Magical Mystery Tour

gmartinfan · **Posted:** 11 Jul 2012, 03:58

Filmed during the late summer and early fall in 1967.......

What a different time in the UK!

Released originally as a "TV movie" on Boxing Day.....and the critics hated it. Most of the British public as well wasn't too keen on it........their first project post Brian Epstein's death...............

As usual though with "The Beatles" it was groundbreaking in a way; probably the world's first continious 'music video'
Largely a project of Paul's.....the idea was novel....go on a "bus trip" typical of those times in the UK, and film whatever happened...........the problem was that "nothing" happened.

It was never seen in the USA until 1987, when it was released on video for the "20th anniversary"
Saw this once during a midnight showing in San Francisco as a double feature with this movie, and "Yellow Submarine" in the late 1990's.

In the states in 1967, the LP "Magical Mystery Tour" was released to excellent sales though...

enjoy the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpS__RmvmI

pacman5741 · **Posted:** 11 Jul 2012, 05:01

A big part of the reason it may have flopped in the UK is because it was broadcast in black and white, when the bright colors were a really crucial part of the movie. Either way though, the movie wasn't exactly a masterpiece. The music videos for songs like "I am the Walrus" and "Your Mother Should Know" were magnificent, but it was definitely lacking compared to the group's previous film endeavors. The music, of course, was damn good, as is expected with the Beatles.

gmartinfan · **Posted:** 11 Jul 2012, 05:51

Agreed. McCartney looks so friggin' hip and fitting for the times, when he puts on those dark shades at the 55 second mark

pacman5741 · **Posted:** 12 Jul 2012, 01:01

For sure, any Beatle with sunglasses = coolest thing known to man. And of course Paul in the mid-late 60s with sunglasses is the coolest of them all.

Adam82 · **Posted:** 12 Jul 2012, 01:05

Man, I'd love to catch up with you guys and wax lyrical about the Beatles, and compare record collections, etc. I bet gmartinfan's puts mine to shame! I've only been seriously collecting vinyls for a few years, and CDs for about eight years.

pacman5741 · **Posted:** 12 Jul 2012, 11:51

Most of my record collection consists of old, fragile US versions of the early albums from Capitol Records. I do have the globally released versions of Abbey Road and the White Album though.

Hopeless_Romantic · **Posted:** 12 Jul 2012, 17:59

This was a good read:

Quote:

7 Profound Insights From the Beatles

I used to roll my eyes when people talked about the Beatles. Maybe you rolled your eyes when you saw this article’s headline. Thank you for bearing with me anyway. I’ll make it worth your while.

I had always pictured the Beatles as a tired novelty from my parents’ past. All I knew was that they played lot of teenagey love songs in their early years, and some weird drug songs in their later years, and that they seemed to have written virtually every famous song that I didn’t want to listen to.

Gradually I came around, and began to recognize that they really were something special. I harbored an understated respect for them for many years, but two summers ago I spent a few incredible weeks devouring all twelve proper Beatles albums, in chronological order. It was magical. I was struck by how beautifully and organically their sound evolved, growing more sophisticated and mature every album.

By the final phrases of of Abbey Road, I had grown too. And not insignificantly. I can’t quite put my finger on exactly what moved me, but it definitely had something to do with the beautiful metamorphosis I witnessed.

It wasn’t the music’s development that so thoroughly affected me, though that was incredible too. It was the spiritual ripening of four young men from Liverpool, whose message to the world matured from “She loves you yeah yeah yeah” to “I’m taking the time for a number of things / that weren’t important yesterday.”

As a incurable music fan, I’ve heard many bands evolve — and sometimes regress — album by album, over the course of their careers and lives. But never have I heard such thorough personal transformations reveal themselves through recorded music. As a friend once said, “They got deep, man.”

The world watched these boys grow up, and even though I witnessed it a good forty years late, I’m grateful for the opportunity. They were certainly not afraid to be absurd, (sitting on a corn flake, waiting for the van to come) but one should not underestimate the wisdom contained in many of their songs. They even grew beards.

