Red, orange, yellow
Pink, purple, and deep, deep blue
Melting into the distant bay
When the exhausted day is through
There’s just something about it here
That makes you stop whatever you do
And just stand there watching until it’s all done
It’s so real and true
You’ve just been put in touch with creation
Something so elemental and rare
And its sheer emotional power
Is almost too much to bear
Red, orange, yellow
Pink, purple, and the deepest blue
It all oozes, infuses, and suffuses
A place so deep inside of you.
Now you and I, we’ve seen the sun rise
And set so many times
We’ve been through chapters, stages, and phases
Trips, falls, and climbs
We’ve seen our brightest days turn into darkest nights
We felt the earth move and we’ve weathered storms
We stood by when everything that once made sense
Lost their familiar forms
Did you ever think that after all of these
We could ever find love again
Did you ever feel it could be possible
After all your good things came to an end
Red, orange, yellow
Pink, purple, and deep, deep blue
Maybe we can take a chance on something we thought we lost
Just me and you.
Yeah, I chased a few dreams
I outlived a few others
Some of them burned passionately
But the big ones just seemed to sputter
And you, you’ve been round the block several times
Waiting on some happily ever after
For every little victory
There seemed to be ten bigger disasters
It’s so easy to get cynical
And say true love doesn’t really exist
But I’ve come here to tell you
It doesn’t have to be like this
Red, orange, yellow
All the purples, pinks, and deepest blues
The long hard day at last is gone
Now let’s go into the night—just me and you.
Red, orange, yellow
Pink, purple, and twilight blue
There’s nowhere else I’d rather be
Than in this mystic sunset with you.
©2024 The Hesh Inc.
I say it all the time: I've seen sunsets all around the world, and the most beautiful ones are in my old hometown, Long Beach, New York.
This song came about after I moved back to the East Coast from my first spell in Los Angeles. I began haunting my old hometown regularly, and more often than not I'd find myself there as the sun was going down. I had tentatively begun dating again after having gone through a second divorce, a precarious situation at best, and quite often I'd end up on the Long Beach boardwalk with my date just in time for the sunset. It was after several excursions like this that I wrote this song—not for anybody in particular, but just imagining what I would say to someone with whom I'd be finding love again after having had much reason to give up on the idea.
The music playing in my mind when I was writing these lyrics was "Turn Right at Midnight" by Roy Young, with whom I had become friends on MySpace during that social site's heyday. I didn't set my words to that tune, but there is something of a similar groove. Never recorded or performed beyond the four walls of my home studio ... yet.