Worst Beatles song on Magical Mystery Tour

I'm expecting Your Mother Should Know to win/lose this poll; it seems like the most lightweight and pointless of Paul's attempts at writing "songs my mum and dad would like" (which peaks with Martha My Dear and troughs with Honey Pie, in my mind).

This was probably the first Beatles album that I loved, and, as I mentioned elsewhere recently, probably formed my music taste more than anything else; the codas, the brass, the basslines, the odd sounds in Baby You're A Rich Man, the big choruses, the Kraut-ish instrumental, the trippiness of Blue Jay Way, the nostalgia-cum-psychedelia of Strawberry Fields Forever.

As an almost aside, the other day it struck me that the title track, which I kind of expect to get a hammering, even though I love it, is basically Radiator by Super Furry Animals squeezed into 2 and a half minutes.

all you need is love

PRobably will get the fewest votes of any album.

Why do you think that, Mark? Because of its status as "not a proper Beatles album"?

Or because it's got the fewest songs?

Here I'm more interested to see if anyone's going to vote for "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "Penny Lane." Or "I Am The Walrus." And reasons why, of course.

I'm going with "Your Mother Should Know" although "The Fool on the Hill" is no prize either, esp. in the lyrics dept.

all you need is love

― Girls, meet team; team, meet girls (hmmmm), Friday, 25 September 2009 08:02 (12 minutes ago) Bookmark

I really like 'Your Mother Should Know'. It's quite understated and I find the structure interesting - the melodic phrase is unusually lengthy, so that the whole thing is effectively one really long opening line repeated with a couple of breaks.

I don't think much of 'All You Need Is Love'. Even thought I love 'La Marseillaise' I've never found it anything but horrible here, and same goes for all the stuff on the fade-out. I do like the lazy shifting around in the verses, but not enough to stop me voting for it. (I don't really remember 'Baby You're A Rich Man' but suspect it might be worse).

"Flying" is the only acceptable answer on this one. Complete throwaway crap that was only recorded since Paul thought they needed background music for the film.

I'm mean really... All You Need is Love? Really? That's REALLY the worst song in this collection????

Magical Mystery Tour. Too many horns, and I hate the "Here's an invitation/make a reservation" & "Everything you need/Satisfaction guaranteed" rhymes. These are some of Paul's (and John's) worst songs on this album and one of his (and two of John's) very best. The bad ones sound like exactly what they are - rejects.

Yeah. I just hate that saccarine hippie bullshit. The Beatles are best when they are cynical and bitter, or alternatively just weird (Walrus).

I'm mean really... All You Need is Love? Really? That's REALLY the worst song in this collection????

― Darin, Friday, September 25, 2009 12:30 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

I guess I picked a song that's catchy and memorable but makes me want to stab when it's stuck in my head over the forgettable throwayays. I feel the same about obladi-oblada and bungalow bill on the white album. They're not the worst as songs, but they are the most irritating.

Firstly: this album sounds great on the remasters.

But to the point: "Magical Mystery Tour" is a horrible song, probably my least favorite Beatles song on any of their albums. I hate the way they sing "roll up", so nasal and without color or texture. In fact I find all the backing vocals on the song horrible. And Paul's shouts about invitations and reservations are garbage, ham that I wish the remasters had just covered up entirely.

"All You Need Is Love" is also horrible.

Yes, " Your Mother Should Know" is not great, though the melody on the verses is terrific. Your mother should know...what? A song long before she was born? Or something else? And you can hear it as stressing either that it should be familiar to your mother, or that your mother is abnormal if she doesn't know it. And it's unsettling as a prelude to "I Am the Walrus" (which is how I hear it). The song takes us out of time, briefly, gently disorienting us before the imminent descent.

The second half of 1967 was a pretty shitty time for the Beatles creatively IMHO. Lot of junk on MMT and YS. Only Lennon performs during this dark period.

Also, I think All You Need is Love might be the worst mixed song of the Beatles entire catalog. The version on Love makes me wish they'd remix everything between Revolver & Magical Mystery Tour.

I mean did they even plug in Paul's bass during that radio broadcast????

It's all good except All You Need and Your Mother.

Ian MacDonald reckons Baby You're A Rich man is a step away from sophisticated pop and towards sensualist rock, and as such he hates it. He also reckons it's a step towards the mindlessness of dance music. He's not wrong there in some ways (in the latter part of the equation), but he's still an enormous prick.

For me, it's one of my favourite Beatles songs: an awesome, rubbery, accelerating / decelerating bassline; some mad hooks coming off guitar and clavioline and painted right out into the stereo margins for added headfuckery; a chorus that's awesome fun to shout along with ("YOU KEEP ALL YOUR MONEY IN A BIG BROWN BAG / INSIDE A ZOO / WHAT A THING TO DO"); a contrastingly subdued and, I feel, quite sinister verse - I love it to bits.

I also really like Magical Mystery Tour and Hello Goodbye; maybe they're not the best in terms of songwriting or lyric, but I think the arrangements are wicked. Ringo's drums on Hello Goodbye are astonishing.

I really really like Hello Goodbye too - it's one of the very earliest Beatles songs I can remember hearing and I can remember being really excited by the outro.

^^ Great post on BYARM Nick, I get that sinister feeling from the whole album, there's even something malevolent about Your Mother Would Know. To my ears, anyway. Maybe I'm just projecting something - my earliest musical memories are of this record...

(... & it's still my favourite Beatles LP)

Hello Goodbye is a weak song hidden by excellent arrangement. I've seen it used as short-hand for when describing what is the essence of the Beatles characteristic sound.

Never cared much for: Blue Jay Way, All You Need is Love, Baby You're a Rich Man. Difficult to choose between them.

Cards on the table time; I've never cared for I Am The Walrus much.

What do you think about the version of "I Am The Walrus" on Anthology 2, the version without all the bells and whistles? As much I love the MMT version, I love the Anthology version far more. Ringo's drums in particular are so excellent there.

Keep in mind that this was their first project without any contributions from Paul, who had died in a horrible car accident during the recording of Pepper. All things considered, the remaining three + Billy do an excellent job of keeping up appearances.

love this album, flying rocks, Your Mother Should Know sucks a dog

I love Your Mother Should Know, the 'aahhhhhh' backing vocals esp. The lyrics don't really make sense to me, but that's no problem. I like the melancholy in it.

Am voting for All You Need is Love. I like the outro, but all in all I find it to be a boring song that always feels like it's dragging on for hours...

