Blue Jay Way

When George Harrison was in Los Angeles in August 1967, after a flight from London, he experienced a peculiar night of waiting. He was staying at a house on Blue Jay Way, a street located in the Hollywood Hills, amidst a dense fog. The wait stretched on as he awaited Derek Taylor, the band's publicist. To stay awake and pass the time, Harrison sat down at a Hammond organ in the house and began to improvise. From that improvisation, the basis for the song Blue Jay Way emerged, a piece that captures the feeling of disorientation and the ethereal atmosphere of that night. The recording of the song took place in September and October 1967 at EMI Studios in London, under the production of George Martin.

Blue Jay Way was released in 1967, as part of the Magical Mystery Tour project, which was presented in both EP format in the UK and as an album in the United States. The song is distinguished by its use of studio techniques characteristic of The Beatles' psychedelic period, such as flanging, the Leslie effect, and backward tape manipulation. Although the piece incorporates elements that evoke Indian classical music, such as an organ sound that simulates a constant drone, the instrumentation used is purely Western. The lyrics reflect Harrison's experience of waiting in the fog, with friends who seemed to have lost their way. This dreamlike and strange atmosphere was also captured in the sequence from the television film Magical Mystery Tour, where the imagery sought to recreate that same sense of haze and disorientation.