One of the best uses of music in any visual media ever, Don's effort to shut off the Beatles is in vain, he can't stop the cultural revolution and is one of the first times the series shows him as old fashioned and really threatened by a new world.
I was 6 in 66 but remember the feeling in the air, saw 2001 in 68 and again and again. This ending captures the huge Ontological split that 66 demarcated.
Even I thought the song signifies don being out of touch and unprepared for the cultural shift that was taking place in the 60s. However I saw a Matt Weiner interview, where he ties using this song to don whistling I wanna hold your hand in the car and being in love to listening a song about 'surrendering to the void'
@@paxwallacejazz I think i was 15 when I heard this and had a sort of, sonic revealition in the mid-eighties (1986). After that, things would be different for me.
@@yashsinha1236 in a way Don's shift from that happiness to despondence much mirrors The Beatles own fatigue with one and other. The sonic difference in their music from please please me to tomorrow never knows in only a few years is staggering. By the end of that run together they were completely irritated and needed the break up
@@ronoccc Yes. Also keep in mind that The Beatles, Motown, Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound, Rolling Stones & Beach Boys are the Top Music Catalogues not only of the 1960's but of all time. Although They don't own the Catalogue (David Bowie's Estate Does) at last report, it's still very influential. As much as I hated Pete I really felt sorry for him for not being able to be with the one true person he loves.
60 years later and Tomorrow Never Knows remains perhaps the most innovative and groundbreaking recording ever. Hearing this in 1966 must have been mind-shattering.
What an incredible scene, Don stops the music in anger trying to stop the cultural revolution and it comes back full force in the end credits, it is inevitable
I loved how that was shot- just like you said with this stunning work of art- Tomorrow Never Knows As a highly discerning movie lover, I think that was magical how he stops the actual needle (making it generational and MANY other things) and how it continues after he turned it off. Brava! Love & Light from Miami Shores🦚 Stay safe mates🌎✌🏼 Peace & Prayers for the people of Ukraine🇺🇦 *1/23 Yes, I’m feeling quite mortal these days, even though I am 42 years old
agreed, like so much of mad men, it feels current, modern, yet of course everything is dated when you take a step back at look at it. but whilst watching, everything just feels current
To this day this remains one of the most perfect and timeless collages of sound ever put together in pop history. This is not the beginning of electronic music because there where a lot of avantgarde producers and composers from the classical world who had started to experiment with this kind of sounds way before, but I'd say The Beatles were the first who used this way of artistic expression in the popular culture world, which is an absolutely monumental achievement. What a great band
It is the introduction of electronic music to the world via The Beatle's momentous outreach. The power and responsibilities of possessing a platform to speak to the world ought to be utilized thoughtfully.
They used electronics earlier with the guy who invented the moog synthesizer working in Abbey Road in room above the beatles.. so this was more an experimental emalgamation of John's experimentation and some George's use of the tamboura instrument that gives it an unusual sound.
@@littleferrhis Pet Sounds was psychedelic, but someone like Don could vibe along to it and ignore the undertones. Tomorrow Never Knows announced its mind-altering intentions immediately and with bombast. That’s what made it so groundbreaking, and controversial
The thing about Tomorrow Never Knows is that is one of the most unreproducible pieces of music ever. They literally experimented with all kinds of recordings, played some of them backwards, sped up others. The song pretty much represented UK's take on psychedelia and changed music recording forever. Is not surprising why the chose this piece to represent the brave new world.
it's a small detail, but I love that the needle is placed near the end of the record, since Tomorrow Never Knows is the last track on Revolver. Small but nice little detail.
@@julesr6409 I thought it was a little odd when Megan tells him to listen to the last song on the album but it sets up the ending nicely. Most shows would just show him dropping the needle somewhere random
@@billtdifferent9714 the vibe, sound, beat, lyrics of this song sound like something that could have been released last week. The Beatles were ridiculously ahead of the curve on pretty much everything they did.
"I don't know if you remember where you were the first time you heard tomorrow never knows? Someone pulled us in off the street, off the Haight and said 'YOU'VE GOT TO LISTEN TO THIS' and it was tomorrow never knows. Then we knew, that the Beatles were on the same wavelength as us". - Phil Lesh: Grateful Dead.
Never noticed this detail: Beth drawing that heart and the car window rolling down and up erasing the heart is a clever foreshadow of what we later learn about her.
Watching this for the first time in like 2012 or whenever it came out, the minute I saw Don remove the record from the sleeve I said out loud, “no WAY are they gonna play an actual Beatles song. Are they?!?!” And they did!!!!! Worth every penny for this incredible scene
Couldn't agree more. It was about a year later (1967) when bands started to experiment with longer compositions, sometimes spanning an entire side of an LP.
@@Skuu I've done it to a few songs in the past using sound editing software. I could only work with existing parts of the song by repeating sequences already there and overlaying, filtering and extending them. It was successful although I never tried it on this song. You're talking about something entirely different. I wouldn't know how to use AI to do that. Would be very interesting experiment to see what it can come up with.
Incredibly, this song was released just 2 years after the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. Gone were the boy band loveable moptops and on to a whole different world in music and culture. The Beatles
Tomorrow Never Knows has always been considered the song that signals the Beatles transition from innocuous pop standards to the more mature, worldly, experimental outfit that would define the rest of their careers. I think the choice of song is very deliberate for this scene.
