55 years later and it STILL sounds like it comes from the future

Modern music has still not progressed beyond "Tomorrow Never Knows".

This song came out 1 year after "I feel fine." Such a radical shift in music over only 1 year. It's crazy.

The first time I heard this song, I genuinely thought I had accidentally downloaded a 90’s electronic remix or something! But nope, just the Beatles creating genres like most bands create songs 😂

This sounds so unique and mind blowing in 2021. I can’t imagine how shocking this was in 1966

Ringo decided upon that drum pattern on his own. What a brilliant percussionist he (still) is!

Ringos ideas for drum parts sometimes get downplayed, but he is a genius! Perfect for the song, groundbreaking! Can you imagine hearing this on the radio in 1966?! Before Hendrix before Jefferson airplane , before cream! What I love is how ringo tunes his drums for this song. Up high like a jazz kit but mimicking and Indian beat crashing on his ride cymbal just pushing the sound out. It’s marvelous.

A true masterpiece. A perfect song to end the Revolver album... a peek into what was to come.

I remember listening to this in 1966.I was sixteen. When I heard the guitar entry at 1:29, it blew my mind, as they say! The entire "Revolver " album was a revelation and light years away from the " Rubber Soul " compilation. The Beatles were off and running on a new track. Brilliant!

The Beatles were innovators that blew minds. Copy cats flourished but never did reach their level. ✌

i was born in 1950 and grew up with the beatles. this song came out of nowhere,....nothing led up to it. it just fell out of the sky. i'm not an art scholar but i liken this song as having the same effect as Hieronymus Bosch's 'garden of earthly delights' a triptych he painted around 1500. it's at the prado in spain and it just comes with no warning. you couldn't look at it and think 'i saw this coming' both song and painting had the same effect on me.....extraordinary leaps of creativity and imagination.

The song and in particular the drumming is hypnotic.

Nothing and I do mean NOTHING compares to the Beatles in the 2020s. I'm so grateful I was there to hear them. And I almost feel Sorry for the young.

Ringo is one of the best drummers and so under rated. He was a perfect time keeper. He is a left handed drummer playing a right handed drum kit. Very creative.

Brilliant Lennon song. The thing is when you grew up with The Beatles, as I remember it, you weren't taken aback by them, everything was simply The Beatles being The Beatles, they tended to continually entrance you with their music. Some comments below mention Paul never being able to come up with anything like this, the thing is they all complemented one another.

I believe this was the first time that “backwards music” was played. I love the eerie feel of this song. I’m quite certain that John Lennon was very pleased to put this on the album. 😂🌺✌️

Great points, Harri. Paul was involved in the loops, samples, backwards bits and field recordings on this track, I found out recently. Paul was staying at Ringo’s flat in Montagu Sq., London, around this time and so was William S. Burroughs and technical assistant, Ian Sommerville. This was when Burroughs was working on tape cut-ups himself as a new way of writing. He had much praise for McCartney and his technical knowledge as well as creativity. Another famous person who stayed at Ringo’s flat a bit later was Jimi Hendrix. Ringo wanted a place available for his pals when they needed it.

Ringo is playing a tabla beat (Hindustani music)

the fact that the beatles went from love me do, to this in four years is crazy.i wish i couldve expanded that much in the four years i was in high school. i wouldve graduated a freaking genious.

To say this song was Incredibly Influential is the Greatest Understatement in Rock Music!

Almost 60 years later and this is just as thrilling and innovative as it was in 1966. It’s art that transcends time. We’ll never know anything like it again.

In my opinion I consider this the first edm song very ahead of it’s time at least 30 years ahead of it’s time first time I heard it I said this is basically 90s edm like big beat drum n bass breakbeat techno etc to me it’s all in there with ringos break beat the tape loops etc even the chemical brothers tried to recreate and make there own version in the 90s so it just shows such a timeless masterpiece

Don't forget the stone cold sober English gentleman George Martin facilitating the recording of this and putting their ideas into practice.

Everything about this song is groundbreaking, starting with John’s songwriting (on just a ONE CHORD DRONE!) and flowing from his abstract mind into the band’s arrangements to fit the atmosphere of the song

People do not understand just how innovative the Beatles were. They tried everything, so experimental especially John way back in 60's. I am the Walrus was another really experimental song. Because they pushed so many boundaries they will always be the greatest band ever.

