The Movie
The movie was completely improvised: no script, no logistics, no dialogue—everything was fun. Now that Brian Epstein was gone, the Beatles found out how difficult it was to organize a project of this magnitude. Right away, Paul became the director: he distributed the different scenes every day and picked the actors from Spotlight (a London actors’ directory). The shoot began in London on September 11 and lasted two weeks. Thirty-three people took off on the bus with the team, which traveled at random through the British countryside. Nobody knew what would happen—and that was what excited the Beatles. Except for a few scenes that were rather fun (the clip of “I Am the Walrus” or the spaghetti scene), the results were mediocre. It took Paul eleven weeks to finalize the edit, instead of the two planned. The BBC bought the copyright for the ridiculous sum of £9,000 [$14,000 U.S.] and broadcast Magical Mystery Tour on December 26, in black and white, even though the special effects had specifically been designed for color. The very next day, the critics trashed the movie; it was the Beatles’ first failure. Paul had to defend himself on The David Frost Show. Nevertheless, the movie raked in $2 million in the United States and the record brought in $8 million in the ten days that followed the beginning of sales on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Instruments
They used the same instruments as in Sgt. Pepper. The only difference was that they had their guitars painted in psychedelic colors; these were John’s J-160 E and the Epiphone Casino, Paul’s 4001S, and George’s Fender Stratocaster, which he played on “All You Need Is Love.”
RELEASED
EMI decided to edit the master collected on 2 extended plays (EPs), to which was added a booklet of 24 pages with photos, lyrics, and scripts adapted as a comic book.
Record 1—side 1: “Magical Mystery Tour” / “Your Mother Should Know”; side 2: “I Am the Walrus”
Record 2—side 1: “The Fool on the Hill” / “Flying”; side 2: “Blue Jay Way”
The American editors preferred to market a 33 rpm record with a different track order and grouped the following songs on side 2: “Hello, Goodbye” / “Strawberry Fields Forever” / “Penny Lane” / “Baby You’re a Rich Man” / “All You Need Is Love.”
Finally, EMI adopted the album configuration and abandoned the double EP format.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
On the original cover of the EP (and copied on the CD), there is the following credit: Produced by Big George Martin!
Magical Mystery Tour
Lennon-McCartney / 2:48
1967
SONGWRITER
Paul
MUSICIANS
Paul: vocal, bass, piano, percussion
John: rhythm guitar, backing vocal, percussion
George: lead guitar, backing vocal, percussion
Ringo: drums, percussion
George Martin: celesta (?)
Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall: percussion
David Mason, Elgar Howarth, Roy Copestake, John Wilbraham: trumpets
RECORDED
Abbey Road: April 25–27, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 6, 1967 (Studio One)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 9
MIXING
Abbey Road: April 27, 1967 (Studio Three) / May 4, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 6, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 7, 1967 (Studio One)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Malcolm Addey
Assistant Engineers: Richard Lush, Ken Scott, Graham Kirkby
Genesis
After coming up with the idea for the movie, Paul wrote the theme song, although John said, “Paul’s song. Maybe I did part of it, but it was his concept.”1 The song was based on memories of surprise trips that he and John had taken when they were children and evoked the carnival atmosphere, offering adventure and mystery. Roll up! Roll up! was an invitation to a trip that can be interpreted differently. Paul said, “… [it] was also a reference to rolling up a joint.”2 Obviously, in the days of psychedelics there were innuendos of all kinds. It’s dying to take you away was an allusion, according to Paul, to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. It was a “Mystery Tour,” but with hallucinogenic substances.
