SUN KING, strange and little known Beatles song

[Jean Pierre]

NEW WITH VIDEO


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5851RZ_iLhk


As I explained in my topic in General discussion "Do you know BEATLES COMPLETE SCORE"
I had two (or even four) reasons to do this cover
 1. After a search in SC, I only found one covered version of this song in 2010 (whoops) by sq 51 , and it was an instrumental version
2. as I found my book BEATLE COMPLETE SCORE I had the complete score of the song ( ..if you want this book (1130 pages in PDF, see my message in general discussion..)
3.After discovering (thanks to Alex's version), and covering in my turn this instrumental piece ALBATROS, which John Lennon said to have been inspired to make SUN KING, I was intrigued by the resemblance (quite relative) of these two compositions
4. there is a rather funny ending in this song written in a confused mixture of Spanish and Italian

[dasilvasings]

Thank you for covering this song. I didn't know it. But now I know...

Definitely not the "she loves you" beatles kind of song, but very interesting, especially the first part. Very atmospheric. It reminds me Blue Jay Way - not so much the music itself, but the experimental atmospheric mood.

[StephenM]

Lovely work JP....
I can hear the Beatles in this...of course I never knew their whole catalog.... but I think they were an amazing talent ....and my favorite was McCartney but they were only the Beatles because of all 4...

[Jean Pierre]

Thanks guys

I found this very interesting explanation of the Hispanic-Italian-Portuguese lyrics at the end of this amazing John Lennon song (obviously credited to Lennon-Mac Cartney)

"SUN KING" or what ARE they saying at the end of the song?

Note that the Beatles freely mixed dialects and languages here, (Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese) and when this is combined with less than perfect enunciation and accent, many uncertainties arise, leading to many possible interpretations.

The lyrics are usually published as:

Quando paramucho mi amore de felice corazon
Mundo paparazzi mi amore chica ferdy parasol
Cuesto obrigado tanta mucho que can eat it carousel

NOTE: "chicka ferdy" is a Liverpool expression (see John's comments on this below) but could also be a combination Spanish/Liverpudlian pun "chica verde" [green girl]

"Parasol" is an umbrella, of course, but literally translates as "para sole" [for the sun], or perhaps "pa Re sole" [for sun king],

"Paparazzi" are people who take pictures of celebrities.

"que can eat it" should be "que/cake and eat it", (see John's comments below on this pun),

"carousel" is a popular brand of chocolates in Britain.

"Obrigado" is Portuguese [thank you],



So now a rough literal translation would most likely be:

Quando para mucho mi amore de felice corazon
WHEN FOR MUCH OF MY LOVE OF HAPPY HEART

Mundo paparazzi mi amore chicka/chica ferdy/verde para sole
WORLD PAPARAZZI, MY LOVE, CHICKA FERDY (or GREEN GIRL) FOR THE SUN

Cuesto obrigado, tanta mucho, que/cake and eat it, carousel
THIS THANKS, VERY MUCH, CAKE AND EAT IT, CAROUSEL (chocolates)



On the bootleg lp "Abbey Road Talks" John is interviewed about the lyrics to his song "Sun King" and says:

"We just started joking, you know, singing `quando para mucho'. So we just made up, ah, 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 `na-na, na-na-na' [John says this as one child would to taunt another].

"The one we missed, we could have had paranoia, you know. Forgot all about it. We used to call ourselves `Los Paranoios' [this translates as `The Paranoids']. Quando paramucho/paranoios.

"Thought we'd have a hit with that in other countries if we take it off separate.

" `Cake and eat it' is another nice line too. Because they have that in Spanish - que - or something - and eat it. So we could have `que/cake and eat it'."



So if John had it to do over again, the lyrics would be "Quando paranoios"

[When the paranoids] instead of "quando para mucho" [If for much].



© Mario Giannella 1993 and (revised) 2010

Knoxville, TN

[Greeny]

It's not little known to Beatles fans, lol. I've always loved this song and how it leads into the magnificent Abbey Road medley. You've done amazingly well with this cover. Superb vocals and harmonies, and the guitar parts all nailed with aplomb. Great work! My only disappointment was that it didn't go into Mean Mr Mustard at the end, lol.

[Jean Pierre]

! My only disappointment was that it didn't go into Mean Mr Mustard at the end, lol.

thank you Greeny..and it's never to late 

[guitarron]

Fantastic cover JP. Hadn't heard this song in a long time. How did you record the guitars in this. Sound very classic Beatles. Vox amp and all. Good work

[Jean Pierre]

How did you record the guitars in this?

Thank Guitarron

for the guitar I used my Harley Benton "telecaster copy" directly in Guitar Rig 6 in VST plug ins with a Jazz amp factory preset with rotator (Leslie cabinet emulation)

For the vocals to get closer to the abbey road "sound" I used the Waves reverb Abbey Road Chamber and Abbey road plate plug ins and the Maserati VX1 which is an enhancer

Reflexion sur la façon de faire une cover

when we make a cover we have two opposite sides
try to do something very original and personal
or try to reproduce as much as possible the sound, the instruments, keeping as much as possible the original score
It's the same in all the arts




This one is a copy very similar to the original from an unknown author and estimated at 200 000 euros


and this one is a copy that looks a bit like my copy of Sun King


Only some very great artists manage to associate a very faithful copy to the original and be at the same time very creative...like this copy of the Mona Lisa by Salvador Dali

[dasilvasings]

This is so interesting.

As you probably know, and according with what History tells us, when Marie Antoinette was told that the people were revolting because they didn't have bread to eat, she said "let them eat cake" (or Brioche to be more exact).

I completely missed the references.

[TPB]

I do know this song and just have to say you did a great job covering this Bravo Brother
Tim