Are the Beatles songs "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Within You Without You" the same song?

Question

Within You Without You, seems to have more Indian instruments but I don't see any other difference? Am I missing something?

Answer 1

They are definitely different songs - Tomorrow Never Knows was written primarily by Lennon on Revolver and Within You Without You was written by George and on the Srgt. Peppers album. They do both have an Indian sound to them - but they are different songs.

Answer 2

"Tomorrow Never Knows" was composed entirely of tape loops, plus John Lennon's (distorted) vocals and a brief guitar solo (played backwards) - Lennon and producer George Martin set up 16 different reel-to-reel tape machines with loops of audio tape varying in length from 1 to 10 feet, some put into the machine to play backwards, some upside-down, turned them all on at once, and used the mixing board to fade the different loops in and out of the mix. It was an incredibly difficult and time-consuming way to produce a recording that nowadays you could do in minutes on an average laptop computer, but that was the state of the art in 1966 (in those days, "digital" meant "using your fingers").
In contrast, "Within You Without You" was a straightforward musical performance by George Harrison, several Indian musicians, and the same orchestra that was used for the big crescendo on "A Day In The Life". Harrison wrote the song, then Martin scored the orchestration so that it would sound like a large orchestra imitating the sound of a small Indian Raga group. This was the first time that western orchestral instruments had ever been used for this type of music, a practise which has become commonplace today.

Answer 3

"Tomorrow Never Knows" is the final track of The Beatles' 1966 studio album Revolver, but the first to be recorded for the album. Though the songwriting credit is Lennon-McCartney, the song was written primarily by John Lennon.

The song is significant because it contains the first example of a vocal being put through a Leslie speaker cabinet to obtain a vibrato effect (which was normally used as a loudpeaker for a Hammond organ) and the use of an ADT system (Automatic double-tracking) to double the vocal image.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" ends the Revolver album in a more experimental fashion than earlier records, which contributed to Revolver's reputation as one of the group's most influential and expressive albums


"Within You Without You" is a song written by George Harrison and recorded with a group of Indian musicians, without any input from his fellow Beatles. It was the second of Harrison's songs to be explicitly influenced by Indian classical music, after "Love You To", and was Harrison's only lyrical contribution to make the album. It was released in 1967 on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the last song to be completed for the album. The song was also included on the 2006 remix album Love. For this album, George Harrison's lyrics and melody were mixed over the rhythm of Tomorrow Never Knows. The blending of these two similar songs is considered the most effective form of mashup on the album[citation needed]. All of the music for Love was remixed and remastered by the Beatles producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles.

Harrison wrote this as a 30-minute piece. He trimmed it down into a mini-version for the album. The laughter at the end was Harrison's idea to lighten the mood and follow the theme of the album. Sped up to C#, an instrumental version at the original speed and key appears on the Anthology 2 album.

"Within You Without You" was written on a harmonium at the house of long-time Beatles friend, Klaus Voormann, while "there were lots of joints being smoked". Harrison sought out Indian musicians to aid him in the track's recording, although all of them went uncredited. Of those who were credited, producer George Martin arranged the string section, charging £33, and Harrison and assistant Neil Aspinall played the tambura.

Answer 4

What are you talking about?
How can you even think that they are the same song?
You MUST have a hearing problem, go see an Audiologist.

Answer 5

Wow, do you ever need to work on your critical listening skills. I don't hear many similarities. George sings WYWY and John sings TNK. WYWY is slow and dreamy while TNK is a psych ROCKER!!

Answer 6

The lyrics are pretty different....

http://www.stevesbeatles.com/songs/within_you_without_you.asp
http://www.stevesbeatles.com/songs/tomorrow_never_knows.asp

Answer 7

They sound totally different to me, I guess you're missing something.