John Lennon was quoted as saying, "Rubber Soul was the pot album and Revolver was acid."

I don’t think you would ever have heard this on the radio back then. It was a radical departure in sound for the Beatles and plenty of critics didn’t care for it. Most radio back then were strictly top 40, I’m not sure if there were many pirate stations or album oriented stations at the time.

The transition from pop band to this still blows me away, lightyears ahead of the rest.

John wrote this song with just one chord. That's the craziest part of all.

According to Ringo, John once played him a track from a jazz album and asked him to "play something like this". "But John" said Ringo "there's two drummers on this". John hadn't even noticed.

My favourite Beatles song by a mile, outstanding production. Although it’s the last track on the album I think it was the first track they recorded. So far ahead of its time. Love the piano at the end, it was sampled in a house track I used to play as a DJ in the 90s

I’d probably throw Rain into the ‘Trippiest Song’ competition. Which contains a Paul bass line that I know would blow your mind!

In '63 they are writing "I wanna hold your hand" and less than 3 years later they are creating this. Astonishing progression.

Pushing boundaries and writing for themselves.

When it came to music (as well as other things ;-) they were always willing to experiment.

In my mind this song is the apotheosis of psychedelia. Nothing approached it before or since.

Ringo on the drums is insane. Brilliant 👏 👏 👏

Ground breaking music!

Two other excellent songs from the Revolver album are Paul's "For No One" and George's "Love You To"

The guitars are played backwards on tape. Way out for it's time 1966.

Tremendous drumming by Ringo (no drum machine back then) and a lot of backward-playback of guitar parts. Ringo is said to have come up with the "Tomorrow never Knows" phrase and John took it as the title. The song was originally titled "The Void."

this song was so influential in the electronic scene of the 90s, specially the drums, it traumatized the Chemical Brothers

This song is one the the great album mic drop moments of all time

McCartney’s bass is just great through good headphones.

Ringo created the drum riff himself. I think it was a tape loop of the drum part used on the recording. Ringo was the best drummer on Earth for the Beatles. Very creative. Other tape loops were used as well (the "seagull" sound). This was recorded around 3 years after "She Loves You". The Beatles were the artists of the 20th century. They might well be the artists of the 21st century as well. Here's my favourite cover of the tune (still using Ringo's drum part) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rd6lqtZ5tLW-qGQ.html

I listened to I want to hold your hand, yesterday, yellow submarine, please please me, love me do, etc.. then I heart this. I could not understand "why", "how" "when"... so many questions. This songs sets them apart from everyone else. Innovative, mind blowing, excellent, enlightening to say the least.

Even while the Beatles were into drugs, they didn’t tend to use them during recording sessions. Reportedly they tried that a few times and thought (at the time) that they were making great stuff, but each time they’d come in the next day and listen to the tapes. Then they’d look at each other and say, “We’re gonna have to start over.”

Love that backward guitar solo!

This is 1966! For crikey's sake. The Beatles were opening another door into a future where others would go. Paul had a hand in this too. And here we see Ringo as no ordinary drummer.

Wonderful reaction HarriBest, good for you. Long live Ringo-George-Paul-John's music!!

This was a Chalenge to Syd Barrett to get Pink Floyd to play live like this. First use of tape loops and backwards played tapes !

The day you discover The Beatles, i wish I could relive it.

This is the moment when music changed for me, from innocent pop-rock fan to trippy psychedelia! hehe something of an awakening.

I recently heard Les Claypools Flying Frog Brigade play a version of this live...obsessed... Love this song!!!

This guy is becomming a huge beatles fan

Great reaction Harri. John gets credit for being the experimental Beatle, but it was Paul who introduced him to experimental/avant-garde music after being exposed to it in London. Both were equally experimental in their own way. Paul's experiments tended to be more formal and less psychedelic than John's, but were no less radical for their time.

Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows mashup is good too. Trippy as well.

This was the first time george played a sitar on a beatles song. They also played the guitar backwards. Also ringo was left handed and played a right handed drum set which is part of the great beats he does.

