I thinks this is their third best album behind Rubber Soul and Revolver. Sgt Pepper has Sgt. Pepper Reprise/A Day in the Life though I don't feel it is as good or innovative as Magical Mystery Tour.


"Magical Mystery Tour": Intruguing mix of stomping rock/R+B rhythms and jazzy sections, particularly jazzy in the coda. Great use of trumpets; the vocal trade-offs between Paul and George are also notable. The group employ use of a BBC sound effects tape of traffic riding past a microphone to good effect, too, panning in across the stereo spectrum at various points of the recording.

"The Fool On The Hill": Melodious, poignant McCartney fable/ballad about standing out in a crowd and sticking to one's guns in face of adversity; nice use of beautiful multi-tracked recorders/flutes on the track. Ringo complements the melody switching between finger cymbals to drums.

"Flying": Group-written three chord moody instrumental; John Lennon plays trumpet-melody/chords on then-novel dual-manual Mellotron Mark II which would be a commonplace instrument for them that year. Ending features innovative use of backwards tape loops, initiating a trippy effect.

"Blue Jay Way": With Abbey Road staff flanging (by hand)the recording tape (very innovative sound for '67!) the dirgy, spacey track is driven along by a swirly George-played Hammond organ and Ringo's plodding drums. Cello accompaniment and backwards backing vocals add tension to what is already one of the Fab's most macabre efforts.

"Your Mother Should Know": Infectiously catchy Macca throwback to 1930's Tin Pan Alley dittys, done Summer-Of-Love-style.

"I Am The Walrus": The prog gem. Four minutes and thirty-five seconds of Lennon madness/genius (with producer George Martin's help). Stomping, electric piano-driven beat married to avant-garde tape loops, taped radio broadcasts, strings, brass, choirs. distorted lead vocal and Mellotron. Lennon's fantastically nonsensical lyrics add to the organized chaos. Great headphone-listen.

"Hello Goodbye": Tuneful Macca pop song, notable for wall-of-sound production, cellos and echoed vocals. Beautiful high harmonies by John and George.

"Strawberry Fields Forever": Childhood-memories-enhanced-by-acid-trip-inspired cut, noted for first notable influential use of Mellotron in musical applications (the flute sound; brass towards the end). The Beatles'/George Martin's technical advancement is in full "view" here, from backwards cymbals to exotic instrumentation to tape loops to tape-speed manipulation to over-compressed drums and bass to outside orchestration. The arrangement is effectively dynamic and atmospheric. Spooky tacked-on false ending, too.

"Penny Lane": Paul's PL is a melodic and peppy recalling of a bustling Liverpool street. Compare Paul's upbeat lyrics and music with John's nightmare-on-vinyl. Quite possibly Pet Sounds-influenced, but unmistakably Beatle-ish.

"Baby You're A Rich Man": Somewhat back to the more chaotic, a big-beated psychedelic rocker making good use of John Lennon's Clavoline (a unique, monophonic keyboard instrument) doodlings (the Arabic-sounding blasts in the background). John and Paul share lead vocals and are credited with co-writing the apropos sections that would merge into the song.

"All You Need Is Love": Tightly constructed pop song, a peace anthem with inspirational lyrics and great orchestration by George Martin alternating between 4/4 and 7/8

I'm with you, it's my second favorite Beatles album. However, we've already once discussed this so you might find some reasons here.

Ha, I was just about to link to that too.

Brilliant minds..

Sorry I'm a newbie but it would be nice to know why. This and Pipers at the Gates of Dawn are two of my favorite records. I consider them 1 and 1A.

Well, at least someone around here appreciates Piper. Have you listened to the new deluxe edition with the tracks in their original mono? It's absolutely amazing.

What no one likes Piper At the Gates Of Dawn here. Astromony Domine and Interstellar Overdrive are must have tracks if you like Experimental/Pysch Rock music.

"Astromony Domine and Interstellar Overdrive are must have tracks if you like Experimental/Pysch Rock music."

Ah, but there's so much contained in that little "if."

I wouldn't consider Piper experimental. Experimental is usually difficult and avant-garde and Piper is neither. It's just the greatest psych-rock album ever. Unfortunately, Pink Floyd (or anyone else for that matter) would never make an album that even compares to it. That's not saying that they didn't make good albums after, it's saying that when Barrett left they were a different band and there wasn't another band that could even come close to producing an album like Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

Probably because it's not a proper album. It was released in the UK as a Double EP with the songs from the film, the US version and the CD version include other 1967 a sides and b sides.

That's exactly the point I was about to make - I much prefer the double EP, it's one of my favourite 7" releases.

Well, personally i don't see MMT as a very cohesive album.
It has two of my favourites Beatles (and all time) songs - I am the Walrus and Straberry Fields.
Also The Fool on The Hill is OK, but frankly i don't care about the others songs.

I won't cut and paste my opinions on this to prove my point

I alway considered I am the Walrus and Stawberry Fields Foreverthe perfect fusion of avant and pop psychedilia. I am The Walrus at times borders on avant- progressive rock and Strawberry Field Forever is a very complicated experimental song.

