To commemorate Magical Mystery Tour and its 50th Anniversary, prepare yourself for a wild time inside the Abbey Road Studio and read all about the incredible recording process that captured the Beatles follow up pressing after PEPPER, Summer’s most inventive, imaginative, and trend-setting LP of all time. My personal blog shares with you the tedious drudgery during those days of grueling trial and error that achieved this second 1967 masterpiece released in late November, just in time for Christmas gift-giving. Today, I have the makings of track 1, the title song. So, imagine you’re that fly on the wall and relish the intricate, step-by-step revealing’s.
When Paul returned to Britain
on April 12th, 1967, with his “Magical Mystery Tour” idea firmly in mind, he
and the Beatles concentrated on the immediate task at hand, which meant finish
the mono and stereo mixes for the soon-to-be-released “Sgt. Pepper” album. He
took this time also to introduce the new project to his band for their
approval. “We thought that we had better do it,” John Lennon remembers, adding:
“we had the feeling that we owed it to the public to do these things.” Therefore, nearly two weeks after Paul
returned from America, and after “Sgt. Pepper” was completely ready for
release, they began work on the theme song for “Magical Mystery Tour.”
This day was April 25th,
1967, the group assembling this time in EMI Studio Three. Hunter Davies, the
group’s official biographer who was present on this day, wrote about the
details of this session in his book “The Beatles.” He writes: “When the Beatles arrived at the
EMI studios at seven thirty-one evening to record ‘Magical Mystery Tour,’ all
they had was the title and a few bars of the music…Paul played the opening bars
of ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ on the piano, showing the others how it would go. He
gestured a lot with his hands and shouted ‘Flash, Flash,’ saying it would be
like a commercial.” Engineer Geoff
Emerick, also there for this session, relates other details of the events of
this day in his book “Here, There And Everywhere.” “Everyone was quite up for that session…There
was a long period of rehearsal punctuated by a discussion about the various
scenes they wanted to shoot for the film.”
Hunter Davies goes to great
pains to describe the general atmosphere in the studio on that day, relating
details and events as they happened, right down to their clothes. “John was
wearing an orange cardigan, purple velvet trousers, and a sporran. He opened
the sporran and took out some pot, which he lit, then passed around. They all
had a drag. Someone shouted that Anthony, John’s chauffeur, wanted him on the
phone.”
Detailing the rehearsal for
the song, Davies explains: “They leaned around the piano while Paul was
playing, going over and over the opening. Paul told Mal to write down the order
of how they would do the song. In a very slow schoolboy hand, Mal wrote down
the title and got ready for Paul’s instructions. Paul said ‘Trumpets,’ yes,
they’d have some trumpets at the beginning, a sort of fanfare, to go with ‘Roll
Up, Roll Up, for the Magical Mystery Tour.’
Mal had better write that line down as well, as it was the only line
they had. Paul told Mal to write down DAE, the first three chords of the song.
Mal sucked his pencil, waiting for more of Paul’s inspired words, but nothing
came.”
According to Mark Lewisohn’s
book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” the first thing actually recorded wasn’t
even the group playing anything. “Although the final content of the song may
have been in a state of flux,” Lewisohn relates, “one thing was clear: coach noises were required, and this meant
another raid on the Abbey Road sound effects collection. ‘Volume 36: Traffic Noise Stereo’ satisfied requirements,
especially since the sounds of the cars and lorries it contained ranged across
a stereo image, passing from left to right or right to left. ‘I did that
leaning over a bridge on the M1 motorway,’ recalls Stuart Eltham. ‘It was a
quiet day, a Sunday because that was the only way one could capture the sound
of individual vehicles. On any other day, all I would have had was a mass of
traffic noise.’” Concerning these
recordings, which were found by 2nd engineer Richard Lush, Geoff Emerick
explains that he made them “into a loop, complete with the sounds of buses
whizzing by in glorious stereo, panning from right to left.” These loops were put into the song later
during the mixing stage of the song.
