Magical Mystery Tour

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Magical Mystery Tour is the first song from The Beatles' 1967 album, Magical Mystery Tour. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

Inspiration and Writing

Inspired by the idea of Ken Kesey's Merry Pranksters, Paul had the idea that The Beatles should make a movie where they, along with a bus full of actors, travel on a bus and see all these different places. The TV film itself got negative reviews. Paul got the ideas for the song while on an overnight flight from America on April 11, although, the song was far complete and he came in to the studio with little more than the three chords and the title. He tried to get the other Beatles to help write it with him, but they were not enthusiastic about the idea. Paul later finished the lyrics by himself. The song, although made to sound was about a bus trip, also had some drug references and double meanings. Paul later admitted "Because those were psychedelic times it had to become a magical mystery tour, a little bit more surreal than the real ones to give us a licence to do it. But it employs all the circus and fairground barkers, 'Roll up! Roll up!', which was also a reference to rolling up a joint. We were always sticking those little things in that we knew our friends would get; veiled references to drugs and to trips. 'Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away,' so that's a kind of drug, 'it's dying to take you away' so that's a Tibetan Book of the Dead reference. We put all these words in and if you were just an ordinary person, it's a nice bus that's waiting to take you away, but if you're tripping, it's dying, it's the real tour, the real magical mystery tour. We stuck all that stuff in for our 'in group' of friends really."

Recording

The song was first recorded on April 25, 1967, when much time was spent improvising and rehearsing. Later that day, they recorded three basic tracks for the song, including two guitars, piano, and drums. Take three was the best. After all the recording was done on the basic track, The Beatles raided Abbey Road's Sound Effects Collection to create a tape loop of the sound of a bus, which would later be overdubbed onto the song. The next day, Paul overdubbed his bass part, while The Beatles, Neil Aspinall, and Mal Evans overdubbed various percussion instruments, including tambourine, maracas, and cowbell. John, Paul, and George also overdubbed extra vocals. On April 27, even more vocals were recorded, including the lead vocal part and the lines "Roll up, Roll up for the Mystery Tour" at the intro of the song were recorded. Recording on the song finished on May 3, when the four trumpet parts were overdubbed. Paul tried to hum what he wanted in the song for the trumpet players, but he couldn't get his point across. After that, Paul McCartney and George Martin tried to figure out how to play what Paul wanted on piano for the trumpet players. One of the trumpet players, Gary Howarth, got so impatient that he just wrote a score for the song himself. According to his friend, Phillip Jones, that's the trumpet parts that they ended up using. There are three different versions of the song that have been legitimately released, the mono EP version, the stereo LP version, and the film version.

Recording Sessions


Personnel

The Beatles

Guest Musicians

Available Versions

Available On

Cover Versions

  • Ambrosia
  • Cheap Trick
  • The Punkles
  • Yngwie Malmsteen

Source

Retrieved from "http://www.beatleswiki.org/wiki/Magical_Mystery_Tour"
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