Album: The Reality of My Surroundings
Year: 1991
What a pure blast of unfettered energy.
As one of the greatest singles in my favorite year for music, “Everyday Sunshine” should have been as big of a single as the Sly & The Family Stone songs that it proudly steals from.
In retrospect, it was probably inevitable that Fishbone would attempt a song like “Everyday Sunshine,” as they turned out to be as hard to pigeonhole into any single style as The Clash or Sly & The Family Stone ever were.
“Everday Sunshine” starts out with a huge blast of joyful horns over funky bass & keyboards and almost issues its thesis statement:
I wish everyday the sun would shine
Take me to another place in my mind
Where everything is beautiful
And no wants or needs
Nor sign of greed
Could rule our soul
As they progress, trading off vocals and harmonizing on the chorus, “Everyday Sunshine” doesn’t even show a hit of being sarcastic or ironic or anything but a full-out plea for, well, everyday sunshine.
And of course, they eventually double-down on that by exploding into a double-time, ecstatically trading off “Everyday, everyday, everyday” until the song finally screeches to its end.
“Everyday Sunshine”
“Everyday Sunshine” performed live in 1991