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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
- As discussed, this song is about Ringo’s desire to leave the Beatles. Wendy (Ringo) is swinging the bat at Jack (Paul), as she retreats.
- Round 1 is the doctor telling Wendy she has nothing to worry about, round 2 features backward Jack trying to convince Wendy Danny gave himself his bruises, and here backward Hallorann is going to assure Danny that there’s nothing to be afraid of and that some places are merely like people. Some shine and some don’t.
- “He’d let us in” – Jack starts giving an inviting gesture right here with his fingers.
- “I’d like to be/under the sea” – There’s a descending series of piano chords that pairs nicely with Jack’s descent. There’s also a kind of call to the fact that Danny is under the knives. Actually, right behind where the knives are in this shot, on Hallorann’s office wall, are two photos of what I would guess was Niagara Falls. And we just saw a bloodfall in backward Danny’s round 2, overtop of the Wendy-Jack bruises talk.
- This is also the moment in round 2 when Wendy first starts accusing Jack of having strangled Danny, so that pairs well with her triumph over him, here. Also, recall that this song was Ringo’s cry to be released from the Beatles, so that goes well with Wendy (Ringo) drumming on Jack (Paul) and locking him away.
- In round 1, the doctor is saying “It’s more akin to autohypnosis. A kind of self-induced trance.” Round 2 backward Jack is about to say Danny’s bruises were self-induced. We know in both cases this is wrong, and here we have Hallorann as the real sage, giving Danny the true tea about the nature of shining.
- “Under the sea” – Amazingly, only on these words does the tumbling Jack appear exactly beneath the waterfall photos. Otherwise, he’s to the left of where they would be in the kitchen.
- “In our little hideaway beneath the waves” – Wendy is dragging Jack to the food storage, and Danny and Hallorann are chatting right outside it. So perhaps the kitchen is the hideaway, in a sense, symbolically. I find that when Danny goes sprinting for his hidey hole behind the lobby, that steel cupboard feels like it’s part of the kitchen, and this is probably why. Round 1 backward Jack is actually stalking through the kitchen on this exact line, and because he’s backward stalking, he’s in the exact same spot as floor Jack (actually, this is so incredible, I’ll give you the proof below). But he’s shambling faster than Wendy is dragging, so the exactness is momentary. But what a crossover!
- Incidentally, the dialogue here is Hallorann: “Try to think of what it was.” And, Doctor: “No thank you.” In round 2, a catatonic Danny is being airlifted out of the lounge by an enraged Wendy. So that Danny is also trying not to “think of what it was”.
- “Resting our head/On the seabed/In the octopus’s garden/Near a cave” – Jack’s head is resting on the kitchen floor all throughout this line. Round 1 and 2 Dannys are resting in bed on his line.
- “We would sing and dance around/Because we know we can’t be found” – Hallorann’s starting his line of inquiry about Tony around here, and in round 1 the doctor has just introduced the subject of Tony with Wendy. In the mirrorform of round 1, backward Danny has leapt out of the steel cupboard, and is racing backward up the hall. Although Tony is certainly a separate or super aspect of Danny, as far as we know, his existence depends upon Danny’s. So a) if Danny can be found, Tony can be found, and b) Danny does a bad job of keeping Tony’s nature a secret. He’s fairly open about him with the doctor, and he’s completely open about him with Hallorann. But I like how Ringo’s line here, perhaps unintentionally, alludes perfectly to the nature of dissociation. We abstract ourselves so that we can protect the parts we like from the violences of the world. And when we think those parts can’t be found, we sing and dance around. Round 2 Jack, not so good at protecting his vulnerabilities, is doing a rather angry dance on his stalk to the Gold Room.
- And Wendy is essentially doing the opposite here, locking Jack away to protect everything she loves from him.
- “Under the sea” – Wendy leans against the wall, and reveals the waterfall photo in Hallorann’s office.
