THE BEATLES’ MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR REVISITED BBC Two.
On this Arena special, it was good to get another chance to see the complete TV film of The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour. A documentary, containing interviews and behind the scenes footage, was also illuminating in helping to put the film in a social and historical context.
The last time I saw the film in its entirety was when it was first broadcast (in black and white) on Boxing Day in 1967. I was just eight years old at the time so had only a vague memory of it.
I was too young to pick up on all the LSD inspired images but old enough to realise that it had what one of the film’s extras describes as “disconnected shots of weird things”.
What I do vividly recall is the scene with a stripper while The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band are singing Death Cab For Cutie. The sight of bare breasts on a prime time TV slot at Christmas made a big impact on me. My parents, who were also watching, were less impressed!
This is why I can endorse Ian Macdonald’s view, in his book Revolution In The Head, that: “Magical Mystery Tour marks the breakdown of the cross-generational consensus ………this is where parents began to part company with their sons and daughters over the group, rightly suspecting a drug-induced persuasion setting in” Continue reading
