Time for another Beatles album pulled apart and put back together by Mike. This time he's stayed in 1967 and performed his magic on their 'Magical Mystery Tour' EP, later expanded to a full album.
Here’s my track by track detailed look at each cut (the order by the way is based
of the original EP… not the album). Note - 'Strawberry Fields Forever' and 'Penny Lane' were
included on 'Sgt. Pepper...' as they started the whole psychedelic era of The Beatles.
01 Magical Mystery Tour - I’m cheating already LOL. I didn’t pick the album version
but the rarer soundtrack version because I loved all the extra different sound
effects. Like 'Sgt. Pepper...', this whole album has so much fun hidden away that I
really enjoyed making every one of these cuts, except to be honest 'Baby
You’re A Rich Man' which took freakin’ forever to mix!
02 Your Mother Should Know - Great backing vocals brought to the forefront on
this one. I reduced the drums to almost nil… they were hiding too much fun
stuff!
03 I Am The Walrus - This took a while to mix but is so much fun. Possibly my
favorite mix on the album! There's so much going on in this song that it was hard to pick
what to focus on at any given time. But that just made it extra fun to mix. I
changed up the beginning and the end a bit to make it more fun! Everybody smoke pot, Everybody smoke pot!!
04 The Fool On The Hill - Another fudge here. This is an earlier take with many
different vocals and a very cool completely different arrangement.
05 Flying - The only song in all their albums to have all four lads singing LEAD
vocal! And one of only 2 songs whose writing was credited to all four. (Can you
name the other??) I added a bit of fun at the end!
06 Blue Jay Way - My strangest mix. A tribute to George, mysticism, psychedelia
and of course the backwards message!
07 Hello Goodbye - Get rid of the drums and wow…the song just opens up. Fun bass line! I added one extra note at the end. Ha! Sue Me!
08 Baby You're A Rich Man - I don’t know why this one was so hard to mix…just a lot
of parts to juggle (I mangled about 3 different versions to Frankenstein this
one together) and I got sick in the middle of doing it… so it took 2 weeks to
mix. Ack! But it turned out pretty cool.
09 All You Need Is Love - Lovely orchestra and horn tracks. Make sure you check
out my bonus track of George trying to overdub a violin onto this one. He had
never played a violin before…and it shows! “A” for Effort even though it’s an
“F” for actual playing. I never knew John sang a lyric from 'Yesterday' at the
end… I thought there was only Paul singing 'She Loves You'! The things you
find when you start digging around in these songs always amazes me!!
That ends the official EP…but here are some cool bonus cuts from roughly the
same time period. I just couldn’t stop mixing LOL
10 Lady Madonna - The piano is so prominent in the released version of this
song… so it had to go! LOL. Great bass and sax solo!
11 The Inner Light - Setting the drums free did amazing things for this track. Such
a different feel. Tribal almost!! One of my favorite George tracks…so beautiful.
12 Hey Bulldog - They had such a fun time recording this…just check out the
video on YouTube! Great bass line from Paul and since I love the ending… I
brought up the vocals during that part!
13 All You Need Is Love (excerpt) - George's Violin Attempt (aka -This Tape will
(and SHOULD) self destruct in 5 seconds!) Nuff said!
14 It’s All Too Much - A tough song to mix as almost every instrument is on the
same track as the dirge like single tone drone that runs through the whole
darn thing… and it’s the extended version to boot…this was a challenge to
make interesting.
15 Across The Universe - My other favorite track in this collection to close us out. I
once again used about 3 different versions to cobble this together… but the
focus remains on the beautiful melody and stunning guitar work from John. I
decided to make this mostly an instrumental take…to let the lovely tune shine
forth! Created my own ending while I was at it, …and I love the deep breath at
the very end!
That’s it for this one…hope you enjoyed it and as always… please tell me what you
think of it …I LIVE FOR FEEDBACK.