Keep in mind that this was their first project without any contributions from Paul, who had died in a horrible car accident during the recording of Pepper.

No no he died in 1966. There are clues all over Sgt. Pepper's - he's the only band member turned on; he's pointing to something on the lyric sheet (or is that George?); etc.

I thought at first it must be something from side 1, but then it strikes me they are all really good too. So I almost ended up voting for "Baby You're a Rich Man" although "Flying" just makes it ahead of it. There are no bad tracks on this one either though.

The Beatles are best when they are cynical and bitter

No, they are at worst when they are bitter.

John Lennon might as well have left The Beatles after this album, which is the last album he contributed constantly good songs to. From 1968 onwards, there was only the odd exception ("Because", "Across The Universe"), but most of John's contributions on the last three albums (not continue "Yellow Submarine" as a proper album here) were crap.

Could someone explain me about the formats this was released on? Obviously I know it was a double EP (but what does that mean?) was it two 7"s or what? And were Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane not on it originally?

This is one of my very favourite Beatles records though - I get a lot of enjoyment from this kind of psychedelica and the Beatles did it really well. A lot of what I would normally say about MMT's been said already on this thread. I had "Your Mother Should Know" stuck in my head yesterday and found myself singing it out loud while I was doing the cooking. I really like "Flying", throwaway as it is, it's kind of essential to the whole ordeal as a piece of fun psychedelic mood music. I guess the only track I would leave off, as mentioned upthread, is the title track which epitomises that annoying, brash, alarm clock sound that I had a bit of a moan about on the Sgt Peppers thread.

I think this will be the next reissue I buy. It's my favourite era of the Beatles but the fact it's not quite as much of a "statement" as say Peppers or the White Album stops it counting as my favourite album in my head. There's also the cloying factor of some tracks - I do like the tunes on "All You Need" and "Hello Goodbye", but they do sum up everything that pisses me off about Lennon and McCartney's individual characters.

I thought Paul was supposed to have died just before Rubber Soul, the photo on the front of the album depicting the Beatles looking down into a GRAVE!!! :-O

Didn't the Rutles practically rip off the whole of "Baby You're A Rich Man" for their biggest "hit" "Shangri La"?

It was a 6-song, double 7" EP with the first 'side' of the album on it, and the second side of ther album was additional non-album singles & their b-sides from the same era (SFF & Penny Lane, plus AYNIL & BYARM).

It was released in the US in this format in 68 I think, and then everywhere on vinyl in 76 I believe, and then obviously on the CDs in 87 and now.

I'm a little surprised there isn't more hate for "Fool On The Hill". It's easily my least favorite McCartney tune before 1969.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Flying. In fact, I love this whole album. It's like the most... weird and thrown together and therefore totally psychedelic of the Beatles albums. I totally rate this over Sgt. Pepper.

I already put the kabosh on All You Need Is Love on the Yellow Submarine poll, so HELLO GOODBYE HELLO HELL is gonna get the kicking from me.

Which is odd, coz otherwise the Paul songs on this album don't bother me so much as normal. I like Fool On The Hill and can even put up with Your Mother Should Know because it's engrained into my skull from enough acid trips to the movie.

I've just figured out that the albums I tend to like the best are the ones I've tripped to the most.

eeeep. :-/

best beatles album!!

not a real album. picking the title track.

genuinely don't know what to vote for but this is just fucking joyous from start to finish, hello goodbye is probably all-time beatles top 3 for me, and i *love* the title track so ha

"hello goodbye is probably all-time beatles top 3 for me, and i *love* the title track so ha"

u mad

I like it, but we could lost "Flying."

lose

C'mon, people! "Blue Jay Way" is the loser!

But "Blue Jay Way" is prime George! One of his best psychedelic songs, actually.

Blue Jay Way is fantastic! A Beatles fiend in LA actually took me driving up to Blue Jay Way, and we got totally lost and confused, and had to just imagine poor George sitting up there among the trees tripping his face off, wondering where his friends had got to...

As you know, I am utterly Against Drugs and all that, but so much of this music doesn't *truly* make sense until you hear it in that context.

OK, I have become everything I hate and I'm going to STFU now.

I find Hello Goodbye really irritating.

But the coda!

flying, eleavator music

I'm expecting Your Mother Should Know to win/lose this poll; it seems like the most lightweight and pointless of Paul's attempts at writing "songs my mum and dad would like" (which peaks with Martha My Dear and troughs with Honey Pie, in my mind). This sums up my thoughts on this aspect of Paul Exactly. Your Mother Should Go.

I find "Hello Goodbye" OK, but the coda is just annoying.

I'm not really into 'Fool On The Hill', but hearing Oasis pointlessly swipe the title for some brainless lyric made me realise that no, there are worse things on earth than throwaway McCartney.

Geir actually did just get an SB for that.

I'm not really into 'Fool On The Hill', but hearing Oasis pointlessly swipe the title for some brainless lyric made me realise that no, there are worse things on earth than throwaway McCartney.

I love "Fool On The Hill". The melody is beautiful, and I kind of like the lyrics too. Wondering if "The Fool On The Hill" and "Mad John" are actually the same person :)

Xpost. Paul died on Wednesday morning at 5am, November 9, 1966 after storming out of a Pepper recording session! Geez, get your facts straight!

"Wednesday morning at 5 o clock as the day begins..."

"Bye, bye..."

That explains the Scottish accent on 'When I'm 64' too, I suppose.

"Messily spread all across the road
Leaving the band to carry on alone
He ran outside to the bus stop clutching his Hohner bass
Quietly planning a 30s pastiche
Hit by a bus we are free.

He (Wrote all the boringest songs)
is de-ad (All of the boringest so-ongs)
Oh! (He gave us everything we didn't want)
He's been squashed flat by a 42 bus
Here come conspiracies. Bye, bye

Ringo snores as..." etc etc...

this is like my dark horse favorite

even tho it has many redeeming qualities, i guess i don't love "fool" and "all you need is love" is kind of a pain in the ass at this point. and "H/G" is dumb dumb dumb but it sounds fuckin great.

A+ Nick :)

I bet John and George were so glad they didn't have to do "Your Mother Should Know" live. It's a song I've always liked but when Paul starts doing the "da da da daaa da daaa da da daaa" you kinda want to peg him in the head with a bottle.

"Your Mother Should Know." I actually LIKE "Flying," with the descending parallel-6ths guitar riff, and Ringo's voice dominating the singalong part.

Why do you think that, Mark? Because of its status as "not a proper Beatles album"?

― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 25 September 2009 07:05 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sorry, N, been out:

Um, no, and not even because of the 'fewest' songs, but more or less because I can't actually see anything here that is dudworthy.

Yeah, people are tired of "All you need" and some might decide that "HelloGoodbye" is the least good Beatles a-side.

Or mabe even because there's no Ringo track!

Definitely an underrated LP. My vote here is for "Fool on the Hill": mawkish lyrics and godawful flute (or is it a tin whistle?) solo. Almost though not quite rescued by the masterful "sees the sun going down" bit. BTW: is that loud swooshing sound that comes in towards the end (sorry, I don't have the CD handy to note the time) a synthesizer?

hella xposts-

Oh man that's twice on these threads Geir has called me out. It's like I must hate melody as well.

this does have like the worst cover

@Pancakes: "Flying" was my favorite track when I was a kid.

Btw the remaster did some unbelievable things for John's "Walrus" vocal sound!

"The Fool on the Hill" is very tiresome, yes.

Blue Jay Way for being unbearable.

Love this album - Beatles at their trippiest. Even the weaker tracks have enough sonic fucked-upness or instrumental ingenuity to keep me enthralled...except "Your Mother Should Know." I have a higher-than-most tolerance for Paul's twee music-hall ditties, but agree with Nick that "Mother" is the most uninteresting of that lot.

xxxxxxpost - Scott, I believe that's just sped-up backwards tapes, if we're referring to the same whoosh. (I don't have the CD handy either.) George Harrison bought his Moog in '68.

"Blue Jay Way", utterly shit

Oh no, I failed to notice "All You Need Is Love"! One of the worst songs ever written!!!!

i like all you need is love-- have always thought it's an archetypical lennon kind of song. the chorus refrain immediately followed by the downward falling horn lick seems to sum up a lot of what I like about his songwriting. voted "hello goodbye" which is maybe the *dumbest* beatles single

:(

but no offense if you like it! i mean, i'm usually a fool for mccartney's marshmellow pop tracks. this one just crosses a line for me

"flying" is nice but expendable. i like most of these songs. as a kid i was sort of entranced by this album and the accompanying comic-book style booklet.

http://digilander.libero.it/jamespaul/mmt_booklet/magical_mystery_tour_booklet_page_19_bottom.jpg

I mean did they even plug in Paul's bass during that radio broadcast????

Wasn't he playing piano?

Voted Fool on the Hill.

Blue Jay Way and Flying are my two favourites.

I always get mixed up what's on this and what's Yellow Submarine.

Has anyone else watched the film lately? It has dull moments — and the visuals detract from lots of the music — but some of it is kind of extraordinary

At least the last ten minutes. The creepy restaurant section, the Bonzo Dog/stripper section, the bad Busby Berkely bit.

The part where the old man and Ringo's aunt are on the beach is oddly very touching mainly because of that orchestrated version of "All My Loving", which I really wish was on this album tbh.

Love "Flying" - wish there was a 12-minute take of it or something

Those voting for "Blue Jay Way" must be warned: I will hunt you down.

To me, this is their most solid album (even though it was only a proper LP in the USA). But the worst has got to be one of Paul's snoozers: "Fool On The Hill" or "Your Mother May Know".

yeah, i voted for "Fool" even though I like it. I like it the least, I guess. This is a great album!

It's a tossup between Blue Jay Way and Flying for me. I like Flying, but it is also kind of pointless, but I'm voting for Blue Jay Way because it is a bit too droney for my taste.

I used to date a girl a long time ago who was a big Counting Crows fan and she dragged me to one of their concerts. The best part of the show came right before the band took the stage. They blasted the song Magical Mystery Tour over the PA at full rock concert volume. It's the only time I've heard a Beatles song at the volume level and it was aweseome! It went from being a song that was just ok for me to being a favorite.

That's kinda ridic! "I have an idea, why don't we will get the crowd excited by playing a song from a band that is 50zillion times more interesting than we are!!!"

I don't understand the hate for Your Mother Should Know. :(

yeah that is prob. my fave of Paul's old timey songs

I like it alot too but the scat-solo really irks me.

it took me a long time to appreciate "your mother should know" but now it's one of my favorites. i agree that this album has a creepy weird feeling to it. i've always thought of it as the sound of the Summer of Love (almost retched typing that) coming to an end. most of these songs were recorded in august and september of 1967, correct? you can feel the days getting a little shorter, the sunsets are a little chillier. the whole album has this twilit feel and mccartney in particular seems to be saying "yeah this summer was great wasn't it? let's try to stretch it a little longer".

"your mother should know" starts out slight but by the first appearance of that beautiful piano break more elements have been added to the mix. by the time he's singing the "da da da"s at the end we've got the "whiter shade of pale"-ish organ line (remember it was a big hit earlier that summer) running behind it and it's become quite poignant.

'YMSK' is okay i guess. the melody is interesting but i feel like the song doesn't go where it ought to. there IS something creepy and weird about this album, and YMSK has that in the "let's all get up and dance to a song that was a hit" imo.

btw the title track is the worst on here imo. definitely one of my least favorite beatles songs

and flying is AWESOME. so is 'blue jay way' the haters are crazy. the way the vocals sound start to feel drowned underwater towards the end of the song, the organ. one of the best psychedelic songs they did imo

xxpost yeah, i find the YMSK dance sequence in the MMT movie kind of ... menacing? At least when I think about it. The weird frozen smiles they all have.

"Your Mother Should Know" isn't any more old-timey than "Fixing a Hole" and "Penny Lane" actually. The "beat" is obviously Music Hall influenced, but there's a lot of more modern elements in it too.

yeah, true - its a song about old-timey music, but the only elements that sound that way are the mock-barbershop harmonies

the main hook is played on clarinet! that sorta equals old timey in my book.

Voted "Blue Jay Way", but yeah, what an album.

My part in the "How can you not like that?" chorus is for "Flying". Just a very simple, joyous tune, with great production to boot. What's not to like?

Nick is absolutely on the money when it comes to "Baby Your A Rich Man." The track has always reminded me of house music though it sounds nothing like it.

I like that on this poll the usual go-to "oh obviously the worst song" tracks are getting a lot more love and defense, ie Blue Jay Way, Rich Man, and Flying, which I rep for as well. If "Mister Moonlight" were on this album maybe it'd have gotten a fair shake too.

Gonna vote for "All You Need Is Love," which I've liked a few times but generally kinda bores me.

Great record. Oh, and I love the title track! Really slight in the sense that Paul just couldn't do a killer film-opener the way John could (Live And Let Die is a different animal altogether), but totally fun and I like the sped-upped-ness of it.

