As I medidate on the beauty of unease that’s highlighted on the German true stereo release of Magical Mystery Tour, I’m finding that “Penny Lane” is one song that does not benefit from this mix. The song is too perfect, too much a product of the vibe that was at the mighty core of the Sgt. Pepper’s sessions for which it was originally recorded. Here’s the German true stereo version.
The Beatles, “Penny Lane” (German true stereo mix)
I prefer the crammed, fake stereo of the US release I grew up with. It’s totally in your face, like McCartney and like his airtight pop confection was meant to be.
[NOTE: If the gratuitous clip that kicks off this video doesn’t convince you nerds that the film Almost Famous actually was the most contrived piece of prepubescent proto-porn ever produced by Hollywood, as I’ve felt since first watching it, I don’t know what to say.]
Wow — the highlight for me is the never-before-heard-or-appreciated vibrato on the bass note behind “in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen..” Cool!
Not an hour before reading this post, I was just thinking of the one and only completely awesome moment of Almost Famous.
The kid is writing The Big Story the night before it’s due and it’s going awfully. He writes a particularly wretched phrase (the guitarist’s “fingers fly like airplances of music”); shocked and disgusted with himself, he wads up the paper and hurls it to the floor. He starts to try to write something else, and for a second he picks up the paper, uncrumples it and looks at it again, before throwing it to the floor again.
That, my friends, is rock bottom, the point at which, if you have the time, you should call it a day, take a walk and hit it again tomorrow: Tossing something in the garbage and then thinking, even for a second, that maybe it’s not so bad.
Three guesses why that came into my mind today.
I thought Phillip Seymour Hoffman was hilarious as Lester Bangs. I dig that scene when he goes on the radio show and plays The Stooges.