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The Beatles

Tomorrow Never Knows

Revolver · 1966 · Lennon–McCartney

GLI61

Lennon Leaning

Confidence 70% · evidence quality, not position

The four Beatles in New York City, 7 February 1964. — United Press International (UPI Telephoto) · Public domain

How it was made is nearly Garcia. Where it lives is pure Lennon.

GARCIAPerformance creates the music

DEAD CENTERNeither wins

LENNONComposition creates the music

100

Tomorrow Never Knows · 61

Hollow marks: the other 49 scored songs · Hatched band: the Crossover Zone

The case

The strongest honest argument for each side, then the ruling.

The Garcia argument

Harmonically there is almost nothing to predetermine: one chord over a drone, and a drum pattern. On 7 April 1966 tape loops running on five machines were mixed live at the desk, faders moved by hand in real time. That mix was a performance. Nobody could have repeated it, and nobody wrote it down.

The Lennon argument

The performance happened once, onto tape, and the tape is the work. The loops themselves were prepared beforehand. The vocal treatment through a rotating speaker and the drum sound exist only as recorded. The Beatles never played it live, and it is hard to say what a faithful live version would even consist of.

The verdict: GLI 61

The clearest case in Phase I of the two questions coming apart. How the music was made is close to Garcia. Where the music now lives is pure Lennon. The Index gives more weight to where identity resides, so it sits right of centre, and well short of the fully scored Beatles records because so much of its content emerged at the faders.

What is fixed

Lyric
Drone and drum pattern
The prepared loops
The finished tape

What is open

Where each loop entered and left, on the day

Evidence dimensions

Each runs from 0, Garcia, to 100, Lennon. Their weighted composite is 60. The published GLI is 61, 1 higher after comparison with neighbouring songs. The allowed margin is 6.

Structural FixityHow much of sequence, form and duration is settled beforehand?

Elastic

Fixed

Verses over a drone with an instrumental break. The form is simple and set.

Performance ConsistencyHow far can two performances differ and still be the same work?

Transformative

Reproducible

Inferred. There is one realization, and it is hard to say what a second would consist of.

PredeterminationHow much of what matters exists before the performance begins?

Emergent

Predetermined

Split. The lyric, drone and loops were prepared. Where the loops fall was decided at the faders.

Development MethodHow does the music move forward?

Exploratory

Composed

A live mix of prepared material: improvisation with fixed objects.

Recording SpecificityDoes the recording document an occurrence, or define the object?

Documents event

Defines work

Close to the maximum. The work is the tape.

Transformational tolerance

Very low. Take away the recorded sound and what remains is a lyric over one chord.

Confidence: 70%

The session is well documented. How to weigh a performance that happened once, at a mixing desk, is the open question.

Keep arguing

Every placement is relative. These are the songs this one was measured against.

The record

Built on a single chord over a drone.Source ↗
On 7 April 1966 tape loops running on five machines were mixed live at the desk and recorded to one track.Source ↗
Part of Lennon's vocal was fed through a rotating Leslie speaker.Source ↗

Catalog facts

Catalog no.: GLI·TB·005
Artist: The Beatles
Writers: Lennon–McCartney
Release: Revolver (1966)
Released: 5 August 1966
Duration: 3:00

Sources

Classified 5 October 2026