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11.13pm
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27 November 2016
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So I was listening to this song (shocking, I know…) just now and I noticed this weird bass rumble, it sounds like nothing else… kinda like that instrument I keep forgetting the name of in Within You Without You that does the bassline, but I can’t work out what it is. Could someone help me?
It’s at 0:56, a split second after the double tom hit on the second half of beat 3 of that bar.
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11.43pm
1 December 2009
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I’m not sure, Holey…are you referring to that one loop of orchestral instruments playing a kind of drone? And is a dilruba the instrument whose name you forgot?
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12.20am
Moderators
27 November 2016
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No I’m not referring to that VB. It’s not more than half a beat, it’s quite weird.
Dilruba is not the instrument I was thinking of. It’s the bassy one that rockband picks up.
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5.32pm
4 February 2021
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I am interested in hearing the reaction of anyone who heard this song after listening to the album at the time of release. Was it a shock? Did parents and grandparents say “That’s unbearable, take it off”, “They’re on drugs”, “They’ve gone too far this time”? I was 6 and not exposed to it at the time being the eldest child of Beatle indifferent parents. Thankyou.
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7.23am
26 January 2017
Offline Paul Prole said
I am interested in hearing the reaction of anyone who heard this song after listening to the album at the time of release. Was it a shock? Did parents and grand parents say “That’s unbearable, take it off”, “They’re on drugs”, “They’ve gone too far this time”? I was 6 and not exposed to it at the time being the eldest child of Beatle indifferent parents. Thankyou.
I’ve always had the same curiosity. Besides maybe The Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High’, I can’t think of any song in popular music prior to TNK even as close as weird as this one. I imagine it would’ve resulted in either complete confusion or awe.
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he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
1.09pm
2 May 2013
Offline Can anyone explain the difference in the mix found only on the first pressing please? Is it XEX-606-1 matrix or something like that?
Absolutely amazing song, so ahead of its time. I can imagine all the groups copying the Merseybeat sound must have had their heads in their hands about how original and groundbreaking this was and could see they were obsolete right there.
2.30pm
26 January 2017
Offline Old Soak said
Can anyone explain the difference in the mix found only on the first pressing please? Is it XEX-01 matrix or something like that?
Absolutely amazing song, so ahead of its time. I can imagine all the groups copying the Merseybeat sound must have had their heads in their hands about how original and groundbreaking this was and could see they were obsolete right there.
It is my favorite aspect of the Beach Boys -Beatles exchange. Brian was so inspired by Rubber Soul , which was groundbreaking in its own right. His ‘response’ was Pet Sounds, and while he delivered one of the GOAT albums, the Beatles were already innovating past what Brian had going on in the studio. Brian was a master whose music is damn near perfect, but he knew he was a step behind already in 66, and as the story goes Pepper completely blew his mind, and was a bit of a punch to the gut. If only The Beatles had gotten to hear and respond SMiLE, as their Pet Sounds listening party is one of my other favorite stories, where the Penny Lane sessions began with Paul wanting to sound like Pet Sounds
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2.21am
14 June 2016
Offline QuarryMan said
Paul Prole said
I am interested in hearing the reaction of anyone who heard this song after listening to the album at the time of release. Was it a shock? Did parents and grand parents say “That’s unbearable, take it off”, “They’re on drugs”, “They’ve gone too far this time”? I was 6 and not exposed to it at the time being the eldest child of Beatle indifferent parents. Thankyou.
I’ve always had the same curiosity. Besides maybe The Byrds’ ‘Eight Miles High’, I can’t think of any song in popular music prior to TNK even as close as weird as this one. I imagine it would’ve resulted in either complete confusion or awe.
The progression from She Loves You to Tomorrow Never Knows is huge, but I feel the familiarity of John and Paul’s voices would’ve been enough to warm people to the new sound. And if not initially, in time it would’ve become accepted or even outright preferred.
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6.41am
27 April 2021
Offline What are the samples of the tape loops through all the song?
7.41am
Moderators
27 November 2016
Offline Hi yaireismailov, I’ve moved your post to our pre-existing thread for this song.
