I was a child growing up in rural Britain during Beatlemania which even my rather straight-laced but very sweet natured parents embraced. We watched The Magical Mystery Tour when it was Boroadcast on that Boxing Day at a sort of scratch party with their neighbours. It was a big and exciting event; a Christmas treat in the era of mass television watching. I will never forget the reaction. I was part entranced and part rather bored but they and their friends went from bemusement to astonishment and finally ranting at the television and trying to make me go to bed. It was one of those moments...nice commentary.
As a Beatle fan, always saw this as a turning point, when Lennon began to resent McCartney, a resentment that would last till the end, John DID NOT resent Paul for making a "bad movie", but instead resented him from taking control over The Beatles, which Lennon saw as his band..This resentment would led ot the breakup of the band, not helped by the upcoming India trip and White album sessions.
Perhaps you'd enjoy this amateur theatrical production more: the Beatles in 1964, doing Shakespeare for their fan club and friends (the sound quality is terrible, but you can get the gist of it, I think, with captions turned on): ua-cam.com/video/BhJ67QsFg1Q/v-deo.html
Derek Royle played the milkman, host on the bus. If you ever watched John Cleese’s “Fawlty Towers”, Derek played the sickly man who, well, died in the episode. The episode then became “Weekend at Bernie’s”. I contend the episode may well have been the inspiration for Bernie’s.
I LOVE Magical Mystery Tour! One of the main reasons it got bad press at the time was that it was put on in the middle of the Christmas period when typically British families would settle down to watch the telly, expecting some sort of safe, family-friendly, all ages, mainstream comedy or variety show entertainment. I don't think it's too outrageous a claim to say that an experimental, arty, free-flowing, surrealist, drug-fuelled psychedelic fantasy never quite fitted that expectation. Not only that, but back then it was seen by the vast majority of viewers on *black & white* only TVs, thus losing 50% or more of the movie's impact from all its colourful psychedelic imagery. All in all, it was a Christmas entertainment flop, and the TV critics were scathing. That doesn't make it a non-worthwhile piece of indie experimental art, and certainly doesn't mean that those of us more attuned to its 60s experimental aesthetic and surreal humour should feel embarrassed about enjoying it! Thanks for your non-snarky review. 🙂
if you're looking for something to watch i have something i think you might like to see, i call it the compleat beatles remake, it took me a year to finish this project.i just uploaded a revised version.i replaced all the vids and pics in it.and gave this old documentary some much needed updating in quality and footage.
you know my niece once called me "snarky." simply because i offered to pay her for a simple favor. (no, not that kind of favor.) she was absolutely horrible to me, now THAT'S snarky, and we haven't spoken since. this film is just horrendous. its only saving grace are the music sequences which are all top notch. odd how the beatles were willing to hire a professional editor for the film, who did great with the musical sequences and did his best with the rest of the lackluster material he had to work with, but not professional writers or a director. personally i believe the bonzo dog doo-dah band "death cab for cutie" segment almost steals the show. other than "i am the walrus" its my fdavorite part. also odd, how this, they're "greatest failure, followed they're greatest success in the same year. weird how things often work out that way.
@@cjmacq-vg8um yeah it is pretty bad, if i were directing them for this, i would have just had them answer fan mail then say and now it's time for a song, or have them interact with fans and then say now for a song, then show them performing a song.i would have kept it simple.
@@archangelmusic13 ... they didn't need to abandon the idea of a "magical mystery tour." they needed to hand all their notes and ideas over to professionals who could've realized the beatles' vision. as creative as the beatles were they weren't filmmakers. oh well, we got what we got. and like paul says - its all justified just for the "i am the walrus" video.
I stumbled across your channel by accident and I'm so happy I did. You have some really good stuff on here but this piece is outright lovely. Well done.
the 60's were a fantasy, both good and bad, in real time. the 2000s have been an utter nightmare. all bad! and what makes it worse is that it's a nightmare from which we can't awaken!