BTW, what was that thread about the trend/tendency of psych bands to go for the whole "old-timey pastiche" thing?

there's about 2 or 3 but here's one

Good Trip or Bummer? U.S. Psych Bands Doing "Old-Timey" Songs on Their Albums

I have a deep, deep dislike of "Fool on the Hill."

PS: YMSK is one of my very favorites.

"Your Mother Should Know" is creepy and weird and excellent and one of my favorite Beatles songs.

I'm voting for "Strawberry Fields Forever". Instead of me justifying it I'll just wait for someone to explain what's so great about it. I'm not immune to Lennon's charm but I've never found the song compelling or catchy.

It's a visceral thing right from the opening chords - an atmosphere of intense nostalgia flavoured with a pinch of characteristic Lennon sadness. But you either feel it or you don't - you can't be convinced by explanation.

I think I would have liked it better as an instrumental track.

TRIVIA: Flying is the only Beatles song which features all 4 Beatles sharing writing credits.

Blue Jay Way is the least memorable. All You Need is Love gets a tad annoying towards the end where they repeat the title ad nauseum (I have a similar problem with the na-na-nas on 'Hey Jude').

Trivia fact is not correct, according to wikipedia. Other songs credited to all 4 include:

"12-Bar Original" (Anthology 2)
"Dig It"
"Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", the B-side to the 1995 single "Free As A Bird".

Of course, it was a true trivia fact at the time of MMT - and I think I remember reading it in the Hunter Davies book ... [I feel bad for making a nerd-ish correction]

Tracks 3-10 are all good/great. I can't really see why anyone would dislike Flying - doesn't it just make you smile? Your Mother Should Know is good, too - for me the really irritating McCartney ones are either sickly sweet (Here, There And Everywhere) or 'comedy' (Honey Pie, Rocky Raccoon) and this doesn't fall into either of those categories.
The title track is dull - it sounds like a half an idea stretched into a song. The Fool On The Hill is also boring. But there's something really annoying about All You Need Is Love, so that gets my vote.

I voted "Flying" but I don't dislike it. I don't dislike any of the songs on this album at all.

title track is dull - it sounds like a half an idea stretched into a song

Agreed on the second half; and while I still like it, it is almost a self-parody of the whole whimsical psychedelic universe.

I'm voting for "Strawberry Fields Forever". Instead of me justifying it I'll just wait for someone to explain what's so great about it.

You've never heard/read ANY explanations of why it's so great?????

You know, the mellotron and the backwards guitar bits and all that.

And the way those shuffly drums kick in with the weird chanting at the end.

Come on, this is like having to explain why, like, rice is good. It just is.

Love "Flying" - wish there was a 12-minute take of it or something

― tylerw, Friday, September 25, 2009 11:30 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

There is an outtake that is 7 or 8 minutes long, with all the extra bits being ambient mellotron noodling at the end. It pops up sometimes as "Aerial Tour Instrumental"

jeez not everything is balearic, guys, except "Flying" and "Baby You're A Rich Man" which are...

this is the only album where choosing the worst is really hard

Their best album cover too imo.

Voted "Hello Goodbye" cos the lyrics are beyond stupid. At least "All You Need is Love" is trying for acid-fried philosophy.

just echoing everyone who said this album is their best, most solid, most creepy. it is my favourite post-rubber soul album, mostly just because it sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. whether it's their "creative apex" or whatever is unimportant, they're having a blast digging out weirdo jams from the folds of their imaginations and it sounds great.

i think a lot of the hate for "flying" is just a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that it is a gentle and breezy jam. it might be the greatest gentle and breezy jam ever written, but since it's on a beatles album people just automatically write it off as filler.

I'm changing my vote. "Flying" shits on "All You Need is Love."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

... and tomorrow night, all the Beatles' worst will be over.

Apart from the final, presumably.

...and "Worst Beatles" vs. "Worst Beach Boys"

title track is the worst thing here, everything else is exceptional

Their best album cover too imo.

Eh, I like the EP cover more:
http://195.224.149.148/SB/Beatles_magical_mystery_tour.jpg

I like violently clashing colours too, but that American cover looks like it was slapped together by some art director at Capitol. (Looks pretty stupefying while tripping tho)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

FIVE VOTES FOR PENNY LANE?!

Fool on the Hill 'heavy' Anth 2 version totally rules.

Shame it wasn't on this album.

16 VOTES FOR YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW? Shame on you, ILM.

3 people are morons.

i'm surprised at 0 votes for Walrus. I love it, but I thought it was the epitome of "silly Beatles" that a lot of people don't like. Mind you it's a John song, so that probably cancels it out.

Read this, dude:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Revolution_in_the_Head.jpg

"Flying" or "Baby You're a Rich Man" should have won. They are just good while the others are all great.

Hahahahaha "silly" Beatles? doglatin do you actually listen to his voice when he sings it? It's as angry and sad as anything he ever did

xxxxxxpost:

TRIVIA: Flying is the only Beatles song which features all 4 Beatles sharing writing credits.

― Moka, Saturday, 26 September 2009 07:24 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Trivia fact is not correct, according to wikipedia. Other songs credited to all 4 include:

"12-Bar Original" (Anthology 2)
"Dig It"
"Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", the B-side to the 1995 single "Free As A Bird".

― Bob Six, Saturday, 26 September 2009 07:29 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Of course, it was a true trivia fact at the time of MMT - and I think I remember reading it in the Hunter Davies book ... [I feel bad for making a nerd-ish correction]

― Bob Six, Saturday, 26 September 2009 09:06 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Arguably, trivia fact is not correct anyway as Jessie's Dream from MMT film soundtrack was copyrighted to all 4 Beatles, even though it wasn't released on record.

and I don't feel bad for making a nerdish correction!

PRobably will get the fewest votes of any album.

― Mark G, Friday, 25 September 2009 07:02 (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Guess I was wrong.

I love "Flying."

"All You Need Is Love" is probably the third best song on the entire CD. Behind that fantastic early 1967 twoofer, but IMO ahead of "I Am The Walrus".

strings on blue jay way directly quoted on scandinavian skies, off billy joel's beatlesque nylon curtain album. mono version of walrus is HEAVY. i think this could be my favourite beatles album, but your mother should know feels a clunker to these years. i grew up with my mum's old skool cassettes of the beatles albums which her sister sent her while posted with her husband in china (he was a naval sailor), and the tape of revolver had ymsk instead of yellow submarine, so i got to hear it across two albums, not just one.

