Worst Beatles song on Magical Mystery Tour

Why do you think that, Mark? Because of its status as "not a proper Beatles album"?

― Sickamous (Scik Mouthy), Friday, 25 September 2009 07:05 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sorry, N, been out:

Um, no, and not even because of the 'fewest' songs, but more or less because I can't actually see anything here that is dudworthy.

Yeah, people are tired of "All you need" and some might decide that "HelloGoodbye" is the least good Beatles a-side.

Or mabe even because there's no Ringo track!

Definitely an underrated LP. My vote here is for "Fool on the Hill": mawkish lyrics and godawful flute (or is it a tin whistle?) solo. Almost though not quite rescued by the masterful "sees the sun going down" bit. BTW: is that loud swooshing sound that comes in towards the end (sorry, I don't have the CD handy to note the time) a synthesizer?

hella xposts-

Oh man that's twice on these threads Geir has called me out. It's like I must hate melody as well.

this does have like the worst cover

@Pancakes: "Flying" was my favorite track when I was a kid.

Btw the remaster did some unbelievable things for John's "Walrus" vocal sound!

"The Fool on the Hill" is very tiresome, yes.

Blue Jay Way for being unbearable.

Love this album - Beatles at their trippiest. Even the weaker tracks have enough sonic fucked-upness or instrumental ingenuity to keep me enthralled...except "Your Mother Should Know." I have a higher-than-most tolerance for Paul's twee music-hall ditties, but agree with Nick that "Mother" is the most uninteresting of that lot.

xxxxxxpost - Scott, I believe that's just sped-up backwards tapes, if we're referring to the same whoosh. (I don't have the CD handy either.) George Harrison bought his Moog in '68.

"Blue Jay Way", utterly shit

Oh no, I failed to notice "All You Need Is Love"! One of the worst songs ever written!!!!

i like all you need is love-- have always thought it's an archetypical lennon kind of song. the chorus refrain immediately followed by the downward falling horn lick seems to sum up a lot of what I like about his songwriting. voted "hello goodbye" which is maybe the *dumbest* beatles single

:(

but no offense if you like it! i mean, i'm usually a fool for mccartney's marshmellow pop tracks. this one just crosses a line for me

"flying" is nice but expendable. i like most of these songs. as a kid i was sort of entranced by this album and the accompanying comic-book style booklet.

http://digilander.libero.it/jamespaul/mmt_booklet/magical_mystery_tour_booklet_page_19_bottom.jpg

I mean did they even plug in Paul's bass during that radio broadcast????

Wasn't he playing piano?

Voted Fool on the Hill.

Blue Jay Way and Flying are my two favourites.

I always get mixed up what's on this and what's Yellow Submarine.

Has anyone else watched the film lately? It has dull moments — and the visuals detract from lots of the music — but some of it is kind of extraordinary

At least the last ten minutes. The creepy restaurant section, the Bonzo Dog/stripper section, the bad Busby Berkely bit.

The part where the old man and Ringo's aunt are on the beach is oddly very touching mainly because of that orchestrated version of "All My Loving", which I really wish was on this album tbh.

Love "Flying" - wish there was a 12-minute take of it or something

Those voting for "Blue Jay Way" must be warned: I will hunt you down.

To me, this is their most solid album (even though it was only a proper LP in the USA). But the worst has got to be one of Paul's snoozers: "Fool On The Hill" or "Your Mother May Know".

yeah, i voted for "Fool" even though I like it. I like it the least, I guess. This is a great album!

It's a tossup between Blue Jay Way and Flying for me. I like Flying, but it is also kind of pointless, but I'm voting for Blue Jay Way because it is a bit too droney for my taste.

I used to date a girl a long time ago who was a big Counting Crows fan and she dragged me to one of their concerts. The best part of the show came right before the band took the stage. They blasted the song Magical Mystery Tour over the PA at full rock concert volume. It's the only time I've heard a Beatles song at the volume level and it was aweseome! It went from being a song that was just ok for me to being a favorite.

That's kinda ridic! "I have an idea, why don't we will get the crowd excited by playing a song from a band that is 50zillion times more interesting than we are!!!"

I don't understand the hate for Your Mother Should Know. :(

yeah that is prob. my fave of Paul's old timey songs

I like it alot too but the scat-solo really irks me.

it took me a long time to appreciate "your mother should know" but now it's one of my favorites. i agree that this album has a creepy weird feeling to it. i've always thought of it as the sound of the Summer of Love (almost retched typing that) coming to an end. most of these songs were recorded in august and september of 1967, correct? you can feel the days getting a little shorter, the sunsets are a little chillier. the whole album has this twilit feel and mccartney in particular seems to be saying "yeah this summer was great wasn't it? let's try to stretch it a little longer".

