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Longtime Sunshine: Difference between revisions
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"Longtime Sunshine" was written in January of 1994. At the time, Rivers was feeling very nervous about the uncertainty of his future. Said Rivers,<br> | "Longtime Sunshine" was written in January of 1994. At the time, Rivers was feeling very nervous about the uncertainty of his future. Said Rivers,<br> | ||
In the midst of struggling to make it as a rock star in Los Angeles, I started longing for the safety, peace, quiet, simplicity, and family structure of my New England childhood. I thought back to one of my favorite memories, lying in the bottom bunk, my brother in the top, in our bedroom in our farmhouse in Eastford, Connecticut, in the hot, hot, summer, 7, 8 p.m., sun still up, but having to go to sleep because it's our bedtime, one of those big box fans blowing, and my parents, Ma and Steve, sitting at our bedside, singing an old hippie song to us, to calm us down and ease us into sleep, "May the Longtime Sun Shine Upon You." | |||
I borrowed the hook phrase from this song and set about writing my own song to capture my feelings of loss and longing. I wrote it on my mom's piano when I was back in Connecticut at Christmas. My mom had a piano because I told her that the house seemed too quiet and I was worried about her living in silence, all alone after my step-dad left. So that is how "Longtime Sunshine" came to exist. | |||
When I recorded this track, I had just bought a clarinet and figured out how to play a few notes. Because of my poor embouchure it sounds very much like a kazoo. | |||
Karl Koch noted in a recent interview that "Longtime Sunshine" was meant to close ''[[Pinkerton]]'' until "[[Butterfly]]" was written very late in the sessions. The song went on to be considered a [[Homie]] track in 1997 (although was one of two Homie tracks never played live). Rivers' demo was eventually released on the 2007 collection ''[[Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo]]'', while the Pinkerton sessions version (with the special coda ending) was released in 2010 on the deluxe edition of ''Pinkerton''. | Karl Koch noted in a recent interview that "Longtime Sunshine" was meant to close ''[[Pinkerton]]'' until "[[Butterfly]]" was written very late in the sessions. The song went on to be considered a [[Homie]] track in 1997 (although was one of two Homie tracks never played live). Rivers' demo was eventually released on the 2007 collection ''[[Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo]]'', while the Pinkerton sessions version (with the special coda ending) was released in 2010 on the deluxe edition of ''Pinkerton''. | ||