(Personal reflections
inspired by Beatles songs)
Song: “I Am the Walrus”
Album: Magical Mystery Tour
Release Date: December
1967
I watched my 3rd in-chronological-order Beatles movie this
week for this Fab Foundations series: Magical Mystery Tour. This was actually a made-for-TV movie (British
TV in the 60s that is). It came in at just under an hour, but it felt longer
than that due to all that gets thrown at you in the interim. I had trouble finding
the darn thing, but son Peter came to the rescue with his beyond-my-interest-in-understanding
cable-box contraption. Within a few clicks of a button, lo and behold a Magical
Bus was rolling across my flat screen!
As with all the other Beatles movies, I had never watched this film
from beginning to end before this year (Side Note: Reading these blog entries,
you may at times come to the conclusion that I am some type of crazed, over-the-top,
avid fan of each of the brilliant musicians I have written about these past 10
years; that I am someone who needs to see and understand all of their output. There
have been times where I have wondered this myself. But in general, I don’t
believe this is the case. I delve deep enough to make the connections that are
important to me. The rest is fluff. But I did make a promise at the beginning
of this series to watch each of the 5 Beatles movies (or is it 6) over the
course of this blog series and critique them, and so I am following through
with that).
Ok, back to my narrative. I did not subject Peter, Nancy or
Charlotte to watch Magical Mystery Tour with me this week. No, I knew
beforehand that this had to be a personal experience. The film was too
amateurish I thought (based on having read books, reviews and articles about it).
Too Avant Garde I thought. Too… chemically induced (when I explained this later
to Peter, he responded that he wished he watched it with me). All this was
indeed the case, but, to my pleasant surprise I found myself chuckling early
and often.
Due to their splendidly unique Fab appeal with the world at the time
(splendidly unique for any time actually), the Beatles could get away with the
bizzaro at this stage in their career. I say this in a good way. Why not seize
such a moment? Yes, there are strange, inexplicable goings-on in Magical
Mystery Tour (the plot; a countryside bus tour being remotely guided by
giddy magicians) and yet none of it is uppity or contrived. On the contrary, we
get to see the Beatles in their then true, unabashed selves: A late-60s’
flower-power experience if there ever was one.
Mystery Tour was a Paul
McCartney conceived movie, but it had John Lennon’s buy-in all the way (George
Harrison was another matter). This is what makes the viewing experience fun and
interesting. McCartney and Lennon would soon be diverging on many artistic
decisions related to the Beatles, but here we see a last ditch effort at
comradery.
There were several highlights for me. One was watching the busload
of revelers singing a handful of oldies - beverages of choice in hand – as the magical
tour hit an evening happy-hour phase (Ringo Starr is particularly amusing in
these scenes). Several other highlights were
of the 5 magicians (the Beatles and their longtime roadie Mal Evans) weaving
their fantastical plans for the tour (my one wish is that there could have been
more of this hilarity).
The best of the highlights though were the music videos.
Essentially, here we see the origins of MTV in Magical Mystery Tour. The
accompanying album consisted of 6 songs (what was referred to in those days as
an EP, which consisted of more music than a two-sided single, but less than an
album). Each song was played in its entirety in the movie (including the
Mothers-Day featured “Your Mother Should Know” link in Fab Foundations # 19 from
a few weeks back). The top dog in all of these music videos? Unquestionably it
is “I Am the Walrus” ( https://vimeo.com/330507673 ).
Magical Mystery Tour was the 3rd Beatles
album in a row (arguably the 5th) where John Lennon took the prize
for most revolutionary, innovative song (“A Day in the Life” off Sgt. Pepper
and “Tomorrow Never Knows” off Revolver being the prior). “I Am the
Walrus” is a mind bender; a blend of poetry and music that significantly
contributed to the ‘magic’ of the 60s. Trying to comprehend it is beside the
point. Simply immersing yourself in it is the key.
Flashback to a moment during my young teenage years (ahh, to be in
that state-of-mind again) and the old stately home of my longtime friend John Roche’s.
