The Beatles have debuted the first take of their classic experimental song "Tomorrow Never Knows," one of the bonus tracks from the forthcoming deluxe reissue of the Fab Four's landmark 1966 album Revolver.
The track features John Lennon's eerie, distorted vocals over a tape loop of a drum sequence and an Eastern-influenced guitar line that's slower and more stark than the version that made the original album.
As a new Rolling Stone article explains, The Beatles began recording "Tomorrow Never Knows (Take 1)" on the first day of the Revolver sessions and nearly finished the track by the end of the second day.
Lennon famously told producer George Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick that he wanted "to sound like the Dalai Lama singing from a hilltop" on the track. To achieve the effect, his vocals were run through a rotating Leslie speaker.
The finished track, which was one of the band's earliest forays into psychedelia, became Revolver's closing song.
"Tomorrow Never Knows (Take 1)" is available now via digital formats, while a companion video, posted on YouTube, features archival photos, footage of the Beatles members and animated rotating tape reels, planets, clocks and flowers.
The deluxe reissue of Revolver will be released on October 28 in multiple configurations.
Among the versions of the reissue is a special edition that features new stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes of Revolver; the original mono mix of the album; 31 tracks of session outtakes; a four-song EP that includes the non-album tracks "Paperback Writer" and "Rain"; and a 100-page hardbound book.
You can preorder the Revolver reissue now.
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