Hunter Davies continues the
events of the day: “The instruments were then set up, and they got ready to
record the backing…John came back and asked Mal if he’d gotten in touch with
Terry (Doran) yet. Mal said he couldn’t get through to him. John said it was
his job to get through. Just keep on until he did. It took a couple of hours to
work out the first backing track and get it recorded.” Mark Lewisohn deciphers this as “a basic
rhythm track of two guitars, piano and drums. Three takes were made, the third
being ‘best’ and this was then subjected to five reduction mixes, down to one
track of a new tape, the final edition – take eight – being market ‘best
basic.’” Since Geoff Emerick gives the
detail of “Paul thumping away on the piano” during these takes, that leaves
acoustic guitar by John, electric guitar by George and the drums obviously
played by Ringo.
Hunter Davies continues:
“After it was done, Paul went up to see George Martin in the control room. Paul
had the track played back to him, again and again. Below, in the studio, while
Paul got the technicians to do things upstairs, George got a set of crayons out
of his sheepskin painted waistcoat jacket and started to draw a picture. Ringo
stared into space, smoking, looking very unhappy, which is his natural
expression when he’s not talking. John was at the piano, sometimes playing
quietly, other times jumping up, pretending to be a spastic, or thumping out
loud corny tunes. No one was watching him. He smiled fiendishly to himself
through his spectacles, like a Japanese gnome. Neil was reading a pile of
occult weeklies, which they’d all been thumbing through earlier in the evening.
Mal had disappeared.”
At 3:45 am the next morning,
the session was complete for the day, although the song wasn’t anywhere near
complete in form or arrangement. More tinkering ideas would come later that
evening.
On April 26th, 1967, the next
session began in EMI Studio Three sometime after 7 pm. Having reduced the
previous days’ rhythm track down to “track one” of a new tape, three new
overdubs would be recorded on this day to fill up the remaining three tracks of
this tape.
Hunter Davies was apparently
present also on this day as he relates mundane details, which includes
something quite different that John passed around to the others this time around.
“Mal (Evans) appeared carrying a big brown paper bag full of socks, all in
bright self-colors. He passed the bag to John first. He grabbed it in great
delight. He chose several pairs of orange terry-toweling socks, then passed the
bag around for the others to have a dip. The night before he had said, just in
passing, ‘Socks, Mal.’”
Paul also had instructed Mal
to bring something to this session, although this actually pertained to the
work at hand. Davies relates: “After the socks had been handed out, Paul asked
Mal if he’d managed to get any real mystery-tour posters. Mal said he had been
round the bus stations all day looking for them. But he couldn’t find any. They
had hoped that some real posters would have given them some ideas for the words
of the song. Instead, they all tried again to think of some good words apart
from ‘Roll up, roll up,’ which was still all they had. As they shouted out
ideas, Mal wrote them all down. ‘Reservation,’ ‘Invitation,’ ‘Trip of a
lifetime,’ ‘Satisfaction guaranteed.’
But they soon got fed up. They decided they would just sing any words
that came into their heads, just to see what happened. So, they did.”
These “backing vocal
shouts…with much-added echo,” as Mark Lewisohn describes them, were recorded
onto ‘track four’ of this new tape. Also, since "they all" began to
"shout out ideas" for sloganistic words to use during this session,
both Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall could very well have contributed an idea and
therefore may possibly be considered collaborative composers to the song. Or
not.
“When they’d finished that,”
Davies continues, “Paul decided that on the next track he would add a bit of
bass to the backing. He put on the headphones, so he could hear what they’d
done so far, and strapped on his bass guitar.”
McCartney recorded onto ‘track two’ of the new tape. “After that, he
said they should add even more instruments. All of them, Paul, Ringo, John,
George, Neil, and Mal, then picked up any old instruments that were lying
around – maracas, bells, tambourines. They put on headphones and banged and
played them to the music.” The combined
result recorded onto ‘track three’ of the new tape.
Throughout this day,
according to Geoff Emerick, the group took to formulating some details
regarding the television film that would go along with the song they were
recording. “Paul showed up with a casting book that he had gotten from a film
agency, and everyone gathered around, excitedly picking the actors they wanted
for the character roles…Everyone had great fun going through the book, shouting
out as they flipped through the pages, ‘Look at him! Look at her!’