Ummm…the Beatles were THE influencers of 60s pop culture from the MOMENT they hit in early 60s, not just when they “evolved” to psychedelic sounds. Their early stuff was also groundbreaking-so BEYOND “innocuous pop standards.” How else do you think they had become so famous by the time Revolver hit in August ’66?
And Plse spare me the yah-but lecture, how this was a LEAP forward…they had a dozen leaps forward in their brief 7-year magical mystery recording tour, because they never stopped innovating beyond even their own boundaries…from their beginnings.
@@scottamichie 1966 and Revolver represented a major change in their sound and the subject matter of their music (particularly with Tomorrow Never Knows). Rubber Soul had laid the groundwork for this shift, but Revolver is when they went stratospheric. While yes, The Beatles music pre-1965 was a leap forward, much of that music was doing so working with the tools of pop music of the day. Revolver was when they smashed the confines wide open. I don't see any problem with OP's comment.
No, rubber soul (1965) had many progressive and sophisticated tracks. For me that's their best album, lots of tracks without any filler. If you take away tomorrow never knows, it's a much better album and "lyrically" far more complex than revolver.Maybe revolver is more complex Instrumentally. Lennon was at his zenith, on rubber soul, With al sorts of Quirky wordplay and original themes, showing what an incredible poetic instinct he had. I think after that album he clearly decided he was done with ballads and simply wanted to explore different themes, which weren't always commercial e.g. in Revolver he wrote the incredibly cynical "Dr Robert"and the LSD inspired "she said she said", both upbeat songs, whos Again brilliance is in the meaning rather than the Melodies. McCartneys ballads, are what saved revolver, for commercial purposes, other than that, they kept it interesting for the semantics of Lennons meaning in his tracks, as well as George's 2nd track. But they were not singalongs, probably deliberately. Lennons tracks on rubber soul produced. Norwegian Wood, Nowhere man, in my life, girl and run for your life, which were way ahead of their time and lyrically and instrumentally complex Recognise that after 1966 , John didn't even attempt another emotional ballad, which was a genre he excelled in before that (also - you got to hide your level way, if I fell, Help (was intended to be a Ballad, before Epstein convinced him to make it upbeat)).This was clearly a deliberate act, because he also heavily criticised and had contempt for what he saw as Paul's regurgitated tearjerkers e.g. "Hello/goodbye, let it be, Long and Winding Road, yellow submarine, she's leaving home and the granny tracks. "You know which ones." He was in music purely for originality, catharsis or political commentary, or didn't want to be in it at all
Rubber soul was the first radical turn… for the Beatles…but for the pop music world the first radical turn was 1963 when the Beatles FIRST burst onto the scene. THAT was truly radical: the sounds of Please Please me, Wanna Hold ur Hand, had never been heard before: complex guitar arrangements, the 3-part harmonies coming from the 3 guitarists, the hooks, the melodies driven by eccentric rhythms/beats…a great BAND-ALL that was totally new. (1950s original rock n roll had died years before w Buddy Holly, Elvis in the army, Little Richard split for gospel and Chuck B in prison.) They were revolutionary from the START…and kept on their revolution all the way.
Music is a character and the lyrics are dialogue. This song choice was perfect in that it showed how the world was changing and how Don Draper was behind the times. The fact that he abruptly ended the song shows his frustration over the realization that he was not part of the new wave and that he was not willing to let go of the old guard. HBO chose to pay $250,000 to use the original and it was worth the investment. For anyone who thinks that the Beatles were just "She Love You" or "I Wanna Told Your Hand", this song changed the music world. This was electronica 25 years before it became popular. You can play this at a club today and it would move the crowd. Think about it. This came out in 1966 and this must have sounded like alien music at the time. This is why the Beatles are and will always be the greatest force in music history. The concept was pure Lennon, but McCartney was responsible for the "loops", due to his penchant for hanging out in London during the time when London was the Mecca of music, art and culture. The fact that Lennon was living in the suburbs removed from the hustle and bustle of the city, it shows how brilliant he was to create this in his head. He was a very flawed man, but you can't dispute his genius.
No other show even comes close to the absolutely legendary endings so many episodes of Mad Men has. This episode, "You Only Live Twice" at the end of The Phantom, the series finale ending with the Hilltop commercial, the ending of The Suitcase, Waterloo with Bert singing "The Best Things in Life are Free," The Strategy with Don, Peggy, and Pete sharing a meal at Burger Chef, A Tale of Two Cities with Pete smoking the joint while the Janis Joplin song plays. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
This was the first track recorded for the " Revolver " album, released in August,1966. The sounds, lyrics and recording techniques in this song created a seismic shift in music and musicians.
