Beatles inspiration for Tomorrow Never Knows?

I saw the thread where people discussed Rubber Soul, and I love that album myself. I also love Revolver and have often wondered where in the hell they got the song Tomorrow Never Knows. That song sounds so far ahead of its time. It blew me away the first time I heard it in the late 90's. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to hear it back in its day. Anyone know the genesis of that one?

I'm sure there's more to it than this, but I think LSD and the Tibetan Book of the Dead played a pretty big role here

Looks like I was wrong about the Tibetan Book of the Dead(kind of)



Check this out-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Never_Knows

the words were inspired by Timothy Leary's 1964 book "The Psychedelic Experience", a poetic reinterpretation of theTibetan Book of the Dead. the original title of the song was "The Void", but was changed to "Tomorrow Never Knows", a line that Ringo had spoken in passing and remembered by John.

it was the first song recorded for the Revolver album, and the first song handled by new engineer Geoff Emerick. his work on the track instantly impressed the Beatles. for some of John's vocals, his voice was fed through a revolving Leslie speaker.

it was the first song recorded for the Revolver album, and the first song handled by new engineer Geoff Emerick. his work on the track instantly impressed the Beatles. for some of John's vocals, his voice was fed through a revolving Leslie speaker.

and if I remember correctly from Geoff's book, he said John told him he wanted to sound like "the Dalai Lama singing from a mountain top".

Love the drums in that one. The Beatles' appreciation for ambient noises, started on Rubber Soul, was brought to the point of perfection on Revolver. The Beatles themselves considered the two albums to be part 1 and part 2 of the same album.

The most impressive thing about this track for me is the innovative use of tape loops.



"Paul McCartney had discovered that by removing the erase head on his Grundig reel-to-reel tape machine, he could saturate a recording with sound.

There were five loops used on Tomorrow Never Knows: a seagull noise, actually a distorted recording of McCartney laughing; an orchestra playing a B flat chord; notes played on a Mellotron's flute setting; a second Mellotron on its violin setting; and a distorted sitar which is most clearly heard in the instrumental break following the lines "It is being, it is being".

It has been claimed that The Beatles also used part of McCartney's guitar solo for Taxman, reversed and slowed down a tone, in the instrumental break. However, the two parts are different and were likely recorded on different dates."


I think George and Paul especially were beginning to bring in influences from more avant garde styles of music and their experimentation with musique concrète in the context of a pop song would foreshadow the more "out there" examples from Sgt. Pepper's and the White Album.

Love the drums in that one.

from The Beatles Bible:

Geoff Emerick decided to break standard EMI procedures and mic the drums differently. “Without saying a word, I quietly slipped out to the studio and moved both the snare drum mic and the single overhead mic in close. But before I also moved the microphone that was aimed at Ringo’s bass drum, there was something else I wanted to try, because I felt that the bass drum was ringing too much…Sitting atop one of the instrument cases was an old woolen sweater – one which had been specially knitted with eight arms to promote the group’s recent film, which was originally called ‘Eight Arms To Hold You’…I removed the bass drum’s front skin – the one with the famous ‘dropped-T’ Beatles logo on it – and stuffed the sweater inside so that it was flush against the rear beater skin. Then I replaced the front skin and positioned the bass drum mic directly in front of it, angled down slightly but so close that it was almost touching.”

George Martin waved everyone into the control room to hear the playback…’What on earth did you do to my drums?’ Ringo was asking me. ‘They sound fantastic!’

the Beatles were listening to a lot of electronc music at the time. Think Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage. Plus, they were in full experimentation mode.

Tomorrow Never Knows is the best example of psychedelia. Most psychedelic music leaves me cold, but this is how it should be - it rocks hard.

Now they need to finally release "Carnival of Light."

George Martin talks about it and so do the Beatles:

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In addition to what has been said about Ringo's drumsound another star role was for Paul's Rickenbacker 4001S bass.
http://tb-positec.com/101basses/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/ricPaul.jpg
Paul's Ricky became his main recording bass during the "Rubber soul" sessions where it was loved by both Macca and Geoff Emerick because of it having superior intonation to the Hofner and because of it having a more powerful sound. Macca didn't care much for the typical Ricky "Clank" preferring to play it with the tone rolled off, giving him a deep fat tone.

I consider "Tomorrow never knows" one of the first Dub records.

and I LOVE the mashup they did of "Tomorrow never knows" with "Within you without you" it's such a natural fit.
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