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Tomorrow Never Knows
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
John Lennon:
Vocals, organ
Paul McCartney: Bass guitar, tape loops
George Harrison: Guitars, sitars, tambura
Ringo Starr: Drums, tambourine
George Martin: Piano
Recorded
6, 7 and 22 April 1966.
Available on:
Revolver
Anthology 2
Tomorrow
Never Knows was the first song to be recorded for the Revolver
album. The song is considered a landmark in musical recording
history since it broke with all conventional recording techniques
at the time.
Lennon
later admitted that he frequently used the drug LSD between
1966 and 1968. Tomorrow Never Knows was direct result of
his experimentation with this drug.
The lyrics
to the song are based on psychologists Timothy Leary and
Richard Alpert's 1964 book The Psychedelic Experience, which
refers to their experiments with LSD. The Psychedelic Experience
is partly based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead, a funerary
text that describes the experiences of the consciousness
after death.
Musically,
Tomorrow Never Knows is based on only one single chord.
It relies heavily on the so-called "drone effect,"
where the same note is repeated constantly. This gives the
song an Indian feel, which is further strengthened by George
Harrison's use of the sitar.
But the
song is also packed with sound effects from tape loops.
Paul McCartney had removed the erase head on his home recorder,
so that he could record multiple tracks over the same piece
of tape without erasing anything. Thus he managed to produce
a strange mix of sounds, which he brought into the studio.
These loops were then mixed into the song.
The speed
of the loops was increased so that it was hard to hear which
instrument that was actually being played. The 'seagull-sounds',
for example, is in fact a distorted guitar. Paul McCartney's
guitar solo on Taxman
was apparently also used here, but played backwards.
Lennon's
voice is also heavily distorted, especially on the second
verse. He told George Martin that he wanted to sound like
Dalai Lama singing from a mountain top. Beatles engineer
Geoff Emerick wired Lennon's voice through a Leslie speaker
inside a hammond organ, to achieve the desired effect.
It was
Ringo who came up with the idea to the title Tomorrow Never
Knows. Working titles had been The Void and Mark 1.
An alternative,
slower version of Tomorrow Never Knows is vailable on Anthology
2.
Tomorrow Never Knows
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
Turn off
your mind relax and float down-stream
It is not dying, it is not dying
Lay down all thought surrender to the void
It is shining, it is shining
That you may see the meaning of within
It is speaking, it is speaking
That love is all and love is everyone
It is knowing, it is knowing.
When ignorance and haste may mourn the dead
It is believing, it is believing
But listen to the color of your dreams
It is not living, it is not living.
Or play the existence to the end.
Of the beginning, of the beginning
Of the beginning. Of the beginning
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