Carry That Weight – Round 3

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REDRUM ROAD – ROUND THREE – SKIP TO A PAGE
COME TOGETHER ⎔ SOMETHING ⎔ MAXWELL’S SILVER HAMMER ⎔ OH! DARLING ⎔ OCTOPUS’S GARDEN ⎔ I WANT YOU ⎔ HERE COMES THE SUN ⎔ BECAUSE ⎔ YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY ⎔ SUN KING ⎔ MEAN MR. MUSTARD ⎔ POLYTHENE PAM ⎔ SHE CAME IN THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOW ⎔ GOLDEN SLUMBERS ⎔ CARRY THAT WEIGHT ⎔ THE END

ROUND ONE START ⎔ ROUND TWO START ⎔ SPECIAL: STORY ROOM

“Boy!/Ya gonna carry that weight” – Starts on Danny’s escape, and finishes on mother and son embracing.
In round 2 Jack is telling Grady, “It’s his mother…she, uh…interferes.” And I think I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again, Danny’s self-saviourdom in Kubrick’s vision is insanely ingenious, and a testament to Danny’s brilliance. But it is partly thanks to Wendy showing him the world. She truly did interfere. In round 1, this line ends with her interrupting Jack’s Very Important Writing, while backward Hallorann arranges for the snowcat with Durkin, with To Itch His Own (which has a symbolic connection to Tony’s efforts in saving Danny).
Also in round 2: backward Danny talking to Tony for reassurance about the spooky Grady twins. So there’s a nice correlation there to the Tony Burton/To Itch His Own connection.
You know, this makes me realize that Danny has four helpers who are really surpassing the others: Hallorann, Wendy, Tony, and himself. Carry That Weight is the song by the Beatles to the Beatles about how their success as a band would dwarf everything else they did. I think it’s fair to say Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers, and Danny Lloyd’s performance in this film had a similar effect on their creative lives. Maybe they were like the secret Beatles of the film.

When we hear the horn section that echoes You Never Give Me Your Money, it starts when backward Jack is knocking on the door for the interview, and finishes when he’s passing the spot where he’ll kill Hallorann. The round 3 version of You Never Give Me Your Money starts in the Wendy/Doctor interview (considered by many to reflect the Jack/Ullman interview) and ends when Jack kills Hallorann.
Round 2 is backward Danny covering his eyes in shock from the Grady twins, while Grady suggests that Wendy and Danny need a “good talking to”. Remember, as Jack enters Ullman’s in round 3, he’s passing The Great Earth Mother, and Trapper’s Camp.
Also, it’s here that Jack passes the seasonal photos that correspond to the Let It Be cover. And this track is the only one on the album credited to all four Beatles.

“I never give you my pillow/I only send you my invitations/and in the middle of the celebrations” – One of the things the hotel did to Jack that was so horrible was deprive him of good sleep. The first thing we see of Jack after A MONTH LATER is him sleeping soundly on a pillow, but after that it’s just the nightmare, sleeping on a wooden table, and then on a couple bags of salt. Oh joy.
The invitations line speaks cutely to Jack arriving at the interview, but also to Jack’s relationship to the Overlook. It never specifically offers him anything for killing his family (the drinks are “on the house”), it just tells him things he already is. He’s already the always caretaker, he’s already so awesome, he should probably just go be an evil authoritarian chauvinist, and everything should work out fine. He doesn’t need sleep. Bah.
The celebrations line might just speak to this being the cast of Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are and Look Back In Happiness. If that’s indeed who they are.
Also, there’s that Tower of Babel on the Scientific American. “In the middle of the celebrations/I break down” that’s a great line for god to be saying as he destroys the tower.
Oh, that’s actually a really great line for Look Back in Happiness too. The story concerns a jazz pianist, Stan Kay (like Stanley K.?) who’s wife was murdered by a back robber who blinded the pianist in the process. Ten years later, at a bougie house party where Kay’s been shipped back to England to be feted, he hears the voice of the killer, leading to a series of breakdowns by Stan Kay as he tries to keep a low profile and hunt down the menace. Partygoers begin to assume that he’s into his cups a little too deeply. The connection between that and this is that Aileen Lewis, a famous background actor, nicknamed “The Duchess”, is certified to be on the back couch, there, and she also appeared in Look Back in Happiness, in the same capacity.

“I break down” – Jack screaming out in defeat. Round 1: Jack having his first breakdown with Wendy. Round 2: Danny witnessing the Grady murders.

On the triumphant return to the horn section, we get two shots of the Overlook exterior. One of the building’s first shot in the film as Jack would be arriving, and one of its last shot in the film, as Wendy and Danny are escaping.

“Boy!/Ya gonna carry that weight” – Kubrick’s producer/director credit scrolls by. Since this song was meant to suggest the Beatles would never top their Beatles achievements in their post-Beatles careers, this feels like an apt reference to The Shining being Kubrick’s most impressive achievement in his own eyes. It’s certainly his most singular.
Also, Jack’s yellow Beetle has appeared for the last time to cruise us back out of the movie. So it’s great that it sneaks into the end of the song credited to the full band, before we enter The End.
Recall also that Jack is seen writing his own one-line masterpiece during this part of this song in round 1.
On a more serious note, the mountain behind Kubrick here is named for one of the men slaughtered in one of the worst acts of American genocide, the Marias massacre, committed against the Piegan Blackfeet peoples. So that’s a weight America is going to carry a long time.