‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ - The Beatles, 1966
It’s really hard to choose a Beatles song to write about, but Revolver is my favourite album of theirs. I always thought Sgt. Pepper wasn’t great, apart from ‘A Day In The Life’. The White Album had way too much filler, and Abbey Road is disqualified for having ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ in there. But I digress.
‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ is the last song on Revolver, and represented a complete change of direction for the Mop Tops. Revolver alternated some of McCartney’s best love songs with some of Lennon’s weirdest (to date - ‘I Am The Walrus was to come later) songs, with some space on the record to placate George Harrison. And ‘Yellow Submarine’ in the middle of it.
While Revolver certainly represented a shift for the Beatles, it was ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ that took it to the giddy heights. I’ve opined several times (usually when drunk) that it was ‘the first dance song’, a good ten years before Kraftwerk got into their stride.
The first thing you’ll notice is the drums. This is the first time drums were looped in a song, and they sound like they’re being played from the top of a mountain. The Chemical Brothers used a very similar beat to this for that song they did with Noel Gallagher, you know, the one that sounds like this song but nowhere near as good.
Then backward guitars, really weird bird-like sounds, sitar that phases in and out, chanting noises, and something that sounds like a keyboard with a nervous tic. Over all this, John Lennon quotes beatifically from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Sounds much better than I’ve just described it. For those of you who want to know more, there’s a really good article on the making of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ on Wikipedia. Didn’t you just know that LSD was the main inspiration?
The Beatles have become pigeonholed into a ’60’s/hippie/object-of-Oasis’-adoration type band for too long. It’s songs like ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ that show just how original they really were.
Last 5 posts by Dave
- 'Sunflower' - Paul Weller, 1993 - December 18th, 2008
- 'Brilliant Mistake' - Elvis Costello, 1986 - December 16th, 2008
- 'Icky Thump' - The White Stripes, 2007 - December 11th, 2008
- 'Careering' - Public Image Limited, 1979 - December 10th, 2008
- 'We'll Meet Again' - Vera Lynn, 1939 - December 5th, 2008
