“Blue Sun” Lyrics and Music by Marc Gunn, Date written – unknown; Refound June 28, 2014

Performed by Marc Gunn
From CD: As Long As I'm Flyin' and Flower of Scotland

They terraformed the lands of many fine worlds
Then bloodied our hands with our boys and our girls
They offered us cans of food that curdled
And piled on chains by the ton.

* Blue Sun. Blue Sun.
Another corporation
With their hand on the gun
Blue Sun. Blue Sun.
Free yourself to run
From Blue Sun

You see their emblem emblazoned on crates
On walls, on wombs, even on your dates
You may fall victim to their seductive gaze
So raise up your hands to shun

Their manacles we'll cast off our tired wrists.
Their suits we'll pummel with our bloodied fists
Cut through the red tape and expunge the vile cyst
That cripples our will to run

So raise up your voice and shout to the firm
Let those who control know what it feels like to squirm
Their products we won't buy, but oh they shall burn
For this is their will undone

Chords: Key F

verse:
[C]They terraformed the lands of many fine worlds
Then [Am]bloodied our hands with our [Bb]boys and our [C]girls
They [F]offered us cans of [C]food that curdled
And [Bb]piled on chains by the [C]ton.

chorus:
Blue [F]Sun. Blue [C]Sun.
Another [Bb]corporation
Intent on no [C]fun
Blue [F]Sun. Blue [C]Sun.
[Bb]Free yourself to [C]run
From Blue [F]Sun

Background

This song was written as a protest song against corporations, in particular, Blue Sun from the Firefly verse. My gut tells me that Joss Whedon had some devious plans for this corporation that were never developed in the TV series. I decided to write not only a traditional style protest song, but also to make it a fun sing-along. I can hear some great harmonies and call and responses for this song. With any luck, I can develop those for the final recording.

Patrons of my music can download the first recording of this song.

Full Story of Blue Sun

I loved Monopoly as a kid. I taught Kenzie it. After just two games, I was kinda done. The game drags on just way too long. Unfortunately, Kenzie is not done with it. She loves it and makes us play as often as we will let her.

So I finally figured out how to endure the game. It’s a quick win or lose strategy. If you’re lucky enough to buy all the property as soon as possible, then demolish and win. If you’re not, do your best lose and get out of the game as soon as possible.

Kind of sad. But that’s what a monopoly is. If you learned about early 20th century monopolies, it wasn’t much better. In fact, the woman who created the game was trying to teach people the evils of monopolies. Yet, we haven’t learned. 

The government allowed Live Nation to create a monopoly of concert venues. Ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s summer tour busted their online system. Well, actually, it was already busted thanks to bootleggers.

Monopolies are one of the reasons I finished “Blue Sun”. But the song actually goes back before that, all the way back to the writing of “Monahan’s Mudder’s Milk”. That’s when I wrote the chorus.

Blue Sun. Blue Sun
Another corporation with their hand on the gun
Blue Sun. Blue Sun.
Free yourself to run from Blue Sun.

Blue Sun is the corporation in the TV show Firefly with a seemingly nefarious background. You see their imagery on Jayne’s shirt, on the docks of Persephone, and other places.

The blue color makes me think of the Two by Two, Hands of Blue from the episode Ariel. I can’t help but wonder if a connection is there. It feels to me like Blue Sun is a monopoly that largely is in control or at least has a big blue hand in their Alliance government. 

And because they have a monopoly, they can do what they want. They can also destroy what they want all in the name of profit for their investors.

I did my best to come up what a bully corporation would do. That’s the first two verses are all about. It’s about subjugating the people they are supposed to “serve”.

They terraformed the lands of many fine worlds
Then bloodied our hands with our boys and our girls
They offered us cans of food that curdled
And piled on chains by the ton.

You see their emblem emblazoned on crates
On walls, on wombs, even on your dates
You may fall victim to their seductive gaze
So raise up your hands to shun

Now we come to the final idea that motivated writing this song. My family is from a small town in East Texas. It was never a super vibrant town. As a kid, it looked like they stopped growing as a community in prolly the 40s or 50s. But they did have a downtown area.

That downtown area disappeared when Walmart moved in. Walmart’s strategy was to build a big store on the edge of town. It offered low, low prices, on everything. We were all thrilled. That’s where I first experienced the store. I loved it.

Before long, the downtown of our local community was closed down. 

You’ve prolly heard the term “Buy Local”. It took a while for me to understand that idea. 

The fact is that we need to support our local community if we want to see it thrive and grow. 

Much like “Monahan’s”, this song turns into a Woody Guthrie style protest song against corporations.

Their manacles we'll cast off our tired wrists.
Their suits we'll pummel with our bloodied fists
Cut through the red tape and expunge the vile cyst
That cripples our will to run

So raise up your voice and shout to the firm
Let those who control know what it feels like to squirm
Their products we won't buy, but oh they shall burn
For this is their will undone

I love the imagery in these verses. It is very down-to-earth. And fierce. Complete with burning their products in protest. 

I made two recordings of this song. The Kilted Kings version features Randy Wothke on percussion. The As Long As I’m Flyin’ version has

• Lyrics and music Marc Gunn 
• Marc Gunn: autoharp, vocals 
• Daniel Briggs: bass, mandolin, octave mandolin, vocals 
• LT Panzarella: dumbek

Gunn Runners on Patreon can download As Long As I'm Flyin' as a special gift.