Worst Beatles song on Magical Mystery Tour

strings on blue jay way directly quoted on scandinavian skies, off billy joel's beatlesque nylon curtain album. mono version of walrus is HEAVY. i think this could be my favourite beatles album, but your mother should know feels a clunker to these years. i grew up with my mum's old skool cassettes of the beatles albums which her sister sent her while posted with her husband in china (he was a naval sailor), and the tape of revolver had ymsk instead of yellow submarine, so i got to hear it across two albums, not just one.

I think the spookiness of this album comes from the threat of children being kidnapped; this seems to be an album a lot of us here got into as kids / young teens, and the whole "magical mystery tour is coming to take you away" thing is a bit spooky nursery rhyme / child catcher. Couple that with the nostalgia pair (PL and SFF), the lines about hiding money in a bag in the zoo (a ransom?), the weird aura of Blue Jay Way, the outright oddness of a Beatles song without words...

It's also tapping into that sixties psychedelic fear of never being able to come back from whatever trip you're on. It's the aural equivalent of the island in The Prisoner - idyllic yet sinister. A more recent example is the "other world" in Coraline.

Also the contradiction within the title of "Baby You're A Rich Man" - is this being sung to a man or woman?

^^^if you're asking this question, you're not really getting the fundamental circus-dizzy socio-clusterfuck absurdity of it all

It's being sung at Epstein, allegedly, so calling him both baby and a man from Lennon's POV is totally apt.

and calling him a "rich fag jew" etc...

i'm surprised at 0 votes for Walrus. I love it, but I thought it was the epitome of "silly Beatles" that a lot of people don't like.

it's also fucking creepy and weird and disturbing as hell

i've only got the mono versh but i'm really not hearing "rich fag jew".

xp also can we settle once and for all that they are in fact chanting "everybody smoke pot everybody smoke pot"

aren't they singing "everybody's got one" ?

i've only got the mono versh but i'm really not hearing "rich fag jew".

You need the stereo one then. (srsly)

.. it's 'just' the one time...

I've never "definitely" heard it.

I thought it was a "scrambled eggs" type song genesis that got changed, didn't realise it was actually (allegedly?) in the recording!

this is so wrong

I'll have to do yer a 'time'

The 'rich fag jew' part I remember was from Revolution in the Head and as much as I've listened to that song I never heard it.

The bus does crash in the opening track, tho! Listen closely!
http://wgo.signal11.org.uk/wgo.htm

I thought they were singing the old kid's party magicians' phrase "Oompah-oompah-stick-it-up-yer-jum-per" on I Am The Walrus

can we just say it's "everybody smoke pot" b/c that's what i've believed all these years

I've come around to thinking this is their best sequenced album. Funny, when you consider that it isn't a proper Beatles album at all, but everything just fits and flows together so perfectly.

Someone, please make a 12 inch, 10 minute re-mix of "Baby Your A Rich Man." I con't stop playing it because of the bass and drums. Baleric Beatles!!!

Didn't PM Dawn kind of do that...

I thought it was "BITCH fag jew." Yeah, Lennon... what a great guy.

Yeah, he said that one thing once, therefore he was terrible.

x-post. Yeah, I guess PM Dawn did. I was thinking more along the lines of Apple allowing someone like Weatherall or the dudes from The Studio to run wild on the Beatles' back catalog.

Yeah, he said that one thing once, therefore he was terrible.

Yeah, and in front of a recording device, thus preserving it for all time.

Pretty sure you've said worse here on ILX, preserving it for all time.

Probably, but I'm not deified as the veritable personification of peace n' love that Lennon is. I'm a fan, I just bristle at the revisionism.

"Alex in NYC" is love.

Alex is The Word.

All you need is Alex.

Alex is all you need.

Lennon being a sarcastic asshole, what a shocker.

deified as the veritable personification of peace n' love

Isn't this mainly a posthumous marketing meme? I mean even on Imagine you have "How Do You Sleep?" which is pretty bitter and hateful. Seems like Lennon-is-Love came about mainly as a good way to sell t-shirts in the early 80s.

Hearing a horrendous remake of "All You Need is Love" playing on a commercial this evening really makes me understand the hate. The commercial is either for a bank or credit card or both.

i've come to the conclusion that blue jay way is my favorite beatles song

Wow, this is off the mark even by ILMs standards. How the hell is the track Flying not easily the worst? It's a forgettable instrumental with neither melody or invention to save it. Fool On The Hill is far superior and Blue Jay Way should be more highly esteemed. End of rant.

I'd have thought "Hello Goodbye" should have walked this. The other higher ones are there purely through overfamiliarity. "I say a positive thing, you say a negative thing" for 3 mins.

I think Flying is pretty cool

8. Strawberry Fields Forever 3
6. I Am The Walrus 0

;_;

Why so? No-one thinks Walrus is the worst song on this?

Buzza OTM. Especially Ringo's performance, the drumming is KILLER

I love flying. Sounds like being stoned.

Flying, also, is a great performance, particularly from Ringo. And how can you hate on that ambient mellotron ending? The tremolo guitar, that silly four-part harmony, and the gentle acoustic guitar solo in the lead-in. It's all so wonderful. Really a beautiful couple of minutes on a rather intense and schizophrenic album.

"Hello Goodbye" is the one song on this album I can't stand.

re: "hello goodbye," i think the appeal of that song is not particularly about the lyrics (which, yes, are nursery-rhyme-ish). the round-like vocal harmonies are very nice. one of the beatles' better straight sunshine-psych tunes IMO.

The CODA for heaven's sake.

^this. Redeems the song.

Flying is an amazing bedroom rocker btw.

Flying is chillwave LOL

wouldve voted Penny Lane and not thought twice...

hello goodbye is among the top 5 worst beatles songs. flying is awesome. the sentiment of AYNIL I appreciate more as I approach the elder stages of life, tho musically it is sometimes a bit much to take