Tomorrow Never Knows
My daughter was in St. Louis visiting a friend recently and, having not seen her since last Christmas, my wife and I decided to hop in the car and make the 5 ½ hour drive down for a two-hour visit before returning home late the same night.
Lots of driving. Not much to see aside from flat terrain. So, I had to find some way to make the trip more interesting. I opted to listen to all 12 of The Beatles studio albums in order of release. Thankfully, they’re my wife’s favorite band.
If you’re into music and you’ve never listened to an artist’s work straight through like this, try it sometime. The evolution of The Beatles’ catalogue is something to behold. And that’s something that stuck with me after our marathon listening session: The Beatles evolved.
The first song on their first album is “I Saw Her Standing There.”
Well she was just seventeen
You know what I mean
And the way she looked was way beyond compare
Pure, classic, early rock ‘n roll. Great stuff.
Just three years later, however, The Beatles released what some call the greatest record in rock history: “Revolver.” And the last track on that album is a song called “Tomorrow Never Knows” that was ahead of its time in 1966 and, it could be argued, is ahead of our time today as well.
Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream
It is not dying, it is not dying
“Tomorrow Never Knows” must have sounded like it came from another planet, with its far out lyrics and unusual sounds.
How does that happen? (Yes, I know this was a period during which certain members of the band were experimenting with mind-altering substances). How did The Beatles go from great to – almost literally – otherworldly in a span of just three years?
This was a time of great experimentation for the Fab Four and it was their willingness to try something new that helped vault them relentlessly forward. They kept reinventing themselves and, in doing so, forced other artists to keep up with them. Yes, there was a lot of legendary music back then, but I’d argue The Beatles set the pace.
Seth Godin’s book “Footprints on the Moon” contains a little subsection called “Buzzer Management.” In it he writes:
I started the quiz team at my high school. Alas, I didn’t do so well at the tryouts, so I ended up as the coach, but we still made it to the finals.
It took me 30 years to figure out the secret of getting in ahead of the others who also knew the answer (because the right answer is no good if someone else gets the buzz):
You need to press the buzzer before you know the answer.
If the Beatles had never taken a chance – pressed the buzzer before they knew the answer – the truly original work they produced might never have materialized.
We can wait until we’re sure. We can wait until the weather is perfect, the stars are aligned and everything is in place. We can continue doing the same thing because it feels safe.
Or we can get uncomfortable and see what happens when we press the buzzer before everyone else.