Day 5: Swallowed by the Sun

Lyrics:
Daedalus was crafty
When he built the Labyrinth
King Minos double-crossed him
Locked him in with Icarus
The Minotaur was scary
Nearly gave them heart attacks
Daedalus said "Listen
"We'll escape with wings of wax!"
And they flew all the way up to the sun

The Ptolemaic system
Gave the Earth a central spot
Copernicus said, "No, babe,
"Our planet's just a rock"
The Pope looked at the evidence
Said it was misanthropic
"No way," said Galileo,
"The proof is telescopic!"
And they went all the way around the sun

Today the solar acolytes
Are filled with other notions
We filter out the light with
Tinted glasses and with lotions
We patch up ozone holes
And mount absorbing panels
And NASA sent a rocket ship
To orbit the corona
And we all were swallowed by the sun

Details: A fellow by the name of Timmy Riordan runs something called Fearless Songwriting, which is a song-a-day writing challenge for one week a few times a year (look up "January 2020 Fearless Songwriting Challenge!" to find and join the group, if you're interested in participating). Since it overlaps with my own month-long song-a-day challenge, I figured I'd join in (as I did in 2019). Timmy offers prompts, and today's prompt was "A Patch of Sun".

Beyond the prompt, I felt compelled to write something a bit more propulsive than what I've already done this month. Musically, I was inspired by some old psychedelic tunes from the 60s (I wish I could remember their names), but they have a frantic build up to a more melodic chorus. The way I sing the verses is a bit in the style of the more contemporary Courtney Barnett. The compression of myths and historical scenarios was inspired by Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" which starts off with a masterful summation of the Abraham-Isaac story from the Bible.

The first two verses just rolled out, and I had this song done in under two hours (the music, of course, is dirt simple). The words were so much fun to write, and I think those first two verses are some of the best I've ever written (your mileage may vary). It only took about 15 minutes to record. It was nice to get a song done fairly quickly.