''Tomorrow'' is the only studio album by the English

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

band Tomorrow. It was originally released in 1968 by EMI Parlophone in the U.K. in a black and white sleeve. A slightly different version of the album was also released in the U.S. in 1968 by

Sire Records Sire Records (formerly Sire Records Company) is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Records. History Beginnings The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gotteh ...

, one of the first releases on that label. Although it was not a success when it was first released, it is now widely regarded as one of the best psychedelic rock albums ever made.

Background and recording

Tomorrow guitarist

Steve Howe Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist and backing vocalist in the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, London, Holloway, North London, Howe d ...

had been doing session work with producer

Mark Wirtz Mark Philipp Wirtz (3 September 19437 August 2020) was a German-French pop music record producer, composer, singer, musician, author, and comedian. Wirtz is best known for '' A Teenage Opera'' concept album, a project he devised while working un ...

, and Wirtz had shown interest in some of Tomorrow's songs, particularly "My White Bicycle". Impressed by the sound Wirtz achieved with their recording of "My White Bicycle", particularly the backwards effect in the beginning, Tomorrow retained him as producer for their album. Nearly all of the songs on the album were written by Tomorrow singer

Keith West Keith Hopkins (born 6 December 1944, Dagenham, Essex, England), known by his stage name Keith West, is a British rock singer, songwriter and music producer. He is best known for his single " Excerpt from A Teenage Opera" ("Grocer Jack"), w ...

and his school friend and songwriting partner Ken Burgess. With few exceptions, West wrote the lyrics by himself and the music was predominantly Burgess's, though West took on a larger role in writing the music as time went on. West's songwriting credits appear under his real name, Keith Hopkins; this was a concession to his family, who in his words "didn't feel it was really me unless they saw it in black and white." The lyrics to "Three Jolly Little Dwarves" were written by West while experimenting with

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

. During the album sessions Tomorrow recorded two completely different songs with the same title, "Now Your Time Has Come", only one of which appeared on the album. Wirtz and the band members were both at a loss to explain how the songs came to share a title. The "Now Your Time Has Come" which was excluded from the album appeared as a

bonus track An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century a ...

on the 1999 CD issue.

Release

There was a long delay between initial recording sessions in spring 1967 and release in February 1968. By the time the album arrived in record stores, the psychedelic trend had already begun to abate. EMI provided a very small recording budget and would not allow prints of a colour album cover to be made, although some later re-issues were printed with a modified colour cover. In 1976,

Harvest Records Harvest Records is a British-American record label belonging to Capitol Music Group, originally created by EMI in 1969. History Harvest Records was created by EMI in 1969 to market progressive rock music, and to compete with Philips' Vertigo ...

(another

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

label) re-issued the album as part of its Harvest Heritage series, with catalogue number SHSM-2010. This edition features a new colour cover which states in large letters on the front: "featuring Keith West and Steve Howe". It includes an extra track as the second-to-last on side one, "Claramount Lake" (the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

of "My White Bicycle"). In 1999,

released a CD version (EMI 4988192) with additional tracks by The Aquarian Age (band members Twink and Junior) and singer

, and credited to "Tomorrow Featuring Keith West". "

Why Why may refer to: * Causality, a consequential relationship between two events * Reason (argument), a premise in support of an argument, for what reason or purpose * Grounding (metaphysics), a topic in metaphysics regarding how things exist in v ...

" is a cover of a song by

The Byrds The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...

that originally appeared as the B-side to their single "

Eight Miles High "Eight Miles High" is a song by the American rock band the Byrds, written by Gene Clark, Jim McGuinn (later known as Roger McGuinn), and David Crosby. It was first released as a single on March 14, 1966. Musically influenced by sitar playe ...

Reception

In a retrospective review, ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'' Richie Unterberger described ''Tomorrow'' as "a solid effort", particularly praising the track "Hallucinations", though he felt the "self-conscious English whimsy" on some of the other tunes did not work. Mark Smotroff of Audiophile Reviews called the album "a knockout lost classic".

