57 years old and it STILL sounds like it comes from the distant future

Pure brilliance from The Beatles. If you listen to all their stuff you'll see why they were the best ever. No band evolved like they did and kept the level of greatness so high.

This was the moment rock & roll crossed into another dimension. It wasn't a grand gesture, it was just The Beatles being playful and creative, but it resulted in something unlike anything else before or since. Often imitated, never equaled.

This is my favorite Beatles song. Also, Ringo is underrated as a drummer.

If you like Ringo as a drummer, check out ‘Rain’, which I think was the B side to Paperback Writer. Ringo himself has said it’s some of the best drumming he did in the Beatles.

Ringo was the heart and soul of The Beatles. No one else could have played the drums for this band. Ringo played to the song and was not interested in showcasing his skills. Of course, this was the hallmark of The Beatles...they all played for the song. This is the greatest band that ever has walked on this planet and no one will ever top them. Enjoy your experience in listening to them.

Around this time they embraced a lot of avant-garde ideas but unlike the avant-garde movement itself, the Beatles managed to keep it accessible and actually sounding good :-)

The Beatles were singing Love Me Do just 3 years before this. Quite a leap.

Beginings of drum n base Lennon masterpiece

From my point of view, "Revolver" is a transitional LP for the band. This tune is a prime example. "Revolver" is like a candy sampler -- there's something in it for every taste. Early psychedelia by The Beatles. Memories...Trips, baby -- trips.

Excellent review! The second greatest song ever for me, after "A Day In The Life". Imagine this came out in 1966!

BTW, Ringo is left-handed but he is playing on a right-handed kit, which adds to his unique style. And, too, thanks for playing the songs all the way through. It's really the only way to listen to these geniuses. Can hardly wait for you to hear "I Am the Walrus," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "Glass Onion," "Eleanor Rigby," "Because," and the medley at the end of Abbey Road (which must be heard without pausing between songs. (And yes, Ringo does sing...try "Octopuses Garden" and "Yellow Submarine." Keep going!

I love the seagull sounds. So ahead of its time. So fitting. It’s the start of Psychedelic Music

Genius brilliant all on a four track.

This was the first song the group did for " Revolver. " Tape loops and droning Indian instruments over a repetitive drum pattern. Lennon's voice recorded through a Leslie rotating horn. A new direction in exploring music.

RINGO'S DRUM PATTERN ON THIS SONG 🔥🔥🔥🔥

One of Brian Eno's favourite songs. He did a cover of ut with Phil Manzanera's 801.

Hi there. This was a huge turning point for the music planet. There's a before and after about it. Also some words from "the book of the death ". If you find this strange or weird imagine it playing on your radio station in 1966?/7? The Beatles went for a retreat in the Himalayas were they learn transcendental Meditation,mantras, etc this is one of the side effects 😊

With Tomorrow Never Knows as the last song on Revolver, it is like the Beatles signaling that they are entering a brave new work in their recordings which turned out to be very true with Sgt. Peppers, Strawberry Fields, I am the Walrus and so on. Ringo is a great drummer who gave the songs what they needed for the drums. He was just not some happy go lucky drummer who ended up at the right place. He is one of the greatest drummer of the classic rock period.

Great pick. Love the experimental Beatles stuff. One of my faves. And yes to Ringo! I used to dust him off all the time. No more!

I love The Beatles. Always have, always will. Even the songs I don’t like I love. What amazes me is that just 3 years earlier they were singing Love Me Do. Think about that. 🤘😳🤘

Revolver is one of their absolute best albums. I think it radically opened up rock and roll, at least as much as sergeant pepper

John told the producer he wanted his voice to sound like it was drifting down from a mountain side. The lyrics were based on John's use of LSD and from the book The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzner.

This album, and Rubber Soul before it, is when the Beatles were transitioning away from dance/love songs, and started making music to be listened to. The beginnings of 60s Psychedelic Pop music.

Ringo is excellent Drummer! Great song!! 👍👍😎

Best first time reaction I've ever seen. He listens to the song all the way through! Before reacting. Any "first time" that stops after ten seconds is bunk. And that's 90% of them! The most hilarious? The classical harp player who listens to "She's Leaving Home"; and stops two seconds in to say; "... it's a harp..." Great reaction tune by Pocketful; I'll be looking for more.

One of my favorite Beatles songs.

Yes! Ringo is one of the most undercredited drummers. By his own admission in an interview, he stated he was not a great technical drummer, but that he had perfect rhythm. Because of that he gave us some of the most profound drum sequences.

