Magical Mystery Tour came at a critical time in the history of The Beatles. A few months before his manager, mentor and friend Brian Epstein was found dead of an overdose of amphetamines. Brian still alive The Beatles could afford to ignore the organizational and administrative aspects of his empire to concentrate solely on music; by Brian them ever had the concerns of other bands (mismanagement, losses, compromising contracts with clauses, accounting thieves, etc.), but without it the front first felt helpless and confused. We now playing the tough task of directing themselves vast multi-million dollar ship, as it is said, immersed in work is the best cure for pain, Paul took over and planned the next project of the Beatles: A film made , directed and produced by themselves with their respective soundtrack. While the film was a resounding fiasco (you have to deeply love the Beatles to be lenient with her) the soundtrack was confirmation of the grace period the quartet lived as innovative performers and authors. In its original form Magical Mystery Tour was a double EP (Extended Play) with the 6 themes of the film, but since this format was not popular in the US, Capitol made an LP by adding 5 pieces single released in the same year and that eventually become the definitive version of Magical Mystery Tour. The tracks on the EP are inspired by the original concept of the previous album, only the spectacle of Sgt. Pepper's is transformed here on a tour where the audience is led by the Beatles to places beyond imagination. While the issues Magical Mystery Tour and Your Mother Should Know are derivative of Sgt. Pepper's and When I'm 64 respectively, the other 4 are simply masterful, delving deeper into psychedelia but within a dreamlike atmosphere markedly doing its job support to the images of the film: the Fool on The Hill is one of the greatest creations of Paul with the contrast between an easily assimilable melody and arrangement intricately worked; Flying is a short instrumental and often overlooked but it seems to me superb, the way it blends into the images described in the film is a magical moment; Blue Jay Way George first used the resource to establish analogy between the material world and the spiritual through a seemingly simple letter and a surreal and menacing array; The Walrus I'm John is one of the highlights of this acid stage of the quartet, the letter touches the roof of the thematic non-sense of the author and arrangement characterized by various sound effects, voices insane and brilliant string section written by George Martin gives a touch delirious genius, a premonitory piece of 'orchestral rock' that would end later date after years in bands like the Electric Light Orchestra. The rest of the album is completed with the wonderful creative explosion of single Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane, the single post-Pepper All You Need Is Love / Baby You're A Rich Man and beyond nice Hello Goodbye (face b R 'm The Walrus). An album that is often seen as an appendix of Sgt. Pepper's but that is a fundamental part of that colorful sound collage that marked the career of the Beatles throughout 1967.
