This week's prompt was "by night", which gave me a couple of ideas initially but this is what came most naturally. This one is a little more personal than last week's song, so I'm not as eager to demystify the meaning behind the lyrics. I had originally wanted to write a short story about a character that lived a split life by day/night, which may be a good premise for another song down the line. 

Lyrics:

alarms are sounding somewhere in a dream
it's you and me taking up the scene
but when I looked into your eyes all I saw 
was teardrops of waterfalls

i took my things inside the house 
and tried to find a strong enough shelf 
for all the garbage that i'd accumulated 
but all I found 
were heads decapitated

and i get your daddy's proud of his accomplishments
but is it worth birthing the departed?
a flame choked out, there's no apparent reason
and this he says, "don't you know the season boy?

now run off and feed with the horses
avert your eyes from the landmarks of their mouths
instincts born of nature
just like
the barrel of this gun"

i won't be a witness to 
these crimes of unnatural disaster
i'll still be a loser in the morning
but by night
the bloodstains will be white

SWU Spring '21 Week 2: Bloodstains

It’s cold in the wintertime up in New York, though it seems kinda foolish to say
Because everybody knows that, everybody knows that, but it shocks you anyway
When the wind blows in off the water, sharp like knives of cold blue steel
And you’re waiting on the end of the darkness, searching a reminder of what it’s like to feel
I am alive inside this shell, I’m just too numb to feel the pain. And these wounds will not heal, til New Year’s Day
There’s something about the city lights down on Broadway, when the clouds are hanging low
And the ghosts assemble, like a cast of all my faults and indiscretions, practicing their lines to harrow for one last show 
I cannot face them anymore, what am I supposed to say. And they will not hear my cries when I pray for New Year’s Day
Well I walk familiar places but they do not feel the same without you by my side
And I see familiar faces but I can’t recall their names no matter how I try
When you haunt my mind with traces of every single memory I can only see reflected in your eyes.
It’s cold in the wintertime up in New York, when the lights have all come down.
And resolutions hollow, cross your lips without a sound
Get me through just one more night, can it be so far away. And everything will change on New Years Day.

New Year's Day

Stand By Me by Ben E. King Demo Cover by Tommy Donahue

NO PHOTO
COULD EVER HOLD YOU
LIKE I HOLD YOU
THE YEAR AFTER
I FIRST MET YOU
DRIVING UP THROUGH
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
CHASING SHADOWS
BREATHING ASPENS

HOW CAN I EXPLAIN
THE MOMENT 
YOU CAME INTO FRAME
AND I COULD SEE US
BEING IN LOVE

NO PHOTO 
COULD EVER CAPTURE
LIPS SO TENDER
WITH WORDS THAT WANDER
MY HIDDEN SURRENDER
SHE SAYS IF WE’D MET SOONER
WE’D OF HAD LOTS OF CHILDREN
GROW TOGETHER 
LIKE VINES IN THE GARDEN

YOUR BLACK HAIR FLOWING
FROM THE OPEN WINDOW
RED HEADED STRANGER
PLAYING ON THE RADIO
NO DESTINATION
JUST BEING TOGETHER
SPRING MOUNTAIN WEATHER
WE COULD’VE DRIVEN FOREVER

NO PHOTO

Checkin it down because I need to,
Peering out into the deep blue,
Thought I felt you felt you maybe passing through.

You say you don't need a reason,
No time of day or a season,
Just want to feel me near you breathing.

Sometimes when we're worlds apart,
I know you're out there looking at the stars.
I feel the gravity of your heart,
Pulling me back to where you are.

You orbiting Jupiter,
I'm in a galaxy unknown,
Tracking a trace of a satellite,
Trying to find my way home.

I need to know your ETA,
So I can navigate the Milky Way.
Make sure that I'm never ever late.

Sometimes when we're worlds apart,
I know you're out there looking at the stars.
I feel the gravity of your heart,
Pulling me back to where you are.

All the space that I'm drifting through,
the wrinkles of time seem to come unglued.
Blue clocks and white lies seem to seal us too.
I'm sleep walking through an ether cruise.

Sometimes when we're worlds apart,
I know you're out there looking at the stars.
I feel the gravity of your heart,
Pulling me back to where you are.

Ether Cruise DEMO - Original Song by Tommy Donahue

Mystery

I wrote and recorded this bitch in 2 weeks for a songwriter group.

Our Love Is Terminal - Original Song by Tommy Donahue ft. Ross Friend on Drums

Gimme Something Good - Frost

Pony tail and big blue eyes, it was the first time my sight set on you.
And I knew right away, there was nothing that I wouldn’t do
You seemed like an angel to me, and you were so far out of my league, and I still find it hard to believe, but somehow you loved me anyway

At 23 I hit the road, another town, another bar, another night
But the road takes it’s toll, and you were wanting for a better kind of life
And I could see the news wasn’t good, then you said that you’d had all you could, and tho I never quite understood, well I loved you anyway

And I longed for the start when it felt like my heart was running out of room.
Nothing I know can fill the emptiness I feel without you

So here we are the years gone by, we have both lived a lifetime since then
And I know it’s far too late, but I still wonder what might have been.
And I wish I had known what to do, I wish I had held on to you, I can’t change that past that is true, but at least I can say, that I loved you, anyway.

Anyway

Life comes in waves, somebody told me
Said it don’t reason, it tumbles and rolls
Some days you feel like the king of the ocean
Some days you get kicked around like you got no control

But if you give a little, take a little, sample the grapes on the vine
If you laugh a little, love a little, everything will work out fine

Darlin my love, you are my only
And we’re on our way, ain’t no turning back now
And if comes a storm, darkness don’t know me
We may not have all the answers but we’ll make it together somehow.

And if we give a little, take a little, sample the grapes on the vine
If we laugh a little, love a little, everything will work out fine

Because I know that love will carry us through
If you hold on to me, I will hold on to you
Ain’t no wave we can’t ride, no matter how trying
We’ll take the best that it has, 
I will always be right by your side.

But if you give a little, take a little, sample the grapes on the vine
If you laugh a little, love a little, everything will work out fine

Life Comes In Waves - 3:2:20, 1.56 AM

Another year gone by out in Modesto, and this old stool has hardly had a break.
It shares the weight of desolation, we've had about all we can take
As another double shot of bourbon begins to saturate my bones
Supposed to drive away the memories, but it tastes too much like home
Aching in my heart, dreams gone bitter cold, loneliness like nothin I have ever known
Darkness and despair, I found the motherlode, gave up everything I ever loved
Chasin California gold, chasin California gold.
How many nights, staring to the east, wishing it was nothing, nothing but a dream.
How many times have I played it through? I should not have left you, I never should have left you.
I guess I got no love for California, sure seems she got no love for me.
She took the best that I could offer, and she drove me to my knees.
With an aching in my heart, dreams gone bitter cold, loneliness like nothin I have ever known
Darkness and despair, I found the motherlode, gave up everything I ever loved
Chasin California gold, chasin California gold, chasin California gold, chasin California gold

Stand By Me by Ben E. King Demo Cover by Tommy Donahue

TommyDonahue

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