Left handed drumming on a stanard kick evokes different types of rhynms with the drummer's Strong Hand. It's hard to play as a Right handed drummer. It's like playing backwards. Ringo Starr is one of the greatest drummers of all time. All us Drummers should toast to that!

Great to hear you praising Ringo's drumming on this track! I agree he's really great about this time. Ringo actually reckons that his drumming on Rain, recorded as part of the Revolver sessions but released as a B side to the single Paperback Writer neither of which are on the album. Check that out if you like Ringo's work about this time. I always say that his under- rated drumming "served the song" and was never flashy... Ah! you have reviewed Rain. So try Ringo singing Boys live at the Hollywood Bowl (it's in the Eight DAys A Week movie)

Revolver. my fave - I'm 70 + full strength jr high Beatlemania. it's every bit as 'experimental' as Sgt pepper with more focus , to me, on instruments. I'd say the album most influenced bey George. which is +++++ this tune - backwards guitar, etc. to me , with no scientific backing - it is the TV show 'Twin Peaks' 20 years before.

The lyrics are inspired by timothy leary's commentary on the Tibetan book of the dead.

This was the 1st song recorded for Revolver and is a precursor to the next album Sgt Pepper's

That's not a Sitar that opens the song its a Tampura, the instrument that creates the hypnotic drone in Indian music. It plays the same four notes repeatedly throughout the raga.

The original 1966 mix of Tomorrow Never Knows is the real deal. The Giles mix is OK (for a Giles remix) but it looses the impact of the original. This track has one of the best original stereo mixes of the ENTIRE Beatles catalog... full stop.

Thanks. I'm glad I got to grow up hearing the Beatles from start to finish in the real timeframe. Seems so odd to see a reaction of someone only hearing 2 songs. Their growth in their career was the most thrilling thing. Hope you hear more..

ONE of the reasons that certain people don't 'check out the Beatles sooner' is the constant refrain from certain _other_ people that they should, er, check out the Beatles!

People say this was the first psychedelic song of the genre.

Would love to see more beatles reaction

John Lennon has said that this song was based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Chemical Brother's "Setting Sun" was inspired by this song.

Well I just want to say I think Tomorrow Never Knows it's probably my favourite song of John's at least on revolver

The Mission UK does a great version of this song on their First Chapter release.

Hey Wayne, I want to just say that although "Supper's Ready" is my favourite epic, this is actually my favourite "normal length" song of all time, for all the reasons you mentioned. I could listen to it forever and a day. Even cover versions, like by Eno's 801, Phil Collins and Danielle Dax, are all great as well. It is a fantastic song, at once catchy, unique, experimental and memorable, and I am glad you seem to feel the same. As ever, thanks for the review! 😎😎

Yes, you were right abut it being philosophical; the lyrics are taken from the Tibetan Buddhist classic "The Tibetan Book of the Dead"/ aka "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying", but via Timothy Leary's acid-oriented take on it in his own book, "The Psychedelic Experience", which John had been reading. The original is of course about preparing the soul for that journey through death we all must take, while in this life. Leary used that as an analogy for how to best handle an acid trip, thus: "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream.." IIRC, Leary, a Californian academic, believed that if you could just turn the whole world on, via acid, you could create a far more enlightened world and thus solve most of its problems. I kind of doubt that, since my understanding is that for practically everyone it also takes personal discipline and some theoretical philosophical understanding in order to integrate and firmly establish a fully enlightened state of mind/ heart, even after one may have experienced profound insight states into the fundamental nature of reality/ existence via e.g. NDEs, drug-induced experiences, or through meditation/ mind-training, etc.. Nevertheless, there are promising experiments going on around the world today into the use of psychedelics - in combination with therapy/ and with a guide - to resolve certain mental illnesses, such as long term treatment-resistant depression.

That song was the start of a new musical era where you could do anything. First song with guitar played backwards?

It's fascinating to chart the Beatles' evolution from pop music - which they changed beyond recognition with their first two singles - to progenitors of psychedelia and progressive rock. I'm not their biggest fan, but the quality of their songwriting between 1962 and 1966 has never been surpassed, and probably never will be.

