Research: Songs that Highlight the Sun

“When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun ever morning is a beautiful spectacle and most of the audience still sleeps.” -John Lennon

The sun has been used as a metaphor for:

• warmth

• knowledge (gnosis)

• justice (rays shining everywhere equally)

• hope (with an idea of resurrection and return, knowing it’ll rise again everyday)

• and as passion, for its fiery determination to keep shining.

Here is an ongoing list of songs that use the sun (or other solar imagery) as metaphor.

Here Comes the Sun

By the Beatles

Here comes the sun, doo-doo-doo-doo
Here comes the sun
And I say, it's alright

Little darlin', it's been a long, cold, lonely winter
Little darlin', it feels like years since it's been here

Little darlin', the smile's returning to their faces
Little darlin', I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darlin', it seems like years since it's been clear

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes
Here comes the sun
It's alright

If I Can Dream

by Elvis Presley

There must be lights burning brighter somewhere
Got to be birds flying higher in a sky more blue
If I can dream of a better land
Where all my brothers walk hand in hand
Tell me why, oh why, oh why can't my dream come true
Oh why

There must be peace and understanding sometime
Strong winds of promise that will blow away the doubt and fear
If I can dream of a warmer sun
Where hope keeps shining on everyone
Tell me why, oh why, oh why won't that sun appear

We're lost in a cloud
With too much rain
We're trapped in a world
That's troubled with pain
But as long as a man
Has the strength to dream
He can redeem his soul and fly

Deep in my heart there's a trembling question
Still I am sure that the answer, answer's gonna come somehow
Out there in the dark, there's a beckoning candle, yeah
And while I can think, while I can talk
While I can stand, while I can walk
While I can dream
Oh, please let my dream Come true

This song was written for Elvis the year Martin Luther King Jr was shot, in reverence to King’s iconic speech “I Have a Dream”. One of the most beautiful and inspirational speeches of all time uses the sun as metaphor in its imagery.

“Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.” -MLK Jr.

Bad Moon Rising

by Creedence Clearwater Revival

I see the bad moon a-risin'
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today

Don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise

I hear hurricanes a-blowin'
I know the end is comin' soon
I fear rivers over flowin'
I hear the voice of rage and ruin

These subtle “superstitious” lilts all bring us back to pagan ideas… but things about the moon have some scientific backing. We know the moon effects the tides, how could it not effect us, beings that are 90%+ water? The word “looney” comes from the short version of luna, the moon. Folkloric stories of transformations under the full moon run back pretty far back into pre-history (werwolves, etc).

More to come:

• “Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain’t goin’ away” - Elvis

• “Pocketful of sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield

• “Walking on Sunshine” By Katrina and the waves

• “Sunshine song” Jason Mraz

• “Brighter than the sun” Colbie Callait

• “The sun will rise” Kelly Clarkson

• “Sunrise” Kygo

• Sunshine of Your Love, Cream

• House of the Rising Sun, The Animals

• Ain't No Sunshine, Bill Withers

• Black Hole Sun, Soundgarden

• Waiting for the Sun, The Doors

• Sunshine Superman, Donovan

• Don't Let the Sun Catch You Cryin', Gerry and the Pacemakers

• Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me, Elton John

• Walking On Sunshine, Katrina and the Waves

• Sunny Afternoon, The Kinks

• Sunshine, Jonathan Edwards

• Under the Big Black Sun, X

• Walkin' on the Sun, Smash Mouth

• Seasons in the Sun, Terry Jacks

• Soak Up the Sun, Sheryl Crow

• Sundown, Gordon Lightfoot

• Steal My Sunshine, Len

• Children of the Sun, Billy Thorpe

• California Sun, The Rivieras

• "Sunshine on My Shoulders" by John Denver

• "Sun is Shining" by Bob Marley

• "You Are My Sunshine" by Johnny Cash

• Golden Brown - The Stranglers - 1981

• Seasons in the Sun - Terry Jack's - 1973

• Always the Sun - The Stranglers - 1986

• Brothers in Arms - Dire Straits - 1985

• The Sun Always Shines on TV -A-ha- 1985

• Sailing Ship - Whitesnake - 1989

• Black Velvet - Alannah Myles - 1989

• I Can See Clearly Now - Johnny Nash - 1972

• Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay - Otis Redding - 1967

• Saturday Sun by Vance Joy

• New Sun in the Sky from the musical Bandwagon

• Seasons in the Sun by Terry Jacks

• Shadow of the Day by Linkin Park

• I'll Follow the Sun by the Beatles

• Don't Let the Sun To Down on Me by Elton John

• Tomorrow from the Annie soundtrack

• Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden

• Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on me by Elton John

• Ain’t No Sunshine When She’s Gone by Bill Withers

• Sunshine of your Love by Cream

• Good Day Sunshine by The Beatles

• Sunshine Superman by Donovan

• Who Loves The Sun by The Velvet Underground