"Shine on Sunshine"

Backdated, archival post

[link to original on tumblr]

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According to Russo's Collector's Guide, Argent's Circus came out to-day in 1975.  I listened to it and worked on transcribing the lyrics, but I found only one thing to say about it.

There's an-other instance of Rod Argent's gray image in the first chorus of "Shine on Sunshine":

So shine on, sunshine
Paint my life of gray
So shine on, sunshine
Warm my life away

Ostensibly, this builds on similar lines in "Imagine the Swan" ("For the colors are gone / You've become kind of gray") and "In My Mind a Miracle" from As Far As I Can See: "You turned me 'round / And made the colors true."

In the BBC MasterTapes interviews, Argent mentioned that part of Odessey and Oracle was about color.  The first time I listened to that, I thought he was talking about literal color, like in the song lyrics (although I never actually looked to see if there are any), but in referencing it awhile ago, I heard that part again and started wondering if he was talking about instrumental color (like timbre).  One or both of those might have some connection here.

I also referenced the version of "Shine on Sunshine" that's on Breathe Out, Breathe In, and I discovered that those lines aren't present (I haven't gotten around to transcribing them, but the lyrics are in the liner notes).  Each iteration of the chorus is virtually the same:

Shine on sunshine
Chase the clouds away
Shine on sunshine
Into my life each day

The last repetition has a slightly different last line: "Into my life always."

EDIT: It belatedly occurs to me that - duh! - "Shine on Sunshine" predates "In My Mind a Miracle."  Even though I had the chronology wrong, the images are still similar.