Sunday, January 4, 2009

"Tomorrow Never Knows"


The song was recorded April 6,7, and 22, 1966. The working title was "The Void," although other sources claim it was "Mark I." John, who wrote the song while infatuated with The Tibetan Book of the Dead, assigned the final title by using another of Ringo's malapropisms.

George Martin claims that Lennon wished to sound like the Dalai lama chanting on a hilltop. Lennon himself described the sound he was after as a thousand Buddhist monks chanting in the background. The distinctive sound of this track resulted from 1) the Beatles and Martin cutting up up segments of tape and creating tape loops recorded at different speeds, and 2) sound engineer Geof Emerick channeling Lennon's voice through the speak of a Hammond organ. The entire song is played in a single chord. Lennon later regreted that he didn't try to get closer to his "chanting monk" concept.

Pic: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0


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