Thursday, August 7, 2008

Child of the moon

Some nights ago it was pitch black.
There was no moon.
Fortunately, now the moon is in its first quarter and showing itself again.

When we look at the sky at night and there is no moon, we feel lost.
Because we look into eternity.
Into infinity and endlessness not being offered any sense making point of reference.
Without the moon we have nothing to hold on to when imagining we are with Earth in a space without boundaries.

This explains why a book was written that had as a title:
“Women are from Venus, men are from Mars”.
The title had to indicate how estranged women and men are from each other.
We know hardly anything about Venus and Mars and we have never been there.
Hence, it is the perfect symbolism and metaphor to explain in one line how supposedly women are different from men and men from women.

We also have the expression of “moonchild”.
This means a child born under the sign of Cancer.

This possibly inspired the Rolling Stones to make a song in 1967 called “Child of the moon”.
It is one of their best songs.
Mainly because at the time Brian Jones was still alive who had a strong musical influence on the band.

The lyrics are confusing but beautiful:

CHILD OF THE MOON
(Jagger/Richards)

The wind blows rain into my face
The sun glows at the end of the highway
Child of the moon, rub your rainy eyes
Oh, child of the moon
Give me a wide-awake crescent-shaped smile

She shivers, by the light she is hidden
She flickers like a lamp lady vision
Child of the moon, rub your rainy eyes
Child of the moon
Give me a wide-awake crescent-shaped smile

The first car on the foggy road riding
The last star for my lady is pining
Oh, child of the moon, bid the sun arise
Oh, child of the moon
Give me a misty day, pearly gray, silver, silky faced,
Wide-awake crescent-shaped smile

This Rolling Stones song is so incredibly melancholic.
So full of yearning and longing.
And fortunately without the usual guitar solo.

At the time a video clip was made of this song and this is also an amazing thing.
It is in black and white and rather clumsy but it has a strong visual impact.
The video has the same mystification as the lyrics and uses the technique, popular at the time, of showing long face shots of the persons in the video.
There is therefore a strong feeling that a lot is going on between the persons in the video but it remains a mystery what exactly.

When hearing this song, it enters deep and remains in the head for the rest of the day.
To test this, click this link and enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEH3xv484jo





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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

LOL, I uploaded that clip :)

All the best from the Dominican Republic,

Chris (aka coowouters)