Springsteen's "Hello, Sunshine" is one of my faves--easy to play (D-G-D-Em-D), easy to find the right key to sing it (I capo it at 1 or 2). But you can tear through the four stanzas in two minutes. So, while languishing in the orthopod’s waiting room two years ago today, before the spinal surgery that would disable me even unto this day, I wrote up these additional lyrics, to make the song last. I have just revised them by rearranging their order, and thus tarrying longer with the negative. I now end the chorus in the final three verses with C-G-D rather than Em-D, which emphasizes that the song is “about” depression, that place where the spiritual daylight of the present is an irretrievable memory.
I know the world is upside down,
Everybody's leavin' town,
No one believes me when I say,
Hello, sunshine, won't you stay? . . .
Why are you runnin' me around?
I don't belong in lost & found,
Hide and seek, is that your play?
Hello sunshine, won’t you stay? . . .
What can it be that I have lost?
Would you tell me what it cost?
I don't know that I can pay,
Goodbye, sunshine, go your way. . .
Over my head, that's how far down,
In so deep, I'm 'bout to drown
Still want to see the light of day,
Hello darkness, come to stay?. . .
Feel the night, it's closin' in,
I got to answer for my sins,
Light or darkness, come what may,
Hello sunshine, won’t you stay?