Is Magical Mystery Tour or Sgt. Pepper's Better? | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I’m gonna go hot and say Magical Mystery Tour is the superior record. I know most of you dismiss it as not being an actual record because of it not being in the release plans of the Beatles at first or whatever but it has previously unreleased tracks in an album as well as artistic cohesion within its divided recording sessions.

To me it counts as an album just from the intro alone. I mean be honest, the first lyric on the album is “The Magical Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away”. Come on, that opener gives the album a bigger feel of album than most albums have in general. I mean, generally albums aren’t even required to have a structure, they’re just a scrap of songs. Magical Mystery Tour goes the extra mile. Also Revolver feels like a scrap of songs and it is one of the best albums ever recorded. And MMT does have a heavy psychedelic vibe that could be considered that magical tour of mystery that is presented on the opening track. So the album also delivers on its premise as well. So hell yeah it’s an album. Sure we can discuss technicalities and dismiss it and whatever but it does not sound like a compilation. It feels like it has a progression to me. All You Need Is Love feels like a closer, tracks blend together in how they synthetic and experimental they are, and overall it really feels like an experience, more than most Beatles albums actually. It is also a soundtrack so hell yeah it diserves to be called an album.

Even if it is just a cOmPiLaTiOn it is still superior to Pepper and to me it comes down to the tracklist, mainly. I don’t love Pepper because it is a concept album, I couldn’t give two sh*ts about that. Outside of the title track and the reprise there is not much concept in it to be honest, Lennon said it himself, so to me MMT just feels like a sequel to Pepper in spirit. I love Pepper because it has fantastic music on it, not because it is officially an album.

But
MMT has the better ones. Yes, I’ll say it first, Pepper has A Day In The Life , I can’t deny that. But MMT doesn’t have Within You Without You , a painfully boring song that overstates its welcome, or When I’m Sixty-Four a cringeworthy “granny song”. Also Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! and Good Morning Good Morning are kind of dull as well to me sorry I know some people love those songs but not me.

I’m alone on this but I actually enjoy The Fool On The Hill and Your Mother Should Know much more. Within the Beatles’ catalogue of “dumb filler songs” (which every album no exception has), these two are among my favourites. Blue Jay Way just feels like George Harrison got his Indian influences out of his a*s and actually started blending them with pop music, which is what he should’ve done instead of just making a generic 5 minute straight up Indian song on Pepper: music is better when eclectic instead of self-absorbed. Blue Jay Way is a perfect middle point that is elevated by both its pop sensibilities and Indian curiosities. As well as heavy psychedelia and those eargasmic beat changes. Pepper has the title track, which is great, a Ringo feature which is nice, and then Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds , Getting Better , Fixing A Hole , She’s Leaving Home , Lovely Rita and the already mentioned closer as highlights. Fantastic tracklisting, after all I have Sgt. Pepper at 9/10, I really do love that record.

But
MMT track vs track, I think is the winner. Do I need to mentioned them? Hello, Goodbye just seems like a better (and better instrumented) attempt at a “granny song” than When I’m Sixty Four (HEELA – HEEBA HELLOAA). Then you got the fantastic and iconic Penny Lane , All You Need Is Love and the crown jewel Strawberry Fields Forever , and on the other hand, tracks that I think are overlooked, underrated, unappreciated, and many more adjectives. Blue Jay Way for starters, a wonderfully psychedelic cocktail, and Flying , the most wholesome instrumental you could think of. I hate it when people say it’s boring because it’s not, it’s really cool and really helps me chill. A fantastic high listen as well. And last but not least probably one of my favourite Beatles songs: Baby, You’re a Rich Man. I hate how many people don’t pay attention to this song, it is so good I can’t even begin to describe it.

