The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah band performs in one scene, where an emcee introduces a stripper (Jan Carson). Victor Spinetti does an Army humor skit with Paul McCartney, and all four Beatles play wizards in a laboratory. Tedious blackout sketches seem to have wandered in from The Goon Show. The visuals for George Harrison's Blue Jay Way combine somebody playing with a multi-image trick lens, with aerial outtakes filmed for Doctor Strangelove (we recognize shots from Kubrick's opening prologue). Some episodes illustrate specific songs from the album. Aunt Jessie's 'food dream' is an absurd spectacle in a crazy restaurant. The resulting musical odyssey is a random series of 'far-out' episodes that Paul McCartney describes as surreal. The bus and other vehicles chase each other around an abandoned airstrip. In desperation the production quickly hired other actors (Victor Spinetti), circus performers, comedians, and rented a ton of assorted costumes 'events' were cooked up at random and filmed willy-nilly. But the actors mostly sat on the bus or wandered about, unclear what to do in the absence of a director. Bloodvessel (the multi-talented Ivor Cutler). Ringo argues with his "Aunt Jessie" (Jessie Robins of The Fearless Vampire Killers) and Jessie embarks on a coy romance with the odd Mr. The Beatles invented little mini-stories to go with some of the actors. To fill out the bus, special friends of the group were included, like actress Linda Lawson ( Night Tide) and two top Beatles Fan Club representatives.Īccording to sources not referenced in this disc's program notes, the bus drove around with a 16mm camera crew and all of these eager, un-directed talents, expecting marvelous things to happen that would make their movie unique. They hired a group of eccentric, fun-loving actors by picking their faces out of a London actors' directory. With very little organization (Joseph Losey's son Gavrik was an assistant producer) the group prepped a fancy touring bus. As described by Ringo Starr, with real mystery tours details don't really matter because the point is for everybody on the bus to get roaring drunk as soon as possible. They could have been filming.įormer Beatles road manager came up with the idea of a mystery tour, an outing (usually by bus) where the participants don't know exactly where they're going or what they will do when they get there. After all, they spent most of their time on the set of Help! waiting around for the cameras and lighting to be ready. ![]() If they wanted to capture the spontaneity of a genuine Happening, formal scripting, over-planning and other rigid precepts of conventional moviemaking would just get in the way. Having had the experience of making two movies with Richard Lester, the boys decided that they should use the same 'make it up as we go along' Apple business mantra as a filming concept. They promoted bands they liked and opened a notoriously unprofitable Carnaby Street boutique. The Beatles seemed truly sincere in the idea that good people could, you know, just come together and form businesses around their music and image. What exactly was Magical Mystery Tour?įrom the little I've gleaned of official Beatles history, the Magical Mystery Tour project arrived at a time when the group were striking out for independence and freedom from the corporate music world they'd soon establish Apple Records and rule the short-lived Apple empire with its flaky business decisions. It remained an MIA mystery for several years. We finally learned that it had been screened only on British Television. The photos on the album appeared to come from an associated movie, but none surfaced. I remember exactly when I bought my Muntz 4-track stereophonic tape cassette of the next Beatles album Magical Mystery Tour. Kids my age were largely into LPs, not the 45s of our older brothers and sisters. One of the first questions to be answered when meeting somebody was, which do you like better, the Beatles or the Rolling Stones? Network TV was still adult-dominated but the music and the culture seemed to be aimed directly at US. To be fifteen years old in 1967 was great. Produced by George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Denis O'Dell Written by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Mal Evans Original Music John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr ![]() Starring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Jan Carson, Ivor Cutler, Nat Jackley, Jessie Robins, Victor Spinetti, Miranda Forbes, Maggie Wright, Linda Lawson.
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