#Magical mystery tour album movie
#Magical mystery tour album full
#Magical mystery tour album series

The film’s songs, naturally the highlight of any Beatles project, are rendered in a number of fantastically conceived musical chapters, which stand up superbly as self-contained music videos. McCartney summarised, “We were fed up of everything taking so long and being such a fuss,” while George Harrison was grateful the film provided a joint focus following Epstein’s death, stating, “It got us out and got us together.” To begin shooting with so little preparation was not simply an exercise in folly, but rather grew from a sincere desire to make an unfiltered artistic statement, free from the shackles of convention. As Paul McCartney put it, “We made it up as we went along.”

Filming commenced without a script – all the band had were six songs, a brightly-painted coach, and a cast of distinctive supporting actors.

#Magical mystery tour album full

As a work of multimedia pop art, Magical Mystery Tour challenged the preconceptions of an entertainment establishment which The Beatles had already outrun, and their vision was later vindicated by the emergence of MTV and the lavish music videos which have become so ubiquitous.Īrriving just months after the release of their seminal concept album ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and the subsequent death of their manager Brian Epstein, Magical Mystery Tour was the first project over which the band exerted full creative control, serving as their own producers, writers and directors (although Ringo Starr receives sole credit as director of photography). Influences of ’60s counterculture and cinéma vérité, once condemned as inexplicable, now seem ahead of their time.

#Magical mystery tour album series

Running just under an hour and anchored by a series of extravagant musical sequences, Magical Mystery Tour is essentially the blueprint for the modern visual album popularised by the likes of Beyoncé and Janelle Monáe. While contemporary audiences may have been confused by the film’s amateurish production and lack of a conventional narrative, the film has become more accessible over time. Savaged by critics at the time, it is often regarded as one of the band’s few misfires – an indulgent and incomprehensible spasm of drug-induced absurdity.

#Magical mystery tour album movie

But more ambitious was their self-produced 1967 TV movie Magical Mystery Tour. Most influential were their appearances on the small screen in short musical promotion films which laid the groundwork for the modern music video. While earlier rock-’n’-roll acts like Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard had made (largely forgettable) movies at the behest of their management, The Fab Four embraced film as a means of artistic expression in its own right. Among the endless innovations which may be attributed to The Beatles is the marriage of pop music with video.