Production
Four days after the final touches to Sgt. Pepper and five weeks before the new record was marketed, the Beatles returned to the studio on April 25 to record “Magical Mystery Tour.” The idea of adding trumpets was brought up right at the beginning of the session. For the time being, they built the rhythm track with Paul on piano, John and George on guitar, and Ringo on drums. The third track was satisfactory and reduced right away. While they were reducing, some flanging/ chorus was applied to George’s guitar and to the end on the piano. Someone proposed inserting the noise of a bus passing by. The coach sound effect from the Abbey Road sound effect collection was made into a tape loop, and would be added later to the song at the remix stage. The next day, Paul recorded his bass part. Then, with the help of Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall, the four musicians added a lot of percussion: maracas, cowbell, tambourines, snare drum, toms, etc. John, Paul, and George then tackled the backing vocals with the support of added echo and delay. There was a new reduction of the whole song. On April 27, Paul recorded his singing, backed up by John and George, while the tape recorder ran at a slower speed, raising the song’s pitch when played at normal speed. There were four trumpets in the studio on May 3. Paul sang for George Martin what he wanted as an arrangement, but he was not satisfied with the results. Howarth, one of the trumpet players, tired of waiting, suggested the part to be played. The session ended with the addition of a celesta (?) at the end of the song. Six months later, on November 7, Paul redid other vocal parts and new sound effects were inserted. The final mono and stereo mixes were made the same day.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
If you use a bit of imagination, you can hear the bus put the brakes on at 0:51 and crash at 0:53. Some people claimed, erroneously, that it was the accident in which Paul was killed.
Your Mother Should Know
Lennon-McCartney / 2:26
1967
SONGWRITER
Paul
MUSICIANS
Paul: vocal, bass, piano
John: organ, backing vocal
George: tambura, backing vocal
Ringo: drums, tambourine
RECORDED
Chappel Recording Studios: August 22–23, 1967
Abbey Road: September 16, 1967 (Studio Three) / September 29, 1967 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 52
MIXING
Abbey Road: September 30, 1967 (Studio Three) / October 2, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 6, 1967 (Studio One)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: John Timperley (Chappell), Ken Scott, Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineers: John Iles (Chappell), Jeff Jarratt, Graham Kirkby
Genesis
“Your Mother Should Know” was another one of Paul’s incursions into the world of music halls, in the same vein as “When I’m Sixty-Four,” a song recorded nine months before for Sgt. Pepper. Composed originally for an important scene in Magical Mystery Tour, it was finally used in the sequence of the broad stairway (John almost missed a step at 0:15!). Paul wrote it on the harmonium on Cavendish Avenue in the presence of his aunt Jin and his uncle Harry, which perhaps accounted for the retro style of the song. “In ‘Your Mother Should Know,’ I was basically trying to say your mother might know more than you think she does. Give her credit.”1 It seemed that the song was a runner-up for the BBC program, Our World, but the song that was finally used was “All You Need Is Love.”
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
The Chappell Recording Studios, used by artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Cream, and the Who, attracted the finest internationally renowned musicians.
Production
The Abbey Road Studios were not available, so the Beatles recorded on August 22 at the Chappell Recording Studios i
n London. Once again, they picked up the Magical Mystery Tour project that had been left on the back burner since May. There is a lack of information about the instruments played by each musician; nevertheless, for the rhythm track, we can assume Paul was on piano, John on organ, George on guitar and tambura (which was audible on the last notes), and Ringo on drums. The next day, they recorded the vocals, with Paul singing lead, and George and John contributing backing vocals. On September 16, they returned to Abbey Road to completely redo the song because Paul was dissatisfied with the work done at the Chappell Studios. In this new version, Ringo’s snare drum, accompanied by a harmonium and a piano (see Anthology 2), was predominant. But on September 29, Paul was undecided and finally returned to the recording from Chappell Studios and, together with John, added bass and some organ. The mono mix was carried out on October 2 and the stereo on November 6.
The Last Session
According to John Timperley, the sound engineer at Chappell Recording Studios, when Brian Epstein came to visit the Beatles on August 23, he looked rather gloomy and depressed. It was the very last session he attended. He was found dead in his bed on August 27, 1967.
