Songs > Tomorrow Never Knows

Tomorrow Never Knows

(Lennon/McCartney)

Song background
The first track recorded for Revolver was John's "Tomorrow Never Knows", which was heavily influenced by acid and Paul's curiosity in electronic sound tracks and experimentation on his mixing machine at home. The master relies heavily on huge tape loops (16 in all) - several people remember standing around the room holding pencils for the tape to loop around and back into the recording machine as the various sound effects and instrumentation were faded in and out. Many of the words and phrases were either directly lifted or influnced by Timothy Leary's "The Psychedelic Experience" and "The Book Of The Dead". The vocals were forced through a Leslie speaker, as John desired the effect that the listener could hear the words but not hear him, like a group of Tibetian monks chanting on a mountain top.

Recording dates ...

Release dates

• August 5, 1966 (UK) (on Revolver)

Recording notes ...

Chart performance ...

Quotes ...

Awards ...

Other notes

• Recorded under the working titles "Mach 1" and "The Void" but eventually named after a "Ringoism" - a humourous phrase coined by Ringo.

Notable covers

• Phil Collins (from Face Value)