Blood Stained Sun

Songwriting Notes

Published in

Life as Art

4 min readJan 5, 2022

BACKGROUND / CONCEPT WRITING
BLOOD
Blood stains my memories and colors all I see. Blood pumps through my arteries and veins and every cell in my body remembers what was, what is and what will have been. Blood is the bond I have with my kind. Blood is a contract.
Blood is union. “Blood is the rose of mysterious union…” (Peace Frog, The Doors). Blood drips from the grapes on the vine turning wine into mysterious grace, secret faith. Blood flows through life and spills and is returned to the ground. Blood is a rose rising from the ground.
STAINED
The heart is stained with the blood of a ghost dying on a cross. The stains of life course through rivers of ash and rock. Stones scar the flesh and blood, spots blotch and cast shame on the sun. Tainted liquids flash out flames burning all in their path. A wooden cross burns to ash as the sun sets. All that remains is a stain where love once had hope.
SUN
We circle the sun, I know. But the sun circles my life. The sun is my ritual, eternally rising and setting, beginning and ending. I remember when it was a vast mystery that I would gaze at with excitement. Then my eyes turned to the ground.
The sun tracks time. Look closer and the sun is the keeper, the guardian of the heavens. It’s our star, our source, our life and death. Stare at the sun and see sunspots. Blemishes, scars, stains on the sun. The sun gives blood.
The sun was there, unchanged, when I was new. The sun gazes at my evolution, my situation, cold, impartial, unfeeling. All that purity, the only bonds I have with the sun are with its blemishes and scars. My blood is stained on the sun. That is my heaven.

THOUGHTS
smells, sounds, touch, internal, spatial
storyline, building the boxes up, V1 childhood blood scars = pain, V2 adulthood scars = numb, V3 the next life, changing perceptions = most meaningful moments to look back on, forging a life
PreChorus and Bridge, more personal and conversational

KEYWORDS
BLOOD, mud, flood, drug, dug, struck, up, cut, wood
SUN, run, come, drum, numb, some, burn, undone
secrets, heaven, colors, ashes
STAIN, taint, shame, flames, aim, blame, came, name, rain, gain, pain
MARK, star, scar, heart, arc, dark, part, start
source, course, force
life, rise, bright, ties, eyes, light, strike
ritual, eternal, mortal
faith, grace, space, face, place, page, cage, grave, save, rays, gaze
red wine, vine, sign, time, shine, fine, sign, line, divine, climb, rhyme
cross, rock, spot
ghost, dust
death, red, love
descend, end, bond
flow, rose
valves, tracks
mysterious
pale
life
beat, streak
stone
ground
blue, bruise
circling
union
clear
huge
vast

STRUCTURE
Intro, V1, V2, PreC1, C, Bridge, V3, PreC2, C, Outtro
Bpm 95

CHORDS
Capo at 2nd fret
Intro D D F E x2 (8 bars)
Eb (3 bars)
Verse
G Gsus F Fsus x3 (6 bars)
Esus Ebsus Ebmaj7 Dsus2 Dsus2 (3 bars)
PreChorus
A C B x3 (6 bars)
B C B (3 bars)
[D D (2 bars)]
Chorus
E B A x3 (6 bars)
G F# F E E (5 bars)
[Bridge] [move to Outtro]
G A x3 (6 bars)
D A x2 (4 bars)
D Am G A A (D C B A) (5 bars)
D/F (2 bars)
A (1 bar)

FINAL LYRICS
VERSE 1
Children spinning playing games
Falling dizzy calling names
Casting blame inside a cage
Turn the page, see you today

VERSE 2
Grown to reason you know not why
Hide your feelings outta sight
The vines are bleeding the wine descends
We live the end and begin again

PRECHORUS 1
Dreams turn to you
Hear a heart beat so blue
Love cross my mind in two
Can we turn back time?

CHORUS
Colors crash from outer space
I feel the light
Secret forces carving scars
I’m circling grace
Time unfolding
A blood stained sun
My rising heart
Has come undone
The heavens mark my blood stained sun

VERSE 3
Now you’re older gazing back
Moments forged marking tracks
Mirrors model days divine
Still we climb
Looking for a sign

PRECHORUS 2
The course locked anew
Forces clearing paths to you
Love cross my blood stained mind
Can we steal back time?

[CHORUS]

ALTERNATE / UNUSED LYRICS
BRIDGE
Hear me, love is slipping
Find me, sweet my starling
Too late, the clock it beats me
Meet me at the end
Gotta find my new friend
Gotta find though I know I won’t ever see her again

VAMP
Heaven marks our blood stained sun
Colours crash and now we’re one
Our blood stained sun