The Beatles, album "Magical Mystery Tour"

SP - Studio mini-album - Studio Apple Corps - 1967
stereo: 08.12.1967

Magical Mystery Tour

1. 02:50 Magical Mystery Tour (John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 07.11.1967

2. 02:28 Your Mother Should Know (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 29.09.1967

   PAUL circa-1994: 'I dreamed up 'Your Mother Should Know' as a production number… I've always hated generation gaps.
   I always feel sorry for a parent or a child that doesn't understand each other.
   A mother not being understood by her child is particularly sad because the mother went through pain to have that child, and so there is this incredible bond of motherly love, like an animal bond between them.
   But because we mess things up so readily they have one argument and hate each other for the rest of their lives.
   So I was advocating peace between the generations.
   In 'Your Mother Should Know' I was basically trying to say your mother might know more than you think she does.
   Give her credit.'

3. 04:35 I Am the Walrus (John Lennon – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 29.09.1967

   PAUL 1967: 'Everyone keeps preaching that the best way is to be 'open' when writing for teenagers.
   Then when we do we get criticized.
   Surely the word 'knickers' can't offend anyone.
   Shakespeare wrote words alot more naughtier than knickers!'

   JOHN 1967: 'We chose the word (knickers) because it is a lovely expressive word.
   It rolls off the tongue.
   It could 'mean' anything.'

   GEORGE 1967: 'People don't understand.
   In John's song, 'I Am The Walrus' he says: 'I am he as you are he as you are me.' People look for all sorts of hidden meanings.
   It's serious, but it's also not serious.
   It's true, but it's also a joke.'

   JOHN 1968: 'We write lyrics, and I write lyrics that you don't realize what they mean till after.
   Especially some of the better songs or some of the more flowing ones, like 'Walrus.' The whole first verse was written without any knowledge.
   With 'I Am the Walrus,' I had 'I am he as you are he as we are all together.' I had just these two lines on the typewriter, and then about two weeks later I ran through and wrote another two lines and then, when I saw something, after about four lines, I just knocked the rest of it off.
   Then I had the whole verse or verse and a half and then sang it.
   I had this idea of doing a song that was a police siren, but it didn't work in the end (sings like a siren) 'I-am-he-as-you-are-he-as…' You couldn't really sing the police siren.'

   JOHN 1980: 'The first line was written on one acid trip one weekend.
   The second line was written on the next acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko.
   Part of it was putting down Hare Krishna.
   All these people were going on about Hare Krishna, Allen Ginsberg in particular.
   The reference to 'Element'ry penguin' is the elementary, naive attitude of going around chanting, 'Hare Krishna,' or putting all your faith in any one idol.
   I was writing obscurely, a la Dylan, in those days.
   It's from 'The Walrus and the Carpenter.' 'Alice in Wonderland.' To me, it was a beautiful poem.
   It never dawned on me that Lewis Carroll was commenting on the capitalist and social system.
   I never went into that bit about what he really meant, like people are doing with the Beatles' work.
   Later, I went back and looked at it and realized that the walrus was the bad guy in the story and the carpenter was the good guy.
   I thought, Oh, shit, I picked the wrong guy.
   I should have said, 'I am the carpenter.' But that wouldn't have been the same, would it? (singing) 'I am the carpenter…''

4. 02:59 The Fool on the Hill (Paul McCartney – John Lennon and Paul McCartney) - 25.10.1967

   JOHN 1980: 'Now that's Paul.
   Another good lyric.
   Shows he's capable of writing complete songs.'

   PAUL circa-1994: ''Fool On The Hill' was mine and I think I was writing about someone like the Maharishi.
   His detractors called him a fool.
   Because of his giggle he wasn't taken too seriously… I was sitting at the piano at my father's house in Liverpool hitting a D6 chord, and I made up 'Fool On The Hill.''

5. 02:15 Flying (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Richard Starkey and George Harrison) - 28.09.1967

   PAUL circa-1994: ''Flying' was an instrumental that we needed for (the film) 'Magical Mystery Tour' so in the studio one night I suggested to the guys that we made something up.
   I said, 'We can keep it very, very simple, we can make it a 12-bar blues.
   We need a little bit of a theme and a little bit of a backing.' I wrote the melody, otherwise it's just a 12-bar backing thing.
   It's played on the mellotron, on a trombone setting.
   It's credited to all four (Beatles), which is how you would credit a non-song.'

6. 03:55 Blue Jay Way (George Harrison) - 06.10.1967

   GEORGE 1968: 'Derek Taylor got held up.
   He rang to say he'd be late.
   I told him on the phone that the house was in Blue Jay Way.
   And he said he could find it okay… he could always ask a cop.
   So I waited and waited.
   I felt really nackered with the flight, but I didn't want to go to sleep until he came.
   There was a fog and it got later and later.
   To keep myself awake, just as a joke to pass the time while I waited, I wrote a song about waiting for him in Blue Jay Way.
   There was a little Hammond organ in the corner of this house which I hadn't noticed until then… so I messed around on it and the song came.'