It makes sense too since this was the band's first project after the death of their manager Brian Epstein at just 32 years of age. It's impossible to get around how deeply the music and imagery is infused with a seeming preoccupation with death, or mortality at any rate. And George's utterly bizarre film for "Blue Jay Way" has gotten better and more mysterious over the years now that I have the patience to actually sit still long enough to see what he wanted to show us, and some of it is creepy as hell. Watching the band mime "I Am The Walrus" is a singular, unique experience: It was never performed or staged anywhere else by them. Then there are the songs themselves, amongst my favorite of The Beatles' catalog and utterly timeless examples of the psychedelic years' popular culture. I used to find it silly, now I see something darker and twisted in it that isn't all peppermint drops & incense. It is one of the creepiest covers for a pop record ever conceived of. First, think about the album cover, with these grown-ups dressed up as psychedelic circus animals. Yet watching it now as an adult the one thing that kept striking me about the film was how it is so packed with morbid, bizarre little touches that are kind of disturbing. I love it.ĭoes anyone else out there find the whole "Magical Mystery Tour" package to be more than just a little creepy and disturbing? Me and my pot head buddies used to watch this all the time back in the 80s after it was released on home video (one of the first pre-record tapes I ever bought, and back then they were expensive) and I got to know it inside & out. The poor boys were shattered after the death of Brian Epstein, John Lennon's marriage was coming to a very unfortunate end, they had had enough of so many things and were moving into a new and frightening phase of their lives : the film can be seen as an expression of all this angst overlaid with nostalgia for the Music Hall, Crazy Gang, Goon Show comedy and tragic sea-side holidays of their, and many of their fans', childhoods, and the sheer, magical power of their creative imaginations always looking forward to new possibilities. ![]() Magical Mystery Tour has the amateur, string-and-stickytape appeal of the early Gumby series, but with the bonus of Northern English sensibilities and great Beatle songs. There are many moments which stick in the mind, but my favourite is probably the sing-along in the bus, when a drunken Ringo begins singing "I've got a looverly boonch of coconuts." and, upon getting no reply from his fellow travellers, loudly and stroppily remonstrates, "Coom on, join in! What'sa matter with yer ?!". ![]() The silliness of this film seems to be lost on many Americans as a matter of cultural difference, but to anyone brought up in the British or Australian tradition it's a shambolic delight.
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