The Superb Recording Historical past of The Beatles’ “Right here Comes the Solar”

Essentially the most streamed Bea­t­les track isn’t “She Loves You,” “Hey Jude,” or “All You Want Is Love.” It isn’t even “Sure­ter­day.” When you have been about to guess “Some­factor,” you’re heading in the right direction, at the very least so far as the supply album and track­author. Actually, it’s George Har­rison’s oth­er sig­na­ture track “Right here Comes the Solar,” which has racked up 1,433,830,334 Spo­ti­fy streams as of this writ­ing, close to­ly a mil­lion greater than “In My Life” proper under it. The You Can’t Unhear This video above breaks down what makes “Right here Comes the Solar” stand out even amid the for­mi­da­ble Bea­t­les cat­a­log, from its con­cep­tion by way of its file­ing course of.

Although it comes off as a sim­ple track — whose invit­ing qual­i­ty could nicely have some­factor to do with its out­sized pop­u­lar­i­ty — “Right here Comes the Solar” seems to be the results of a tech­ni­cal­ly com­plex and uncon­ven­tion­al course of honest­ly char­ac­ter­is­tic of the late Bea­t­les. Begin­ing with a melody craft­ed whereas play­ing an acoustic gui­tar in Eric Clap­ton’s gar­den (hav­ing recused him­self from but anoth­er busi­ness meet­ing), Har­ri­son enriched it with such tech­niques as run­ning his gui­tar by way of a revolv­ing Leslie communicate­er meant for an organ and hav­ing his hulk­ing Moog syn­the­siz­er trans­port­ed to Abbey Highway so he might add a lay­er of elec­tron­ic sub­lim­i­ty.

At this level within the lifetime of the Bea­t­les, each­one concerned might certain­ly really feel that the band’s finish was close to. Regard­much less, not one of the Fab 4 was fairly work­ing in iso­la­tion, and certainly, the “Right here Comes the Solar” ses­sions — which, after all, finish­ed up on Abbey Highway, the ultimate album they file­ed — rep­re­despatched a few of their final work as a unit. It’s not sur­pris­ing that such a con­textual content would professional­duce, say, John Lennon’s grim­ly descend­ing “I Need You (She’s So Heavy),” which ends aspect one; what star­tles no mat­ter what number of occasions you hear it’s the gen­tle opti­mism with which Har­rison’s aspect two opens imme­di­ate­ly there­after, espe­cial­ly when you’re not flip­ing an LP over in between.

Even in iso­la­tion, “Right here Comes the Solar” has made such a cul­tur­al affect that Carl Sagan lob­bied for its inclu­sion on the Voy­ager “Gold­en Data,” which have been launched into out­er area with the intent to present oth­er types of intel­li­gent life a glimpse of human civ­i­liza­tion. The Bea­t­les additionally favored the concept, however they did­n’t personal the nec­es­sary rights; these belonged to the label EMI, who within the rec­ol­lec­tion of Sagan’s wid­ow Ann Druyan demand­ed a professional­hib­i­tive price for the track’s use. Had it been includ­ed, per­haps it might’ve finish­ed up the primary inter­galac­tic hit track — one loved within the orbit of anoth­er solar total­ly.

Relat­ed con­tent:

The Bea­t­les Launch the First Ever Video for “Right here Comes the Solar”

Hear The Bea­t­les’ “Right here Comes the Solar” With a Re-Dis­cov­ered George Har­ri­son Solo

Flash­mob Per­varieties The Bea­t­les’ “Right here Comes the Solar” in Madrid Unem­ploy­ment Workplace

How George Mar­tin Outlined the Sound of the Bea­t­les: From String Quar­tets to Again­wards Gui­tar Solos

Watch George Harrison’s Ultimate Inter­view and Per­for­mance (1997)

Based mostly in Seoul, Col­in Marshall writes and broad­casts on cities, lan­guage, and cul­ture. His initiatives embody the Sub­stack newslet­ter Books on Cities and the guide The State­much less Metropolis: a Stroll by way of Twenty first-Cen­tu­ry Los Ange­les. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­guide.