Here are seven gems of insight from the Beatles.

READ THE REST HERE: http://www.raptitude.com/2009/04/7-profound-insights-from-the-beatles/

I got the Beatles Stereo Box Set for Christmas, and I haven't even listened to all their songs yet but they're quite an amazing band. I have songs from their first 5 albums saved in my mp3 player, I'll probably delve into their later albums in the coming days. Nothing compares to discovering new music! A few summers ago I got a great deal on a Pink Floyd box set that had all of their albums, and I was completely blown away by their musical greatness! Nothing from my generation can even come close to those bands of the 60's and 70's. They set the bar very high.

gmartinfan · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2012, 22:30

Hopeless...I was born the year the Beatles split up (1970). Even when I was in high school during the 1980's ( and I don't understand WHY the music from that time is very popular now) it was grim.

for exmaple in 1987...at one point the top ten consisted the likes of: Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Billy Ocean, cheese-metal (I hated White Lion), Bobby McFadden

The ONLY solace was The Beatles, Clapton, Floyd...the Stones.......sure there was punk rock and "alternative" in those days...but guys remember this....YOU DIDN'T hear it on the radio. Chain music stores mostly didn't carry this kind of music...and I grew up in the country, what the Mohawk Indians called 'the boonies"

The Beatles are my fav rock group.

PlaidJumper · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2012, 22:35

gmartinfan wrote:

Hopeless...I was born the year the Beatles split up (1970). Even when I was in high school during the 1980's ( and I don't understand WHY the music from that time is very popular now) it was grim.

for exmaple in 1987...at one point the top ten consisted the likes of: Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Billy Ocean, cheese-metal (I hated White Lion), Bobby McFadden

The ONLY solace was The Beatles, Clapton, Floyd...the Stones.......sure there was punk rock and "alternative" in those days...but guys remember this....YOU DIDN'T hear it on the radio. Chain music stores mostly didn't carry this kind of music...and I grew up in the country, what the Mohawk Indians called 'the boonies"

The Beatles are my fav rock group.

C'mon how could you not like Caribbean Queen? That song was a jam :lol:

gmartinfan · **Posted:** 13 Jul 2012, 22:38

Adam82 wrote:

Man, I'd love to catch up with you guys and wax lyrical about the Beatles, and compare record collections, etc. I bet gmartinfan's puts mine to shame! I've only been seriously collecting vinyls for a few years, and CDs for about eight years.

Adam....collection sizes don't matter when it comes to The Beatles ;-)

pacman5741 · **Posted:** 14 Jul 2012, 06:39

gmartinfan wrote:

Hopeless...I was born the year the Beatles split up (1970). Even when I was in high school during the 1980's ( and I don't understand WHY the music from that time is very popular now) it was grim.

for exmaple in 1987...at one point the top ten consisted the likes of: Debbie Gibson, Tiffany, Billy Ocean, cheese-metal (I hated White Lion), Bobby McFadden

The ONLY solace was The Beatles, Clapton, Floyd...the Stones.......sure there was punk rock and "alternative" in those days...but guys remember this....YOU DIDN'T hear it on the radio. Chain music stores mostly didn't carry this kind of music...and I grew up in the country, what the Mohawk Indians called 'the boonies"

The Beatles are my fav rock group.

Ah, the 80s...

"What do you know? You weren't there,
It wasn't all Duran Duran Duran Duran,
You want the truth? Well, This is it,
I hate the '80s 'cause the '80s were shit."