- During the gurgly fish noises, a lot of neat things happen. Here, Wendy spends the entire time struggling with the storeroom door, while backward Hallorann gains access to Danny’s mind about Tony. In round 2, Jack spends the phase making the journey to the Gold Room, passing through the open doors and flicking the lights on. In round 1, Wendy spends the whole time trying to avoid the subject of Jack’s violence, which the doctor’s questions lead inexorably through to, while backward Jack and Wendy spend the whole thing listening to Hallorann’s rescue arrival, standing on opposite sides of a busted open door. So it’s like everybody is having an easier time gaining access to places but Wendy here. She does eventually get it, and in that sense, her efforts are more like the physical version of what Hallorann and the doctor are doing. Perhaps fittingly, Jack is so good at gaining access to portals this very door will be impossibly opened for him not too long from now.
- Actually, round 2 and 3 feature Jack entering a room (pantry/Gold Room) where he’ll talk to Grady in the following scene there. And in round 1 he’s effectively become Grady.
- “We would shout/and swim about/the coral that lies beneath the waves” – The below image isn’t the right one for this line, but the Willapoint Minced Clams appears right after the line is done. Clams could also be found in such climes.
- “Oh what joy/For every girl and boy/Knowing they’re happy and they’re safe” – The shark’s in the cage, and the ocean is at peace.
- Also, recall how my Pillars of Hercules theory ties into this moment, from round 1. You Never Give Me Your Money was playing, evoking the notion of Paul not wanting to be left by the band, and by extension his sense of family. I was noting how Jack grasping out for Wendy’s skirt gives the impression of an abandoned child grasping for its fleeing mother. Well, here we have a reference to “every girl and boy”.
- “We would be so happy you and me” – As discussed in my round 1 analysis, the Kellogg’s boxes falling on Jack here (on the word “happy”) relate to John Lennon’s favourite snack, and the middle box of Café Vienna has a loose relationship to Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles life (the date on the box–Dec. 13/77–was part of the two months when McCartney’s big hit, Mull of Kintyre, was sweeping the globe, with lyrics like “My desire/Is always to be here”). Round 1 Wendy is saying “…he wasn’t exactly in the greatest mood that night…” in reference to Jack’s drinking. And round 2 Jack is seconds away from giving his soul for a beer.
- “I’d like to be/Under the sea” – On “Sea” Wendy grabs the knife. At the same moment round 1 backward Wendy slices a door-axing Jack across the hand. So the moment this knife is introduced times perfectly to the only moment it’s ever used.
- Also, a bloodfall appears in the round 2 version of this song, generally, attaching the idea of the “sea” to the idea of blood, which Wendy will draw twice from Jack. The other forward instance, we just saw, during this first part of this track.
- Incidentally, the other versions of these blows against Jack are 30 seconds away from being in the same song; the first is You Never Give Me Your Money (track 9), and the second is thirty seconds to the end of Because (track 8). Close one.
- “In an octopus’s garden with you” – On “you” round 2 Jack sells his soul, round 1 Jack says “Here’s Johnny”, and round 3 Jack begins to shout and curse at his imprisonment.
- Also, note the first reappearance of Tony the Tiger, behind Danny’s head.
- At the very end of the song, Jack is saying, “It’ll be just like nuthin ever happened!” Round 2 backward Jack is seeing Lloyd for the first time, and round 1 Wendy is finally speaking the truth about Jack’s violence: “He…broke…Danny’s arm.” Octopus’s Garden is such a deeply sad song in light of what inspired it.
Click here to continue to Redrum Road: I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – Round 3
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OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS
THE MIRRORFORM ⎔ THE BEATLES ⎔ THE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ART ⎔ OVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHS ⎔ GOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDS ⎔ PATTERNS ⎔ VIOLENCE AND INDIGENA ⎔ ABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOM ⎔ ANIMAL SYMBOLS ⎔ THE ANNOTATED SHINING
EYE SCREAM 