I think the spookiness of this album comes from the threat of children being kidnapped; this seems to be an album a lot of us here got into as kids / young teens, and the whole "magical mystery tour is coming to take you away" thing is a bit spooky nursery rhyme / child catcher. Couple that with the nostalgia pair (PL and SFF), the lines about hiding money in a bag in the zoo (a ransom?), the weird aura of Blue Jay Way, the outright oddness of a Beatles song without words...

It's also tapping into that sixties psychedelic fear of never being able to come back from whatever trip you're on. It's the aural equivalent of the island in The Prisoner - idyllic yet sinister. A more recent example is the "other world" in Coraline.

Also the contradiction within the title of "Baby You're A Rich Man" - is this being sung to a man or woman?

^^^if you're asking this question, you're not really getting the fundamental circus-dizzy socio-clusterfuck absurdity of it all

It's being sung at Epstein, allegedly, so calling him both baby and a man from Lennon's POV is totally apt.

and calling him a "rich fag jew" etc...

i'm surprised at 0 votes for Walrus. I love it, but I thought it was the epitome of "silly Beatles" that a lot of people don't like.

it's also fucking creepy and weird and disturbing as hell

i've only got the mono versh but i'm really not hearing "rich fag jew".

xp also can we settle once and for all that they are in fact chanting "everybody smoke pot everybody smoke pot"

aren't they singing "everybody's got one" ?

i've only got the mono versh but i'm really not hearing "rich fag jew".

You need the stereo one then. (srsly)

.. it's 'just' the one time...

I've never "definitely" heard it.

I thought it was a "scrambled eggs" type song genesis that got changed, didn't realise it was actually (allegedly?) in the recording!

this is so wrong

I'll have to do yer a 'time'

The 'rich fag jew' part I remember was from Revolution in the Head and as much as I've listened to that song I never heard it.

The bus does crash in the opening track, tho! Listen closely!
http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/wgo.htm

I thought they were singing the old kid's party magicians' phrase "Oompah-oompah-stick-it-up-yer-jum-per" on I Am The Walrus

can we just say it's "everybody smoke pot" b/c that's what i've believed all these years

I've come around to thinking this is their best sequenced album. Funny, when you consider that it isn't a proper Beatles album at all, but everything just fits and flows together so perfectly.

Someone, please make a 12 inch, 10 minute re-mix of "Baby Your A Rich Man." I con't stop playing it because of the bass and drums. Baleric Beatles!!!

Didn't PM Dawn kind of do that...

I thought it was "BITCH fag jew." Yeah, Lennon... what a great guy.

Yeah, he said that one thing once, therefore he was terrible.

x-post. Yeah, I guess PM Dawn did. I was thinking more along the lines of Apple allowing someone like Weatherall or the dudes from The Studio to run wild on the Beatles' back catalog.

Yeah, he said that one thing once, therefore he was terrible.

Yeah, and in front of a recording device, thus preserving it for all time.

Pretty sure you've said worse here on ILX, preserving it for all time.

Probably, but I'm not deified as the veritable personification of peace n' love that Lennon is. I'm a fan, I just bristle at the revisionism.

"Alex in NYC" is love.

Alex is The Word.

All you need is Alex.

Alex is all you need.

Lennon being a sarcastic asshole, what a shocker.

deified as the veritable personification of peace n' love

Isn't this mainly a posthumous marketing meme? I mean even on Imagine you have "How Do You Sleep?" which is pretty bitter and hateful. Seems like Lennon-is-Love came about mainly as a good way to sell t-shirts in the early 80s.

Hearing a horrendous remake of "All You Need is Love" playing on a commercial this evening really makes me understand the hate. The commercial is either for a bank or credit card or both.

i've come to the conclusion that blue jay way is my favorite beatles song

Wow, this is off the mark even by ILMs standards. How the hell is the track Flying not easily the worst? It's a forgettable instrumental with neither melody or invention to save it. Fool On The Hill is far superior and Blue Jay Way should be more highly esteemed. End of rant.

I'd have thought "Hello Goodbye" should have walked this. The other higher ones are there purely through overfamiliarity. "I say a positive thing, you say a negative thing" for 3 mins.

I think Flying is pretty cool

8. Strawberry Fields Forever 3
6. I Am The Walrus 0

;_;

Why so? No-one thinks Walrus is the worst song on this?

Buzza OTM. Especially Ringo's performance, the drumming is KILLER

I love flying. Sounds like being stoned.

Flying, also, is a great performance, particularly from Ringo. And how can you hate on that ambient mellotron ending? The tremolo guitar, that silly four-part harmony, and the gentle acoustic guitar solo in the lead-in. It's all so wonderful. Really a beautiful couple of minutes on a rather intense and schizophrenic album.

"Hello Goodbye" is the one song on this album I can't stand.

re: "hello goodbye," i think the appeal of that song is not particularly about the lyrics (which, yes, are nursery-rhyme-ish). the round-like vocal harmonies are very nice. one of the beatles' better straight sunshine-psych tunes IMO.

The CODA for heaven's sake.

^this. Redeems the song.

Flying is an amazing bedroom rocker btw.

Flying is chillwave LOL

wouldve voted Penny Lane and not thought twice...

hello goodbye is among the top 5 worst beatles songs. flying is awesome. the sentiment of AYNIL I appreciate more as I approach the elder stages of life, tho musically it is sometimes a bit much to take

Documentary on the BBC about the making of Magical Mystery Tour. Blu Ray & DVD comes out this week, finally!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xiz41xJ5ExQ

It's actually pretty good, plenty of stuff I've never seen before. Funny that this is the first time I've ever seen the stripper's tits, they have always been censored out!

Scorsese helpfully points out it was made without the use of CGI.

interesting doc but a bit too 'crazy days.. groovy man' at times. did make me realise how much of an guiding influence Epstein was; no way he'd have let them arse about on a bus for a week in the countryside stoned as fuck without a script. good to see Macca has made his peace with it all since the Anthology days mind.

(Macca style) thumbs up to Macca for using Albert Ayler as the soundtrack to one of his experimental home movies! MMT still boring tho apart from "Walrus" segment and Johnny's dream sequence.

no way he'd have let them arse about on a bus for a week in the countryside stoned as fuck without a script

Well, he would, but he wouldn't let them film it.

You kidding? He'd have been right there on the bus!

