T/S: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" v. "Magical Mystery Tour"

It's also such a dumb catch-all of a theme - would be one thing if they really went "mood music" and just put all their acoustic stuff together, something to put on while you and your partner spoon sweetly and feed each other grapes or whatever. But here you have stuff like "You're Going to Lose That Girl" and "Norwegian Wood" and "Tell Me What You See" in there. Were those comps bargain-priced or anything? Cause if you buy even one, certainly if you buy two, it would have made way more sense to just start scooping up used LPs - their catalog's not that big!

Were those comps bargain-priced or anything?

Pretty sure they weren't. I remember seeing Reel Music in stores for list price, accompanied by a promotional push that made it sound like Lennon had been reanimated and was getting back with the old gang.

And anyway, you don't put swag like this in a bargain-priced record:

The LP's original packaging included an 11 x 11" booklet, with the songs' lyrics printed, calligraphy-style, on simulated parchment paper. For the first several pressings, the cover itself was simulated leather, and the Beatles' image (a re-working of Richard Avedon's 1967 portrait, featured in Look Magazine) was simulated gold-foil. The LP was also available on yellow vinyl.

They were full price, but some of them came out on MVP a bit later, those were cheapie (Rock&Roll Music in two halves..)

Saw one "Abbey Road" deAgostini this morning, man its big! It has the LP on the front, a folder for yr booklets inside, and all mounted on a trifold heavy display card.

There's been some chatter about those in the vinyl scams thread, just a heads up!

I don’t care for half of the songs in both albums but really like the other half. I could probably make my favorite Beatles album by a long shot if I play god to make a single 10 track album.

From MMT I’d Keep these 5

Flying <- yes, seriously. I love it.
Rich Man
Strawberry
Walrus
Penny Lane

From SPLHCB these other 5

Sgt Pepper
With a Little Help from My Friends
Getting Better
Lovely Rita
Day in the Life

While I’m playing god I’d happily add “hey bulldog” and “it’s all too much” in here and you get a massively strong 12 track album. Use the highlights from the leftovers such as LSD for an EP or whatever and delete forever “all you need is love”.

Overall I think I’d pick MMT every day. There’s nothing I hate on Sgt Pepper’s but besides Day in the Life which is the clear standout, I only feel excited about Lovely Rita. MMT I can listen to without getting annoyed or bored any day of the week - with the exception of AYNIL.

Ah yeah keep the SGT PEPPER album cover too, the MMT cover is the worst.

I just noticed that the bluray (and probably the latest dvd) of "Magical Mystery Tour" has a audio track from Paul...

Original Paul or body-double replacement Paul

He does say that he never met Pete Best at one point.

Fake Paul, or Faul for short.

MMT has three songs I'm not keen on but the rest is gold. As well as the cartoonish whimsy there's also a bittersweet, uncanny undertone to a lot of the songs. As such, it's the album where they seem to nail the colour, sweetness, and implacable sadness of the psychedelic experience

Are any of Paul's songs from this period actually psychedelic?

Maybe the "...round and round and round and round..." section of Fool on the Hill, but that's not so much being stoned as just being dizzy.

xpost OTM and this precisely why it’s my favorite.

xp the whole song is mildly psychedelic lyrically. penny lane is vaguely psychedelic in its nostalgia & surreal-realism. his more unabashed corniness in and after this era is probably a symptom too but it’s pretty staid in context

I used to like most of these songs but I don’t really know why now. there’s a bit of a PT Barnum feel to this era even in lennon’s psychodrama & harrison’s attempts at mysticism. these things used to feel more mysterious than they do now

Xp I think there were multiple ways to interpret ‘psychedelia’ in the sixties. The UK version veered more towards whimsy, nostalgia, childhood and dreamlike surrealism; whereas for US bands it was a harder, more adult, more rebellious affair: swirling organs, spring reverb, anti-‘Nam sloganeering etc. The UK version was how I first understood it, so when I came across Nuggets in my early twenties I was a little confused

yeah, i think in-context "All Together Now," "She's Leaving Home," "Fixing a Hole," the bass on "Paperback Writer," and certainly "Yellow Submarine" were all v clearly "psychedelic," but i was not there....