Sun King by The Beatles Song Info
"Sun King" is a song by The Beatles that appeared on the Abbey Road album. It is the second song of the B-side's climactic medley. In an interview in 1987, Harrison said that the recording was inspired by Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross". "At the time, 'Albatross' (by Fleetwood Mac) was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, 'Let's be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.' It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac… but that was the point of origin." The working title was "Here Comes the Sun King", but was shortened to "Sun King" to avoid confusion with the song "Here Comes the Sun". The lyrics to start the song are the same as the title and lyrics of "Here Comes the Sun", but with the word "King" inserted afterwards, although George Harrison wrote the former and "Sun King" is written by John Lennon. Later, the song, in minor key with an organ in the background, breaks into a faux Romance language mixing English, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese. The song is in three-part harmony, sung by Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Harrison. At the end of the song, the music stops abruptly and a Ringo Starr drum fill leads into the next track, "Mean Mr. Mustard". The faux mixing of Romance languages occurs in the last three lines of the song. In 1969, Lennon was interviewed about these lyrics and said, "We just started joking, you know, singing 'quando para mucho.' So we just made up... Paul knew a few Spanish words from school, you know. So we just strung any Spanish words that sounded vaguely like something. And of course we got 'chicka ferdy' in. That's a Liverpool expression. Just like sort of-- it doesn't mean anything to me but (childish taunting) 'na-na, na-na-na!'" Paul McCartney recalled that one of the expressions that he meant to include was "Los Paranoias", a name by which he and Lennon would refer to The Beatles. A version of McCartney playing with this theme was released on Anthology 3. Another noted aspect of the song is its use of cross-channel movement, or stereo panning and fading. The fast guitar line slowly moves from right to left channel and then back. This occurs in the beginning of the song, and then again at the end. In an interview in 1987, Harrison said that the recording was inspired by Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross". "At the time, 'Albatross' (by Fleetwood Mac) was out, with all the reverb on guitar. So we said, 'Let's be Fleetwood Mac doing Albatross, just to get going.' It never really sounded like Fleetwood Mac… but that was the point of origin." In 1976, The Bee Gees covered the song for the evanescent musical documentary All This and World War II. A portion of the vocals was included as a reversed a cappella in the track titled "Gnik Nus" for the 2006 album Love. An instrumental section of "Sun King" was also used at the end of the track "Octopus's Garden" on the compilation.