"Your Mother Should Know" seems like a great combination of reassuring voice x lyrics & music a little elusive, not so reassuring (the music is maybe in a minor key, and gliding like dancers in and out of the lamplight). Really the feeling of childhood, a moment of interest and knowing you're not quite getting it. "Hello Goodbye" the jangling round of relationships---"Pattern recognition gets us all in the end," Jane Dark once said of rock writing, but may apply to all things observational, especially if you're a Beatle, tripping on the masses and vise versa (agree about the coda's coolness, though always thought it was "get fucked get fucked everybody GET fucked", in a good bad hello goodbye way, opposites being equal and attracting) "Penny Lane". "Straberry Fields", "I Am The Walrus" are great, "Baby" jangling on a wire like a kebab of baby toys, the rest suggest the Rutles, only not as good.

Scorsese really reminding me of Eugene Levy in this. Hadn't seen him in a while...guess I'm not the only person struck by the resemblance. Anyway, this album was a great mystery when I was little, looking through the photos in our lp and trying to figure out what the movie might be like. Documentary was surprisingly interesting. The bits of Blue Jay Way in the doc seem extremely eerie and very ahead-of-their-time in relation to the rest of this. Harrison almost seems like John Cale or something: a member of a completely different band.

xpost. I also wondered about the Rutles. Have been playing Piggy In The Middle and Cheese & Onions (originals and Highway Revisited versions) and very seriously trying to decide if they're better than the MMT soundtrack...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG7PS2k9J_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4jXc3t9JR4&feature=related

RIP Victor Spinetti :(

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_n11s85RtVE/0.jpg

"Blue Jay Way" is the best part of the film imo.

I've always loved Your Mother Should Know. The elliptical lyrics and overall spookiness make me think its the Beatles' equivalent of Rubber Ring by the Smiths. Sort of, ha ha, here is the kind of music that old people like, pretty fun... but, damn, our music will become old-time music too, vanity of vanities etc. No doubt I read too much into it.

MMT is the most underrated Beatles album

8. Strawberry Fields Forever 3

huh?

Scorsese helpfully points out it was made without the use of CGI.

So wait a minute, Clark. You tellin' me that was a real walrus?

It was Paul, no?

My only problem with Flying is that it sounds like Kiss The Girl from the Little Mermaid, and once I heard that I can't unhear it. Now every time I listen to that song my brain automatically adds in a little singing crab.

Crab was Ringo, according to Lewisohn.

Octopus surely?

Though he is pretty crabby these days.

The Little Mermaid would have been improved immensely if Ringo had voiced Sebastien the crab.

I dunno, if he were already an octopus, it'd be pretty odd for him to be clamoring for admission to the octopuses' garden. Sorta makes sense if he's a lower-order sea creature. Or maybe I'm just projecting my bias against Sebastian here.

Woah, woah, "lower order?" Uh, number of zodiac signs with crabs: 1 , number with octupuses: 0.

Also I now would like an "Octopus's Garden"/"Under THe Sea" mashup.

The Little Mermaid would have been improved immensely if Ringo had voiced Sebastien the crab.

Yeah, you say that like one would say, "Oh Thomas the Tank Engine would be so much better if it had a little tiny Ringo to narrate everything," but then you see it really happen.

Weird, i don't see the Flying/Kiss the Girl connection.

The mellotron line in Flying sounds vaguely like the verse melody of Kiss The Girl, plus they're both a simple I - IV - V progression so you can sing the KTG verse over Flying. Nothing major, just a stupid thing I can't unhear now.

It also sounds sort of like "Reading Rainbow"

Also I now would like an "Octopus's Garden"/"Under THe Sea" mashup.

― Tom Hardy & the Batbreakers (Phil D.), Tuesday, October 9, 2012 2:30 PM Bookmark

I'd like to be / Under the seeeeeea

seems workable, maybe not in sampling form but any good glee club should be able to work up a medley that does this, i can hear it in my head!

oh man "reading rainbow" mashup i can TOTALLY hear though

There's definitely an album from around 1990 that was called something like "Sebastian live in concert" where the guy who did the voice sings "Octopus's Garden" (and "Day-O" and "Hot Hot Hot" and "Under The Sea" among other songs). It was really bad IIRC.

For a minute there I forgot this is the worst, not the best songs on the record and I couldn't understand why so many people loved that 'all you need is love' crap carnival. I kind of like eveything else about this album and I consider it better than sgt. pepper's.

If I could play god single-only: 'Lady Madonna' would take its place leaving AYNIL as the a-side of 'the inner light'. That sounds like the worst single of all time.

i love almost all of this album, mainly because it's one of the albums i've listened to least often since my big beatles phase as a pre-teen so hearing it instantly takes me back to being a 14-year-old sitting under the christmas tree listening to this on my new discman. 'i am the walrus' felt like the most thrilling, magical, scary song in the world.

'all you need is love' isn't a good song or anything but i kind of enjoy it as sort of a performance piece, like just a record of the beatles getting together and making noise and shouting a lot.

Uh, All You Need is Love is a great song. I can't understand the objections to that and Hello Goodbye other than assuming it's down to weirdos who only listen to lyrics.

yeah, i don't hate "all you need is love" really. it's fairly iconic in my mind. why do people hate it so?

Because it's a plodding bore, as droopy as their moustaches when they recorded it.

Hello Goodbye is a little grating.

All You Need and Hello Goodbye are a bit chirpy, but not half as boring as the s/t track which has little going for it.

It serves fine as an album intro. Though I've always thought MMM into FOTH mirrored Sgt Peppers into Little Help a bit too strongly.

My two favourite things about the title track are that little bit where it goes into half-time and the piano coda.

Yes. Kinda wish they'd turned that piano bit into a whole song. But they have so many great intros and endings that could've been songs in themselves.

otm.

Title track is awesome as hell. Pretty rad that after Pepper L.S.D. "I'd love to turn you on" and Paul admitting he took acid they went ahead and released an album whose first track tells listeners to "Roll up!" As in, roll up a joint, hell, it's 1967 man.

I like how on many songs of this era you can tell they laid down the basic track and then had a track where everybody grabbed random percussion instruments and just started banging on them along to the song. "MMT" has some really cool percussion on it, also "Baby Your a Rich Man".

Yeah, the half-time/accelerando bit in MMT is so great, and it's a one-of-a-kind thing in their catalogue. Unless you want to count the weirdly off-tempo bits of "What's The New Mary Jane?"

the worst thing about AYNIL is that it sounds so terrible, it's probably the worst sounding officially recorded beatles song. the remaster fixed it a bit; the remix on the yellow sub soundtrack is better, but still not great.