As for your question – the answer can be found in Joe’s article on Tomorrow Never Knows :
There were six loops used on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows ’: a seagull noise, actually a distorted recording of McCartney laughing; an orchestra playing a B flat chord; notes played on a Mellotron’s flute setting; a second Mellotron on its violin setting; a finger rubbing the rim of a wine glass, heard midway through the song only in the stereo mix; and a distorted sitar which is most clearly heard in the instrumental break following the lines “It is being, it is being”.
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4.15am
30 December 2022
Offline I found this song today while scrubbing my bathroom floors. Great song!
I wish I was joking about this.
I love the bassline though
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Sea Belt5.11am
7 November 2022
Offline @Neely
I love the lyrics, to me they are deeper and more spiritual than a lot of what George Harrison did. I realize John was copying some stuff from a famous old book called The Tibetan Book of the Dead, but I’m sure that he rewrote stuff, he didn’t just completely copy everything, so he rewrote it using his own personal genius. Unless someone can prove to me from the text of the ancient book that John did not add anything original of his own. Anyway I like the way he sings and everything about it. Also I remember reading that John initially in his mind he wanted a bunch of monks chanting in the background throughout the song, but apparently they never did that. I think that would have been a good addition.
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12.07pm
17 June 2021
Offline This song is a work of genius. The lyrics are great and I love Ringo’s drumming on it.
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11.59pm
2 May 2013
Offline I’ve been told but can’t find it despite careful listening that Ringo’s drums feature an edit, either to extend it or went wrong and fixed with copying the start. I’d be more inclined to believe it’s a tape loop as it’s metronomic and completely unchanging throughout.
12.34am
7 November 2022
Offline Old Soak said
I’ve been told but can’t find it despite careful listening that Ringo’s drums feature an edit, either to extend it or went wrong and fixed with copying the start. I’d be more inclined to believe it’s a tape loop as it’s metronomic and completely unchanging throughout.
Sorry, I couldn’t quite understand what you’re saying. Are you saying you wonder if Ringo’s drums throughout the song are in fact a loop and he wasn’t playing them live? Sort of a 1960s form of a drum machine?
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9.08am
2 May 2013
Offline Sea Belt said
Old Soak said
I’ve been told but can’t find it despite careful listening that Ringo’s drums feature an edit, either to extend it or went wrong and fixed with copying the start. I’d be more inclined to believe it’s a tape loop as it’s metronomic and completely unchanging throughout.
Sorry, I couldn’t quite understand what you’re saying. Are you saying you wonder if Ringo’s drums throughout the song are in fact a loop and he wasn’t playing them live? Sort of a 1960s form of a drum machine?
My conjecture is that the drums are just on another loop of tape going around endlessly, much like the seagull sound. Ringo played a snippet then constantly looped.
5.46pm
30 January 2024
Offline First time I heard TNK was around the late 90s. The band Chemical Brothers were making a huge impact and I assumed it was them and they had sampled John Lennon . (This before I was properly ‘into’ The Beatles). Chemical Brothers had a song out in 1996 called Setting Sun and I believe it samples Ringo’s TNK drum loop. Anyway, having heard it somewhere but not taking enough interest – to finally sit down and put the song on I could not quite believe it – “This is from 1966?!?!” I was absolutely stunned, it sounds absolutely 30 years ahead of its time.
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14 December 2009
Offline MerseyBlue said
First time I heard TNK was around the late 90s. The band Chemical Brothers were making a huge impact and I assumed it was them and they had sampled John Lennon . (This before I was properly ‘into’ The Beatles). Chemical Brothers had a song out in 1996 called Setting Sun and I believe it samples Ringo’s TNK drum loop.
Haha, first time I heard “Setting Sun” was in late 1997 when I bought “Dig Your Own Hole”, and it took me about a minute before it began reminding me of “TNK”, with its swirling noises and the drum loop (which is not a Ringo sample). And then when the “…You’re coming on strong….” lyric kicked in, with the Gallagher vocal electronically distorted just like John’s in the 1966 recording, that was when I *knew* that the Bros were deliberately doing a TNK homage (which they later confirmed in interviews).
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6.20am
14 June 2016
Offline It sounds good but the song, and others by John such as Across The Universe , wouldn’t be what they are without the quality of the lyrics. They’re grand, cosmic statements full of wisdom.
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