Fool on the Hill and Penny Lane are brilliant melodies. Flying not really a great song and Blue Jay have very innovative use mellotron and backward tape. Baby You're A Rich is very bassy or funky psychedelic song. This came after Pepper I guess that might be the problem though many of the songs are Pepper Session songs

I wouldn't consider Piper experimental. Experimental is usually difficult and avant-garde and Piper is neither. It's just the greatest psych-rock album ever. Unfortunately, Pink Floyd (or anyone else for that matter) would never make an album that even compares to it. That's not saying that they didn't make good albums after, it's saying that when Barrett left they were a different band and there wasn't another band that could even come close to producing an album like Piper at the Gates of Dawn.

John why don't you consider Pipers at the Gates of Dawn experimental. I agree avant-garde they were not in the classical sense of using musique concrete or dissonant uses of classical music.

I don't know, it just doesn't strike me as experimental. There were a lot of artists doing what they did, Pink Floyd just perfected it. To me experimental music is taking a genre and doing something completely new with it. Pink Floyd certainly had some new ideas but most of the ideas had already been heard- just not in one perfect album.

You see I never agreed with that logic that others were doing the same thing. Others were not doing the same thing as Pink Floyd as others were not doing the same thing as the Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows or Love You Too. Ok maybe not as drastic as two songs. No one was doing songs like Interstellar Overdrive.

Feedback and distortion was innovated before Hendrix but in his hands he reinvented the language of both. Music is a progression I never agreed with the logic since you did not invent A that you could not innovate B. Everything in music comes from somewhere else. A lot of times when I'm playing I think man someone has done this before.

Man, you're hung up on influence and who innovated what. It's fun to talk about but it's not the end all. I don't think I'd like music very much if I dissected it so much. But, to each their own.

The experimental tag is reserved for bands like Zappa, Beefheart, Boredoms... Experimental music doesn't fit into a genre because it's just completely different. Piper doesn't fit into that category. It's psych-rock. It existed before them and took it to a level nobody ever saw. Brilliant, influential, innovative. But, I just don't think it was that experimental. Meh, this is kind of a dumb argument. It's a great album, that's all that matters.

Most experimental music artists don't appear on the AM list, of course.

Magical Mystery Tour should probably be a little higher, but I wouldn't rank it with any of their other post-mophead albums except Let It Be.

Very informative review and I learned that the Beatles were more innovative than I thought. Some points Chelsea you keep labeling away. I agree with John description of Pink Floyd as being psychedelic rock. Zappa is avant and experimental. Though it's two tracks here that I find amazing I Am the Walrus and Strawberry Fields Forever. You have them using Avant like Chelsea said in the classic sense (avant tape loops and dissonant strings) with psychedelia and pop music. Being a musician and it seems only the musicians here seem to to notice how unique that is to do.

The album is better in many ways compared to Pepper or Pipers At the Gates of Dawn.

Us brits disagree about it being an album at all, it was a double 7" EP, which in the US was expanded into an album using some other material. The Beatles themselves released no such album.

Well, MMT is not a proper album. It's a US compilation album made up of the British MMT double EP (6 songs) plus 5 cuts from various 1967 singles. So really, technically speaking, it shouldn't be on the list at all. But I'm sure we're all glad it's there nonetheless. I think the fact that it is not really an album has had an effect on which lists it appears on, which has had an effect on where it appears on AM. C'est la vie. We all know it and love it and can now understand why it isn't sitting up there with the other proper albums. Just let it go, folks!

No one has created comparatively as innovative songs as the Strawberry Fields Forever, and the avant mini suite of I Am The Walrus. These songs helped pioneer Progressive Rock and Art Rock. Revolver and Rubber Soul are better albums. This album suffers because it's basically a compliation album or recorded during the Pepper sessions.

Just as a test, I googles the two words 'beatles' and 'albums'. Here's the first site listed as a result:
http://www.jpgr.co.uk/i_beatleslp_date.html
You can see on there that the Magical Mystery Tour album was released in November 1976, a full six years after the band had broken up, and a time in which punk rock was about to take off.

Then, if you click on MMT itself and go to this page:
http://www.jpgr.co.uk/pctc255.html
you can see that the album was only on the UK charts for 2 weeks, and failed to make the top 30 (a dismal chart showing for any Beatles album)

With all this in mind, it's not surprising that the album fails to make many lists, which in turn explains why it's so low

I'm pretty sure the Magical Mystery Tour "album" was release in the US in 67. It might not have been released in the UK until 76 but it was definitely available in the US during 67.

Magical Mystery Tour was number one for eight weeks in America. At this point many of the tracks were released and some were recorded as early as late 1966 or should have been on Sgt.Pepper. The Beatles were showing traces of psychedelia on some of Rubber Soul and in full bloom on Revolver and Sgt Pepper. Magical Mystery Tour seemed late like Santanic Majesties Request.

The first half of the album is seen as a collection of ditties, "I Am The Walrus" aside (but that one song is made up for by B-side ditty "Baby You're A Rich Man").

Sometimes one song can carry an album far, critically, psychologically. Consider "Nevermind" via "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Yes, its other songs are substantial themselves, but that song defines the experience from the start.

"Magical Mystery Tour", on the other hand, has a very anti-climactic first song, and then it just gets worse for a while. Half 1 is charming, yes, but doesn't sound like the smart Pepper Beatles; it's fancy in a more streamlined sense, and sounds too precious. It's too Kinksy so to speak.

That doesn't make it bad, but it means critics prefer to sidestep it and go for the good songs separately.

Which I conceive as the main reason for it being acclaimed less in the current, revisionist times.