Yeah, that's a lot of it for me - just muddy and dreary as hell. Part of that is also just the tempo and the arrangement I guess.

Ha I have totally missed the significance of "Roll up!" until now. Top-notch trolling of the BBC there.

I always thought "Hey Jude" a pretty bad recording.. (xpost akm)

If only that "fucking hell!" was more audible!

what, it'd have been banned off all radio?

Wasn't All You Need Is Love recorded live as part of the first global satellite broadcast? I think it may sound muddy because it didn't get the same meticulous recording as their regular studio tracks.

Wenner: In "I Am The Walrus"...
Lennon: That was the B side of "Hello, Goodbye," can you believe it?

Lennon Remembers

So does anyone have the new MMT DVD? It sounds pretty skimpy on the extras front. A 'making of' documentary and then Paul commentary on the main movie....is that it? Since the movie is under an hour long I was hoping at least they could include remastered SFF and Penny Lane music videos, but it doesn't seem to be the case....

http://devonrecordclub.com/2014/06/09/the-beatles-magical-mystery-tour-round-67-nicks-choice/

This definitely has the highest percentage of crap tunes of any Beatles album.

um Let it Be

"The Long and Winding Road" + the stuff that barely qualifies as a "song" ("Dig It", "Maggie May", "One After 909") are all worse than the filler here imo

Haha yeah, my memory always omits Let It Be.

title track is the worst imo

the jazzy outro is cool as hell, though

even the filler/worst Macca excesses here are at least partially redeemed by all the psych production foofara

this whole record is cool.

you guys are cooler

About 16 years ago I saw Counting Crows (I know...) and their introduction music was the Magical Mystery Tour title track blared through the PA. I had never heard that song, or really any Beatles song, at such a high volume. It was glorious and gave me a new-found appreciation for that track.

If I remember, all the 'winning' worst tracks were put into one final poll, and it was still 'better' than most bands 'best of's'

Worst Beatles song ever

idk that's pretty fucking grim, not an album I would listen to tbh

About 16 years ago I saw Counting Crows (I know...) and their introduction music was the Magical Mystery Tour title track blared through the PA. I had never heard that song, or really any Beatles song, at such a high volume. It was glorious and gave me a new-found appreciation for that track

best thing about cirque du soleil's "love" is hearing all those songs through a really good arena sound system.

agreed, I think George Martin and son also did a fantastic remix job for the Love soundtrack

Yeah, I just saw Love last weekend and the sound was indeed great. Teared up a little towards the end during All You Need Is Love, tbh. Hearing all that great music jammed together was just.. My cup overfloweth with joy, even though I've heard it a million times before

No, neither would I, erm, ... Dude.

I like this album a bunch

Fantastic:
Flying
Rich Man
Strawberry
Walrus

Good:
Penny Lane

OK:
Hello Goodbye
Magical Mystery
Fool

A bit crap:
All You Need
Your Mother
Blue Jay Way

Scorsese helpfully points out it was made without the use of CGI.

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, October 9, 2012 2:18 AM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

To be fair to Scorsese it was a very influential movie,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kzpHzUJCd4

blue jay way getting this many votes is a crime

The title track should have won this really.

'Blue Jay Way' is one of my favourite things on here, real "bad trip" music. Overall, I prefer this album to Sgt. Pepper's, although 'A Day in the Life' is better than almost everything on here.

in defense of "hello goodbye"'s lyrics which i've always loved: feel like the cheerful dialectic there is more successfully cosmic than "all you need is love" or for that matter my old nemesis "across the universe". also the part where paul says "you say yes" and either john or george says "but i may mean no" is underrated imo compared to "couldn't get no worse" (or "count me out... in")

having said that, this is still very funny:

Hello, Goodbye was one of my songs. There are Geminian influences here I think: the twins. It's such a deep theme in the universe, duality - man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye - that it was a very easy song to write.

no kidding

Hahahaha... yeah, no shit!

haha

I always thought it was a horribly self-righteous song, like "Oh why don't you just say YES HELLO like me", come on Paul, surely we all say No and Goodbye at times

find this poll offensive though, 3 votes for Strawberry Fields, really? And Fool on the Hill rules.

Yeah, I really don't understand the view that 'Strawberry Fields Forever' is the worst thing here at all. It's a masterpiece.

HG is a 'join in' song.

Paul wants you to say/sing "Hello hello" after him,but its too tempting to annoy him and say "Goodbye goodbye" and Paul gets mildly exasperated and explains why.

Then John pops in to suggest "I say yes, but I may mean no" and he's right.

Then again, I used to think that "We can work it out" was about an arbitration service that The Beatles were offering.

pretty much agree with all Turrican's posts since the revive

I like this album a lot too, in many ways more than Sgt Peppers. Fool On The Hill is so melancholy, I like it a lot.

Flying you can hear and imagine them smoking blunts
Blue Jay Way just a lark

> flying

"we are the beatles
there are four of us..."

can't hear it singing frank sidebottom's lyrics along with it

^ without

I think it's amazing how well this album hangs together, given that it wasn't conceived as such. It's a really strong listen end-to-end and it feels like all of the tracks belong together, even the stuff that wasn't done specifically for the EP. They wouldn't make another album that works as well end-to-end and is as impeccably produced until Abbey Road.

Awful results h8 ilm so much

none of these are really that bad, great record

yeah, overall, a better record than Sgt Pepper, except for "A day in the life", of course.
That said, it's a bit cheating since "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields" should have been on Pepper.
In that case, it would have been a monster with these 3 tracks !
As for this thread's subject, there's no song I dislike on this but if I really had to pick one, it would be "Blue Jay Way".
Never been too fond of George's songs in the Beatles.

Actually, the remixed version of Pepper that was released recently does include these two songs which makes it the "one of the best albums ever made" statement finally true !

it does not include them.

Well, the LP version doesn't, I mean.

And neither does the 1CD version. So, ner.

Aw I don't know about the various versions but the one on Spotify does include them !

I prefer Sgt Pepper overall and do think that the sequencing of MMT lets it down slightly - it's mainly that it suffers from having so many 'big' songs near the end. Like 'All You Need Is Love' is my least favourite track by far and having it follow the similarly anthemic but much better 'Baby You're a Rich Man' doesn't help.

Ah, Spotify.