This is my favorite needle drop in the show, mainly because of how the scene is edited. You'd expect the episode to just fade out to black at some point during the montage of the other characters, but Don abruptly stops the song and the scene cuts back to him, perfectly illustrating his anxieties of a world changing at a faster pace than he can comprehend. It's a brilliant violation of the show's established visual cues. And then the song inevitably returns in the credits, for change is often beyond our control. I also love that the song - itself a radical, abrasive, avant-garde reinvention of the Beatles' sound - accompanies transgressive moments in the other characters' lives, like Peggy smoking weed at the office, Megan following her acting dreams against Don's wishes, and Pete entangled in an affair. The Pete clip is my favorite because of the contrast between the innocent, teenage-romance vibe of the scene and the song's aggressive, unfamiliar sound. In Pete's case it seems to represent him not realizing what he's getting into, on top of his existing angst over feeling powerless and unable to entice Beth to his whims.
Think of this, from 1966 to 1969, John Lennon wrote probably 50% of the top ten most groundbreaking songs of the whole rock period. Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields Forever, I am the Walrus, A Day in the Life, Dear Prudence, Don't Let Me Down and I'll throw in Come Together for a topper!
I love the tracks you chose as most representative of Lennon's progressive and trailblazing nature, I completely agree with you. I think we have similar tastes in Lennon songs.
Gave me shivers, one of the most potent pieces of forward thinking innovative rock music in the mid late 20th century. Need to rewatch this show, wonder how much that minute of Beatles music cost the production, as always it’s clearly worth it
@@robjj5373Dollars or Pounds? Should’ve been the value of £250,000 as it would’ve been in 1966 when this was released. Apparently, $250,000, in 1966, is worth $2,333,310 in today’s market. 😮😊
Just using this track cost the producers of Mad Men some $250,000 paid to Apple Corps for the rights (to use this one song!). Money well spent!!✌️ $$$ 🎶 🙏🏻
A curious detail: Don's step-down living room is very much like John's section of the shared apartment in which the Beatles live in Help! And it's John who is singing lead in Tomorrow Never Knows.
I may be bold in saying this, but I see this song as being the invention of electronic music. It opened up a world of opportunities in the medium. You can still hear its influences today echoing throughout the various genres of electronic music.
No easy task in 1966. They took apart a Hammond organ and ran Lennon's voice through the Leslie speaker, I believe 37 tape loops were used, unprecedented miking techniques, tuned wineglasses...all done with a 4 track recording console. It must have taken weeks just to cut this track.
I prefer the ending, with the Buddhist reference "play the game, existence to the end… of the beginning…", Especially with John's distorted voice, going along with the impossibly melodic wall of noise, that shouldn't be posssible
Esta serie es un clasico y la escena resume la serie , como un publicista de new york tendra que adaptarse al cambio cultural y los derechos civiles que ocurriran en los 60s en norteamerica , con musica de los beatles iconos de la
This scene does the amazing. It makes me feel sorry for Pete. For about a second until I realize what a slimy weasel he is, was, and will be. At least there’s a bit of a happy ending with the actors falling in love and getting married.
Just to let you know that "Twist & Shout" wasn't an "Original" Beatles Song. It was originally titled "Shake It Up Baby" but then became Twist & Shout first done by The Top Notes, Then The Isley Brothers then The Beatles. Ronald Isley said that Ringo Starr told him that when they did Twist & Shout in Concert, it boosted their popularity.
@@omegajrz1269 "another movie in the same year" - that'd be Rodney Dangerfield singing it in Back to School. (That it was used in two different movies the same year has always stuck in my head)
Between this, and the use of baby blue by badfinger at the end of breaking bad, what else do we need? Maybe somebody should go re edit the sopranos ending to include one of these cool yet forgotten songs?😂😂😂
Because his wife told him to a bit earlier, as others have pointed out at similar questions. I had forgotten about Mad Men‘s use of the song, although it is one of my most-loved Beatles songs…
May seem like a weird question but how can he just turn on the vinyl and it starts playing tomorrow never knows which is the last song on the album, I thought vinyls just play through the whole album in order and you can’t skip through
@@Fordham1969 Only the question wasn't how do vinyl records work. It was how come Don gets straight to Tomorrow even though it's the last song. Answer : either Don was told by someone to start with the last son and put the needle there (unlikely) or the director specifically wanted the scene to play out this way and thus forgot about the realism (which is fair enough)
@@PaulRamen Actually, if you read his question he states that he thought you weren't able to "skip through" to any song on a vinyl record, so he was in fact trying to understand how vinyl records work. In any case, your assumption that it's unlikely someone told Don to start with Tomorrow Never Knows turns out to be incorrect, here's a posting which shows this same scene starting a little earlier on for context ...th-cam.com/video/6OquASU1y5A/w-d-xo.html
When I was a kid in the 70s, I was fortunate to get my moms Beatles records. I used to just watch the spectrum ring on those Capitol discs spin endlessly while absorbing their music.
What a perfect scene. I’m not sure if there is a single song that represent’s today’s youth as well as this one did for baby boomers. For my generation (millennials), my picks might be Wake Up by Arcade Fire and Alright by Kendrick Lamar. But there isn’t a single song from the past 20 years that can compare to Tomorrow Never Knows. Absolutely groundbreaking
what do you mean? He was probably directed to it, because it's the track that probably produced most shock, in the music industry ever. Execs don't usually have the time to listen to an entire album. Imagine listening to this in 1965, this was 3 years before the progressive flower, hippie movement kicked off
funny piece of anachronism + beatles trivia: the original releases of revolver were in mono. the stereo tracks were included in the remaster from long after mad men takes place. in other words, don truly is listening to the music of his future
Sure sounds like music to me. (In other words... your idea of "noise" and "music" is not necessarily someone else's idea of "noise" and "music." And vice-vera.)
