The song “Bullets And Blood” was inspired by a true love story. It’s a song about a 30+ year relationship that persevered despite prejudice, bigotry, rejection and violence, and ultimately it’s a song about the triumph of love over hatred. It’s the story of Nelson and Keith, two men who met and fell in love in the South during the 1980’s.
My co-writer on this song, Angela, is good friends with Nelson and Keith and had long wanted to write a song about their inspiring love affair. She had the title and the hook line: “Bullets and blood are not enough to stop this love”, but that’s about as far as she had gotten. We’d been writing another song together and as I often do with songs I’m co-writing, I went off on my own into my little studio to work on it by myself for a while. But it was hard slogging on that particular song; I was trying so hard, too hard perhaps, to find the right lines, the right melody, and I’d been working on it for a couple of days when I decided to take a mental break, shift gears and play with something else. Angela had told me pieces of the story previously and before I knew it I had a couple of verses and a chorus. I recorded a quick voice memo on my phone and texted it to Angela. Almost before she got back to me a few minutes later, I had another verse, and then another.
Every once in a while (a very long while, for me) a song will come easily like that. (Townes Van Zandt called these songs “sky songs” because it seems like they just come out of nowhere and are delivered to their writers. For example, Don McLean reportedly wrote all eight minutes of “American Pie” in about an hour. ) That other song Angela and I were working on never really came to much, but I do think that all the time I spent on it paved the way somehow. I was warmed up, I was open to the creative flow, and when I focused on something important, something that matters, it became the catalyst for this beautiful song.
Here’s what Alan from the UK blog The Rocking Magpie and to say about the song: “The bravest song I’ve heard in years: Bullets and Blood. The first night I heard it I couldn’t believe my ears and had to take it back to the beginning and listen intently! Phew! The melody is as Country as Country gets but the lyrics will set your average redneck’s hair on end. I applaud Brock Davis for having the chutzpah to not just write this song but release it too…and for that it’s my favourite song here.”
The world has changed a lot since the 1980's and we've made a lot of progress. I wish I could say that some of the challenges described in this song are completely in the past, but I can't, at least not yet. One day, I hope, one day…. ❤️
Listen to Bullets And Blood on Spotify.
Bullets And Blood
I met my love at college in my junior year
But when I brought him home it was worse than I feared
“You ain’t no son of mine”, my Daddy made it clear
And that was that
Never going back
Caught in a parking lot, late one August night
Four good ole boys with baseball bats didn’t think our love was right
If it wasn’t for the cop car cruising by
We’d have been alone
With more than broken bones
[Chorus]
Bullets and blood
Can’t stop this love
Bullets and blood
Are not enough
To stop this love
They did their best to run us out of town
Gave us a welcome that was worthy of the South
Three bullet holes through the kitchen door remind me how
We have to hide
Or pay the price
[Repeat Chorus]
Then one cold winter, he woke up and couldn’t breathe
Raced him to emergency for some surgery
Wouldn’t let me visit him in his time of need
They told me
You’re not family
We got married when the laws began to change
Couldn’t do it here, had to travel out of state
After twenty years, I could finally take his hand and say
Please be mine
For all time
[Repeat Chorus]