I decided to develop the concept of the song being about two brothers fighting against each other in the civil war. Influenced by the poem the song was constructed to communicate feelings of sadness and respect between the two brothers whilst reiterating their divided loyalties to the "Blue" and to the "Grey."
Brother Blue
Made my bed in the devil’s den
The black snake’s home and the grave of young men
Upon the hill my brother blue
He fired and shot me dead
Won’t be marching south again
Brother’s tears make the morning dew
See my heart is grey but my blood runs blue
And in his arms my lifeless stare
It tells a story true
Oh goodbye brother blue
Underneath the southern stars I sleep
Blue and grey its here we lay
Our souls are hers to keep
A silence she once knew
Until you came marching through
I still love you brother blue
In the dusty heat my mama did wait
But not one of her sons made it to her gate
By the silver creek, the willows weep
As my mama she found my name
And my brother blue beside me once again
Underneath the southern stars I sleep
Blue and grey its here we lay
Our souls are hers to keep
A silence she once knew
Until you came marching through
I still love you brother blue
The story is told from the point of view of the confederate brother after his death. The first verse was written to set the scene at the battlefield where this first brother was killed. I did some research into some of the most prolific battles of the Civil War for inspiration for the imagery in this verse. In fact this verse points specifically to the battlefield at Gettysburg, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The "Devil's Den" was a defence position used by the confederate soldiers, a small hill littered with large boulders which they used for cover. They were being attacked by the Union army from "Little Round Top," this is is the hill I am referring to in the verse when the confederate soldier is shot dead by his brother (Tilberg, 2008).
The second verse is intended to reveal to the listener that these are in fact brothers by blood and hints at how it came to be that they were fighting one and other on the battlefield. The line "my heart is grey but my blood runs blue" communicates that the confederate brother was fighting for his cause in the south despite coming from a family with loyalty to the union. As I mentioned in the last post, divided loyalties between families wasn't uncommon in the Civil War. In my research I came across letters written from brother to brother, giving their best wishes but affirming their loyalty to their respective sides. One letter read "I was...doing my best to beat you but I hope you and I will never again meet face to face bitter enemies in the battlefield (Campbell, 1862).
The final verse and the chorus reflects the equal sadness and respect for both sides that was expressed in the poem. By the last verse the listener learns that "Brother Blue" has also lost his life in the war as neither brother returns home to their waiting mother. The story ends with the mother visiting the graves of the brothers who are buried side by side. I closed the final verse in this way to highlight the circumstance of the war, much like the poem does, in that it was people killing their own people. Some were dressed in grey, some were dressed in blue. The final line of the chorus "I still love you brother blue" reiterates the fact that in this war soldiers' loyalties were so strong that they would kill their own blood for their cause.
I adapted many of the performative aspects of "The Blue and the Gray" to fit within the context of the song. The repetition of "blue" and "grey" that is central to the poem is also the focal point in this song. In the poem however these sections fall in an orderly fashion in the last two lines of each verse. I decided not to mimic this structure for two main reasons. Firstly this song has a progressive narrative which I feel would be impacted by this type of structured repetition. Secondly the rhyming structure would be interrupted and possible rhymes would be limited. Instead then the verses are littered with references to the blue and to the grey in a less structured form of repetition. The chorus' are the only sections of the song where the references to blue and grey is repeated identically. As well as repetition much of the imagery technique is borrowed from the poem. The author makes use of other colours in the poem "rivers be red" and "mellowed with gold." In the song I describe "the black snake's home" and "the silver creek." There is also frequent reference to tears and sadness in the poem. I incorporated this into the song in the lines "brothers tears make the morning dew" and "the willows weep."
Brother Blue
Made my bed in the devil’s den
The black snake’s home and the grave of young men
Upon the hill my brother blue
He fired and shot me dead
Won’t be marching south again
Brother’s tears make the morning dew
See my heart is grey but my blood runs blue
And in his arms my lifeless stare
It tells a story true
Oh goodbye brother blue
Underneath the southern stars I sleep
Blue and grey its here we lay
Our souls are hers to keep
A silence she once knew
Until you came marching through
I still love you brother blue
In the dusty heat my mama did wait
But not one of her sons made it to her gate
By the silver creek, the willows weep
As my mama she found my name
And my brother blue beside me once again
Underneath the southern stars I sleep
Blue and grey its here we lay
Our souls are hers to keep
A silence she once knew
Until you came marching through
I still love you brother blue
The story is told from the point of view of the confederate brother after his death. The first verse was written to set the scene at the battlefield where this first brother was killed. I did some research into some of the most prolific battles of the Civil War for inspiration for the imagery in this verse. In fact this verse points specifically to the battlefield at Gettysburg, one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War. The "Devil's Den" was a defence position used by the confederate soldiers, a small hill littered with large boulders which they used for cover. They were being attacked by the Union army from "Little Round Top," this is is the hill I am referring to in the verse when the confederate soldier is shot dead by his brother (Tilberg, 2008).
The second verse is intended to reveal to the listener that these are in fact brothers by blood and hints at how it came to be that they were fighting one and other on the battlefield. The line "my heart is grey but my blood runs blue" communicates that the confederate brother was fighting for his cause in the south despite coming from a family with loyalty to the union. As I mentioned in the last post, divided loyalties between families wasn't uncommon in the Civil War. In my research I came across letters written from brother to brother, giving their best wishes but affirming their loyalty to their respective sides. One letter read "I was...doing my best to beat you but I hope you and I will never again meet face to face bitter enemies in the battlefield (Campbell, 1862).
The final verse and the chorus reflects the equal sadness and respect for both sides that was expressed in the poem. By the last verse the listener learns that "Brother Blue" has also lost his life in the war as neither brother returns home to their waiting mother. The story ends with the mother visiting the graves of the brothers who are buried side by side. I closed the final verse in this way to highlight the circumstance of the war, much like the poem does, in that it was people killing their own people. Some were dressed in grey, some were dressed in blue. The final line of the chorus "I still love you brother blue" reiterates the fact that in this war soldiers' loyalties were so strong that they would kill their own blood for their cause.
I adapted many of the performative aspects of "The Blue and the Gray" to fit within the context of the song. The repetition of "blue" and "grey" that is central to the poem is also the focal point in this song. In the poem however these sections fall in an orderly fashion in the last two lines of each verse. I decided not to mimic this structure for two main reasons. Firstly this song has a progressive narrative which I feel would be impacted by this type of structured repetition. Secondly the rhyming structure would be interrupted and possible rhymes would be limited. Instead then the verses are littered with references to the blue and to the grey in a less structured form of repetition. The chorus' are the only sections of the song where the references to blue and grey is repeated identically. As well as repetition much of the imagery technique is borrowed from the poem. The author makes use of other colours in the poem "rivers be red" and "mellowed with gold." In the song I describe "the black snake's home" and "the silver creek." There is also frequent reference to tears and sadness in the poem. I incorporated this into the song in the lines "brothers tears make the morning dew" and "the willows weep."