You Are My Sunshine in E Minor

The song people always play to their darlin'. Those verses though, so heartbreaking.

Once I started singing this song and thought about the lyrics, I wondered why people are always so happy when they're singing it. A man who's been left by his lady, he wakes from his dreams thinking she's there, and just hangs his head and cries. Oof.

I played this with my friend Lauren from New Orleans, we are Scott & Lauren.

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posted by Sreiny (8 comments total)

One of those great ironies of old-timey and bluegrass and other such tunes. Simple major key arrangements, gut-wrenching stories. I love some of Ralph Stanley's stuff for that.

I recorded a really straight, major-key take earlier this year. It's weird how this song just walks that damn line so perfectly; the weirdness of people singing the cleaned up version to their kids is just a circumstantial bonus.
posted by cortex at 9:52 AM on October 10, 2007

Very nice. I love making minor-key renditions of major-key songs.
posted by danb at 12:44 PM on October 10, 2007

Thanks - like it a lot! After having listened to cortex's version in major (also great!), I'm wondering how it would sound verses minor, chorus major - or at least parts minor, parts major. Maybe I'll play around with that this weekend :)
posted by Ira.metafilter at 6:50 PM on October 11, 2007

Oh, that's fucking awesome.
posted by delmoi at 9:24 PM on October 12, 2007

Wow this sounds great.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 12:16 PM on October 18, 2007

I just stumbled over this and really adored it.
posted by FunkyHelix at 10:08 AM on December 30, 2007

You have a very Colin Meloy [aka The Decemberists] sound, cheers.
posted by Fizz at 6:29 PM on May 20, 2008

I'm glad to find someone else who does this song in a minor key! I've always found the major chord rendition WAY too peppy for the motif.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 4:14 PM on September 9, 2011