Rare audio, images augment Beatles history
The last track on "Revolver" is a one-chord song with the inscrutable title "Tomorrow Never Knows." Released in 1966, the album announced that The Beatles were not just a pop sensation but ambitious innovators, and of all the tracks, "Tomorrow Never Knows" was its most radical statement.
The song became so influential that it's difficult to imagine how strange it must have sounded to mid-1960s ears, though the Beatles' decision to make it the closing track signifies their own sense of bafflement about it. The song opens with a droning sitar, then John Lennon comes in, telling the listener, "Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream." Paul McCartney's bass riffs on C through the entire thing. Rock 'n' roll was never the same after that. Noted Beatles scholar Scott Freiman is scheduled to tell the story of "Revolver" during a program presented by the International Film Series at the University of Colorado-Boulder. The series runs over three evenings, April 11-13, at CU's Muenzinger Auditorium. Freiman plans to present "Tomorrow Never Knows: Deconstructing the Beatles' Revolver" on April 11. He'll present "Deconstructing the Beatles: A Trip Through Strawberry Fields," a program on the history of the band, on April 12.
Source: The Daily Camera, Boulder
Photo Credit: fScott Freiman / Courtesy photo