I have a feeling that Mike Nesmith of the Monkees heard this song leading him to write the Monkees tune Daily Nightly.

John’s vocal changes around a minute plus as it was put through a Leslie speaker. Ringo and Paul played their drum and bass line respectively and looped. Ringo’s drum resembles that of a drone, from a bygone era in music. There is the use of sampling of laughing and guitars which were distorted. The recording genius was George Martin and Geoff Emerick, the amount of tape running between tape decks in various control rooms and the use of the control deck…would have been a sight to see runs of tape through corridors

This song has always removed my mind from my body - temporarily of course. I think

Long Live The Beatles!

The Beatles were ahead of their time. Genius

The placement of this song on “Revolver” was perfect. It’s the last song on the album and pointed the way the band was heading. The final lyrics-“the end of the beginning”-also hit that theme. The “cute, moptop” Beatles were over. What came next changed music forever.

One cord in Tomorrow Never Knows. Genius.

And this is a late 1950' band.. The fab four Beatles!! Unbelievable! 1966! No band has done something like this.

The Best Track / Piece of Music of The 20th Century.

You are correct Sir, a trip.

Props to George Martin (Producer) Classically-trained yet hearing this?! He must have thought, "What the hell--?! I have to be a part of this!!"

At 72 years old, "Or play the game 'Existence' to the end, of the beginning, of the beginning x3" still sounds like a good plan to me

I read somewhere that Lennon, McCartney or Harrison never wrote a musical score for Ringo. They would play him the melody and let him come up with the beat. For one thing, he never learned to read music. He was just such a natural when it came to his drums. Pure genius

i was so shocked when i heard this song first time

Actually McCartney had a lot of input into this song. It’s probably the most ground breaking song in rock history.

And Ringo always did his own thing .

Very cool song, but not one that would've been on the airwaves back then. Love their experimentation. I'd say it's more than psychedelic, as the lyrics promote meditation and faith, without naming either--there's a definite message here. Excellent reaction, Harri, as usual.

“What is that? It’s the Beatles” 😂 love it

Paul is the one that brought the experimental sounds to the Beatles...outstanding! The "birds" is actually Paul laughing.

This song is about the Tibetan Book of the Dead. One of my favourite Beatles song off one of my favourite Beatles album.

Guitar lead was recorded in isolation, and they then mixed it down played in reverse / backwards for the track.

The earlier takes on this were completely different. There's a video of McCartney, Starr, Harrison and George Martin commenting on the original multitrack of this and the original beat Ringo came up with was almost like 1-2-3 cha-cha-cha before he came up with the iconic beat of the finished product. Although Lennon wrote the song, he presented it to the band while singing it over a single C chord strummed repeatedly. McCartney was the one who created and brought in the original tape loops, with the band then creating and contributing loops of their own, and then George Martin and the mix engineer set the loops up on different tape recorders. The various other engineers controlled the loops with one end of each loop around a pencil held in hand and the other attached to each tape recorder, and the Beatles controlled the mixer faders, essentially playing the mix "live" as the would raise and lower the faders corresponding to the loops on the different machines. The rest is history.

As Dave says in another post. You had to hope you lived near a college that played full LPs and "banned" songs by Top 40 stations. Harri, I think George was using some recordings of his guitar backwards on this song to get some of the different guitar sounds? Thanks for getting back to Beatles! As always, you rock!

This was and still is my most loved album by them... since my childhood in the 60s... they did play the guitar/Sitar backwards ^^ btw... lots of musicians turned their minds musically and spiritual wise to India.

Some comments refer to "not hearing this on the radio" and this is one reason that college radio stations (FM, low power) enjoyed the glow of 'being underground' and 'anti-establishment'. These songs really kicked off the growth of FM radio stations and would eventually injure AM revenues, the Top 40 mentality and create even more opportunities for bands who were not Singles bands, but Album bands. I need to scroll back and see if this is one of Lennon's first 're-writes' of previous publicized works. The lyrics are credited to the Tibetan Book of the Dead (I think that's right), but in SGT PEPPERS, Lennon continues taking son Julian's drawing of a classmate floating above the earth for LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS and then basically lifting all the lyrics from a carnival poster to become BENEFIT OF MR. KITE.

