Share a song you feel was ahead of its time.
There are some obvious tracks, Blue Monday (‘83) sounds like a track from the mid 90s club nights, I Feel Love (‘77) setting up electronica that wouldn’t appear for at least a decade, Teardrop (‘98) laid tracks for trip-hop artists to follow, and you could even argue that Smells Like Teen Spirit (‘91) set a pathway for rock music through that decade.
But I love the Chemical Brothers, so I’ve always found it startling to hear them involved in a track from 1966 which was, and I checked, written 4 years before they were even born.
It’s hard not to hear them in this track, and it’s one I forget about until I’m in an album mood and Revolver is always part of that rotation.
Tape loops, playback speed manipulation, LSD experimentation, a reflection on Eastern meditation, the hypnotic repeated beats, all can be heard the coming years, through artists like Pink Floyd, Hendrix, The Byrds. You can trace it on into dance and hip-hop genres, the tape looping, sampling, used on the track very evident. The studio as an instrument was born with this track.
And of course, The Chemical Brothers have cited this track as their “blueprint”. Just listen to Setting Sun, or Let Forever Be, for a direct line back to 1966, to a band that changed all aspects of pop music in one way or another.
Which is why they remain the most important band in the world.
“Tomorrow Never Knows” by The Beatles
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What are your thoughts?