kung fu grippe

Tomorrow Never Knows. Truly.

The Beatles Return To London From America Interview 1964

In the video above, jump to about 2:40 or so….

When the Beatles returned to London after their first visit to America, in early 1964, they were interviewed by BBC Television. The interview included the following:
Interviewer: “Now Ringo, I hear you were manhandled at the Embassy Ball. Is this right?”
Ringo: “Not really. Someone just cut a bit of my hair, you see.”
Interviewer: “Let’s have a look. You seem to have got plenty left.”
Ringo: (turns head) “Can you see the difference? It’s longer, this side.”
Interviewer: “What happened exactly?”
Ringo: “I don’t know. I was just talking, having an interview (exaggerated voice). Just like I am NOW!”
(John and Paul begin lifting locks of his hair, pretending to cut it
Ringo: “I was talking away and I looked ‘round, and there was about 400 people just smiling. So, you know — what can you say!”
John: “What can you say!”
Ringo: “Tomorrow never knows.”
[John laughs]

The Beatles - “Tomorrow Never Knows”

From Revolver (1966). Original track + fan-made video.

Again, Wikip:

John Lennon wrote the song in January 1966, closely adapted from the book The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert, and Ralph Metzner, which in turn was adapted from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The understanding from the book was that the “ego death” experienced under the influence of LSD and other psychedelic drugs is essentially similar to the dying process and requires similar guidance.

and

The track was one of the first pieces of psychedelic rock, including highly compressed drums with reverse cymbals, reverse guitar, processed vocals, looped tape effects, a sitar and a tambura drone, similar to Harrison’s later composition, “Within You Without You”. A 7-inch reel of ¼ inch-wide audio recording tape, which was the type used by McCartney to create tape loops.

McCartney supplied a bag of ¼ inch-wide audio tape loops he had made by himself at home, which he started making after listening to Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge. McCartney found out that if he took off the erase head of a tape recorder and then spooled a continuous loop of tape through the machine, anything he recorded would constantly keep overdubbing itself; creating a saturation effect, a technique also used in musique concrète. McCartney encouraged the other Beatles to use the same effect and create their own loops.

So.

Less than two years between the first Ed Sullivan appearance and using tape loops to sing about acid and The Book of the Dead?

Yes. Insane.