Recording: Taxman, Tomorrow Never Knows

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Work continued on two Revolver songs on this day: ‘Taxman’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.

The basic track for ‘Taxman’ had been recorded on the previous day. This session began with a reduction mix to free up space on the four-track tape, combining both of George Harrison’s vocal tracks onto one. A cowbell was then overdubbed onto track four.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney then added the “Mister Wilson/Mister Heath” backing vocals. These were punched in to an existing track, recorded over a tambourine and guitar part.

‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ still had the working title ‘Mark 1’ at this stage. During this session The Beatles overdubbed organ, tambourine and piano onto track three of the tape. Lennon also manually double-tracked his vocals on the first two verses, with the sound put through a Leslie speaker.

The tape was then reversed, and Paul McCartney recorded a guitar solo similar to the one he performed the previous day on ‘Taxman’. It has been claimed that the ‘Taxman’ solo itself was reused, but the two parts are quite different.

Here is the section of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ reversed, to show how the guitar solo sounded as it was recorded:

With the guitar part added, recording for ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was finally complete.