| "Blue Jay Way" | |
|---|---|
.jpg) 1967 UK EP face label | |
| Song by the Beatles | |
| from the EP and album Magical Mystery Tour | |
| Released | |
| Recorded | 6–7 September and 6 October 1967 |
| Studio | EMI, London |
| Genre | |
| Length | 3:54 |
| Label | Parlophone (UK), Capitol (US) |
| Songwriter(s) | George Harrison |
| Producer(s) | George Martin |
| Music video | |
| "Blue Jay Way" on YouTube | |
"Blue Jay Way" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by George Harrison, it was released in 1967 on the group's Magical Mystery Tour EP and album. The song was named after a street in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles where Harrison stayed in August 1967, shortly before visiting the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. The lyrics document Harrison's wait for music publicist Derek Taylor to find his way to Blue Jay Way through the fog-ridden hills, while Harrison struggled to stay awake after the flight from London to Los Angeles.
As with several of Harrison's compositions from this period, "Blue Jay Way" incorporates aspects of Indian classical music, even though the Beatles used only Western instrumentation on the track, including a drone-like Hammond organ part played by Harrison. Created during the group's psychedelic period, the track makes extensive use of studio techniques such as flanging, Leslie rotary effect, and reversed tape sounds. The song appeared in the Beatles' 1967 television film Magical Mystery Tour, in a sequence that visually re-creates the sense of haziness and dislocation evident on the recording.
While some reviewers have dismissed the song as monotonous, several others have admired its yearning quality and dark musical mood. The website Consequence of Sound describes "Blue Jay Way" as "a haunted house of a hit, adding an ethereal, creepy mythos to the City of Angels".[3] Artists who have covered the song include Bud Shank, Colin Newman, Tracy Bonham and Siouxsie and the Banshees.
- ^ Thill, Scott (14 September 2012). "The Beatles' Surreal Magical Mystery Tour to Get Resurrected for Millennials". Wired. Archived from the original on 13 October 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
the cultural icons that invented MTV stitch together videos for proto-rap (Lennon's 'I Am the Walrus') and deep psychedelia (Harrison's 'Blue Jay Way') ...
- ^ DeRogatis 2003, p. 48.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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