What makes The Beatles song ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ so groundbreaking?
On May 2nd 1966, Paul McCartney held court with Marianne Faithful and Bob Dylan in his London hotel suite. The Beatles had a new song, you see. One that was “a little out there” in the same way the sky is “up”. So, he was looking for as much peer review as possible. McCartney dropped the needle on quite possibly the most valuable piece of vinyl in the world and watched Faithful and Dylan listen.
Halfway through the song, Dylan stood up. He sneered “Oh, I get it, you don’t want to be cute anymore” and left the room. It’s strange to think that Bob Dylan actually had the same reaction to ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ as Don Draper.
Most of us would have done the same at the time. This is a song whose hypnotic energy and sheer sonic madness has barely been matched in over half a century of pop music. Can you imagine hearing this in 1966? The year before, The Fab Four had released ‘Help!’ and ‘Day Tripper’; now, they were putting together raga-rock neoclassical pieces that demanded brand new recording techniques to bring to life.
Strap yourself in because this may astonish you, but the song’s inspiration came from Lennon’s dabbling in LSD. More specifically, the core of the song came from him reading Timothy Leary’s book The Psychedelic Experience, which contains the lines “Whenever in doubt, turn off your mind, relax, float downstream.”
Once it was brought to the studio, it became apparent that this could be a very important song to them, and each Beatle brought their A-game. Harrison suggested and then played the Tambura drone that backs the whole song, Starr crafted the iconic drum track himself, and McCartney suggested that the backing music not be created by guitars and drums but by tape loops.
The track itself, though, is a testament not only to the band’s skills but also to George Martin’s. Johnny and the Moondogs may have had the big ideas but Martin brought them all together and found a way of making them work despite having mid-1960s technology to work with. The sheer invention though, isn’t what made it stay in the public conscience though.
It definitely helps, but there’s a reason why The White Album’s Revolution 9 is a curio at best and a joke at worst, and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was named The Beatles’ best-ever song by no less an authority than the NME. What sets ‘Tomorrow…’ apart is that the song doesn’t just begin and end with experimentation; it also contains one of the most haunting and beautiful melodies Lennon ever came up with.
It’s a lesser-spotted part of an otherwise poured-over song. The main hook is one of the most indelible of the band’s mid-1960s pomp. As Paul told Barry Miles in his seminal book Many Years From Now, “I remember John coming to Brian Epstein’s house… George Martin was there so it may have been to show George some new songs or talk about the new album. John got his guitar out and started doing ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ and it was all on one chord. (Martin) didn’t flinch at all when John played it to him… He could have said, ‘Bloody hell, it’s terrible!’”
There’s a reason that the whole Beatles team got excited enough about a song built around a single chord to make something so special with it. Underneath all the studio techniques and philosophy, ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ still has the exact same core as every Beatles classic. Inspired songwriting, leading to an unforgettable song.
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