All-time favorite psychedelic song:
a swirling synaptic overload set to music.
I always wondered about the strange syllables before the transcendent feedback at the start of this song. I now know that John L. was saying “to your mother” but before learning that, I always heard it as some sort of primordial mantra of creation—
like saying “Let there be light”, as if he were speaking a very powerful syllabic combination in a state of meditation:
TU – YO – MOH ! ♫♪♫♪
and then the worlds and the cosmos are brought forth into being.
Those first bursts of melody from the organ undo my soul completely.
That’s what beautiful psychedelia does to me.
This song is so full of celestial synesthesia; it has often reduced me to tears. Part of it is because I had the album as a child and I loved the music in an innocent way for years before I ever knew or cared about altered states of consciousness. The Beatles generally affect me in that way. I was very sad when George passed away…
If you like this song as much as I do you may enjoy the image I found by Mati Klarwein to accompany it (although no mere image will ever do justice to the empyrean vibrations of this universal anthem). Lyrics are HERE
CONNECT/HOOK 