Message For The Moon
“Message For the Moon” is the one song that, for me, defines the album. This complicates my appreciation of the whole enterprise.
There’s this dynamic that you go into a recording with one particular song you really want to get right and invariably it’s the one that fails to live up to your unreasonable expectations for it. I’m told Lowell George who, along with Paul Simon and Pete Townshend, was the primary influence on this song, had this relationship to his song “Two Trains” which he recorded multiple times over the years. Never to his satisfaction.
I think this might be the best song I’ve written in terms of having a universally positive message and nothing in it that embarrasses me even after all these years, and yet, I don’t think this version or any recorded version I have does it justice. Deb Pasternak made a valiant attempt at it on her record Home but she changed the gender to he, which I simply can’t accept for the moon which is the definition of a feminine presence in my lexicon.
Maybe someday I’ll get this one right, but if this one is right for you please don’t let my neurotic passions stand in the way of your enjoyment.
Lyrics
MESSAGE FOR THE MOON
I can feel the tide rising up in me
and I could just drown so easily
Well, don’t send me no rescue boat
Just let my lovin’ boat float
upon the sea
And the air is hot and electric
and my heart it is beating pretty quick
I walked out of my house
Got a shock
It was only 3 o’clock
in the afternoon
And my baby’s coming home tonight
She’s gonna be here pretty soon
and I got a message for the moon
Yeah, I got a message for the moon
And I think I might just
dress up real neat
but I don’t need no fancy shoes
upon my feet
’cause although she comes
so peacefully
she always brings out
the beast in me and well
My baby’s coming home tonight
She’s gonna be here pretty soon
and I got a message for the moon
Yeah, I got a message for the moon
And when she
comes to me
she comes
and lets
me be
who I wanna be
Well my love she ain’t never far away
but she ain’t never here to stay
and the air so clear tonight
My bay she’s shining awful bright
at me
And whenever she goes away
I know she’ll be coming home soon
and I got a message for the moon
Got a big old secret message for the moon
and all I gotta do is think it yeah
I got a message
I got a message
I got a message for the moon
Credits
Written by Andras Jones
Engineered & Produced by Earle Mankey
Andras Jones – Vocals & Acoustic Guitar
Clay Goldstein – Harmonica
R. Walt Vincent – Bass
John Nason – Guitar
Colin Mahoney – Drums
& Deb Pasternak – Vocals
Purchase
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