Paul McCartney Said The Beatles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ Has ‘Veiled Drug References’
TL;DR:
- Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” was inspired by travel.
- He wanted the song to be surreal and have drug references to entertain his friends.
- The song’s parent album, Magical Mystery Tour, was a huge international hit.
Paul McCartney said actual mystery tours inspired The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour.” In addition, Paul said it had “veiled drug references.” It even references a famous Buddhist text.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon had strong memories of mystery tours
In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the origin of the song “Magical Mystery Tour.” “John and I remembered mystery tours, and we always thought this was a fascinating idea: getting on a bus and not knowing where you were going,” he said. “Rather romantic and slightly surreal!
“All these old dears with the blue rinses going off to mysterious places,” he added. “Generally, there’s a crate of ale in the boot of the coach and you sing lots of songs. It’s a charabanc trip.” A charabanc is a type of horse-drawn carriage.
Paul McCartney said The Beatles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ references a joint
Paul discussed how these trips inspired The Beatles. “So we took that idea and used it as a basis for a song and the film,” he said. “Because those were psychedelic times it had to become a magical mystery tour, a little bit more surreal than the real ones to give us a license to do it.
“But it employs all the circus and fairground barkers, ‘Roll up! Roll up!,’ which was also a reference to rolling up a joint,” he continued. “We were always sticking those little things in that we knew our friends would get; veiled references to drugs and to trips.”
Paul revealed the line “It’s dying to take you away” was a reference to The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a Buddhist text popular with the counterculture. Alongside “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “Within You Without You,” and “Love You To,” “Magical Mystery Tour” is one of several Beatles tunes inspired by Eastern culture. Paul also said the song was the musical equivalent of a drug trip.
The Beatles’ ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ LP was big in the United States or the United Kingdom
The song “Magical Mystery Tour” was never a single, so it did not hit the Billboard Hot 100. The tune appeared on the album of the same title. The album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for eight weeks. It lasted on the chart for 93 weeks.
According to The Official Charts Company, “Magical Mystery Tour” did not chart in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, the album Magical Mystery Tour only reached No. 31 on the U.K. chart, where it stayed for 10 weeks.
The tune inspired multiple covers. Cheap Trick, Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers, and Ambrosia each put their spin on the track. The film of the same name further immortalized the song.
The album Magical Mystery Tour reached a wide audience even though Paul designed some of it to entertain The Beatles’ friends.
