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Lyrics:
Sunshine won’t you be my mother?
Sunshine come and help me sing
My heart is darker than these oceans
My heart is frozen underneath
Crooked soul trying to stay up straight
Dry eyes in the pouring rain, when
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
Two scared little runaways
Hold fast till the break of daylight
When the shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
Oh Lord why did you forsake me
Oh Lord don’t be far away, away
Storm clouds gathering beside me
Please Lord don’t look the other way
I’m a crooked soul trying to stay up straight
Dry eyes in the pouring rain, when
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
Two scared little runaways
Hold fast till the break of daylight
When the shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
Yeah, shine on me
Yeah, shine on me
Yeah, shine on me
Yeah, shine on me
Crooked souls trying to stay up straight
Dry eyes in the pouring rain, when
The shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
Two scared little runaways
Hold fast till the break of daylight
When the shadow proves the sunshine
The shadow proves the sunshine
Yeah, shine on me
Yeah, shine on me
Yeah, shine on me
Shine on me
Let my shadows prove the sunshine
Written by Jon Foreman. All songs ©2005 Meadowgreen Music Company and Sugar Pete Songs / All right administered by EMI CMG Publishing (ASCAP). All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Behind the Song:
“Here's a tune that is a bit different than anything we've done before. It's a very simple tune- so simple that we almost overlooked it. The fight with this one was to work slow. The song didn't want much else other than a very honest performance. So when we went in to start overdubbing we would track a bunch of ideas and then come to the conclusion that we liked it better naked. So we would take everything off and start from scratch. It ended up being one of my favorite songs on the record. One of my favorite moments on the record was singing the words into the piano to get all of the strings resonating; I had the idea a while ago and have never been able to pull it off. It felt great to scream into a piano and hear the piano scream back. I can't wait to play this song live- it feels like it needs to be sung outdoors, against the backdrop of a dark night.” – Jon Foreman (Switchfoot)
From a Switchfoot bio…
These kind of personal moments infuse Nothing is Sound. Another example is "The Shadow Proves the Sunshine," which was inspired by a fact-finding trip Switchfoot took to South Africa in January 2005 to see for themselves the impact that poverty and disease has had on the region. For the last few years, the band has been active in Bono's charity organization DATA, which promotes AIDS awareness and debt relief for developing nations, but Foreman describes the trip to South Africa, and meeting children orphaned by AIDS, as a turning point in his life. "You realize how poor we are as Americans," he says. "We might have a nice SUV, but nothing to show for our humanity."
The song grapples with the idea that South Africa, which has endured many years of oppression and poverty, is a place where "I've never seen so much light or joy or happiness," he says. "So I may write about how everything is meaningless, but it's a very hopeful thing for me to be proven wrong.” – Hoganson Media
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