Man I wish I could rediscover that poem today just to see if I was close with ten years of literary experience behind me...Anyway, I raised my hand, gave my answer, and silence of the class gave me a clue that I might be off base a little bit...Mr. Sampson looked down, ran his hand through his beard, and said, "well...that's a unique perspective."
Much the same can be said about the focus of this post Shawn Colvin's song "Sunny Came Home." It is one of those song that I listed to a thousand times on I-94 in my hometown until I actually took the time to listen to what she was singing about.
Let's examine the lyrics:
Sunny came home to her favorite room
Sunny sat down in the kitchen
She opened a book and a box of tools
Sunny came home with a mission
[The obvious question is where did Sunny come home from? At this point, let me propose either it was jail, or my personal favorite, a mental institution.]
She says days go by
I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire
[More evidence that the mental institution might be the right answer...she feels "hypnotized" maybe by the drugs they give her. The lyric "I fly out of my mind" maybe a reference to schizophrenia. And then we come to the final lyric of the chorus and possibly the answer to why Sunny would be in the institution to begin with: pyromania].
Sunny came home with a list of names
She didn't believe in transcendence
It's time for a few small repairs she said
Sunny came home with a vengeance
[Now we are coming to one of my favorite verses in contemporary pop music. What I think we have is Sunny has escaped from a mental institution and she's out for revenge against the people that put her there..."A few small repairs"? How about a few fires and maybe a few singed bodies? I wish I could write lyrics like "Sunny came home with a vengeance."
She says days go by
I don't know why
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire
[Repeated chorus.]
Get the kids and bring a sweater
Dry is good and wind is better
Count the years, you always knew it
Strike a match, go on and do it
[Here I think we are in Sunny's mind...they pyromaniac side is giving her instructions..."Dry is good and wind is better" are clearly reference to the best conditions to start a good house fire. "Count the years, you always knew it / Strike a match, go on and do it" we are referring again to the time that she spent in the institution plotting her revenge...]
Days go by
I'm hypnotized
I'm walking on a wire
I close my eyes and fly out of my mind
Into the fire
Light the sky and hold on tight
The world is burning down
She's out there on her own and she's alright
Sunny came home
Sunny came home...
[Sunny is literally burning down the world now and she makes her escape to make the next "repair" on her list...]
Or this all could be metaphorical...
Shawn Colvin -- Sunny Came Home
From the A Few Small Repairs album.
P.S. Here is the album cover in case you think I'm off base:
