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

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.