Michael 'Rubber' Solof
Track listing
01 Magical Mystery Tour
02 Your Mother Should Know
03 I Am The Walrus
04 The Fool On The Hill
05 Flying
06 Blue Jay Way
07 Hello Goodbye
08 Baby You're A Rich Man
09 All You Need Is Love
10 Lady Madonna
11 The Inner Light
12 Hey Bulldog
13 All You Need Is Love (excerpt) - George's Violin Attempt (aka -This Tape will
(and SHOULD) self destruct in 5 seconds!)
14 It’s All Too Much
15 Across The Universe
https://mega.nz/file/bnZRSBQR#50C_xbnn_SQUKbiTwnIEUGMF8fsKBo_aHBFEeQKYnME
ReplyDeleteThank you!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome!!
ReplyDeleteMike, we can't get enough of your mixes...THEY ROCK!!!
ReplyDelete-RoBurque
Hi, just discovered this and your other mixes on here. Love the time and effort you put into these creations, but I really wish you'd kept more drums in your mixes. I mean you'd never know this was "the BEATles!" For example this mix of Magicaly Mystery becomes monotonous and repetitive...track after track of airy, multi-tracked vocals with no backbeat to liven things up. Again, I appreciate the effort, and love new ways of looking at old things. But I'd consider most of these "isolated vocal mixes" rather than new remixed interpretations -- same goes for the "Ambrosia" Lennon remix. So please in future mixes consider keeping that rock backbeat -- actually you could do "dub mixes" with your approach, just echo out those isolated vocals and jack up the bass!
ReplyDeleteJoe,
ReplyDeleteNo.
LOL...let me elaborate so I don't come off like a complete Assole.
ReplyDeleteI let the music decide what is best for it...not me. I am trying to UNCOVER stuff and not just do remixes of the original work. Usually* that means that the drum track is either the first to go...or I mute it tremendously because a drum track tends* to be the thing covering up most over the other instruments not adding to the mix.
* Please Note I said usually and tends to. Sometime it's the opposite and the drums are very different and the mix covers that up. Cases in point...Long Tall Sally and The Inner Light. Holy Crap! Who knew that ringo was drumming like that because it was buried so deep in the mix. I don't think he ever drummed like that again until Rain during the Revolver sessions. And the drumming which is just mixed in with the rest during The Inner Light, once it's isolated, becomes this tribal beast... that is stunning.
So, I am NOT AGAINST having drums in my mix at all! I just feel, PERSONALLY, that they usually don't add much except a driving beat and to accomplish my goal of creating something unique and different and ultimately UCOVERED... The drums are usually the first thing that goes.
Hope that helps you to understand what I am shooting for and where my mindset is coming from. Not everybody likes what I do. That's ok. But it's not going to stop me trying to get EVERYBODY to love my stuff lol!
- Michael
Most excellent. Blue Jay Way is very acid. And as for I am the Walrus...well, just superb. I am sure Lennon would have approved.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anonymous!
ReplyDeleteSomeone just posted this as a response to my latest collection. It's a great response. He Gets It! .
ReplyDeleteMike: I've really been enjoying your approach. There is such a flood of so-called re-mixes dominating other sites that I just don't care anymore if the bass has been moved from left to left center.
I didn't know what to make of your mixes at first. When you would isolate an element for only a portion of a song, I felt like I wanted to hear the whole song with that element emphasized.
Then I realized I'd have to listen to the whole song 4 or 5 times to get it all, which is something I would never do. I have hard drives filled with things like 5.1 isolations, most of which I have never played.
Yes, I like to hear every take of every Beatle song, and I appreciate when poor recordings are cleaned up, but when it comes to "ELEMENTS" I really favor your "best of" style.
***********
What a great note to receive! My mixes are like treasure hunts as opposed to wearing a familiar comfortable sweater!
Enjoy The Hunt! Michael
Hey just a heads up, I think the cover you used is an edited version of an alternate MMT cover I made on my BeatlesandRutles blog.
ReplyDeleteIt might be, as I just Googled 'alternative Magical Mystery Tour covers' and it came up on Pinterest. It was just different enough to be exactly what I wanted, so hope you don't mind that I adapted it for this post.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to you both.
ReplyDelete