"Tomorrow Never Knows": did the Beatles invent "beats"?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Disraeli Gears, May 13, 2016.

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  1. Disraeli Gears

    Disraeli Gears Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    This is about "Tomorrow Never Knows" 's drum pattern. One of the things that amazes me about the song, listening in recent decades, is how contemporary it sounds. It sounded like something otherworldly in 1966, but now we know it was actually a track from the future ;). I know it saw renewed popularity in the 90s in the "house" music scene when popular music finally caught up to it and bands the "The Chemical Brothers" would play it during DJing sets. Listening to it recently though I wondered if its unique drum pattern could be responsible for the current fascination with "beats" in popular hiphop music? Seems to me that everything that is key to "beat" culture is right there in Ringo's drum pattern. I can't believe how contemporary and hiphop it sounds. I bet Timberland would kill to have come up with that beat!
     
  2. NO
    Beatle fan needs larger listening range so music does not become self referential to Beatle fan's Beatle listening habits.
     
    Last edited: May 13, 2016
  3. DTK

    DTK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Europe
    Beats were likely invented when man and woman discovered the sound of smashing two rocks together, predating the fossiles known as Beatles by some 100 000 years.
     
  4. BadJack

    BadJack doorman who always high-fives children of divorce

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    They would have invented beats if they'd ever reached their peak.
     
  5. chronic kebab

    chronic kebab Forum Resident

    Location:
    ireland
    The Beatles did not invent percussion
     
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  6. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    You're half right. It was 100,000 years ago, but Paul and John were the ones smashing the rocks.
     
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  7. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Did the Beatles invent "beats"? No. But they had a hand in "BEAT-les" ... ;)
     
  8. rene smalldridge

    rene smalldridge Senior Member

    Location:
    manhattan,kansas
    Beatles...quack quack quack.........Beatles quack quack quack........and furthermore.......Beatles quack quack quack.
     
  9. ganma

    ganma Senior Member

    Location:
    Earth
    Actually, Gregory C. Coleman of The Winstons invented beats with the Amen break that was sampled to death in the '90s.
     
  10. BadJack

    BadJack doorman who always high-fives children of divorce

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    (Bernard Purdie joke goes here)
     
  11. Mr. Grieves

    Mr. Grieves Forum Resident

    For house/electronicic music & things like sampling & artist that used lots of loops like the Talking Heads, this track definitely had a hand in their inception I'm sure. I could have influenced some or several hip-hop artist/producers, but from what I know, the genre owes a lot more to funk & disco acts like James Brown. I don't think during the early stages, when DJs were playing music for folks to party to, that most involved were thinking about Tomorrow Never Knows, as ahead of its time as that track is.
     
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  12. phish

    phish Jack Your Body

    Location:
    Biloxi, MS, USA
    If the Beatles didn't invent beats, it will be the first thing the didn't invent.
     
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  13. RayS

    RayS A Little Bit Older and a Little Bit Slower

    Location:
    Out of My Element
    Yes, Ringo invented rhythm.

     
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  14. MHP

    MHP Lover of Rock ‘n Roll

    Location:
    DK
    Stop it.
    Sometimes Beatle-worshipping reminds me of the cold-war Sovjet Union, where everything was so one-dimensional and self-referential.
     
    patrickd, Atmospheric, rednax and 9 others like this.
  15. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Ahh, the good-old days. Let me reminisce.... ;)
     
  16. BadJack

    BadJack doorman who always high-fives children of divorce

    Location:
    Boston, MA
    I think some of this stuff is a prank on overzealous Beatle worship.

    Or it would ease my mind at least a little if that were the case.
     
  17. bhazen

    bhazen I Am The Walrus

    Location:
    Deepest suburbia
    "Beats" are loops, right? Whereas Ringo just played that thing, monomaniacally, in real time.

    So no, the Beatles didn't invent "beats".
    They're better than that. :D
     
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  18. bumbletort

    bumbletort Senior Member

    Location:
    Baltimore, Md, USA
    The rocks they were using belonged to Bernard Purdie's rock kit.
     
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  19. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    What about this "Loup"?:



    ;)
     
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  20. royzak2000

    royzak2000 Senior Member

    Location:
    London,England
    Honestly we can enjoy these guys without all this.
     
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  21. HA! Perfect ! :tiphat:
     
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  22. Rob9874

    Rob9874 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Surprise, AZ
    I think mentioning "beats" may have misdirected the spirit of the OP's question. I have always thought Tomorrow Never Knows was way ahead of its time. It does sound like a Chemical Brothers-style song from the 90's.
     
  23. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Didn't Mark Lewisohn think that "Tomorrow Never Knows" invented "heavy metal"? Maybe we should ask him then... ;)
     
  24. the sands

    the sands Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oslo, Norway
    Yes. Before The Beatles there were n-o-t-h-i-n-g.
     
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  25. Arnold Grove

    Arnold Grove Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    "Take one of 'Tomorrow Never Knows' was a Heavy Metal recording of enormous proportion...."

    Go figure.... Guess Mark was sipping at the same fountain as most of us here... ;)
     
    theMess likes this.
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