Overall I think MMT is more experimental, more daring, more entertaining, less cringy, more badass and raw. The ending of Strawberry Fields for God ‘s sake, that is much more beautiful than something as unexciting and stale as the Runoff Groove. The scary aesthetic of something like Blue Jay Way or Strawberry Fields Forever can’t be found anywhere on Pepper, as well as the relaxation power of Flying . Whatever vocal excitement portrayed on Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds or Lovely Rita is topped by Magical Mystery Tour ‘s opening track or Baby, You’re a Rich Man. Whatever experimentation on Within You Without You or Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! is topped by the amazing sound editing on Blue Jay Way or Strawberry Fields Forever . Yes, Sgt. Pepper finishes with a striking piano chord and sound collage, but MMT finishes with John singing “SHE LOVES YOU YEAH YEAH YEAH”, which doesn’t make All You Need Is Love better than A Day In The Life but it is just as fitting a closer.

MMT is a 10/10 because it improves on Sgt. Pepper , to the point where it feels like a revisioning of it. Blue Jay Way is a better Within You Without You , Hello, Goodbye is a better When I’m Sixty Four, Your Mother Should Know is a better Fixing A Hole , Baby You’re A Rich Man is a better Good Morning Good Morning , Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane are better than, I don’t know, She’s Leaving Home and Lovely Rita , to name anything that’s left.

I think the tracklist speaks for itself. And I know I’m not going with the typical Rate Your Music/Rolling Stone opinion that Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the best album ever made or whatever, but MMT if anything is at least just as good and it needs more recognition as a sister album to Pepper instead of just “the leftovers”, because as polished and atrenged into the tracklist as they are, somehow the leftovers taste better than the main dish. To me it’s better, I don’t stop in my tracks when I listen to MMT the way I do on Pepper, I don’t feel as fulfilled when I listen to Pepper than when I listen to MMT. There, I said it.

And I didn’t even mentioned I Am The Walrus .

To clarify, everything I say about Pepper on here is JUST IN COMPARISON to Magical Mystery Tour , because otherwise is a uniquely fantastic record and I stand by its greatness as well. For more information see my Sgt. Pepper and MMT tracks ranking and my Official Studio Albums rankings as well.

There should be a holiday once a year called “Baby, You’re a Rich Man Is the Best Song Ever Made Day” in which we all forget what our favourite song is and we just pretend it’s Baby, You’re a Rich Man. It deserves it. It has been overlooked for so much time now

Just… John’s vocals man…

Pablo Ramon said
Song for song, I think MMT has a slight edge over Pepper. MMT has, for my money, 3 of the absolute greatest songs in the entire catalog (Walrus, Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane ) along with Rich Man, Hello Goodbye and All You Need Is Love , which are all amazing. Apart from Walrus, though, I’m not all that big a fan of the actual soundtrack songs – the MMT intro song, Fool On The Hill and Flying are merely OK. I like Blue Jay Way but not as much as I like Within You, Without You. Not a fan of Your Mother Should Know .

On The Pepper side, A Day In The Life and With A Little Help are favorites, I love Lucy, Within You, Good Morning and Sgt Pepper and its reprise, some of the rest feels empty to me.

I decided to rate every song on a scale of 1-5. If I fold Sgt Pepper and its reprise into one “song” they both end up with 11 tracks, so a max of 55 points. Here’s how I ended up:

Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band:

Sgt. Pepper & Reprise: 4

With A Little Help From My Friends : 5

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds : 4

Getting Better : 3

Fixing A Hole : 3

She’s Leaving Home : 2

Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite !: 3

Within You Without You : 4

When I’m Sixty-Four : 3

Good Morning Good Morning : 4

A Day In The Life : 5

Total: 40 out of 55.

Magical Mystery Tour (US LP):

Magical Mystery Tour : 3

The Fool On The Hill : 3

Flying : 3

Blue Jay Way : 3

Your Mother Should Know : 2

I Am The Walrus : 5

Hello, Goodbye : 4

Strawberry Fields Forever : 5

Penny Lane : 5

Baby You’re A Rich Man : 5

All You Need Is Love : 4

Total: 42 out of 55.

 

So, song for song, I give MMT the edge, BUT, and it’s a big BUT: Sgt. Pepper is much more of a coherent whole, it was utterly groundbreaking and world-changing, so…

Let’s call it a draw.

Good system, but you forgot Lovely Rita