good, frankly).
If you’re interested in the hippie generation of the late ‘60s, I highly recommend The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which is Tom Wolfe’s narrative non-fiction classic – sometimes referred to as “gonzo journalism” – depicting “the experiences of Ken Kesey and a group of psychedelic enthusiasts, known as the Merry Pranksters, who traveled across the United States in a colorfully-painted school bus they called Furthur,” via Wikipedia.
(There are rabbit holes within rabbit holes here, as Ken Kesey is best known for writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, later made into a movie in 1975 starring Jack Nicholson in one of his most famous roles.)
What completely blew my mind about The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is that Neal Cassady – the same guy who is the co-star of On the Road – shows up here as an Elder Statesman beatnik cronked out on speed… who of course becomes the driver of the Merry Pranksters’ school bus. Further man, dig?
Why do I bring all of this up? Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles’ 1967 made for British TV “musical film”… “was inspired by Ken Kesey‘s Furthur adventures with the Merry Pranksters and the then-popular coach trips from Liverpool to see the Blackpool Lights” (via Wikipedia).
This is my favorite part:
It is the third film that starred the band and depicts a group of people on a coach tour (including the band members) who experience strange happenings caused by magicians.
This thing feels like a low budget Monkees flick heightened by… substances, let us say. But the music, it lives on, and thankfully so because the Magical Mystery Tour album* is nothing short of brilliant.
* The album as we now know it was cobbled together from the six song Magical Mystery Tour soundtrack EP plus other non-album singles that The Beatles released in 1967.
The result is that the Magical Mystery Tour album contains some of The Beatles’ very best songs that the band produced during its stellar career.
Indeed, it’s hard for me to even know how to write about songs like “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” and The Fool on the Hill.” They feel so iconic so as to not merit much discussion but should instead perhaps only be referred to in hushed, awe inspired whispers.
I will say that if The Beatles have a single mission statement, “All You Need Is Love” is it. And bonus that it’s as absolutely enchanting and timeless as ever.
I remember listening to “I Am The Walrus” when I was a kid and having it rearrange my brain in a small but important way in terms of what’s possible with music. And then when I latched onto the weird “Paul Is Dead” urban legend and the “clues” that are dropped into various Beatles’ songs and paraphernalia, I was at the perfect age – figure pre-teen years – for it to both delight and mystify me.
When I listen to “I Am The Walrus” now, I am deeply pleased by its use of strings and the unique way that The Beatles play with psychedelic rock. Which is to say it’s simply great.
What’s great too about the very best albums is that your favorite song on it can change depending on the day, one’s mood, or maybe even the weather. For example, the relatively quiet and restrained “Your Mother Should Know” is my favorite song on Magical Mystery Tour at the moment. It’s exquisite and perfect.
I should not neglect to mention the title track, “Magical Mystery Tour,” which kicks off the album in a burst of boisterous, glorious late ‘60s rock and roll and horns. This one feels of a piece with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which is high praise indeed.
Some stats & info about The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? British Bands, Rock Music, Psychedelic Rock, British Invasion
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 5 out of 5 stars
- When was Magical Mystery Tour released? 1967
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #97 out of 1,000
The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.