I Am The Walrus
Lennon-McCartney / 4:33
1967
SONGWRITER
John
MUSICIANS
John: vocal, Hohmer Pianet electric piano
Paul: bass, backing vocal, tambourine
George lead guitar, backing vocal Ringo: drums
Sidney Sax, Jack Rothstein, Ralph Elman, Andrew McGee, Jack Greene, Louis Stevens, John Jezzard, Jack Richards: violins
Lionel Ross, Eldon Fox, Bram Martin, Terry Weil: cellos
Gordon Lewin: clarinet
Neil Sanders, Tony Tunstall, Morris Miller: horns
The Mike Sammes Singers: vocal effects
RECORDED
Abbey Road: September 5, 1967 (Studio One) / September 6, 1967 (Studio Two) / September 27, 1967 (Studios One and Two) / September 28, 1967 (Studio Two)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 17
MIXING
Abbey Road: September 5, 1967 (Studio One) / September 6 and 28–29, 1967 (Studio Two) / November 6, 1967 (Studio Three) / November 17, 1967 (Room 53)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: Ken Scott, Geoff Emerick
Assistant Engineers: Ken Scott, Richard Lush, Graham Kirkby
RELEASED AS A SINGLE
“Hello, Goodbye” / “I Am the Walrus”
Great Britain: November 24, 1967 / No. 1 on December 6, 1967 for 7 weeks
United States: November 27, 1967 / No. 1 on December 30, 1967 for 3 weeks
Genesis
“I Am the Walrus” was among John’s masterpieces. It was a song with multiple sources of inspiration, full of images from Alice in Wonderland, more specifically from the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter.” John revealed later that the beginning of the melody came to him when he heard the notes of a police car siren that was passing by while he was on the piano; “the first line was written on one acid trip one weekend, the second line on another acid trip the next weekend, and it was filled in after I met Yoko.”1 The lyrics were an anthology of surrealistic images, ideas, and allusions. This was a partly deliberate choice: John wanted to make fun of pseudointellectuals who interpreted his songs in a phony way. He asked his friend Pete Shotton for help and both searched their memories to compose this song. They recalled from their childhood the text of a song they used to sing: Yellow matter custard, green slop pie / All mixed together with a dead dog’s eye …, then there was the memory of semolina, a sort of insipid pudding they ate as children, and pilchard, which was a sardine to feed cats. Shotton recalls seeing John writing feverishly: Semolina pilchard climbing up the Eiffel Tower … Then, turning to him with a smile, he quipped, “Let the fuckers work that one out, Pete!”2 Some people read in the word pilchard a reference to the infamous Sergeant Pilcher, the terror of the rock circles of the sixties, who was known for sending the Stones to jail. John said, “In those days I was writing obscurely, à la Dylan, never saying what you mean but giving the impression of something, where more or less can be read into it.”3 Therefore, according to him, it was just “tongue in cheek … ‘I am the eggman’? It could have been the pudding basin for all I care. It’s not that serious.”4 The author Jeff Kent thought, on the other hand, that John was alluding to his friend Eric Burdon who was nicknamed “Eggs,” because of some of his favorite sexual practices. As for Element’ry penguin, he was targeting the Hare Krishna movement, and more specifically, Allen Ginsberg. John provoked the censors at the BBC, who did not appreciate the sentence you let your knickers down. The walrus would reappear in “Glass Onion” in 1968 and in “God,” from John’s first solo album, Plastic Ono Band.
FOR BEATLES FANATICS
Spooky Tooth’s version of this song is one of the best. A must to listen to!