They were particularly amused by the photos of the fat lady who ended up
playing Ringo’s Aunt Jessie: ‘She’s four times the size of you, Ring!’ Lennon
chortled with glee.”
Since all four tracks of this
tape were now full, another reduction mix was made at the end of this session
to free up more tracks for the trumpets Paul wanted, as well as the lead vocals
and anything else they deemed necessary, which brought the finished recording
up to ‘take nine.’ At 2 am the next
morning, this second session for “Magical Mystery Tour” was complete.
They returned to the song
once again later that evening, April 27th, 1967, to add more overdubs. Once
again getting to EMI Studio Three sometime after 7 pm, they concentrated on
filling the two remaining tracks of the even newer tape with vocals. Paul
recorded his lead vocals on one of the open tracks and John, and George
recorded backing vocals onto the other open track. “All that ‘Roll up, roll up
for the Magical Mystery Tour’ bit was taped very slow,” Richard Lush remembers,
“so that it played back very fast. They really wanted those voices to sound
different.”
The first mono mix of the
song was also made on this day, although it only was intended for acetate discs
to give to the group to hear how it sounded so far. George Martin, Geoff
Emerick and Richard Lush took four attempts at getting this mono mix in the
control room of EMI Studio Three, the fourth attempt being marked ‘best.’ The session was then complete by 12:45 am the
following morning.
Six days later, on May 3rd,
1967, the trumpet overdub Paul wanted for the song was recorded, four brass
musicians had arrived for the evening including David Mason, who
three-and-a-half months earlier recorded the amazing piccolo trumpet solo for
Paul’s “Penny Lane.” The session was
held once again in EMI Studio Three, the session beginning sometime after 7 pm.
Geoff Emerick was
surprisingly not available for this session, being contracted to record a live
performance of Adge Cutler & The Wurzels which was scheduled for release in
conjunction with a recent British #1 hit they’d had called “Drink Up Thy
Zider.” “Incredibly,” Emerick relates,
“they took me off a session booked by the biggest artists in the world so that
I could get on a train and record a band in a tiny pub hundreds of miles
away.” In Geoff’s absence, engineer
Malcolm Addey filled in, even though he was known to chatter endlessly and disrupt
proceedings, irritating both George Martin and George Harrison to no limits.
Either because of the time
crunch, or just not bothering, no score was arranged beforehand for the brass
musicians. Malcolm Addey remembers: “Paul McCartney was humming to the
musicians the notes that he wanted, trying for a long time to get his thoughts
across to them. In the end, we had to send the trumpet players off for tea
while Paul and George (Martin) worked things out on the studio three
piano.” Philip Jones, who recalls his
session musician friend Gary (Elgar) Howarth’s account, quotes him as saying he
“got so fed up with them not knowing what they wanted that he wrote something
out for them himself. It was his idea they used.”
Undoubtedly because of Paul’s
inability to convey what he wanted on the song, the session went overtime from
the contracted 10 pm to 12:15 am the following morning. “Malcolm had done a
creditable job of recording the brass,” Geoff Emerick admits, “with the tape
slowed down so that it would sound extra toppy when played back at normal speed…the
brass was note-perfect, with not a fluff to be heard, despite the intricacy of
the part.”
Later that evening, May 4th,
1967, the engineering staff of Martin, Emerick and Lush assembled in the
control room of EMI Studio Three to create what was thought to be the finished
mono mix for the song “Magical Mystery Tour.”
They made seven attempts at the mono mix (numbered 1 through 7, ignoring
the four numbered mono mixes made on April 27th), the seventh mix viewed as the
‘best.’ Geoff Emerick recalls the
results of the mix made on this day: “During the mix, Richard added a lot of
wobbly echo to the ‘roll up’ backing vocals, and the piano signal was fed
through a Leslie, making it quite a production. All in all, more than four days
squandered time spent on the track, and the care that went into it really
shows.” However, since a little more
work was eventually deemed necessary to get the song to its’ finished state,
the mono mixes made on this day could not be used.
