Tomorrow Never Knows

Steven Marcus, ?????????? | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 16, 2003)
• Original Release Date: 1968
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Water
• ASIN: B0000A0WK8
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #522,985 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Eight Miles High

2. Mellow Yellow

3. Listen People

4. Rain

5. Tomorrow Never Knows

6. Half A Heart

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unexplored Terrain, March 15, 2006

By 

T. Bombara (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tomorrow Never Knows (Audio CD)

This is some great stuff. I'm not so sure I agree with those that would suggest this to the lounge crowd, this is an early melding of rock and jazz which leans towards the modal and free jazz sounds of the day. The song choices are particularly good. Listen to how Steve Marcus makes the Coltrane influences on Eight Miles High that Roger McGuinn had only hinted at explicit. The choices in Beatles covers are spot on, the modalities in the originals lend themselves to the improvisations that are laid on top of them. The Mellow Yellow cover starts as a bit of a clinker, but when Steve and the great Larry Coryell start blowing apart the melody, all is forgiven. Terrific guitar from Coryell, and great Coltrane inspired playing from Marcus make this a must for any jazz/rock/fusion aficianados, expecially if you are interested in the history of where it came from and where it might have gone.

4.0 out of 5 stars Something in the water?, July 9, 2008

By 

Reivaj "Scarabesque" (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tomorrow Never Knows (Audio CD)

Music from 1968 conveys a certain aesthetic of sound and freedom that has seldom been recaptured since. A sampling of records from the Beatles' "White Album", to Miles Davis' "Miles in the Sky", to John Patton's "Understanding", to Kaleidoscope's "A Beacon From Mars", to Herbie Mann's "Windows Opened" (and the list goes on) reveal the different levels in which the freedom and openness of the times could express itself. Steve Marcus' "Tomorrow..." is no exception, pushing the envelope of rock and jazz, simultaneously at times, in carving a niche that has not truly been explored since. Working with some of the best musicians who could be found for this type of session, this record can be considered the epitome of "jazz rock" as it stood in 1968. The contribution of Larry Coryell can not be overstated: he is absolutely brilliant on this record. With more room to roam and realize his ideas more so than on his Free Spirits LP and some of his other sideman appearances from the era. His Sonny Sharrock imitation on the Beatles' "Rain" is one of the high points of jazz-rock guitar playing in any era. The record has a variance of looseness ("Tomorrow Never Knows"), tightness ("Eight Miles High") and wackiness ("Mellow Yellow") and brilliance ("Rain"). Equally steeped in rock and jazz concepts, with brilliant production from Marcus' boss at the time, Herbie Mann, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is a period piece that for fans of '60s rock and open-minded jazz listeners is a very fulfilling listen. The only record that compares is Barney Wilen's "Dear Prof. Leary", also from that musically magical, but turbulent, year of 1968. Marcus' playing is happening all the way through, finding a Coltrane-informed freedom that many at the time were striving for. The only complaints are: the lack of original compositions and "Eight Miles High" being cut so short since it was the perfect vehicle for both of the main soloists. Nonetheless: highly recommended.