“Tomorrow Never Knows”

Published on 1966
Author: Lennon/McCartney
Track 14 on “Revolver”

What the Beatles said about “Tomorrow Never Knows”

JOHN 1968: "’Tomorrow Never Knows’ …I didn’t know what I was saying, and you just find out later. I know that when there are some lyrics I dig, I know that somewhere people will be looking at them."

JOHN 1968: "Often the backing I think of early-on never comes off. With ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ I’d imagined in my head that in the background you would hear thousands of munks chanting. That was impractical, of course, and we did something different. It was a bit of a drag, and I didn’t really like it. I should have tried to get near my original idea, the munks singing. I realize now that was what I wanted."

JOHN 1972 "This was my first psychedelic song."

JOHN 1980 "That’s me in my ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead’ period. I took one of Ringo’s malapropisms as the title, to sort of take the edge off the heavy philosophical lyrics."

PAUL 1984: "That was one of Ringo’s malapropisms. John wrote the lyrics from Timothy Leary’s version of the ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead.’ It was a kind of Bible for all the psychedelic freaks. that was an LSD song. Probably the only one. People always thought ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ was but it actually ‘wasn’t’ meant to say LSD."

JOHN 1968: "’Tomorrow Never Knows’ …I didn’t know what I was saying, and you just find out later. I know that when there are some lyrics I dig, I know that somewhere people will be looking at them."

JOHN 1968: "Often the backing I think of early-on never comes off. With ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ I’d imagined in my head that in the background you would hear thousands of munks chanting. That was impractical, of course, and we did something different. It was a bit of a drag, and I didn’t really like it. I should have tried to get near my original idea, the munks singing. I realize now that was what I wanted."

JOHN 1972 "This was my first psychedelic song."

JOHN 1980 "That’s me in my ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead’ period. I took one of Ringo’s malapropisms as the title, to sort of take the edge off the heavy philosophical lyrics."

PAUL 1984: "That was one of Ringo’s malapropisms. John wrote the lyrics from Timothy Leary’s version of the ‘Tibetan Book of the Dead.’ It was a kind of Bible for all the psychedelic freaks. that was an LSD song. Probably the only one. People always thought ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ was but it actually ‘wasn’t’ meant to say LSD."