Exactly! It was never meant to be a slick commercial production, just a bit of countercultural fun, and good therapy for Paul! IMO, the BBC miscalculated by putting it out as a major, mainstream Christmas family TV event.
if you're looking for something to watch i have something i think you might like to see, i call it the compleat beatles remake, it took me a year to finish this project.i just uploaded a revised version.i replaced all the vids and pics in it.and gave this old documentary some much needed updating in quality and footage.
this film is just horrendous. its only saving grace are the music sequences which are all top notch. odd how the beatles were willing to hire a professional editor for the film, who did great with the musical sequences and did his best with the rest of the lackluster material he had to work with, but not professional writers or a director. personally i believe the bonzo dog doo-dah band "death cab for cutie" segment almost steals the show. other than "i am the walkrus" its my fdavorite part. also odd, how this, they're "greatest failure, followed they're greatest success in the same year. weird how things often work out that way.
It was a Paul project while the rest went along. John likely enjoyed some raucous activity, Ringo hammed happily with auntie, while George was abiding, just. In the album pages George can be seen giving the finger to camera amidst smiling, waving fellows. It may be that they were under contract to do … something. I enjoyed things Beatle, but find Paul’s Fool on the Hill segment cloying and smarmy.
Thanks for sharing this with us! If I could make a suggestion, it would be to dig a little deeper with your video essays. For instance, when you mention that it seems like the skits are cribbing Monty Python, except that Python wouldn't come out for another 2 years, that seems like a great opportunity to reach out to, say a TV historian or even just ask your parents/grandparents who were around at the time to see if perhaps they were both imitating a pre-existing style. I'd be very curious if you ever made a follow-up :)
The Pythons were heavily influenced by the Goons; and MMT was too. Personally I dislike this film, it has too much of Paul's subsequent solo career about it - random and often tasteless.
I was a child growing up in rural Britain during Beatlemania which even my rather straight-laced but very sweet natured parents embraced. We watched The Magical Mystery Tour when it was Boroadcast on that Boxing Day at a sort of scratch party with their neighbours. It was a big and exciting event; a Christmas treat in the era of mass television watching. I will never forget the reaction. I was part entranced and part rather bored but they and their friends went from bemusement to astonishment and finally ranting at the television and trying to make me go to bed. It was one of those moments...nice commentary.
and PS have you seen Ringo's film The Magic Christian? It is astonishing almost indesribable with a genius performance from Peter Sellers.
As a Beatle fan, always saw this as a turning point, when Lennon began to resent McCartney, a resentment that would last till the end, John DID NOT resent Paul for making a "bad movie", but instead resented him from taking control over The Beatles, which Lennon saw as his band..This resentment would led ot the breakup of the band, not helped by the upcoming India trip and White album sessions.
This was definitely a product of their "we're bigger than Jesus so we can make literally anything and people will still tune in" phase.
Perhaps you'd enjoy this amateur theatrical production more: the Beatles in 1964, doing Shakespeare for their fan club and friends (the sound quality is terrible, but you can get the gist of it, I think, with captions turned on):
ua-cam.com/video/BhJ67QsFg1Q/v-deo.html
This is my new favorite channel.
Derek Royle played the milkman, host on the bus. If you ever watched John Cleese’s “Fawlty Towers”, Derek played the sickly man who, well, died in the episode. The episode then became “Weekend at Bernie’s”. I contend the episode may well have been the inspiration for Bernie’s.
Buster Blood Vessel was played by surreal Scottish poet Ivor Cutler.
I LOVE Magical Mystery Tour!
One of the main reasons it got bad press at the time was that it was put on in the middle of the Christmas period when typically British families would settle down to watch the telly, expecting some sort of safe, family-friendly, all ages, mainstream comedy or variety show entertainment. I don't think it's too outrageous a claim to say that an experimental, arty, free-flowing, surrealist, drug-fuelled psychedelic fantasy never quite fitted that expectation. Not only that, but back then it was seen by the vast majority of viewers on *black & white* only TVs, thus losing 50% or more of the movie's impact from all its colourful psychedelic imagery. All in all, it was a Christmas entertainment flop, and the TV critics were scathing.
That doesn't make it a non-worthwhile piece of indie experimental art, and certainly doesn't mean that those of us more attuned to its 60s experimental aesthetic and surreal humour should feel embarrassed about enjoying it!
