Mr Moonlight
There's a song called "Mr Moonlight"? A Beatles song?
It's more of a wail, really. From the deepest depths of the Beatles' R & B period. And it's not actually a Beatles song, either, but the cover of a composition by one "Johnson."
Mr. Moonlight, come again please,
here I am on my knees,
The song reminds me of something from the other end of the career: "I've Got A Feeling," from Let It Be. One of the biggest differences between Kathleen and me is that Kathleen loves the early Beatles, while I prefer the late, but we manage.
When "Mr Moonlight" ended, Kathleen played "Anna," which I can never recall because I think of it as "Go To Him." I looked out the window at the greenery on the balcony: the daylilies, the pot of herbs, the spider plant whose "babies" I am rooting, and I thought how grand it is to be alive, and to have been alive. "Mr Moonlight," which never had much American airplay, was recorded about a year after the Punic Wars, it seems now. I was alive then? When many of the people near and dear to me now had not been conceived? Can it be true that I was once fourteen years old? Did they have computers? (Not really.)
Only two of the Beatles are still alive, the two that weren't fragile. John and George were the edgy ones, Paul and Ringo the stabilizers. This is not to deny Sir Paul's colossal melodic gift, but perhaps to suggest why he has not produced much of interest since battling with John Lennon on an everyday basis. But look at it this way: two of the Beatles are still alive!
Listening to "Mr Moonlight" this morning didn't make me feel old. I don't feel old, ever, even when my knees are killing me. I am old, or oldish, but I feel keener and frankly younger than I did when "She Loves You" was blasting from every radio. What I do feel is a mystery: is it possible to be someone who, a few years after "Mr Moonlight" was recorded (five at the most), would pompously argue that Rubber Soul marked the Beatles' transition from an archaic to a Hellenic period? (No, I can't believe it, either.) To have been that person and to be me right now, listening to Beethoven's last sonata? (It came up in a conversation.)
Apparently, it is.
Comments
Don't listen to RJ, I love the late Beatles too. But it's more complicated music. One of the reasons I like the early Beatles is that I was pre-teenage when the leading group of the "British Invasion" hit the American music scene. I was living in the early 60's at that halcyon moment of youth when you are aware of the grand and exciting world around you but have yet to be troubled by teenage angst, doubt and shades of grey. When Paul sings in Anna: "Just one more thing, girl, you give back your ring to me, and I will set you free, go to him", I just thought it was terribly sad, almost like a divorce, because she had a ring and so was almost married. It was that simple. I looked at it only from the singer's point of view, maybe because at age 12 I was too young to be a girlfriend, and in any case because I adored Paul above all things. Had the song been released four years later, I would have seen and felt all the underlying teenage complexities: did she have a good reason for dumping him, did he give her more than one chance to make a go of it, did he give her the ring too soon, had he done this with other girlfriends?
The other reason I like the early Beatles now is that they weren't COOL yet, at least in terms of their music. Partly influenced by R&B and blues, and partly as a function of their youth and excitement, they sang "hard"- with strong emotion and sometimes cracking voices. Their music feels "immediate": they are with you in your room when they sing. Contrast the very first phrase of Mr. Moonlight, sung rather raw, full of push and yearning, with the first phrase of "I'm Fixing a Hole" which is sung in a disembodied, almost dead, fashion. "Mr Moonlight" means just what it says, whereas " I'm Fixing a Hole" is full of hidden meanings and code words. And that's the difference between being a child and an adult...sometimes, I just want to to feel the simplicity and excitement of being a child.
Posted by: Ozma![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.portifex.com/DailyBlague/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 25, 2006 11:34 AM
Right after I posted my last entry I came across this. More than a coincidence, perhaps it's the words of Henry David Thoreau striking a chord in all of us: “None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”
Posted by: witness lane![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.portifex.com/DailyBlague/nav-commenters.gif)
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May 25, 2006 12:20 PM