The mess that ensued-unfounded charges that the Maharishi had behaved badly with women in the entourage including Mia Farrow- is well-covered elsewhere but Ringo left after two weeks, McCartney after a month, while Harrison and Lennon and wife Cynthia remained through much of April. For many Beatles fans this felt like a “WTF” moment, though that term had yet to be invented. The trip to India was well-covered in “living color” in Life MagazineĪnd elsewhere. Shortly after the Magical Mystery Tour album release, in Feburary of 1968, and still shaken by Brian Epstein’s death and exhausted by being “The Beatles”, John, Paul, George and Ringo traveled to Rishikish, India to receive advanced Transcendental Meditation training at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram-along with an “eclectic” entourage that included wives and girlfriends and Beach Boy Mike Love, Mia Farrow, Donovan and others, and that’s where The Beatles album story begins to unfold. But Magical Mystery Tour was a concocted collection of songs and not an album that The Beatles had intended to release. George Martin was quoted as regretting not including “Strawberry Fields Forever” on Sgt. And in America it had the usual Beatles chart success. In 1971 side two’s singles were mixed for stereo and became available first on the German Hör Zu (Listen!) magazine record label’s edition and then on Mobile Fidelity’s real-time duplicated cassette release.Įven for fans that did not (could not) understand what was happening, it seemed that without Brian Epstein’s guiding hand, The Beatles ship was sinking-which is not to say that the album did not contain some great songs because it surely did-along with some duds. album that George Martin hadn’t time to mix the singles in stereo so Capitol’s “stereo” LP was on side 2, fake stereo.
Magical Mystery Tour was released in the U.K. Most fans then didn’t know it was a Capitol Records cobbled together “Christmas season product” album that combined the “Magical Mystery Tour” soundtrack songs on side 1 with single releases on side 2 The Beatles never intended to be issued on an album. I remember buying it at a store in Ithaca, NY and running home to play “the next Beatles album”, which of course was a major letdown. Pepper’s… follow up so when, just before Thanksgiving, in November of 1967 the Magical Mystery Tour LP arrived in American stores eager fans gobbled it up.
but McCartney’s Merry Pranksters/LSD influenced movie was on hold while the group finished songs for the animated film “Yellow Submarine” and performed live “All You Need is Love” for the groundbreaking “Our World” world-wide satellite feed TV show.Įpstein’s death put the movie idea in the production hopper but little or none of this was known to fans waiting for the Sgt. The group had recorded the song “Magical Mystery Tour” shortly after completing Sgt. I didn’t really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music. John Lennon was quoted as saying “I knew that we were in trouble then. The loss of Epstein’s guiding hand affected everything Beatles that followed. and shortly thereafter in America came the low on August 27th of Beatles manager Brian Epstein’s surprising accidental drug overdose death at age 32.
Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band released late May 1967 in the U.K. The eager anticipation with which this double LP was met and the way in which it transfixed a generation might be difficult for today’s youngsters to fully appreciate. So if that track doesn’t do it for you, I’m not sure what might. You can add to that greater textural delicacy and transparency all set against blacker backgrounds. pressings I have: more transparent and more spacious, with a holographic George front, center and three-dimensional as he’s not presented on the original. If you don’t like that one, you’re probably not going to like the rest, but for me, that remix in particular is far superior to the one on the two original “Top Loader” U.K. If you want to quickly know if you’re going to like Giles Martin’s The Beatles remixes start with “Long, Long, Long”.