Insane Beatles post on Magical Mystery Tour

hey everyone! London here =)

let's rant about the Beatles!!!!!!!!!!!

last night me n and a friend were hanging out, driving around, showing each other music. i can't remember why, but i ended up showing her the album magical mystery tour. and it made me want to go on a rant about what this album means to me!

so in july of 2023, i saw the new indiana jones movie. ...i didn't like it. BUT! for a decent amount of screen time, the movie is set in 1969 New York, on the day of the parade celebrating the return of the moon landing astronauts. and that ignited something deep within me... it made me yearn for those times. i mean, can you imagine? being young back then and, and... the moon?! whaaaaat? i may be looking into a red tinted lens here, but i suddenly started yearning for a time in which a country felt unifying and working towards the progress of humanity, no bad intentions in sight. these feelings were quickly attached to the brief Beatles song that plays in the movie- a song with the same title as the whole album, Magical Mystery Tour. and since listening to that album, i've been a diehard fan of the band.

i think the title track is largely seen as nothing special within the band's catalogue, but it still remains as one of my favorite songs of all time. it is so triumphant and celebratory. i too want to go on a magical mystery tour. i want to be a hippie in the 60s! i want to feel the summer of love!

you can hear the title track here =) https://youtu.be/l8WMGBuNaus?si=QxCxx5J8sLXY7g4p 

listening to this album just really reignited some kind of childlike whimsy in me. i don't know if i listened to the beatles when i was young or what- but some of the happier and playful songs in the album connect with my very soul.

Hello Goodbye is one i have to particularly praise for its playful melody. somehow, i went my whole life never listening to Strawberry Fields Forever- but when i did, it kept me up at night wondering where life could ever go after this song and if i would ever be able to find an output to the emotions i felt. i also want to shout out Blue Jay Way for giving me such a strong, psychedelic image. i don't know if this makes any sense, but this song feels like sitting on the concrete floor next to the broken fairgrounds, being left behind, and holding nothing but an orange piece of chalk in your hand. i've listened to Blue Jay Way in the most dreadful, ominous weather. the mental image i get is so random and impossible to describe but so strong, i feel like i lived it in a past life. orange chalk! orange chalk! does that makes any sense?? xD i'm gonna crash out. 

do u ever perceive in album in a way you know isn't correct, but you'll never stop correlating it in the way you do? that's me with this album. despite the fact this album accompanies a movie about a magical bus ride, despite it coming out in 1967 and not 1969... this album is about the moon landing to me. sure, indiana jones gave forth a majority of these feelings. but there is more evidence! some examples include:

1. "magical mystery tour" is literally, like... what is more magical and mysterious than a triumphant trip to the moon?

2. "the fool on the hill" has many lyrics about seeing "the sun going down" and "the world spinning round" and is just very introspective in a way that feels like a timelapse. something about this song is so aware that we are just on one Earth, and we know there is a gateway to space above us we can see at night.

3. "flying" is literally titled flying and features the only instrumental the band has made, making it feel different, alien even. to me, this always sounded like elevator music you would hear in a ufo. the top comment for this song on youtube even describes it that way.

4. "blue jay way" features psychedelic lyrics and an unnerving atmosphere about being lost in the streets at night, which just kind continues to have the album feel so conscious about how small we all are. even the chorus of "please don't be long" feels like the singer is talking to the small group of humans that are some of the only people to ever leave the planet, become part of space, and have the chances of their return be doubtful or completely unknown.

5. the album cover features stars and clouds!

6. "baby you're a rich man" is about the wonders of being human which almost gives it an alien perspective. this is also supported by the strange pitch of the voices in the song, as well as nonsensical lyrics that feel like wholesome aliens analyzing humans incorrectly like "you keep all your money in a big brown bag inside a zoo, what a thing to do"

7. the album that the Beatles made before this, Sgt. Pepper's, is about everyday life. that album features songs about normal people going through life like leaving home, growing old, going to the circus, getting help from your friends, reading the news and hearing about death, and so on. it's a very human album. so is it really that weird to look at the next album and see an evolution to humanity, as in the progress of reaching space? this album has the exact same song process to it, so it really feels like a sequel. this album feels like humanity coming together for the sake of space exploration. it has the celebration, the fears, the outside perspective, and so on!

a while back, i decided to rank every song on the album. this must have been 2024 or so. here was my ranking:

1. Magical Mystery Tour

2. Strawberry Fields Forever

3. Blue Jay Way

4. Hello Goodbye

5. Baby You're A Rich Man

6. All You Need Is Love

7. Your Mother Should Know

8. Penny Lane

9. I Am The Walrus

10. The Fool On The Hill

11. Flying

i think the only thing i would change would be dramatically moving up Flying as i originally dismissed it for being an instrumental. now? i really, really like it. but yeah... is it blasphemy to say i was never a big fan of Penny Lane or I Am The Walrus? bc, like... i would easily skip them in favor of other Beatles songs. but that's not to say any of the songs on the album are bad. at worst, they're skippable if i'm not in the mood. at best, they are some of the most perplexingly valuable songs of all time to me.

this will always be one of my favorite albums of all time.