Worst Beatles song on Magical Mystery Tour

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.

title track is dull - it sounds like a half an idea stretched into a song

Agreed on the second half; and while I still like it, it is almost a self-parody of the whole whimsical psychedelic universe.

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.

You've never heard/read ANY explanations of why it's so great?????

You know, the mellotron and the backwards guitar bits and all that.

And the way those shuffly drums kick in with the weird chanting at the end.

Come on, this is like having to explain why, like, rice is good. It just is.

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

― tylerw, Friday, September 25, 2009 11:30 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

There is an outtake that is 7 or 8 minutes long, with all the extra bits being ambient mellotron noodling at the end. It pops up sometimes as "Aerial Tour Instrumental"

jeez not everything is balearic, guys, except "Flying" and "Baby You're A Rich Man" which are...

this is the only album where choosing the worst is really hard

Their best album cover too imo.

Voted "Hello Goodbye" cos the lyrics are beyond stupid. At least "All You Need is Love" is trying for acid-fried philosophy.

just echoing everyone who said this album is their best, most solid, most creepy. it is my favourite post-rubber soul album, mostly just because it sounds like it was a lot of fun to make. whether it's their "creative apex" or whatever is unimportant, they're having a blast digging out weirdo jams from the folds of their imaginations and it sounds great.

i think a lot of the hate for "flying" is just a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that it is a gentle and breezy jam. it might be the greatest gentle and breezy jam ever written, but since it's on a beatles album people just automatically write it off as filler.

I'm changing my vote. "Flying" shits on "All You Need is Love."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

... and tomorrow night, all the Beatles' worst will be over.

Apart from the final, presumably.

...and "Worst Beatles" vs. "Worst Beach Boys"

title track is the worst thing here, everything else is exceptional

Their best album cover too imo.

Eh, I like the EP cover more:
http://195.224.149.148/SB/Beatles_magical_mystery_tour.jpg

I like violently clashing colours too, but that American cover looks like it was slapped together by some art director at Capitol. (Looks pretty stupefying while tripping tho)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

FIVE VOTES FOR PENNY LANE?!

Fool on the Hill 'heavy' Anth 2 version totally rules.

Shame it wasn't on this album.

16 VOTES FOR YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW? Shame on you, ILM.

3 people are morons.

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. Mind you it's a John song, so that probably cancels it out.

Read this, dude:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/Revolution_in_the_Head.jpg

"Flying" or "Baby You're a Rich Man" should have won. They are just good while the others are all great.

Hahahahaha "silly" Beatles? doglatin do you actually listen to his voice when he sings it? It's as angry and sad as anything he ever did

xxxxxxpost:

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

― Moka, Saturday, 26 September 2009 07:24 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

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".

― Bob Six, Saturday, 26 September 2009 07:29 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

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]

― Bob Six, Saturday, 26 September 2009 09:06 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Arguably, trivia fact is not correct anyway as Jessie's Dream from MMT film soundtrack was copyrighted to all 4 Beatles, even though it wasn't released on record.

and I don't feel bad for making a nerdish correction!

PRobably will get the fewest votes of any album.

― Mark G, Friday, 25 September 2009 07:02 (4 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Guess I was wrong.

I love "Flying."

"All You Need Is Love" is probably the third best song on the entire CD. Behind that fantastic early 1967 twoofer, but IMO ahead of "I Am The Walrus".

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