Here Comes the Sun – Round 2

Those familiar with my “lessons and escapes” research will appreciate how the second appearance (forward, this time) of Danny’s final key occurs right in the gap between side one and side two of Abbey Road. The flood is over, and here comes the sun. Danny is saved!

“And I say, it’s alright” – The tone of this round takes on a decidedly ironic tone compared to the first, where Danny and Wendy are getting the tour of the kitchen, while storeroom Jack bargains with Grady. Here, when the drums kick in, Jack starts doing his “per second, per second” bit, and it almost syncs perfectly, as if he was air-drumming.
But, you know, he’s also trying to pass off breaking his child’s arm as “it’s alright”.
Also, it’s worth noting that the majority of this song will play over backward Jack’s account of his fatherly violence, and over forward Jack reliving, in a way, Danny’s 237 experience. When Danny was lured into 237 earlier, the 237 ghost might’ve been thinking, “Here comes the son.” Now she could be thinking, “Here comes the dad.”

“It’s been a long, cold, lonely winter” – Jack seeing the warm, half-open bath. I probably don’t need to explain this one, but remember last time when I was saying every Here Come the Sun would have a “sun” light source suspended in the high middle of the image? Last time it was the meat locker, and here it’s the 237 bath. What’s also neat there is the way the lights behind mirror Jack take on the quality of stars. Anyone recognize a constellation? The one on the left sort of resembles Taurus with the horns pointed down

“It feels like years since it’s been here” – Jack’s face seeing a form in the bath. He knows it’s a woman. A “crazy woman” which could mean anything to him. But just maybe it means he’ll get laid (something we get the sense doesn’t happen much between husband and wife).
Also, mirror Jack is in the midst of explaining how Danny’s abuse was “three goddamn years ago” and how all he did was “pull him up”.

“Little darling/The smile’s returning to their faces” – The below images mark the start and finish moment from this line, so you can appreciate how perfect this is. Also, a split-second later we cut back to the nude ghost. Forward Jack’s slow grin takes about seven seconds.

“Here comes the sun” – Lloyd shares a name with Jack’s son’s actor, Danny Lloyd.

“Sun sun sun/Here he comes” – 237 ghost slowly walks to Jack, passing under the “sun”. Also, backward Jack is just getting into the “I never laid a hand on him, goddammit” portion of his wound-licking (the son has come into the conversation).

“I feel that ice is slowly melting” – Jack’s got ice in his drink, but also, as the ghost goes to reach for him, mirror Jack is calling Wendy the “ol’ sperm bank upstairs”. So, there’s an iciness between Jack and his lady love that the ghost is melting with her haunted affection.
Also, I kind of love the way “sperm bank upstairs” sounds like “the man upstairs”, meaning a god. Jack is deifying Wendy perhaps without realizing. Similarly, with all the mythological imagery in the film, Redrum Road infuses Here Comes the Sun with a perhaps unintentional spiritualism, transforming it into a ballad to the sun god. Of course Sun King also suggests this. So perhaps it didn’t need Kubrick’s help.

“It seems like years since it’s been clear” – The backward booze sucks back into the bottle, and on “clear” the glass is empty.
Also, Jack hasn’t touched a drink in “five months”, and he’s about to reference how he broke Danny’s arm three years ago.

We came in on irony, and we’ll go out on irony. “It’s alright” happens twice as Jack kisses the ghost and backward Jack gets his death mask on, and then again as backward Jack unswallows his death drink, and as the ghost fast-forwards about 60 years. But don’t worry. It’s all good.