It’s just over 45 years since a 55 minute long film featuring “the Beatles” was broadcast on BBC TV. The magical mystery tour went out on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas day, in 1967. About a quarter of the British population, some 14 million people, gathered around their televisions to watch. However when it finished, the howls of disappointment were almost tangible, so much so, that the movie virtually vanished and has remained more or less hidden until recently. Many of the younger 60’s generation were nervous about even admitting that the might have liked the film. The soundtrack songs, when released on vinyl, became hits and included “the fool on the hill”, “hello, goodbye”, “strawberry fields” and “all you need is love”. The magical mystery tour album reached number 1 in America and stayed there for 8 weeks. But what was the film all about?
On Monday 11th September 1967, a 43-seater coach carrying the Beatles, actors, friends and crew set off from London for a jaunt around the English West Country ending up in the quintessential tourist resort of new quay in Cornwall. With the addition of some other filming taken in an airfield in Kent; the finished edit appeared, to the greater majority of viewers, to be a strange unexplained mixture of unrelated scenes and events. It was a confusing visual cacophony which was difficult to follow or understand. The title “the magical mystery tour” was prophetic because it was a real mystery. Only the UK’s guardian newspaper reviewer offered any positive encouragement when it printed that the film was “an inspired freewheeling achievement….a kind of fantasy morality play about the grossness, warmth and stupidity of the (Beatles’) audience”.
So what, if anything, went wrong with this Beatles venture? With the passage of time a re-evaluation of the film has been made. Judging by today’s criteria it may be seen as a challenging viewing experience, which contemptuously rejects the convention of story-telling needing a flowing plot. The result is now regarded as proof of the Beatles creative acumen and their ability to confront cultural stereotypes. The internationally acclaimed film director, Martin Scorsese, supports this view. He says that for him the freedom of the picture was very important.
Significantly the magical mystery tour highlights a saying which probably has meaning to us all.
“A right idea, before it’s time, is a wrong idea”!
Looking back it is easy to see that the Beatles, on this occasion, were well ahead of their time. Nevertheless the viewers wailing did not stop them going on to produce even more memorable music and hit songs.
Psychologists now agree that everyone enjoys having our inner feelings stirred but there has to be a sequence of events which sit comfortably with our emotions. Anything which does not do this, we tend to dislike. Creativity though usually demands the unexpected, looking at things from new angles. Hence the quandary!
We may have great ideas but, like the Beatles, it maybe the wrong time. In contrast, I can already hear the wailing of some who will decry the association of creativity with any type of magical mystery tour. Such a concept, to them, is unacceptable because it implies that creativity must have some sort of magical, incoherent or mystical aspect. Along with this comes the notion that the end result is either impossible, or crazy and therefore difficult to quantify.
Yet we all have access to our own personal mystery tours and how magical we make them is up to us. Where, you may well ask? Well recent studies show that the use of face book, far from being detrimental, may actually help lift your mood. Do you like looking at your old face book pictures? Just like the Beatles film, with the passage of time, things take on a different meaning. Old photos, postings and videos can, for example, comfort users who are stressed. This new assessment contrasts with previous research which said face book may be bad for you. The power is in your hands, as you can put the “magic and mystery” into things by using face book, and other social networking sites, to connect with your past self, when your present self needs reassurance. Who knows, you may end-up with a Beatles’ mind-set and gain a fresh confidence which spurs you on so you will recognise when it’s the right idea at the right time.