"your mother should know" starts out slight but by the first appearance of that beautiful piano break more elements have been added to the mix. by the time he's singing the "da da da"s at the end we've got the "whiter shade of pale"-ish organ line (remember it was a big hit earlier that summer) running behind it and it's become quite poignant.

'YMSK' is okay i guess. the melody is interesting but i feel like the song doesn't go where it ought to. there IS something creepy and weird about this album, and YMSK has that in the "let's all get up and dance to a song that was a hit" imo.

btw the title track is the worst on here imo. definitely one of my least favorite beatles songs

and flying is AWESOME. so is 'blue jay way' the haters are crazy. the way the vocals sound start to feel drowned underwater towards the end of the song, the organ. one of the best psychedelic songs they did imo

xxpost yeah, i find the YMSK dance sequence in the MMT movie kind of ... menacing? At least when I think about it. The weird frozen smiles they all have.

"Your Mother Should Know" isn't any more old-timey than "Fixing a Hole" and "Penny Lane" actually. The "beat" is obviously Music Hall influenced, but there's a lot of more modern elements in it too.

yeah, true - its a song about old-timey music, but the only elements that sound that way are the mock-barbershop harmonies

the main hook is played on clarinet! that sorta equals old timey in my book.

Voted "Blue Jay Way", but yeah, what an album.

My part in the "How can you not like that?" chorus is for "Flying". Just a very simple, joyous tune, with great production to boot. What's not to like?

Nick is absolutely on the money when it comes to "Baby Your A Rich Man." The track has always reminded me of house music though it sounds nothing like it.

I like that on this poll the usual go-to "oh obviously the worst song" tracks are getting a lot more love and defense, ie Blue Jay Way, Rich Man, and Flying, which I rep for as well. If "Mister Moonlight" were on this album maybe it'd have gotten a fair shake too.

Gonna vote for "All You Need Is Love," which I've liked a few times but generally kinda bores me.

Great record. Oh, and I love the title track! Really slight in the sense that Paul just couldn't do a killer film-opener the way John could (Live And Let Die is a different animal altogether), but totally fun and I like the sped-upped-ness of it.

BTW, what was that thread about the trend/tendency of psych bands to go for the whole "old-timey pastiche" thing?

there's about 2 or 3 but here's one

Good Trip or Bummer? U.S. Psych Bands Doing "Old-Timey" Songs on Their Albums

I have a deep, deep dislike of "Fool on the Hill."

PS: YMSK is one of my very favorites.

"Your Mother Should Know" is creepy and weird and excellent and one of my favorite Beatles songs.

I'm voting for "Strawberry Fields Forever". Instead of me justifying it I'll just wait for someone to explain what's so great about it. I'm not immune to Lennon's charm but I've never found the song compelling or catchy.

It's a visceral thing right from the opening chords - an atmosphere of intense nostalgia flavoured with a pinch of characteristic Lennon sadness. But you either feel it or you don't - you can't be convinced by explanation.

I think I would have liked it better as an instrumental track.

TRIVIA: Flying is the only Beatles song which features all 4 Beatles sharing writing credits.

Blue Jay Way is the least memorable. All You Need is Love gets a tad annoying towards the end where they repeat the title ad nauseum (I have a similar problem with the na-na-nas on 'Hey Jude').

Trivia fact is not correct, according to wikipedia. Other songs credited to all 4 include:

"12-Bar Original" (Anthology 2)
"Dig It"
"Christmas Time (Is Here Again)", the B-side to the 1995 single "Free As A Bird".

Of course, it was a true trivia fact at the time of MMT - and I think I remember reading it in the Hunter Davies book ... [I feel bad for making a nerd-ish correction]

Tracks 3-10 are all good/great. I can't really see why anyone would dislike Flying - doesn't it just make you smile? Your Mother Should Know is good, too - for me the really irritating McCartney ones are either sickly sweet (Here, There And Everywhere) or 'comedy' (Honey Pie, Rocky Raccoon) and this doesn't fall into either of those categories.
The title track is dull - it sounds like a half an idea stretched into a song. The Fool On The Hill is also boring. But there's something really annoying about All You Need Is Love, so that gets my vote.

I voted "Flying" but I don't dislike it. I don't dislike any of the songs on this album at all.