HERE COMES THE SUN
Is a song still a song without the lyrics? Why yes it is. A song without lyrics is like a black and white film where the listener can create a narrative and add in the color, telling a signature story of the heart. More often, pop-culture has produced songs with lyrics. Of these lyrics through the years, the age-old question applies, does art reflect culture or does culture reflect art? The lyrics we listen to have the power to alter our mood and mindset. Often we choose our music based on how we feel at the time to either align with the present emotion or change it.
So as we journey onward through Covid and its impact on us personally and the culture, it's always good to return to music that uplifts and encourages. Times of struggle often are a catalyst for lyrical expressions of hope. George Harrison found just that inspiration in the summer of 1969.
"Here Comes the Sun" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. It was one of George Harrison's best-known compilations for the Beatles. Harrison wrote the song in early 1969 at the country house of his friend Eric Clapton, where Harrison had chosen to play truant for the day to avoid attending a meeting at the Beatles' Apple Corps organisation. The lyrics reflect his relief at the arrival of spring and the temporary respite he was experiencing from the band's business affairs. As of September 2019, it was the most streamed Beatles song in the United Kingdom, with over 50 million plays.
The Beatles recorded "Here Comes the Sun" at London's EMI Studios in the summer of 1969. Led by Harrison's acoustic guitar, the track features Moog synthesizer, which he had introduced to the band's sound after acquiring an early model of the instrument in California. Reflecting the continued influence of Indian classical music on Harrison's writing, the composition includes several time signature changes that gives an unpredictable groove to an otherwise easy listening mood-maker.
So what struggle inspired the lyrics of this cultural hit? The early months of 1969 were a difficult period for Harrison: he had quit the Beatles temporarily, he was arrested for marijuana possession, and he had his tonsils removed. He wrote the song at a time when a dark mood surrounded the Beatles. Harrison states in his autobiography, I, Me, Mine:
"Here Comes the Sun" was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: 'Sign this' and 'sign that.' Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever, by the time spring comes you really deserve it. So one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton's house. The relief of not having to go see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric's acoustic guitars and wrote "Here Comes the Sun".
It is special to note that Clapton's house at the time was Hurtwood Edge, in Ewhurst, Surrey, and he later said the month was possibly April. Data from two meteorological stations in the London area show that April 1969 set a record for sunlight hours for the 1960s. The Greenwich station recorded 189 hours for April, a high that was not beaten until 1984. The Greenwich data also shows that February and March were much colder than the norm for the 1960s, which would account for Harrison's reference to a "long, cold, lonely winter". So go ahead, enjoy the lyrics and then Google for the song on youtube (or visit the Niswonger Facebook page where we've posted it for you.) Join us in believing that It's all right.
Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo)
Here comes the sun,
and I say
It's all right
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun,
and I say
It's all right
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun,
and I say
It's all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun,
and I say
It's all right
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun,
and I say
It's all right!