
017 Tomorrow Never Knows
From Producing The Beatles by Jason Kruppa
November 10, 2025 · 42 min · Season 2 · Episode 1
About this episode
The episode explores the revolutionary recording of 'Tomorrow Never Knows' by the Beatles, featuring insights from composer Joel Friedman and author Elizabeth Alker.
We kick off Season 2 with one of the Beatles’ most revolutionary recordings, “Tomorrow Never Knows,” the closing track on Revolver but the first song recorded for the album. It would be both a creative and technical breakthrough, but getting the final master on tape was quite an involved process. To help explore the mysteries of a song that still sounds unstuck in time, I’m joined by composer and music professor Joel Friedman and author Elizabeth Alker, who spoke to Paul McCartney about this recording for her new book, Everything We Do Is Music: How 20th Century Classical Music Shaped Pop .
People in this episode
Host: Jason Kruppa
Guests: Joel Friedman, Elizabeth Alker
Topics covered
- Beatles
- music production
- song analysis
- creative breakthroughs
- technical breakthroughs
Keywords
- Tomorrow Never Knows
- Beatles
- Revolver
- music production
- Paul McCartney
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Tomorrow Never Knows, Revolver, Everything We Do Is Music: How 20th Century Classical Music Shaped Pop
More episodes of Producing The Beatles
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- 015a A closer look at the "Live and Let Die" orchestration- · January 14, 2024 · 5 min
- 015 Paul McCartney and Wings, "Live and Let Die"" · January 14, 2024 · 29 min
- 014 George Harrison, "Isn't It A Pity" · December 20, 2022 · 24 min
- 013 George Harrison, "My Sweet Lord" · April 25, 2022 · 38 min
- 012 John Lennon, "Love" (S1 bonus episode) · February 22, 2021 · 22 min
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