"Wow" pretty much says it all. All of the Beatles are in top form here... with this and Rain the Beatles were inventing psychedelic rock.... another great song is "And Your Bird Can Sing"

They had the idea to write a song with just 1 chord...Tomorrow Never Knows was the result. (I believe it's a C chord)

It's Lennon's song, but everyone else made his own contributions. McCartney was big on using similar tape manipulation to musique concrète, and George Martin helped them get what they wanted. Ringo's drum pattern is derived in part from him being a lefty playing a right-handed kit, and largely because he was all about the song, every time. Brilliant. By the way, this was recorded on a 4-track analog tape machine. Amazing.

Enter the mind of John Lennon.

So glad you appreciate Ringo . His drumming is incredible. So moody .

What's crazy is Tomorrow Never Knoes, 1966 and no computers, Synthesizers

Rain ......or Helter Skelter.....would be great choices

There is a story you run across from time to time that before this was released, Paul McCartney played this for Bob Dylan. After hearing it, he paused for a few seconds, turned to him and said, "So, your not going after the teenage girl market anymore, eh?" I don't know how true this is but I sure hope it is.

Having grown up with the old original mix, this mix seems off. However, this entire album is considered by many, including myself, to be the best popular music album of all-time. Others would choose their next album as the best. By this point in their career they had pretty much been hinting at the direction that music would take. Other artists were finding it difficult to keep up. By the next album, 'Sgt Pepper...', they would leave everyone in the dust permanently.

Lennon got the idea for that song from the “Book of the Dead “

Great song and great review, Cheers.

Ringo rock the skins on this.

Phil Collins did a pretty good cover on Face Value

Btw, the seagull sound is actually Paul McCartney laughing.

The chirping are "seagulls" played backwards

There were some tape loops run backwards for effects. John used double tracked vocals on this, like many of his songs.

I cant think of another DRUMMER who has nothing but full respect for Ringo, it's only wanna-be singers/guitarists/whatever that for some reason want to rag on him. I have no idea why, I dont play drums and I have great respect for his skills. As the saying goes, "We'll take him on our team anyday"

"Sampling" in the form of tape loops ~~~ all analogue, mechanical, and "played" via the mixing board ~~~ and everything brought together on a 4-track recorder. Amazing. 24-tracks were commonplace by the late 70's, but few bands got results as creative or innovative as this despite the relative ease of production.

I don't know why people insist on remixing classic songs and albums. The original is usually the best. The best mix of this song was released in 1966.

This song was ground breaking it was actually the very first drum loop!! They created it by literally copy and paste parts they had recorded. If you had to pick only one song to define psychedelia this is definetely the one!!

Best psychedelic track of all time. Invented psychedelic loop music with Paul’s bizarre tape loops and Ringo playing the same pattern for the entire track.

Lyrics are from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

When music really took off ..

ALWAYS do original NEVER a remastered for accuracy -the original is ALWAYS what people heard EXACTLY not a remastered

Where do you think Zappa got that stuff from?

The most important moment in popular music is when, about the same time but separately, Brian Wilson and John Lennon dropped acid.

Yeah- they are an ok band. You might want to listen to a few of their hits. They had a couple. 😂

Lennon told the producer he wanted to sound like a monk on a mountain top.

A good followup to this song would be The Chemical Brothers song, Let Forever Be... an amazing re-imagining of Tomorrow Never Knows. I'm sure you'll like it. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qZt2rMmCqbWZl2Q.html

I agree that it is a Zappa-like weirdness in it, but due to chronology Beatles hardly got inspiration from Zappa, and Zappa's interest for Beatles was low, at least before "We're only in it for the money". Cooperation with John Lennon wasn't until 1971.

This Beatle tune is quite edgy and weird. Have you heard Phil Collins' cover from his 'Face Value' album? It is quite true to the original and I like it better (blasphemy). He was a big Beatles fan and his adding 'somewhere over the rainbow' at the end was a nice tribute to John Lennon. Of course Phil was really high on Ringo's drumming. Some have mocked him for praising Ringo so much. Here is his version: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/eJ6XirhjqK6XYok.html

It is a one-chord song a C I think

It’s never not bever 😂😂😂

The Giles remix of the album is horribly over-EQ'd and compressed in most places. That's not the sound they intended. It's not even good on an objective level. At least it's not as awful as the Pepper remix.

When The Beatles lays it out so clearly, yet you keep on living in misery... Mmmm how about that?

I believe credit for this drum groove (as with many) actually goes to McCartney.

Listen with some good acid....

Beaver has an a.

For a first time reaction to this song, you should have gotten blitzed on acid.

Just one C chord.

Not to mention the backward guitar solo.