It’s All Right

‘Here Comes The Sun’ starts with an mellifluous melody of euphoric opening chords that George Harrison plays on an acoustic guitar, a Moog synthesizer comes in, and everything is gently slowed to a pause before George begins to sing the chorus.  It is perhaps one of the most stunning starts to any song which immediately uplifts the listener into a brighter place.  The lyrics use the sun as a sign that implies that getting warmer and ice melting are both something good and it incorporates a metaphor that the sun gives relief and peace, with Harrison happy to see the sun again.  ‘Here Comes the Sun’ is thus a song about hope.  We all go through difficult times, difficult moments in our life, and some of these moments feel like they last a long time, especially when you have just suffered through a long, cold, lonely winter.  If you’re living in the northern hemisphere, when April arrives, the weather eventually changes, and the winter ends.  If you’re going through a hard time in life, the sun could come out and shine on you and allow you to forget your troubles, if you take some time to get outside and enjoy the spring sun.  Tom Petty commented on this song saying, “No piece of music can make you feel better than this.  It’s such an optimistic song, with that little bit of ache in it that makes the happiness mean even more.”

Lead guitarist George Harrison wrote 22 songs for The Beatles and ‘Here Comes The Sun’ reached #3 on the Billboard Hot Rock Songs chart in 1969, but it was never released as a single in the UK, although it entered the UK chart on download sales in 2010 reaching #58.  This song became the most streamed Beatles song, logging over 600 million streams at the close of March ’21, and no other Beatles track had topped 400 million to that point.  The 1969 Abbey Road album was the last album that The Beatles recorded.  John Lennon arrived late to the sessions after he and Yoko Ono had gotten into a car crash during their summer vacation while in Scotland.  Lennon was a notoriously bad driver who had rarely been behind the wheel since passing his test in 1965.  He was poor at navigating roads and often failed to notice other traffic.  John was hospitalized for 5 days, and he didn’t play (or even clap) on ‘Here Comes the Sun’.

George had 4 songs on The White Album, which was released in November 1968, and after some of his songs were all passed over, Harrison demanded an equal share of songwriting.  In December of 1968 George invited the Hells Angels to stay at the Beatles’ London offices and that didn’t turn out so well.  In January of 1969, George Harrison temporarily quit the Beatles while they were filming their Let It Be movie.  In February George had his tonsils removed.  In March his Esher home Kinfauns was raided and him and wife Pattie Boyd both pleaded guilty of possession of cannabis, even though rumors said that it may have been planted by police officers.

George was getting tired of the business side of the music business, so he took a day off from the meetings that were taking place at Apple Corps., and he decided to visit his good friend Eric Clapton at his Hurtwood Edge home in Ewhurst, Surrey for a walk around his estate.  Harrison was struggling to find a songwriting foothold within The Beatles, and he leaned on Clapton for friendly advice.  The stress and negativity got to be too much for George, and he needed to escape the pressure of the world to gain clarity.  The song expressed George Harrison’s relief at being away from the tensions within The Beatles, the troubles with Apple and the various business and legal issues which at the time were overshadowing the group’s creativity.

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s alright

Little darlin’, it’s been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darlin’, it feels like years since it’s been here

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s alright

Little darlin’, the smile’s returning to their faces
Little darlin’, it seems like years since it’s been here

Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s alright

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes

Little darlin’, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darlin’, it seems like years since it’s been clear

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s alright

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun
It’s alright

It’s alright

Written for Song Lyric Sunday where the theme is songs with recognizable intros suggested by Clive from Take It Easy.