TNK (Tomorrow Never Knows)

Introduction

Although it doesn't contain my favourite Beatles songs, "Revolver" is my favourite Beatles album. I bought it first on cassette but now have a CD copy of it, and maybe I will pick it up on vinyl at some point. I bought it in Glasgow maybe ten years back.

The album's closing song is "Tomorrow Never Knows" and it impressed me the first time I heard it, a relentless drumbeat from Ringo, lots of psychedelic noise to match the lyrics and a fade out with backwards running tape. It is based on a single chord which allows the words, rhythm and sound to build an amazing experience.

The thing is, I am not the only one who realised how great this song is, lots of others have picked it up and done more than adequate versions on albums and singles, so all this is to share a few of those with you.

I will start with the original so you can use this as a benchmark for all the others that I am sharing with you.

The Beatles from "Revolver"

Lead vocals John Lennon I think, lots of deep psychedelic lyrics and speeded up and reversed takes throughout this psychedelic masterpiece.

801 from "801 Live"

A slowed-down and extended take on the song that I was listening to today and inspired me to put this playlist together. 801 was a seventies "supergroup" put together by Phil Manzanera (guitar) and Brian Eno (vocals and electronics) both ex Roxy Music , augmented by several top-notch musicians.

It was recorded live on the 3rd of September 1976 at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Phil Collins from "Face Value"

Phil Collins was a second-to-none drummer and it shows on this take on the song, the closer from his debut solo album "Face Value".

It is slower than the Beatles original and I think more ponderous and ominous, complete with a lot of scary noises sewn into the fabric of the song.

The Mission - A Single

The Mission take the song into a Gothic universe, a huge sound, but keeps to the dynamics of the song on "Revolver"

Monsoon from "Third Eye"

This take should not be surprising given that the Beatles were hugely influenced but the sounds of the Indian subcontinent, but Monsoon maintain the dynamics of the original with absolutely gorgeous vocals from Sheila Chandra and Monsoon using many traditional Indian instruments on this release.

Unfortunately "Third Eye" was Monsoon's only album but contains a lot of wonderful music.

Living Colour - A Live Take

Living Colour abandon the song's single chord and add their own ideas to build another vision of the Beatles' original. It does sound strange at first but you do grow into it.

Los Lobos - Live In 1993

This is just stunning the guitar and drum sounds are amazing. I really did not know what to expect but I thought it would be calmer. I have never heard Los Lobos this heavy.

This was taken from the PBS Special "In The Spotlight: A Beatles Songbook" TV show, aired May 5th 1993.

The Chameleons (UK) from "Strange Times"

This sounds like it was recorded in some giant hall, and no worse for that. It's just guitar and drums and some very intense vocals stretch this out for six minutes and it is still over far too quickly. This is done against an abient electronic backdrop.

This is the band's Wikipedia page

Conclusion

These are a few covers of this amazing single-chord song, but you could say that "LA Woman" by The Doors used a similar sort of construction. There are a lot more out there but I hope this has whetted your appetite.