Sitting on a Cornflake - The First Great British W/O

This is part of spiderkid’s “The First Great British Write Off”. I’m not actually British. I hope that doesn’t matter.

~~~~~

While I enjoy music very much, I rarely listen to CD in its entirety, and instead indulge in the benefits of P2P sharing. However, once in a while, I come upon an artist like Chuck Berry, James Brown, or Elliot Smith where to listen to only their hit songs is a great mistake. Until I heard Magical Mystery Tour, I had a firm opinion about The Beatles. I thought of them as a very important entry in the history of Rock & Roll, and I respected them for that, but never really liked their music too much. Hoo boy, I thought I knew everything...

You know, there’s a strange thing I’ve noticed about British pop culture: it’s good. I’m not kidding. You know, that’s funny, because I always thought most people were stupid. Just turns out I’ve been around too many Americans, or rather rich white Americans. Don’t believe me? Just compare The Beatles to our “King of Rock & Roll” (sic) Elvis Presley, or The Cure to Linkin Park. How about movies? I can’t think of any American crime/comedies of the past ten years better than LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS or SNATCH. Try finding an American sports movie better than MEAN MACHINE or an American horror movie of the past ten years better than 28 DAYS LATER. Bringing up theater would be put us into overkill here; if William Shakespeare was my only example I could still make a decent point.

Not to say that American pop culture has never been intelligent, but in a time where Britney Spears rules the pop charts and someone as stupid as Nicole Ritchie is doing the talk show circuit, I have temporarily given up hope. Oh well. Maybe someday Hollywood will once again create classics such as CASABLANCA and THE GRADUATE, and, as long as we’re dreaming here, Italy could give birth to another Federico Fellini while Sweden brings life to a new Ingmar Bergman.

Anyway, that was my little pre-review rant, my contribution to upping British pride while at the same time telling Americans to get off their asses and create beautiful art.

~~~~~

The Magical Mystery Tour only has eleven tracks, but there aren’t any that you will be skipping.

"The Magical Mystery Tour" - the title song is the second most memorable, opening with three great chords and setting the catchy psychedelic tone for the whole album. It’s like a prologue, and a damn fine one at that. 5/5

"The Fool on the Hill" - a nice look at the word “fool”, and, much like ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST, asks us: is the fool really the fool, or are we actually all fools, and the one we call a “fool” the one wise one? Ok, so it's more elegantly put in the song. Lennon and McCartney demonstrate this by talking about a fool who “sees the world spinning round”, but, despite his great observations, he has “his head in a cloud”, thus “they can see that he’s just a fool”. It’ll make more sense once you listen to the song. 5/5

"Flying" - this is probably my least favorite of all the songs. It’s not bad, but purely instrumental. So you can see there’s not much to talk about. 3/5

"Blue Jay Way" - another one of the weaker entries, but saying that is like saying BARRY LYNDON was one of Stanley Kubrick’s weaker films. A very haunting chorus sings, “Please don’t be long/please don’t you be very long/don’t be long”. 4/5

"Your Mother Should Know" - a brilliant song that I believe is a quasi-tribute to the vintage songs of the forties and fifties, to a time where people would all “get up and dance to a song” and “sing it again”. One of my favorites on the album. 5/5

"I Am the Walrus" - even if you’re not familiar with The Beatles, you know this song, the king of all psychedelic songs, with such unfathomable lyrics as, "Mister City Policeman sitting/pretty little policemen in a row/See how they fly like Lucy in the Sky, see how they run/I'm crying, I'm crying/I'm crying, I'm crying". We also get a reference back to the idea presented in "Fool on the Hill" when they sing, “Don’t you think the joker laughs at you?” 5/5

"Hello Goodbye" - here Lennon and McCartney just have fun with words, starting off the song with, “You say yes, I say no/you say stop, and I say, go, go, go, oh no”. 5/5

"Strawberry Fields Forever" - another one of my favorites. It’s ambiguous, but it seems to mix the Peter Pan idea with bliss in ignorance, Strawberry Fields replacing Never Never Land. Of course, we don’t know if The Beatles support this kind of behavior, as, “Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see” may or may not be critical of this lifestyle. 5/5

"Penny Lane" - one of the catchiest tunes I’ve ever heard. Maybe I'm just not familiar with British slang, but I don’t think, “A four of fish and finger pies” is a literal term. I could be wrong, though. Like the banker with a motorcar, this song is “very strange”. 5/5

"Baby, You’re a Rich Man" - I’ve probably heard this the least of all the songs on this album, but I believe it’s a commentary of how materialistically rich people try to find wholeness in their money, as we see in the opening lyrics, “How does it feel to be/one of the beautiful people?/Now that you know who you are/what do you want to be?” That one part, “now that you know who you are,” is very important. It’s as if the beautiful people find their identity - who they are - in their flashy cars, pearly white teeth, young girlfriends, and “money in a big brown bag”. The lyrics are well-written, but the music is a bit weak. 4/5

"All You Need is Love" - This one’s pretty self-explanatory. It’s not terrible, but it’s not great. 3/5

~~~~~

Overall, this is a CD worth owning and revisiting over the years. It’s intelligent and ambiguous lyrics are open to interpretation, which helps give the songs a timeless status. If Chuck Berry is the father of Rock & Roll (which he is, no matter what you Presley lovers say), then The Beatles are its favorite uncle.