As you were.

lg>

The sequencing just means that the album starts off great and gets better as it goes along - 'All You Need Is Love' isn't a huge favourite of mine, but it works great as a closer.

a silly face-off for numerous reasons but for the fun and fwiw :

1. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band / Magical Mystery Tour : two tracks I don't particularly like but MMT is better and more interesting (especially the slow break) - Pepper 0/MMT 1
2. With a Little Help from My Friends / Baby, You're a Rich Man : WALHFMF is great but BYARM is cooler and groovier - Pepper 0 / MMT 2
3. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds / I Am the Walrus : I like LSD a lot but easily Walrus - Pepper 0 / MMT 3
4. Getting Better / Penny Lane : two Macca tracks against Penny Lane and it's obviously still no match - Pepper 0 / MMT 4
5. Fixing a Hole / Penny Lane
6. She's Leaving Home / The Fool on the Hill : for a long time I didn't like SLH. I enjoy it now but I have always been fond of TFOTH - Pepper 0 / MMT 5
7. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! / Flying : I didn't know which track to put Flying against ! - Pepper 1 / MMT 5
8. Within You Without You / Blue Jay Way : Never liked much George's indian stuff (and his songs in general)but BJW has a cool production - Pepper 1 / MMT 6
9. When I'm Sixty-Four / Your Mother Should Know : I have nothing against "Paul's granny shit" and YMSK has something beautiful and sad that most others don't - Pepper 1 / MMT 7
10. Lovely Rita / Hello, Goodbye : two okay tracks but the production is better on HG - Pepper 1 / MMT8
11. Good Morning Good Morning / All You Need Is Love : many people hate AYNIL. Not me. and I have never understood the point of GMGM (except it sounds HUGE on the remixed version of the album) - Pepper 1 / MMT 9
12. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) : not counting it since it's a reprise and there are not enough tracks on MMT.
13. A Day in the Life / Strawberry Fields Forever : impossible choice. two of the greatest recorded songs ever. it's a tie, once point each - Pepper 2 / MMT 10

MMT wins this easily ! (again, I know this is silly)

Aw I don't know about the various versions but the one on Spotify does include them !

― AlXTC from Paris, Tuesday, November 14, 2017 5:21 AM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it does not! i mean takes of strawberry fields and penny lane are on there but they're not in sequence with the actual record/remix

AIXTC, this might be a whole vs. sum of its parts situation. Even if on their own you might like the tracks on MMT better (I don't, but still), Sgt. Pepper is such a great, complete package while MMT is just an ace compilation.

Oh yeah, of course I agree, MMT isn't really an album (and again, two of its best tracks SHOULD have been on Pepper instead).
That was just for fun.
As for the version on Spotify, yeah, they are not included as if they belonged to the album but still they are on the "thing" (and not just "takes" but also the "final" remixed versions, just like all the rest of the album).

A compilation Magical Mystery Tour (the album) may be, but I'll still take it over Sgt. Pepper's as a collection of individual tracks and as an end-to-end listening experience.

(and not just "takes" but also the "final" remixed versions, just like all the rest of the album).

Yeah, but they're tacked on to the end, with each "final" version following two outtakes of itself.

Just calling it out because that's twice now I've run over to Spotify to hear a version of SPLHCB with those two songs in the sequence. Quit faking me out!

A compilation Magical Mystery Tour (the album) may be, but I'll still take it over Sgt. Pepper's as a collection of individual tracks and as an end-to-end listening experience.

Me too. Love the title tracks, Good Morning, Day In The Life, LSD and 64, but feel little love for the rest of Pepper, but love p much all of MMT.

Maybe it's my Boomer programming talking, but the carnivalesque conceit of Sgt. Pepper — the packaging, the moustaches, the "concept" — is at least as important to me as the music. It's like entering a particular funhouse. MMT has great songs and a similar vibe, but it doesn't feel like a single thing to me. And as a song collection, I might on any given day rather listen to one of the Past Masters.

Stevie otm when SP lags it laaaaags but MMT keeps the party going throughout

Could pretty much reverse thede rankings for my list

Just stumbled on this from archivist Ron Furmanek, who was asked to remix the soundtrack (sound as well as music) around 1988 for home video release.

George Martin was present for the final mix sessions, and when Furmanek played him the backing tracks to "Blue Jay Way," Martin laughed and said "this is rubbish! Did we release this??"

that's one of the least bad few songs on the album surely? and the production makes it. was he not embarrassed by AYNIL which sounds way worse

for the most part though I think this album sounds way better than it is

lol, love blue jay way but i can imagine how listening to just the isolated tracks could sound like an amateurish mess (especially if you hadnt heard them for 20 years.) it kind of only works when everything comes together for the whole effect

AYNIL sounds date-stamped to an exact week in 1967. It's always been a time capsule to me, which means it's not my idea of a great record, but it has the same appeal of an old photo where every anachronistic detail has vanished with time.

I wish I could enjoy "Blue Jay Way" more but it's flat-out dull. The production doesn't make anything because there's barely anything there.

That's the era when Harrison wrote on keyboards.

Well, guess what.

they shoulda done more stuff like “Flying”

Johnny L. & The BTs

Banger

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/elvis-costello-the-beatles-live-aid-cover/

Except Costello played the whole song in 4/4; as with a number of Lennon’s Beatles songs, there’s a few odd measures thrown in (in this case, 1/4 between the verse lines, and a 3/4 before the chorus), and Costello just ignores those.

A decent salvage job. They were running over and basically told Costello that he only had a several minutes to get on the stage, perform and exit, so he settled on something easy that the crowd would know and somewhat fit the spirit of the event. Introducing it as "a Northern folk song" was very amusing.

*had several

Didn’t recall that. Nicely done.

I do like Costello's version, and along with Bon Jovi's stumbling rendition of "Here Comes The Sun" on some awards show just after Harrison passed, it's another reminder to musicians who cover Beatles songs that, oh shit, they sometimes messed around with time signatures, didn't they?

It won't convince the haters, but that B7 in the chorus (the last "all you need") is one of the great Lennon/Beatles chord changes, which Costello's stripped down cover shows off.

He’s on pretty cheery self-deprecating form here. The official Live Aid people just put a whole bunch of this backstage-celebs stuff on their YouTube. Funny to see he’s got the words (or something) written on his hand

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpxC4DzeOXg

I'll add that in addition to being a time capsule, it's musically pleasing on basic level. Even Lennon/McCartney's weakest material is typically very tuneful with at least one memorable hook, and it's easy to see why AYNIL was another #1 hit and why 20 years later it can be familiar to so many people. It's not inaccurate to think of it as a folk song in that way. It may be a dated sentiment rather than the profound philosophy some hoped it to be, but I don't think nursery rhymes have endured for any grand insight they have into life.