John Lennon and Paul McCartney visited Indica Books & Gallery, which had opened in March 1966 at 6 Masons Yard, London. Lennon was looking for a copy of The Portable Nietzsche, but emerged with something quite different.
The shop and gallery focused on the contemporary underground literary and art scene, and was owned by Barry Miles, Peter Asher and John Dunbar. McCartney had invested £5,000 to help open the venture, and had designed the bookshop’s wrapping paper and assisted with decorating the interior.
Indica Books was situated on the ground floor, with the gallery downstairs. Indica was where Lennon met Yoko Ono on 7 November 1966.
During this visit Lennon bought a copy of The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based On The Tibetan Book Of The Dead by Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and Ralph Metzner. At the beginning of the book’s introduction he found a line which would be adapted for ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’: “When in doubt, relax, turn off your mind, float downstream.”
Leary was the one going round saying, take it, take it, take it. And we followed his instructions in his ‘how to take a trip’ book. I did it just like he said in the book, and then I wrote Tomorrow Never Knows, which was almost the first acid song: ‘Lay down all thoughts surrender to the void,’ and all that s**t which Leary had pinched from The Book Of The Dead.
Anthology
Upon returning to his home in Weybrige Lennon recorded himself reciting Leary’s words, which he played back during a subsequent LSD trip. The Beatles began recording Tomorrow Never Knows on 6 April 1966, just five days after the visit to Indica.
How could John have met Yoko on November 1966 and bought the Tim Leary book the same day, when they used a line in that book for “Tomorrow never Knows” and they recording that in August ’66
Just letting you know there’s an error in the John and Tim Leary experience.
Thanks for the awesome website though!!!!
I’ve no idea what you mean. Lennon bought this book on 1 April 1966, and The Beatles recorded Tomorrow Never Knows a few days later. He met Yoko Ono in November 1966.
By the way, the address in Masons Yard (used above) was the Indica art gallery (where John and Yoko met). The bookshop ( which J&P did visit as described) was in Southampton Row. A whole other neighbourhood! Peter
I don’t think that’s correct. 6 Masons Yard was Indica Books & Gallery. 102 Southampton Row was the offices of International Times, co-founded and edited by Indica’s Barry Miles.