The master tape of the song
“Magical Mystery Tour” then sat on the shelf for nearly five months before
there was a need to do anything else with it. On September 28th, 1967, a tape
copy of what was considered the ‘best’ mono mix, created on May 4th, was made
for the film producer. This tape copy took shape by George Martin and engineers
Ken Scott and Richard Lush in the control room of EMI Studio Two. Since this
undoubtedly was used in the released television film, it must have contained
the different introductory “roll up, roll up” shouting at the song’s beginning
as heard in the film.
Then, on November 6th, 1967,
a stereo mix was attempted in the control room of EMI Studio Two by Martin,
Emerick, and Scott. While making four attempts on this day, the group noticed
that something additional was needed to get the song to a releasable state
(probably the “roll up, roll up” introductory shouting which concludes with the
words “hurry, hurry!” that continue with the harmony vocals that follow).
Therefore, these four attempts at a stereo mix sat unusable, as was the ‘best’
mono mix from May 4th.
The next day, November 7th,
1967, was when both the released mono and stereo mixes were created for the
song “Magical Mystery Tour.” Martin,
Emerick and 2nd engineer Graham Kirkby, along with the Beatles, assembled in
the control room of EMI Studio Two to create the majority of the mono and
stereo mixes of the songs for the film.
The first to be tackled was
the stereo mix with Paul inserting a new vocal line (probably the new “roll up,
roll up” introductory shouting) which was recorded as an overdub on this day as
well. Two attempts at this stereo mix were made, numbered 5 and 6, the sixth
being the one used on the finished record. Directly after this was complete,
the mono mix incorporated the same new McCartney vocal overdub as the stereo
mix had. Three attempts of the mono mix, numbered 8 through 10, proved the
tenth being the ‘keeper.’ After this,
tape copies of both the stereo and mono mixes were made “for Capitol Records,
its representative Voyle Gilmore hand-carrying them back to the USA,” as quoted
in the book “The Beatles Recording Sessions.”
The stereo mix has the rhythm
track on the left channel and the brass section on the right channel, while the
bass guitar and all of the vocals spot centered in the mix. And, of course, the
bus sounds are made sure to be panning from channel to channel to give the
desired effect.
As many Beatles fans may
notice, another difference between the film version and record version of the
song is John Lennon’s recitation during the instrumental section of the song
which begins “When a man buys a ticket for a Magical Mystery Tour…” No indication points as to this recorded
narration taking place inside EMI Studios, so most assumed that it was added to
the film soundtrack and not an actual element of the recorded song. Unlike the
intended spoken word introduction to “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” as
proposed to be included in the film “Yellow Submarine.”
Sometime between March 22nd
and June 15th, 1993, Paul and his band recorded a live rendition of the song as
included on his “Paul Is Live” album of that year.
The song “Magical Mystery Tour” may be somewhat deficient in
words, but structurally and arrangement-wise, it has much to offer. The format
consists of ‘verse/ refrain/ verse/ refrain/ bridge/ verse/ refrain/ refrain’
(or ababcabb) with an introduction and
conclusion thrown in as well.
The introduction is six measures long, the first two
measures in a slow 4/4 beat with crashing cymbals and slashing open hi-hats
while a trumpet fanfare blasts to get our attention. The three-chord pattern heard in these opening
measures, played by the trumpets along with the piano, bass, and guitars, is actually
a precursor of the last three chords of the first refrain with the lyrics
“coming to take you away” sung in harmony in the foreground. The beat then
switches into double-time for the remaining four measures of the introduction
and, as all of the instruments fade away into the background, the ‘carnival
barker’ calls out “Roll up, roll up for the magical mystery tour. Step right
this way!” with only the drums heard to keep the rhythm going.
The first sixteen-measure verse then begins with the guitars
and piano only pounding out the chord changes when they occur as harmony vocals
sing out the catchphrase of the song,
namely, “Roll uuuuuuup! Roll up for the mystery tour!” which is
repeated four times in this verse. The first two repeats, which comprise the
first eight measures, are identical except for the drum fill in the eighth
measure to segue into the second half of the verse. This second half, or
measures nine through sixteen, have various additional elements added, such as
the guitars and piano are now playing the chord pattern continuously instead of
just on the chord changes. The bass guitar is heard in these measures for the
first time, as is John’s lower octave singing “that’s an invitation…to make a
reservation.”