Track listing

All songs written by

Keith Hopkins Morris Keith Hopkins, FBA (London, 20 June 1934–London, 8 March 2004), was a British historian and sociologist. He was professor of ancient history at the University of Cambridge from 1985 to 2000. Hopkins had a relatively unconventional ...

and Ken Burgess, except where noted. ;Side one #"

My White Bicycle "My White Bicycle" is a song written by Keith West and Ken Burgess. It was Tomorrow's debut single. Background and recording According to Tomorrow drummer John 'Twink' Alder, the song was inspired by the Dutch Provos, an anarchist group in A ...

" – 3:18 #"Colonel Brown" – 2:53 #"Real Life Permanent Dream" (Hopkins) – 3:17 #"Shy Boy" – 2:27 #"

Revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

" (Hopkins,

) – 3:51 ;Side two #

"The Incredible Journey of Timothy Chase" (Hopkins) – 3:19 #"Auntie Mary's Dress Shop" – 2:47 #"

Strawberry Fields Forever "Strawberry Fields Forever" is a song by the English Rock music, rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was released on 13 February 1967 as a double A-side single with "Penny Lane". It represented ...

" ( Lennon/McCartney) – 4:00 #"Three Jolly Little Dwarfs" – 2:28 #"Now Your Time Has Come" – 4:54 #"Hallucinations" – 2:43 ;1999 CD reissue bonus tracks #

"Claramount Lake" – 3:02 (b-side of "My White Bicycle") #"Real Life Permanent Dream" (Hopkins) – 2:24 (studio demo recording) #"

" (

Roger McGuinn James Roger McGuinn (; born James Joseph McGuinn III; July 13, 1942) is an American musician, best known for being the frontman and leader of the Byrds. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991 as a member of the band. As a so ...

David Crosby David Van Cortlandt Crosby (August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He first found fame as a member of the Byrds, with whom he helped pioneer the genres of folk rock and psychedelic music, psych ...

) – 3:59 (studio demo recording) #"Revolution" (Hopkins, Howe) – 3:50 (phased mono version, studio demo recording) #"Now Your Time Has Come" – 3:05 #"10,000 Words In a Cardboard Box" ( John Alder, John Wood) – 3:27 (by The Aquarian Age) #"Good Wizard Meets Naughty Wizard" (Alder, Wood,

) – 4:42 (by The Aquarian Age) #"Me" (Alder, Wood) – 3:12 (by The Aquarian Age) #"On a Saturday" (Hopkins) – 3:13 (by

) #"The Kid Was a Killer" (Hopkins) – 2:31 (by Keith West) #"She" (Hopkins) – 2:30 (by Keith West) #"The Visit" (Hopkins) – 4:05 (by Keith West)

Personnel

;Tomorrow *

– vocals *

– guitar *Junior – bass * Twink – drums ;Additional musicians *

– organ, piano *

Ronnie Wood Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock musician, best known as a member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, and a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. Wood began his career in 1964, playing lead guitar with several Brit ...

– bass (on tracks 20-23) *

Aynsley Dunbar Aynsley Thomas Dunbar (born 10 January 1946) is an English drummer. He has worked with John Mayall, Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck, Journey, Jefferson Starship, Nils Lofgren, Eric Burdon, Shuggie Otis, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, David Bowie, Mick Ron ...

– drums (on tracks 20-23) ;Production *Mark P. Wirtz with engineers

Geoff Emerick Geoffrey Ernest Emerick (5 December 1945 – 2 October 2018) was an English sound engineer and record producer who worked with the Beatles on their albums ''Revolver'' (1966), '' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'' (1967) and ''Abbey Road' ...

, Peter Bown*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tomorrow (Tomorrow Album) 1968 albums Parlophone albums EMI Records albums Harvest Records albums Tomorrow (band) albums Sire Records albums