LogFAQs > #954256066

214. The Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows (1966)
from the album Revolver

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHNbHn3i9S4

Key lyrics:
Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream

While Revolver truly kicks off with Eleanor Rigby, a song pulling unapologetically from the past, it ends at the opposite extreme. Tomorrow Never Knows finds The Beatles contemplating a bright and shining future, with instrumentation to match. After years of being the biggest band on the planet, The Beatles locked themselves in the studio and refused to come out. Tomorrow Never Knows is a result of that isolation, a track purely meant to be recorded.

This track is most iconic for its reversed sound, resulting in a quality best described as psychedelic. John Lennons vocals are the only element to be grasped with a sense of forward time, but even that feels ready to fade into the ether. Time is collapsing in on itself, but in a serene manner. Tons of ideas pop up and then fade away, the lines of reality blurring together. This might not have worked without the drum beat holding everything together, itself hypnotic but grounded like a backbone. This is a band testing the limits of what they could get away with and stumbling upon a masterpiece. Whenever I think of a song to serve as the dividing line between the two major Beatles eras, this is an easy pick.

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My top 100 games (with write-ups): https://foolfantastic.com/top-100-video-games-project/