The first refrain is then heard, which is only six measures
long and features the re-emergence of the trumpets which are playing in eighth
note harmony in the first three measures and impressively stepping it up to
sixteenth notes in the fourth measure. Paul reaches way up in his vocal range
to announce “The Magical Mystery Tour is coming to take you away” while the
guitars, piano, and bass are only playing
on the chord changes once again. The tempo of the refrain reverts back to the slow 4/4 beat of the introduction
throughout, complete with crashing cymbals. Harmony vocals kick in during the
fifth and sixth measures singing “coming to take you away” while the
instrumentation is a complete repeat of the first two measures of the
introduction.
The second verse then begins which is also sixteen measures
long and is basically a full repeat of
the first verse except for a few minor differences. First noticed is a simple
drum fill by Ringo in the fourth measure, then we have the first appearance of
the “coach noises” sound effect in the sixth and seventh measures, which pan
from the left to the right channel. Paul makes the vocal interjections this
time around, singing “They’ve got everything you need…Satisfaction guaranteed.”
Also, on the three-beat of measures nine through sixteen, the trumpets
punctuate the arrangement with staccato blasts. An identical repeat of the
refrain then follows.
We then sidestep into a subdued, mostly-instrumental bridge
which is ten measures long. The beat is still in the 4/4 beat of the refrain
that proceeded it, but Ringo shuffles and
staggers rhythmically for measures one through seven. The chord pattern takes a
left turn here as if indicating a change in key while the piano and bass take
more prominence in the arrangement. The trumpets play a somewhat Tijuana
Brass-like sequence twice during these same measures while harmony vocals sing
“mystery trip” in the third and fourth measures, these being the only vocals
heard in the bridge. Suddenly, in the eighth measure, a syncopated accent from
the drums and rhythm instruments introduce a stair-step segue back into the
main key of the song during the ninth and tenth measures with the trumpets
accenting the way.
Then we arrive back in the home key with another verse, this
also being sixteen measures long but with many variations. The first noticeable
is the reduction in tempo from the other verses which acts to highlight the
impending excitement that awaits us in this “mystery tour.” The vocals in the
first four measures are different as well, being “Aaaaah…The Magical Mystery
Tour,” followed by two hits on a cowbell at the end of the fourth measure. While
the instrumentation is the same as the other verses, the “coach” effect is
heard once again in the sixth and seventh measures, once again moving from left
to right. Paul repeats John’s interjected lyrics from the first verse this time
in the second half of this verse, deliberately rolling the “r” in the word “rrrreservation.” A tambourine appears
prominently in the arrangement for measures nine through sixteen while the
trumpets are also heard staggering their notes in the tenth, twelfth,
fourteenth and sixteenth measures.
To add even more variance to the arrangement, the two
refrains that follow change the time signature from 4/4 to 3/4, but with the
trumpets playing simple quarter notes in 4/4 time. The rhythm instruments all
pound only on the chord changes while Ringo crashes his cymbals on every
downbeat of both refrains. There is a slight difference in the lyrics of the
last refrain; the tour is now “dying” to take you away, not just “coming” to do
it. Each refrain is the usual six measures long, while the second refrain
segues perfectly into the song’s conclusion with the added phrase “take you
today!”
As the last blast of the trumpets extend into the third measure of this conclusion, we now enter into
a lounge-like mystery setting that highlights Paul’s noodling piano work, his
bass overdub, Ringo’s smattering of drums and various percussion shaking from
the boys and their roadies. As the music fades away, the mood is now set:
What mysteries or adventures await?
Come – let’s find out!
Paul runs the show here but, with John’s vocals to the fore
in the harmony work, it comes across as a gallant team effort. Paul’s piano and
bass work are both structured and meandering where needed. The excited atmosphere is brought forward perfectly
by his vocal work, as is done by John and George in their harmonies. Both John
and George take a rhythm guitar role on this song instrumentally while Ringo’s
drums do a great part in keeping the song alive, crashing cymbals and all. And
a hearty round of applause is well deserved for the trumpeters and roadie
percussionists!
Join me tomorrow for the Unfolding Process of "THE FOOL ON THE HILL."
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