Unwraps his new record and immedietly put's it on the last track of the B-side. Absolute mad man.
His wife told him to listen to that track earlier in the episode
He is not unwrapping any new record, it is already opened in advance.
@@Uppernorwood976 Yes. People need to see everything, to know the series in able to comment.
That ruined the series for me. No credibility at all. I watched this one scene and that was it
@@luizbenevides5198You’re missing out because you made a judgement without context
One of the best uses of music in any visual media ever, Don's effort to shut off the Beatles is in vain, he can't stop the cultural revolution and is one of the first times the series shows him as old fashioned and really threatened by a new world.
I was 6 in 66 but remember the feeling in the air, saw 2001 in 68 and again and again. This ending captures the huge Ontological split that 66 demarcated.
Even I thought the song signifies don being out of touch and unprepared for the cultural shift that was taking place in the 60s. However I saw a Matt Weiner interview, where he ties using this song to don whistling I wanna hold your hand in the car and being in love to listening a song about 'surrendering to the void'
Kinda how I felt when I first saw American Idol
@@paxwallacejazz I think i was 15 when I heard this and had a sort of, sonic revealition in the mid-eighties (1986). After that, things would be different for me.
@@yashsinha1236 in a way Don's shift from that happiness to despondence much mirrors The Beatles own fatigue with one and other. The sonic difference in their music from please please me to tomorrow never knows in only a few years is staggering. By the end of that run together they were completely irritated and needed the break up
This song is still miles ahead of its time
Not miles. Lightyears.
Worth every penny of the 250k they paid to have this song in this episode.
they paid that much just to use the song?! christ
@@ronoccc Yes. Also keep in mind that The Beatles, Motown, Phil Spector's Wall Of Sound, Rolling Stones & Beach Boys are the Top Music Catalogues not only of the 1960's but of all time. Although They don't own the Catalogue (David Bowie's Estate Does) at last report, it's still very influential. As much as I hated Pete I really felt sorry for him for not being able to be with the one true person he loves.
I was so afraid they wouldn't put this on the DVD and they did.
@@ronoccc eh, what's the point of being talented if it's not highly valued?
It was actually 450k. My friend at Lionsgate was the negotiator for music licensing for the show
60 years later and Tomorrow Never Knows remains perhaps the most innovative and groundbreaking recording ever. Hearing this in 1966 must have been mind-shattering.
What an incredible scene, Don stops the music in anger trying to stop the cultural revolution and it comes back full force in the end credits, it is inevitable
It’s like the boomers hating teen spirit. Music is generational. It doesn’t care you’ve grown old because someone else is young.
Well put!
I loved how that was shot- just like you said with this stunning work of art- Tomorrow Never Knows
As a highly discerning movie lover, I think that was magical how he stops the actual needle (making it generational and MANY other things)
and how it continues after he turned it off.
Brava!
Love & Light from Miami Shores🦚
Stay safe mates🌎✌🏼
Peace & Prayers for the people of Ukraine🇺🇦
*1/23
Yes, I’m feeling quite mortal these days, even though I am 42 years old
I dont think he stops it in anger, he just is bored by it and doesnt get it...
@@woog315 Because he is a relic of a passing age..
His apartment remains one of my favourite TV /movie homes ever. Just love mid century modern everything
agreed, like so much of mad men, it feels current, modern, yet of course everything is dated when you take a step back at look at it. but whilst watching, everything just feels current
Its the future, when we still beloved in it.
@@ronoccc its not really dated. mid century modern has been in vogue for the last 5 years.
To this day this remains one of the most perfect and timeless collages of sound ever put together in pop history. This is not the beginning of electronic music because there where a lot of avantgarde producers and composers from the classical world who had started to experiment with this kind of sounds way before, but I'd say The Beatles were the first who used this way of artistic expression in the popular culture world, which is an absolutely monumental achievement. What a great band
It is the introduction of electronic music to the world via The Beatle's momentous outreach. The power and responsibilities of possessing a platform to speak to the world ought to be utilized thoughtfully.
This is the first mainstream psychedelic song in the modern era of music culture.
@@Avatar_Sokka I mean maybe its arguable. Like Pet Sounds was definitely LSD inspired, though I don’t know if it was truly psychedelic.
They used electronics earlier with the guy who invented the moog synthesizer working in Abbey Road in room above the beatles.. so this was more an experimental emalgamation of John's experimentation and some George's use of the tamboura instrument that gives it an unusual sound.
@@littleferrhis Pet Sounds was psychedelic, but someone like Don could vibe along to it and ignore the undertones. Tomorrow Never Knows announced its mind-altering intentions immediately and with bombast. That’s what made it so groundbreaking, and controversial
If you’re wondering what the Beatles could produce while on acid, this is it.
I thought it was a slight mix of Lsd and weed?
@@smf2k01 .. LSD is acid
@@seancarterx yes but you also need the bit of weed
@@smf2k01 gotta have the bit of weed
@@smf2k01 Neither. drugs barely had any goddamn influence on their music if any you're all just incredibly misinformed and shallow.
