The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour CD

List All 27 Reviews

 The KEYSTONE of a complete psychedelic collection.
Proving that in the sixties, you could never take too many drugs- the more trippier, the better the music. Not the case in the seventies, eighties or nineties, eh Ossie Osbourne (see review below). This is a brain spinning, genuine psychedelic delight. Although WALRUS was originally a single, it fits on here nicely. Was a more disturbed, scary piece of sonic beauty ever released? BLUE JAY WAY is beamed down from PLANET MANDRAX, and the title track is simply, barking madness- with brass! Any pretender to rock knowledge should have this in their collection.
Submitted by David Martin (Mt. Martha, Australia.)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  10 of 10 found this helpful.

 classic
I think it's one of the top 5 "british-invasion" albums, along with The White Album, The Rolling Stones' "Beggers Banquet," The Who's "The Who Sells Out" and The Stones' "Out of our Heads." Fantastic! These songs are timeless!
Submitted by Ozzy Osbourne (Beverly Hills, CA, United States)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  3 of 3 found this helpful.

 Uh...YEAH!
Is this their best album? I'm still trying to decide. This album is quintessential Beatles - - that's for sure-- but what about Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, or even Help!-- going way further back. Anyway, like that Australian guy said, the more drugs these guys did, the "trippier" their music got. It's far out, man. This album rocks. There was ALOT of good music from the 1970s, incidentally (refering to that Australian dude) including Paul McCartney and Wigs. However, even though all the Wings and John Lennon solo stuff was great, it can't compare with the Beatles.Am I starting to ramble?
Submitted by darkwinter (Los Alamos, Calif., USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  2 of 2 found this helpful.

 BEATLES
VARY VARY GOOD
Submitted by toppingt (FRESNO,CA USA) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  1 of 1 found this helpful.

 Odds and Sods and one historic single
Okay, I confess, this review is first and foremost an examination of the most important single of the Sixties. I'll get to the album in a moment, but "Strawberry Fields Forever" b/w "Penny Lane" is a suite all to itself and deserves special consideration since nobody lets me review singles anymore. And this little 45 rpm gem (am I the only one who misses this format?) is truly the shot across the pop-culture bow, the world's finest pop-rock group abandoning any pretense to anything but the relentless pursuit of their artistic vision. After suffering the various indignities of their final tour, the Fab Four decided that being mauled by fans and policemen while being exposed to long-term hearing loss from screaming teeny-boppers wasn't worth the miserly take that their neophyte manager managed to extract from the biggest attraction since Elvis Presley. Retreating to the studio, the loveable moptops dropped any effort towards pleasing the increasingly robotic nature of their audience, and instead concentrated on their ambition to be taken seriously as artists. And I believe that you can divide the rock era precisely on the date of this single's release, February of 1967. Here are two songwriters in full-bloom, with Mr. Lennon fulfilling the early promise of his previous confessional effort, "Help". "Strawberry Fields Forever" slips into your consciousness with Paul's deceptively simple introductory melody on a brand-new instrument called the Mellotron, a tape-based keyboard that emulated orchestral sounds. Lennon's foghorn voice, accidentally produced by tape manipulation aimed at matching the key signature of separate takes, weaves a weary tale of alienation that is still the finest exploration of the disassociation that any thinking person feels when confronted by the brutality and apathy of modern life. But this is a synergistic effort, Ringo Starr's drum track growing with each verse, culminating in a wheezing parade of backwards cymbals and throbbing tom-toms. George is also well-represented, with flourishes of electric and acoustic guitar as well as some Indian tinkling (sitar?) that alternate between tuneful wandering and paranoid uneasiness. Paul's B-side had the downright misfortune of being forever compared to this groundbreaking effort, because "Penny Lane" is a masterpiece in its own right. With its nostalgic lyrics and orchestral bass lines, Paul's recollection of childhood summers is equally as impressive, and certainly a more accomplished recording. Avante-garde experimentation is replaced by confident instrumentation, steam whistles and anvils ornamenting choruses that lead to a Bach-inspired trumpet that is as timeless as it is original. No mean feat, that, and the vocals on this track make that fine solo seem pedestrian. World-class oohs and aahs compliment an Irish tenor that is still nonpareill. The immediate success of this amazing double-A sided single made its inclusion on their upcoming L.P. "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" seem redundant, and it languished until the subsequent album, part of which served as a soundtrack to an ill-concieved film of the same name. As for the rest of the songs, "Magical Mystery Tour" is a wonderful confection, its school-boy background vocals and clever switch of time signature culminating in a meandering piano solo that sets the uncertain tone of what follows. I'm sure there's something here for everyone, "I Am the Walrus" and "Blue Jay Way" are certainly as trippy today as they were the first time I heard them under the influence of psychoactive substances, and Paul's pop offerings are state-of-the-art, circa 1967, which by the way hardly sucks. But you could safely delete every song on this record save that magic single and still catch the entire vibe of perhaps the most interesting period in rock history....JJ
Submitted by jpjohnson777 (Hope, ND, USA)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No  2 of 3 found this helpful.

List All Reviews

Have you heard this album?