I am glad you have played this , they were blowing minds back then .

1st very-rough version of 'Tomorrow Never Knows' was recorded in December 1965 just days after 'Rubber Soul' LP was released, the concept originating at the tail end of the 'Rubber Soul' sessions in early-November 1965. it was a revolutionary groundbreaking song in 20th century music and for recording techniques and for the Beatles. The song concept musically and lyrically was inspired partly by at least one Autumn-1965 LSD trip taken by John Lennon in the company of an 'experienced' 'trip' guide. The lyrics from the song are all taken directly from or based on 1964 book 'The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead'* (cf. LSD) by Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzner. In a famous-at-the-time television interview in early 1964, drummer Ringo Starr had jestingly uttered the phrase 'Tomorrow never knows' when laughing off an incident that took place at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, during which one of the guests had cut off a portion of his hair. The song was not originally titled and so title marked as 'Mark 1' and was referred to as such in documentation until the Beatles were remixing tracks for the 'Revolver' album in June 1966 and it temporarily was changed to the song title 'Void' by Lennon, then eventually to 'Tomorrow never knows' because Lennon didn't want people to interpret/misinterpret 'Void'/the-song in a dark or downbeat way. The 'Revolver' LP was released on 5th August 1966 in the United Kingdom and 8th August 1966 in the United States. * [8th century] Tibetan 'Book of the Dead' (Bardo Thodol), concerning life-death transitions, and written and buried in the 8th century and rediscovered in the 14th century as a key part of Tibetan religion.

The guitars are a solo played backwards. There is a lot of backwards music on this track.

interesting trivia: In the massively successful American TV series, "Mad Men" set in the 1960s world of NY advertising, The Beatles are brought up frequently. The only song actually played on the show was this one. Cost: $200,000 for a one-time use.

Revolver is my favourite Beatles album. First 3 songs, Taxman, Eleanor Rigby and I'm Only Sleeping, just LP tracks for The Beatles, any other band and any of those 3 songs would be one of their biggest hits.

Reinventing pop music with every release at this point.

This song being the last one on Revolver and a very different style than the others there, was like an introduction into the more psychedelic styles featured on Sgt. Pepper, Magical Mystery, and Yellow Submarine to come. I think you're very ready for the movies like "Hard Day's Night", "Help!" and "Yellow Submarine", Harri. If you haven't seen them yet. Yellow Submarine movie in particular because Tomorrow Never Knows fits in with that one. One thing to note about Yellow Submarine movie is its animation artwork which inspired the popular artist of the time Peter Max. If you google Peter Max to see samples of his work before you see Yellow Submarine, you might think he participated in the movie, though he didn't. ✌️😎

Revolver best album ever to me there's times when rubber sgt pepper Abbey road or the white album is but overall revolver

This is so f*cking fantastic 😍🤩😍

U did it again Harri. I haven't heard this song for years and others aren't reacting to it. U are like a 60's FM radio station compared to all the other AM top 40 one hit wonders. Love what you're doing

The music for this song was recorded and then played backwards. Then they added the vocals and the drums. Revolutionary.

This song is normally played along "Within Without you". I have been waiting for you to get to these! I do believe you will here the sitar also in this. After their visit to India, there was a huge shift in their music. Wonderful. Hope you listen to "Within Without You". Be prepared for another beautiful trip.

The Beatles’ masterpiece. Yes Paul wrote so many incredible songs too. This was so far ahead of its time. Mind blowing.

My Revolver album is so old so it's in MONO :-)

Your comments were great. According to Paul's autobiography the weird samples were George's idea. They never told Ringo what to play. He just listened to what they played and fit in. When recording, Ringo simply did his thing. I heard this when it first came out. i was 15. It was crazy and magic! They, the 4 of them, always seemed to push the envelope until there was a new envelope.

Some say that the entire career of "The Chemical Brothers" is based on this song and its beat. Who knows? 🤷

It's one of those classic songs which wasn't a big hit, or even a single release, but everyone has a story of the first time they heard it. It is a great song to listen to after you have enjoyed an "herbal jazz cigarette" :)