The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows, John Cage, tape loops and Stockhausen

Barry Miles, John Dunbar, Marianne Faithfull, Peter Asher and Paul McCartney at Indica (1965). Image retrieved from http://barrymiles.co.uk/biography/biography/ 

"Of all the modern composers Paul encountered during the period..." wrote Barry Miles from his 1998 biography on Paul McCartney, "John Cage had the most influence on him" (pg. 235). This is not something that gets much fanfare in Beatle biographies, yet it's more important than most biographers realize. "Cage's belief that all noise belongs to the realm of musical sound and that even sounds not intended by the composer are perfectly legitimate parts of composition" (Miles, 1998, pg. 235). McCartney's involvement with the Indica Bookstore and Gallery exposed the Beatle to experimental works of art, music and literature by the most innovative composers of the period. 

Indica gallery building exterior photo retrieved from http://www.studiointernational.com/images/articles/r/riflemaker/2_b.jpg

The Beatles, to their credit, added plenty of noises and yelps in their music before any introduction to the avant-garde. The group was innovatively inclined, but McCartney's affiliation with the characters of Indica Gallery in London led to discussions about Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Luciano Berio, Morton Subotnick, Terry Riley, Steve Reich and Karlheinz Stockhausen. 

The conversations about the tape loop experiments of Stockhausen most likely inspired Paul to create his own. "Stockhausen used to use those kind of techniques a little bit and he had a thing called Gesang der Jünglinge, which was my big favorite plick-plop piece of his" (Miles, 1998, pg 221).

Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge (1956)

Stockhausen, Karlheinz GESANG DER JÜNGLINGE – retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nffOJXcJCDg

"People tend to credit John with the backwards recordings, the loops and the weird sound effects, but the tape loops were my thing. The only thing I ever used them was on "Tomorrow Never Knows" said McCartney, when reflecting on the session (Miles, 1998, pg. 291). The parties involved achieved the sound by running tapes through 5 machines, fading them in and out and using stereo effects. "Men in with white coats (Abbey Road employees) shook their heads in disbelief and stood before their BTR3s (tape machines), each with it's little loop of quarter-inch tape going round, held in tension with a pencil or a glass tumbler... endlessly repeating through the mixer on faders." (Miles, 1998, pg 292). 

The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows

Beatles, The. (1966). Tommorow Never Knows -The Beatles (Lost 1967 Music Video) retrieved from https://youtu.be/zd61M256RfM

The open mindedness of all parties involved, as Eno pointed out in a BBC documentary called Arena (2010), not only allowed them to create a masterpiece, but also one of the very first collisions of pop and avant-garde music. Surprising results can happen when one approaches sound with an open mind.

References

Miles, B. (1998). Paul McCartney: Many years from now. Macmillan.

Roberts. N. (2010). Brian Eno – Another Green World. Arena. BBC Four. Film retrieved from https://youtu.be/2DbKAj-e8_I