TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS
(Lennon-McCartney)
1966


Perhpas the greatest psychedelic piece ever recorded.  Although "Tomorrow 
Never Knows" is the final track of Revolver, seemingly pointing to a future 
direction the band might take, it was the first song they recorded for the 
session.  Originally referred to as "The Void", after a line by the acid 
guru Timothy Leary, "Tomorrow Never Knows" was a plain and simple effort by 
John Lennon to attempt to capture the sensation of an acid trip.  The song 
revolves around a raga type repititive rhythm, layered with 16 loops of 
randomly found sounds.  John's original idea was that his vocal should be 
hidden among voices that sounded like a chorus of Tibetan monks chanting on 
a mountain top.

Although contemporary classical composers such as Karl-Heinz Stockhausen had 
been experimenting with tape loops and other electronic technology for 
years, "Tomorrow Never Knows" was to have a profound influence on the 
psychedelic music of the second half of the decade.

An unreleased version of the song appears as "Mark 1" on the Yellow Dog 
Unsurpassed Masters bootleg series.  This is probably as close as the song 
got to Lennon's original vision.  The tape loops whirring away in the 
foreground with John's voice, recorded through a Leslie speaker, hidden 
amongst the malaise.  Disturbing stuff.



C
      Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream

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 being, it is being



Instrumental



That love is all, that love is everyone

It is knowing, it is knowing



That ignorance and hate may warm the dead

It is believing, it is believing



But listen to the colour of your dream

It is not living, it is not living



Or play the game existance to the end

Of the beginning, of the beginning

Of the beginning, of the beginning

Of the beginning, of the beginning

Of the beginning, of the beginning