In 2015, singer-songwriter Jeff Lake teamed up with Grammy-nominated violinist Susan Aquila — and company — to form Cellophane Flowers, a band that primarily puts a neoclassical spin on the music of The Beatles, though it also composes original music and performs songs by other classic rock artists. Its most famous work, a psychedelic mashup “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows,” is featured on the Shrek 1,2, 3 & 4 Soundtrack on Spotify.
Recently, the band released an accompanying trippy music video with a serious kaleidoscopic vibe that’s a direct nod to the tracks’ histories. “LSD was important to the Beatles, whose song ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds’ is thought to be a nod to the drug, with psychedelics referred to in ‘Day Tripper’ among others” writes Nicola Davis in The Guardian. “LSD is also thought to have played an important role in the creation of the [1966] album Revolver.”
The last track on Revolver is “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Primarily written by John Lennon, the song is about his experimentation with LSD and the 1964 book The Psychedelic Experience: A Manual Based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead by Timothy Leary, Ralph Metzner, and Richard Alpert. It became a highly influential recording in the psychedelic and electronic music genres, and was praised as an effective representation of a psychedelic experience.
Interestingly, 1966 was also the year that George Harrison spent time in India, learning from his mentor and sitar teacher Ravi Shankar. The trip inspired the track “Within You Without You,” which the musician wrote and recorded the following year without the other Beatles. A departure from the group’s previous work, the song was inspired by Harrison’s newfound understanding of the illusory nature of the material world.
Taking inspiration from music history, Indian culture, The Beatles, and the visual aesthetic of 1960s counterculture, Jeff Lake and The Cellophane Flowers created a modern tribute to a time long gone. Check out Spotify for the band’s tracks “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Penny Lane,” and keep up with its latest news via Facebook and Instagram.
Note* Jeff Lake’s new EP titled Field of Grass will be released internationally via The Orchard later this summer. Music provided for objective review by our partners.