I've always been floored by this song and was floored by this ending.
The thing about Tomorrow Never Knows is that is one of the most unreproducible pieces of music ever. They literally experimented with all kinds of recordings, played some of them backwards, sped up others. The song pretty much represented UK's take on psychedelia and changed music recording forever. Is not surprising why the chose this piece to represent the brave new world.
The song was the role model for The Chemical Brothers. I know because I'm a fan of them.
@@omegajrz1269 How does it feel like?
@@pleasantville4529 What thing?
@@pleasantville4529to wake up in the sun !!! i understood you my man 🙏🏻
It had to be this song. No other would cause the same impact in this story. Because it really caused an impact in our ives in 1966;
"That he turns off the record and walks away--it is denying....it is denying....."
Damn.
So well done Firecriss!
it's a small detail, but I love that the needle is placed near the end of the record, since Tomorrow Never Knows is the last track on Revolver. Small but nice little detail.
Yeah totally... He flipped the record to the B side and moved the needle to the last track. Almost seems like a continuity error.
@@julesr6409 I thought it was a little odd when Megan tells him to listen to the last song on the album but it sets up the ending nicely. Most shows would just show him dropping the needle somewhere random
Ah, now it makes sense. Too many beers since last seeing that episode....
Too many people don’t realize, this is really what the Beatles sounded like in 1966. This is 1966 music you are listening to. Those aren’t edits.
What are you talking about man
@@billtdifferent9714 It sounds edited with modern tech.
@@billtdifferent9714it sounds modern, like it was made and edited today. The Beatles were/are THAT good
Yeah i know ever since i heard the Beatles record i was in disbelief, because of how well it sounded
@@billtdifferent9714 the vibe, sound, beat, lyrics of this song sound like something that could have been released last week. The Beatles were ridiculously ahead of the curve on pretty much everything they did.
Jon Hamm’s acting here is fantastic. The subtle look of disdain as he turns it off.
So good
Beautifully done
Thanks for letting it roll with the credits. It is the best moment.
Well, when you pay $250,000 to use a song in your series, you might as well use all of it!
@@JuanR4140 Especially since this track was created out of pure genius. Deserves all the paying time to do it justice.
"I don't know if you remember where you were the first time you heard tomorrow never knows? Someone pulled us in off the street, off the Haight and said 'YOU'VE GOT TO LISTEN TO THIS' and it was tomorrow never knows. Then we knew, that the Beatles were on the same wavelength as us". - Phil Lesh: Grateful Dead.
Great quote, especially considering Tomorrow Never Knows was released almost a year _before_ the Summer of Love.
Any GD anecdote is fine by me!
Never noticed this detail: Beth drawing that heart and the car window rolling down and up erasing the heart is a clever foreshadow of what we later learn about her.
Watching this for the first time in like 2012 or whenever it came out, the minute I saw Don remove the record from the sleeve I said out loud, “no WAY are they gonna play an actual Beatles song. Are they?!?!” And they did!!!!! Worth every penny for this incredible scene
Endless budgets bottomless pockets. Most HBO shows ever. The more popular a show the bigger budget at a show's disposal.
If I ever wished a song would last another 7 minutes, it would be this one.
try this uTuber's offering: th-cam.com/video/rg_dBimmxxM/w-d-xo.html
Couldn't agree more. It was about a year later (1967) when bands started to experiment with longer compositions, sometimes spanning an entire side of an LP.
You can make it with AI now :)
@@Skuu I've done it to a few songs in the past using sound editing software. I could only work with existing parts of the song by repeating sequences already there and overlaying, filtering and extending them. It was successful although I never tried it on this song.
You're talking about something entirely different. I wouldn't know how to use AI to do that. Would be very interesting experiment to see what it can come up with.
Incredibly, this song was released just 2 years after the Ed Sullivan show in 1964. Gone were the boy band loveable moptops and on to a whole different world in music and culture. The Beatles
worth the licensing fee. what a scene
Tomorrow Never Knows has always been considered the song that signals the Beatles transition from innocuous pop standards to the more mature, worldly, experimental outfit that would define the rest of their careers. I think the choice of song is very deliberate for this scene.
Ummm…the Beatles were THE influencers of 60s pop culture from the MOMENT they hit in early 60s, not just when they “evolved” to psychedelic sounds. Their early stuff was also groundbreaking-so BEYOND “innocuous pop standards.” How else do you think they had become so famous by the time Revolver hit in August ’66?
And Plse spare me the yah-but lecture, how this was a LEAP forward…they had a dozen leaps forward in their brief 7-year magical mystery recording tour, because they never stopped innovating beyond even their own boundaries…from their beginnings.
@@scottamichie 1966 and Revolver represented a major change in their sound and the subject matter of their music (particularly with Tomorrow Never Knows). Rubber Soul had laid the groundwork for this shift, but Revolver is when they went stratospheric. While yes, The Beatles music pre-1965 was a leap forward, much of that music was doing so working with the tools of pop music of the day. Revolver was when they smashed the confines wide open. I don't see any problem with OP's comment.