The two of us are sitting on the foyer staircase and John’s brand new “Blue
Album” (the Beatles latter-years greatest hits) is ringing in my ears for the
first time. We have the liner notes pulled out as we listen. We repeat play “I
Am the Walrus” a handful of times because it is so mesmerizing. One lyric I
recall us being transfixed on was “Yellow matter custard dripping from a
dead dog’s eye”. These lyrics were way out there, but not elusive to these
ears. To be sure, this song and these lyrics were compelling. It came down to
how you approached it. Our natural inclination was not to not so much to try to
understand the meaning. What we were transfixed by was that such a lyrical line
even existed. That someone could have come up with such a thought. And this was
just one lyrical line of MANY.
I’m fascinated today at how distinct that type of moment was on friend-John’s
staircase compared to what other generations have experienced before or after (a
big reason why I am writing this blog is to try to get to the root of this notion).
We were young and impressionable, and here was poetry, delivered in a way that
we could digest and enjoy. Personally, the world of art was beginning to
explode all around us with this music, weaving its way into parts of our brain
we didn’t even know existed. It opened
our minds in unimaginable ways. Got us to think thoughts we would never have
had otherwise. We were not the only ones.
It had been quite some time, but the lyrics to “I Am the Walrus” flowed
from my tongue this past week as if I’d been reciting them every day for the
past 45 years (it’s amazing how something you memorize in your youth can stay
ingrained). But as the case with any great work of art, a few lyrics stood out
way more this week than I ever recall from before, including “Corporation
T-Shirt” (who woulda thunk the corporate world was already omnipresent at
that time) and “Mister City, policeman sitting pretty little policemen in a
row” (considering these times). This got me thinking: There’s more of a
general political underlying sentiment playing out in “I Am the Walrus” than I’d
ever really considered before.
A bit of research confirmed my suspicions. The kernel of an idea
for “I Am the Walrus” came from the poem “The Walrus and the Carpenter” by Lewis
Carroll, which appeared in Carroll’s book Through the Looking Glass (the
sequel to Alice In Wonderland). The poem was recited by Tweedledee and
Tweedledum to Alice. It’s a difficult poem to interpret (as the case with “I Am
the Walrus”), but John Lennon read it as a lesson on the pitfalls of capitalism.
In Lennon’s mind though, he himself got it backwards. Before producing “I Am
the Walrus” Lennon was of the belief that the walrus in the Lewis Carroll poem
was a hero of sorts. Turned out he was the greedy villain (at least this is how
Lennon eventually interpreted it). Regardless, John Lennon’s political belief
system was beginning to play out publicly with “I Am the Walrus”. This belief
system would become more and more apparent over the succeeding 5 years (into
his solo career). As is the case today, the late 60s were polarizing
times.
John Lennon emptied the closet of his mind with “I Am the Walrus”.
This, I believe, is the secret to a quality artist’s success; that they don’t
hold back anything. That nothing is reserved in the mental archives for future
use when they are creating. This kind of approach to his art cleared Lennon’s
mind for new ideas. If you share that no-holds-barred art with the rest of world,
as John Lennon did, you will never know all the positive ramifications. Case in
point: John Lennon was not there to witness two kids sitting on a staircase, bewildered
by images of elementary penguins singing Hare Krishna, and Semolina Pilchard climbing
up the Eifel Tower, and the smiles of pigs in a sty, and egg men, and….yellow
matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye. If he was, he may have easily concluded
that at that moment he was significantly broadening the horizons for at least
one of them.
Magical Mystery Tour was a fun ride
this week. It reconnected me with my
generational leanings. For those of my generation I recommend it. For those not
of my generation, I also recommend it, if only to see us Boomers a bit more clearly
through that looking glass. If you don’t
have the time or inclination however (or Peter’s magical contraption, which
sorta makes him the ‘sixth magician’), a quick listen to “I Am the Walrus” will
certainly do the trick.
- Pete
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