Sunshine

I came up with the basic form and melody of this song out on my patio one gorgeous sunny day hanging out with Brandy and drinking in the sweet ecstasy of fresh love and sunshine in a city not famous for it (we appreciate it all the more when we get it!)  The riff emerged from messing around with a drop-D tuning on my acoustic guitar.  The words that popped out originally ran, “Sunshine is here / Everything is fine / You and a beer / All I want is mine” which was a bit literal, including my favorite beverage in the list of ecstatic elements.  As I was in my first, very productive, year with The Orchid Highway, I played this for Rory one night and he loved it and immediately started working it.  He came up with the middle part (“And it’s never going to rain again”), and Jamie then advanced that into the awesome transition of “Sunshine… Sunshine” over a D-minor before triumphantly returning to the main refrain in D-major. 

We developed the song further as a band and next thing I knew I had my first contribution to the TOH songbook, springing out of a spontaneous collaboration that felt so organic and right.  One day, to my surprise, Jamie handed me a sheet of paper with a completely re-written set of lyrics for the song.  Gone was the silly “beer” rhyme, and overall, the words had been greatly simplified.  I tweaked them further, and the resulting lyrics were all the better for it. As that version (recorded partly at Mushroom studios) was never completed or released by the band, this is officially the first (so far, only) Macdonald-Perry-Macdonald composition to see the light of day. 😉

          Sunshine
  
Sunshine is here
   Everything is bright
Love it when we’re
   Out in the sunlight

Lift up your eyes
   Find your gaze in mine
See my surprise
   Out in the sunshine
 
          Sunshine, sunshine
                  
Long lonely night
   Shadows run and hide
All becomes light
   with you by my side

Sunshine is here
   Everything’s divine
It’s totally clear
   Out in the sunshine
 
          Sunshine, sunshine, 
          sunshine, sunshine
 
& it’s never going to rain again,
& it’s never going to rain again,
& it’s never going to rain again
         Sunshine … sunshine –
 Sunshine