No, rubber soul (1965) had many progressive and sophisticated tracks. For me that's their best album, lots of tracks without any filler. If you take away tomorrow never knows, it's a much better album and "lyrically" far more complex than revolver.Maybe revolver is more complex Instrumentally. Lennon was at his zenith, on rubber soul, With al sorts of Quirky wordplay and original themes, showing what an incredible poetic instinct he had. I think after that album he clearly decided he was done with ballads and simply wanted to explore different themes, which weren't always commercial e.g. in Revolver he wrote the incredibly cynical "Dr Robert"and the LSD inspired "she said she said", both upbeat songs, whos Again brilliance is in the meaning rather than the Melodies. McCartneys ballads, are what saved revolver, for commercial purposes, other than that, they kept it interesting for the semantics of Lennons meaning in his tracks, as well as George's 2nd track. But they were not singalongs, probably deliberately. Lennons tracks on rubber soul produced. Norwegian Wood, Nowhere man, in my life, girl and run for your life, which were way ahead of their time and lyrically and instrumentally complex
Recognise that after 1966 , John didn't even attempt another emotional ballad, which was a genre he excelled in before that (also - you got to hide your level way, if I fell, Help (was intended to be a Ballad, before Epstein convinced him to make it upbeat)).This was clearly a deliberate act, because he also heavily criticised and had contempt for what he saw as Paul's regurgitated tearjerkers e.g. "Hello/goodbye, let it be, Long and Winding Road, yellow submarine, she's leaving home and the granny tracks. "You know which ones." He was in music purely for originality, catharsis or political commentary, or didn't want to be in it at all
Rubber soul was the first radical turn… for the Beatles…but for the pop music world the first radical turn was 1963 when the Beatles FIRST burst onto the scene. THAT was truly radical: the sounds of Please Please me, Wanna Hold ur Hand, had never been heard before: complex guitar arrangements, the 3-part harmonies coming from the 3 guitarists, the hooks, the melodies driven by eccentric rhythms/beats…a great BAND-ALL that was totally new. (1950s original rock n roll had died years before w Buddy Holly, Elvis in the army, Little Richard split for gospel and Chuck B in prison.) They were revolutionary from the START…and kept on their revolution all the way.
Still. The greatest show of ALL. I can’t count the number of times I get chills from a shows scenes
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, one of the very best moments of this great show.
One of my favorite scenes from this show!
Music is a character and the lyrics are dialogue. This song choice was perfect in that it showed how the world was changing and how Don Draper was behind the times. The fact that he abruptly ended the song shows his frustration over the realization that he was not part of the new wave and that he was not willing to let go of the old guard. HBO chose to pay $250,000 to use the original and it was worth the investment. For anyone who thinks that the Beatles were just "She Love You" or "I Wanna Told Your Hand", this song changed the music world. This was electronica 25 years before it became popular. You can play this at a club today and it would move the crowd. Think about it. This came out in 1966 and this must have sounded like alien music at the time. This is why the Beatles are and will always be the greatest force in music history. The concept was pure Lennon, but McCartney was responsible for the "loops", due to his penchant for hanging out in London during the time when London was the Mecca of music, art and culture. The fact that Lennon was living in the suburbs removed from the hustle and bustle of the city, it shows how brilliant he was to create this in his head. He was a very flawed man, but you can't dispute his genius.
Best TV scene ever.
Ringo’s finest work here, those snares are killer to listen to on LSD
No other show even comes close to the absolutely legendary endings so many episodes of Mad Men has. This episode, "You Only Live Twice" at the end of The Phantom, the series finale ending with the Hilltop commercial, the ending of The Suitcase, Waterloo with Bert singing "The Best Things in Life are Free," The Strategy with Don, Peggy, and Pete sharing a meal at Burger Chef, A Tale of Two Cities with Pete smoking the joint while the Janis Joplin song plays. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
This was the first track recorded for the " Revolver " album, released in August,1966. The sounds, lyrics and recording techniques in this song created a seismic shift in music and musicians.
$250k well spent.
This is my favorite needle drop in the show, mainly because of how the scene is edited. You'd expect the episode to just fade out to black at some point during the montage of the other characters, but Don abruptly stops the song and the scene cuts back to him, perfectly illustrating his anxieties of a world changing at a faster pace than he can comprehend. It's a brilliant violation of the show's established visual cues. And then the song inevitably returns in the credits, for change is often beyond our control.
I also love that the song - itself a radical, abrasive, avant-garde reinvention of the Beatles' sound - accompanies transgressive moments in the other characters' lives, like Peggy smoking weed at the office, Megan following her acting dreams against Don's wishes, and Pete entangled in an affair. The Pete clip is my favorite because of the contrast between the innocent, teenage-romance vibe of the scene and the song's aggressive, unfamiliar sound. In Pete's case it seems to represent him not realizing what he's getting into, on top of his existing angst over feeling powerless and unable to entice Beth to his whims.
You could release this song today and it would still be fresh. Just four working class lads high on acid...
yes!
gives me chills
Think of this, from 1966 to 1969, John Lennon wrote probably 50% of the top ten most groundbreaking songs of the whole rock period. Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields Forever, I am the Walrus, A Day in the Life, Dear Prudence, Don't Let Me Down and I'll throw in Come Together for a topper!