Production
On September 5, the Beatles were now without a manager, and they found themselves in the studio for the first time since the funeral of Brian Epstein, on August 29. John’s voice was full of emotion as he presented his song. He sang, I’m crying. George Martin felt lost. This tale of walruses and eggmen perplexed him. Despite it all, they recorded the rhythm track in sixteen takes: John was on the Hohner Pianet, Paul on tambourines, George on his Fender Stratocaster, and Ringo on drums. The next day, they reduced the whole song and added flanging/chorus on the Pianet. Then Paul recorded his bass and Ringo doubled his snare drum and bass drum. Finally, John delivered his superb vocal. According to Geoff Emerick, he had one requirement: he wanted it to sound as though it came from the moon. Emerick saturated the entrance of his preamplifier microphone and made John sing on a microphone of poor quality: the results were perfect. The following session was scheduled for September 27, giving George Martin the time to write an instrumental score meeting John’s needs. On the day of the recording, the arrangements he made for eight violins, four cellos, a bass clarinet, and three French horns were extraordinary. To satisfy John, who also wanted a few bizarre sounds, he hired the Mike Sammes Singers, a vocal group of sixteen mixed choir singers. They sang different vocal effects that made the song unique: the Ho-ho-ho, hee-hee-hee, ha-ha-ha; Oompah oompah, stick it up your jumper; Got one, got one, everybody’s got one; and other oddities! John loved it and was splitting a gut laughing as he listened to them. “It was a fascinating session. That was John’s baby, great one, a really good one,”5 said Paul.
Several reductions and overdubs were done the next day. On September 29, there was an epic mixing session with Ringo tuning a radio and John inserting the random radio extracts! He stumbled upon a BBC program broadcasting King Lear. The voices in the coda are lines of William Shakespeare! The final mix resulted from the edit of mixes 10 (up to Sitting in an English garden) and 22 (for the ending). For the stereo mix, carried out on November 6, Geoff Emerick could not find the radio program chosen by Ringo (the radio and the four-track tape of the song had been injected live and simultaneously through the mix console to be recorded on the master tape) and decided to create an artificial stereo for the second part of the mono mix involved. The final stereo mix was done on November 17. John said in 1974, “‘I Am the Walrus’ is also one of my favorite tracks—because I did it, of course, but also because it’s one of those that has enough little bitties going to keep you interested even a hundred years later.”6
The Evil Walrus
John would reveal later that he did not understand at the time he wrote this song that the walrus in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland was an evil character, symbolizing capitalism—one the author wanted to denounce!
Technical Details
When George Martin recorded the string and wind instruments, he did it on a second tape recorder. Likewise for the choir. After mixing together all the tracks on one four-track tape recorder, Martin manually synchronized this tape with the four-track tape of the Beatles’ performances on another tape r
ecorder. This was why in some spots there was a gap between the orchestra and the rhythm track.
The Fool On The Hill
Lennon-McCartney / 2:57
1967
SONGWRITER
Paul
MUSICIANS
Paul: vocal, bass, piano, recorder
John: rhythm guitar, bass harmonica, maracas
George: acoustic guitar (?), bass harmonica
Ringo: drums, maracas, finger cymbals
Christopher and Richard Taylor, Jack Ellory: flutes
RECORDED
Abbey Road: September 6 and 25–26, 1967 (Studio Two) / September 27, 1967 (Studios One and Two) / October 20, 1967 (Studio Three)
NUMBER OF TAKES: 6
MIXING
Abbey Road: September 25, 1967 (Studio Two) / September 27, 1967 (Studios One and Two) / October 25, 1967 (Studio Two) / November 1, 1967 (Studio Three)
TECHNICAL TEAM
Producer: George Martin
Sound Engineers: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott
Assistant Engineers: Ken Scott, Richard Lush, Phil McDonald, Graham Kirkby
Genesis
“The Fool on the Hill” was one of Paul’s most beautiful ballads. Marijke Koger, a member of the group of Dutch artist-designers called The Fool, regularly did his tarot reading and he always pulled out the card of the Fool, which symbolized innocence and childhood. This inspired him and he wrote a song about someone like the Maharishi. Paul explained, “His detractors called him a fool. Because of his giggle he wasn’t taken too seriously. It was this idea of a fool on the hill, a guru in a cave, I was attracted to.”1 Paul had played for John a sketch of his song at the end of March, while they were recording “With a Little Help from My Friends.” John liked it, noting, “Another good lyric. Shows he’s capable of writing complete songs.”2 It was probably after attending the first conference of the Maharishi a few months later, on August 24, that he could finish writing the song.
All the Songs Page 31
