Heavenly Blues

Album: Hurry Sundown (1977)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song was borne out of a love for the title and for a chord progression Outlaws singer/guitarist Henry Paul heard and loved. He wrote the title, and based the rest of the song around that. Says Paul: "It was a chord progression, and was kind of an idea I got from a Poco record, and I just loved it. It wasn't a direct lift from something they did, but it was very reminiscent of them musically. I had this song title, 'Heavenly Blues,' like 'morning glory,' and all these sort of familiar phrases I sometimes keep, and my wife at that time didn't have blue eyes, no one I was involved with on any level that I can recall had blue eyes. That was more or less a song from the standpoint of title. I just kind of integrated my sort of romantic story line into the title, and I tried to make it make sense, because I thought 'heavenly blues' sounded like a beautiful title for a song."
  • Paul: "A lot of times I like to come up with the song titles that look or sound like paintings. There's a song I wrote much later called 'Cold Harbor,' which the title of that song just sounded awesome to me. And 'Heavenly Blues' sounded awesome to me, and 'Grey Ghost' sounded awesome, and 'Gunsmoke.' You wind up writing these sort of titles that sound like portrait titles." (Check out our interview with Henry Paul. For more, go to www.blackhawkmusic.us.)

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Wedding Bell Blues

Wedding Bell BluesSong Writing

When a song describes a wedding, it's rarely something to celebrate - with one big exception.

Pam Tillis

Pam TillisSongwriter Interviews

The country sweetheart opines about the demands of touring and talks about writing songs with her famous father.

Queen

QueenFact or Fiction

Scaramouch, a hoople and a superhero soundtrack - see if you can spot the real Queen stories.

Barry Dean ("Pontoon," "Diamond Rings And Old Barstools")

Barry Dean ("Pontoon," "Diamond Rings And Old Barstools")Songwriter Interviews

A top country songwriter, Barry talks about writing hits for Little Big Town, Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean.

Don Brewer of Grand Funk

Don Brewer of Grand FunkSongwriter Interviews

The drummer and one of the primary songwriters in Grand Funk talks rock stardom and Todd Rundgren.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.