I want to share something of beauty with you today. It also seems appropriate given the glorious weather we have been enjoying.
Here Comes the Sun, by George Harrison has long been of my favourite songs; I love the simple melody, the optimism, and the reassurance that “it’s alright.” While I am not a massive Beatles fan, I think the songs written by Harrison stand head and shoulders above the others… While my Guitar Gently Weeps is magnificent, Across the Universe features a chorus in Sanskrit, and My Sweet Lord is just sublime. (Mind you, the least said about what came later, the better…)
The song was written in 1969 when Harrison was having a tough time dealing with a drug addiction, temporarily having quitting the Beatles, and the frustrations of working with he giants of the music buisness. In his autobiography he wrote:
“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”
The other day I stumbled across a cover of Here Comes the Sun performed by Antony and the Johnsons. It was recorded at the Abbey Road Studios in 2009, and it is honestly beautiful. Sad, and melancholic certainly, but (if you listen to the interview available elsewhere on the internet) his interpretation of sun/son is an interest take. The sound pays greater homage (as is his want) to Nina Simone than Harrison’s original, but loses none of its beauty.
Tim Myatt 