Even better are "happiness is a warm gun", "I want you (she's so heavy) and "hey Bulldog"
I Want You. Most of a Day in the Life.
I love the tracks you chose as most representative of Lennon's progressive and trailblazing nature, I completely agree with you. I think we have similar tastes in Lennon songs.
Thanks for the proper upload, including the ending titles...:)
Draper and people alike not willing to change or allow change. Brilliant. To this day..I love this scene.
Listen to the color of your dreams
It is not living, it is not living.
Gave me shivers, one of the most potent pieces of forward thinking innovative rock music in the mid late 20th century.
Need to rewatch this show, wonder how much that minute of Beatles music cost the production, as always it’s clearly worth it
250.000
@@robjj5373 Worth every cent! The Beatles are priceless.
@@robjj5373Dollars or Pounds? Should’ve been the value of £250,000 as it would’ve been in 1966 when this was released. Apparently, $250,000, in 1966, is worth $2,333,310 in today’s market. 😮😊
I always seem to revert to this. Forgot why. Need to re watch Mad Men to remind myself, pretty powerful on so many levels.
I’m such a music nerd and I loved this scene so much. Don was such a badass.
0:07 - get your thumb off that disk!
Just using this track cost the producers of Mad Men some $250,000 paid to Apple Corps for the rights (to use this one song!). Money well spent!!✌️ $$$ 🎶 🙏🏻
Apple knows money is only a commodity
Utterly brilliant scene.
I can't imagine listening to this when it was brand new. Thanks to this video though....
WAY ahead of its time, some people say it still is...
My favorite Beatles song and I love every single remake and redidition of it. I cannot get enough.
A curious detail: Don's step-down living room is very much like John's section of the shared apartment in which the Beatles live in Help! And it's John who is singing lead in Tomorrow Never Knows.
conversation pits
I may be bold in saying this, but I see this song as being the invention of electronic music. It opened up a world of opportunities in the medium.
You can still hear its influences today echoing throughout the various genres of electronic music.
MGMT says hi
No easy task in 1966. They took apart a Hammond organ and ran Lennon's voice through the Leslie speaker, I believe 37 tape loops were used, unprecedented miking techniques, tuned wineglasses...all done with a 4 track recording console. It must have taken weeks just to cut this track.
so bold saying something that has been said for decades
I’ve been thinking the same…technically it is electric music…it’s samples and loops…
@@shannonlucas2980 Just five tape loops.
Man, Don should've started from the very beginning. Probably would have related more to Taxman.
this is my dream home, this 60s divorcee apartment is smut, also this scene is one of my favorite in the show.
It's Better Call Saul quality that montage.
at least the music didn’t start with Yellow Submarine
Take 1 of tommorow never knows is out of this world
I prefer the ending, with the Buddhist reference "play the game, existence to the end… of the beginning…", Especially with John's distorted voice, going along with the impossibly melodic wall of noise, that shouldn't be posssible
Take 1 doesn't sound anything like the release versions.
In Webster's Dictionary under the term Masterpiece" it should say; "Listen to the "Revolver" LP.
And "watch Mad Men"!
@@Meesterlijker I'm currently on the search far & wide for Season 4.
@@alonenjersey Awesome, hope you find it soon
@@Meesterlijker "Seek and Ye shall find."
Don's needle work is on point. Sub 1 second of dead wax crackle.
Pure genius
That’s a damn heavy record sleeve! Based on the sound when setting it down.
Don’s rejection of the coming world by lifting the needle is simplistic, petty and futile. It’s perfect.
I just seen this episode and I swear to god I thought this was Tame Impala
qué belleza
Esta serie es un clasico y la escena resume la serie , como un publicista de new york tendra que adaptarse al cambio cultural y los derechos civiles que ocurriran en los 60s en norteamerica , con musica de los beatles iconos de la
I think of this scene as the birth of the 60s in the show.
and later, he finally gives in and joins the hippies.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
This scene does the amazing. It makes me feel sorry for Pete. For about a second until I realize what a slimy weasel he is, was, and will be. At least there’s a bit of a happy ending with the actors falling in love and getting married.
Sorry to be the one telling you this though, but they got divorced very recently...
Mad Men, Ferris Bueller and The Social Network. The best uses of Beatles songs.
Just to let you know that "Twist & Shout" wasn't an "Original" Beatles Song. It was originally titled "Shake It Up Baby" but then became Twist & Shout first done by The Top Notes, Then The Isley Brothers then The Beatles. Ronald Isley said that Ringo Starr told him that when they did Twist & Shout in Concert, it boosted their popularity.
@@laminage Yes, I know. It was even used in another movie in the same year. I know John sang it with the flu
@@omegajrz1269 "another movie in the same year" - that'd be Rodney Dangerfield singing it in Back to School. (That it was used in two different movies the same year has always stuck in my head)
@@mobycat Superman III uses Roll Over Beethoven
Don meditating while sitting, trying to discover his future coke ad
When I saw this I lost my shit
Between this, and the use of baby blue by badfinger at the end of breaking bad, what else do we need? Maybe somebody should go re edit the sopranos ending to include one of these cool yet forgotten songs?😂😂😂
Other than Cadillac using Led Zeppelin's song Rock and Roll, yep. Great use of money.