Thanks for your non-snarky review. 🙂
if you're looking for something to watch i have something i think you might like to see, i call it the compleat beatles remake, it took me a year to finish this project.i just uploaded a revised version.i replaced all the vids and pics in it.and gave this old documentary some much needed updating in quality and footage.
you know my niece once called me "snarky." simply because i offered to pay her for a simple favor. (no, not that kind of favor.) she was absolutely horrible to me, now THAT'S snarky, and we haven't spoken since.
this film is just horrendous. its only saving grace are the music sequences which are all top notch. odd how the beatles were willing to hire a professional editor for the film, who did great with the musical sequences and did his best with the rest of the lackluster material he had to work with, but not professional writers or a director.
personally i believe the bonzo dog doo-dah band "death cab for cutie" segment almost steals the show. other than "i am the walrus" its my fdavorite part.
also odd, how this, they're "greatest failure, followed they're greatest success in the same year. weird how things often work out that way.
@@cjmacq-vg8um yeah it is pretty bad, if i were directing them for this, i would have just had them answer fan mail then say and now it's time for a song, or have them interact with fans and then say now for a song, then show them performing a song.i would have kept it simple.
@@archangelmusic13 ... they didn't need to abandon the idea of a "magical mystery tour." they needed to hand all their notes and ideas over to professionals who could've realized the beatles' vision.
as creative as the beatles were they weren't filmmakers. oh well, we got what we got. and like paul says - its all justified just for the "i am the walrus" video.
@@cjmacq-vg8um did you read my comment about my project i finished, which i call the compleat beatles remake.
I stumbled across your channel by accident and I'm so happy I did. You have some really good stuff on here but this piece is outright lovely. Well done.
It’s fun watching 20 something try his describe Beatles history . 60s may have been weird the 2020s is just arghhh.
the 60's were a fantasy, both good and bad, in real time. the 2000s have been an utter nightmare. all bad! and what makes it worse is that it's a nightmare from which we can't awaken!
It was just another underground film of the 1960s, only made with a larger budget by more famous people than most such films.
Exactly! It was never meant to be a slick commercial production, just a bit of countercultural fun, and good therapy for Paul! IMO, the BBC miscalculated by putting it out as a major, mainstream Christmas family TV event.
So this is the Beatles’ version of the Star Wars Holiday Special.
if you're looking for something to watch i have something i think you might like to see, i call it the compleat beatles remake, it took me a year to finish this project.i just uploaded a revised version.i replaced all the vids and pics in it.and gave this old documentary some much needed updating in quality and footage.
The Goat has done it again!!!😤
I would like to know more about the handsome, muscular milk man. 9:52
A milky, muscular Man of Mystery, indeed!
I am a Walrus is definitely up there with The Doors hit Light a Fire
this film is just horrendous. its only saving grace are the music sequences which are all top notch. odd how the beatles were willing to hire a professional editor for the film, who did great with the musical sequences and did his best with the rest of the lackluster material he had to work with, but not professional writers or a director.
personally i believe the bonzo dog doo-dah band "death cab for cutie" segment almost steals the show. other than "i am the walkrus" its my fdavorite part.
also odd, how this, they're "greatest failure, followed they're greatest success in the same year. weird how things often work out that way.
Elliot Roberts Collaboration when?
Can you imagine MMT in black & white?
No, not the British public either. Color, baby, color
i am the walrus is underrated? whatever you say
Ok which is worse? MMT or Head?
It was a Paul project while the rest went along. John likely enjoyed some raucous activity, Ringo hammed happily with auntie, while George was abiding, just. In the album pages George can be seen giving the finger to camera amidst smiling, waving fellows. It may be that they were under contract to do … something.
I enjoyed things Beatle, but find Paul’s Fool on the Hill segment cloying and smarmy.
Fool on the Hill is a great song. Nothing smarmy about the segment. It works with the rest of the film.
Looks like they were trying to outdo the craziness/hilarity of the American "The Monkees" TV show with little success.
Thanks for sharing this with us! If I could make a suggestion, it would be to dig a little deeper with your video essays. For instance, when you mention that it seems like the skits are cribbing Monty Python, except that Python wouldn't come out for another 2 years, that seems like a great opportunity to reach out to, say a TV historian or even just ask your parents/grandparents who were around at the time to see if perhaps they were both imitating a pre-existing style. I'd be very curious if you ever made a follow-up :)
The Pythons were heavily influenced by the Goons; and MMT was too. Personally I dislike this film, it has too much of Paul's subsequent solo career about it - random and often tasteless.