A lot of people my age like to glorify 80s "retro" culture for some ungodly reason that I will never in my lifetime be able to comprehend. I know people like to romanticize the past, but honestly, it seems like all of pop culture during the 80s was a celebration of the vapid and the insipid, possibly more than it is now. I can at least see how people would romanticize the Great Depression, the mid-late 60s, the 70s, and the early 90s, but the 80s? I find that unfathomable. Once in high school, these kids were talking about how awesome 80s culture was, and my algebra teacher interrupted and told us that, despite the glorification of that era, the 80s were a terrible time to be alive. Since there was no internet, everyone was stuck with the radio (which makes "hideous sounds", as Bob Dylan put it), and they wouldn't even play stuff like Metallica, let alone the even edgier underground punk and cutting edge alternative rock that was blossoming beneath the surface at the time. He ended up resorting to his parents' superior record collection: the Beatles, the Doors, Hendrix, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, the list goes on and on. He once went on a Led Zeppelin spree where he blasted Led Zeppelin from the classroom computer every day for about a week. One of the coolest guys ever, for sure.

That's not to say every era doesn't spawn some great music. I'm mainly referring to the mainstream pop culture of the 80s.

Adam82 · **Posted:** 25 Aug 2012, 00:35

There was great music in the 80s, but it was mostly happening underground, and off the mainstream radar. The alt-rock underground was gaining strength, Seattle grunge was in its infancy, the Bay Area thrash scene was growing in popularity. The charts were filled with some pretty woeful stuff in that decade, though. I'm not sure what's actually worse, the 1980s or the 2000s so far (in terms of shit mainstream music. Note I said MAINSTREAM, acknowledging there is good stuff hiding underground, then and now)

Onkel Willie · **Posted:** 25 Aug 2012, 00:45

Adam82 wrote:

There was great music in the 80s, but it was mostly happening underground, and off the mainstream radar. The alt-rock underground was gaining strength, Seattle grunge was in its infancy, the Bay Area thrash scene was growing in popularity. The charts were filled with some pretty woeful stuff in that decade, though. I'm not sure what's actually worse, the 1980s or the 2000s so far (in terms of shit mainstream music. Note I said MAINSTREAM, acknowledging there is good stuff hiding underground, then and now)

Neither Bon Jovi nor Queen were underground, and both rocked in the 1980s.

pacman5741 · **Posted:** 25 Aug 2012, 02:30

Adam82 wrote:

There was great music in the 80s, but it was mostly happening underground, and off the mainstream radar. The alt-rock underground was gaining strength, Seattle grunge was in its infancy, the Bay Area thrash scene was growing in popularity. The charts were filled with some pretty woeful stuff in that decade, though. I'm not sure what's actually worse, the 1980s or the 2000s so far (in terms of shit mainstream music. Note I said MAINSTREAM, acknowledging there is good stuff hiding underground, then and now)

Oh yeah definitely. Some of the best music ever was brewing up in the 80s underground scenes worldwide. Of course back then, it was a lot harder to find and keep track of more obscure music due to lack of internet access. Even so, there was some good, passionate mainstream music coming out, as Onkel Willie noted - people like Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson were certainly untouchable legends. I was mainly criticizing the overall impression I get from the pop culture of the era. When I think 80s, I think crappy hair metal, drug addicted prima donnas, and superficiality. On the other hand, when I think 90s, I think anti-establishment authenticity and an unwillingness to cooperate with norms of the age. Then again, I suppose pop culture in general is merely a watered down version of actual culture. I don't want to turn this into a capitalism debate, but Corporate America truly has an uncanny ability to take everything good and genuine (60s counterculture, punk, grunge, etc.), and transform it into yet another commodified fashion statement:

These focus groups remind me of the infamous George Harrison scene from A Hard Day's Night:

Adam82 · **Posted:** 25 Aug 2012, 05:07

The corporations, when they get their hands on anything (60s British Invasion and Mod, hard rock, disco, rap, punk, grunge, etc, etc) say 'quick, go sign another 100 bands that sound similar, but without their politics or anti-commercialism or edge'.

When I think of eighties pop culture, I too think of the hair metal bands, and coke addled pop starlets, and overproduction. There was some great honest music, of course.

God, a lot of the hair metal bands needed to go, though. I don't mean the Bon Jovis and Guns N Roses; but the Cinderellas and WASPs, etc. It just got silly.

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