What is the album which cover can be seen behind Don?
Wow
Don should have put on ‘in my life’ by The Beatles instead, he would have loved that one…
He was told to listen to it by his wife, who left the album there for him
@@marcweiss3098 it was a joke lad
@@ck891 you sure nailed it
@@marcweiss3098 why thank you Marc
Peggy dando um pega.
Don thinking, "What a crock of shit" 🤣
1966 when the sixties were going through a transition.
Awesome song. Decades ahead of its time. However you’d never drop the disc directly out of the outer sleeve! At least he then handled it correctly.
Why would Don Draper start with the final track on side two?
Because his wife told him to a bit earlier, as others have pointed out at similar questions. I had forgotten about Mad Men‘s use of the song, although it is one of my most-loved Beatles songs…
Must have cost them a fortune to play that song.
Matthew Weiner had to pay $250,000 from his pocket.
Did they really play this song in the show? I've never seen it.
Don is definitely a closet Beatles fan.
He should have started with Taxman . Who the f- puts on the last track first?
May seem like a weird question but how can he just turn on the vinyl and it starts playing tomorrow never knows which is the last song on the album, I thought vinyls just play through the whole album in order and you can’t skip through
Here’s how vinyl records work, it’ll answer your question th-cam.com/video/2Q3ox7tpJUU/w-d-xo.html
@@enshen2190 Ha, you actually made a video as a direct answer to his question, that's very sweet of you.
@@Fordham1969 Only the question wasn't how do vinyl records work.
It was how come Don gets straight to Tomorrow even though it's the last song.
Answer : either Don was told by someone to start with the last son and put the needle there (unlikely)
or the director specifically wanted the scene to play out this way and thus forgot about the realism (which is fair enough)
@@PaulRamen Actually, if you read his question he states that he thought you weren't able to "skip through" to any song on a vinyl record, so he was in fact trying to understand how vinyl records work. In any case, your assumption that it's unlikely someone told Don to start with Tomorrow Never Knows turns out to be incorrect, here's a posting which shows this same scene starting a little earlier on for context ...th-cam.com/video/6OquASU1y5A/w-d-xo.html
@@enshen2190 thanks!
How did they get a fresh copy of the US Capitol Revolver when Capitol deleted their American Beatles albums in the late 80s
If nothing else, probably just had the prop dept. recreate it. What we hear is just a digitized playback so the actual record isn't what's playing.
When I was a kid in the 70s, I was fortunate to get my moms Beatles records. I used to just watch the spectrum ring on those Capitol discs spin endlessly while absorbing their music.
You can still get mint/sealed copies
Don wasn't having that shit
I think it’s their first song where the title is not even in the lyrics.
"Start with the last song on the album" no wonder he doesn't like it
What a perfect scene. I’m not sure if there is a single song that represent’s today’s youth as well as this one did for baby boomers. For my generation (millennials), my picks might be Wake Up by Arcade Fire and Alright by Kendrick Lamar. But there isn’t a single song from the past 20 years that can compare to Tomorrow Never Knows. Absolutely groundbreaking
Did this really happen in madmen or not ?
Nothing is edited in this video. The original scene. Matthew Weiner paid $250,000 from his pocket to use this song.
You can see the revolver album cover in the beginning of the scene
Pete Campbell would have got it!
Don, too square to polka dance to Tomorrow Never Knows
I can hardly believe that they got married for real
John and Paul? I can't watch Get Back on Disney+ it's obvious John loved Paul more than Yoko.
@@Zure467 no, the guy and the lady in the cars, the actors met on set and got married, but i agree with ur point too
I get the symbolism, but to me having someone drop the needle on the last track of the B-side of an album on the first listen strains my credulity
It was recommended to him earlier in the episode (which I actually did nt remember, but others pointed out in the comments).
He's told to by his young wife
shows you how much I know about Mad Men 🤣
what do you mean? He was probably directed to it, because it's the track that probably produced most shock, in the music industry ever. Execs don't usually have the time to listen to an entire album. Imagine listening to this in 1965, this was 3 years before the progressive flower, hippie movement kicked off
funny piece of anachronism + beatles trivia:
the original releases of revolver were in mono. the stereo tracks were included in the remaster from long after mad men takes place. in other words, don truly is listening to the music of his future
Completely wrong. It was available in both mono and stereo from day one.
Nope, wrong
What psychopath plays the last song on a vinyl record they've never heard before, let alone straight-laced, tight-ass Don?
Megan bought him the record said “you said you wanted to see what people listen to these days, start with that one” and pointed to the last track
He doesn't put the needle down in the right spot :/
Yes he does. Song is last song on the record.
He does, I looked specifically for that since I have the LP!
I don't think he likes it very much.
I've never liked this 'song' as it's just noise. Not my thing, I like music that sounds like music.
Zzzz
Sure sounds like music to me.
(In other words... your idea of "noise" and "music" is not necessarily someone else's idea of "noise" and "music." And vice-vera.)
Presumably you are a very vanilla person.
AC
you must take electronic music, such as trance and drum and bass
I agree with Don. It was always trash.
Don is not real, you do know that don't you?
What is important is that clearly Mat Weiner loves the song, and he is real.