IN LIGHT OF A VERY BLUE MOON

IN LIGHT OF A VERY BLUE MOON

Norman Warwick simply follows the music

sleeve-notes

once just f***ing once is all that is asked

just once not twice not thrice blind mice running up a hickory dickory f***ing clock that has stopped that has lost its reason to tick tock tick tock tick tock taking stock;

one for the money two for the show three to get ready now go cat go somewhere down the crazy river where time still stands just once in a very blue moon to meet a cow with a crumpled horn playing the spoons in a rat tat tat of rapid fire falling like a life time in slow motion sea sick somewhere over the ocean writing letters home thoughts from abroad where they make boots of Spanish leather for iron maidens chastity intact but spirit broken into a million mirrored pieces

flying in the eye of the white witch living in the wardrobe with the lion with no name I mean mane I mean name whose name my name his name her name your name in the days of forced masking what’s in a name with no face to a man in an iron mask courting an iron maiden offering boots of Spanish leather with spurs clicking and clacking their way to the wildest show in town

broncos bucking lassoes flailing irons branding indelible masks forever the property of a broke-back cowboy from Baseball Mountain travelling on the way all cowboys travel on across an open range just a rider in the rain running for cover from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortunes lost to dice rolling rolling rolling keep those doggies rolling rawhide stretched out beaten tanned and shaped into boots of Spanish leather to dance me to the end of time or back to Boogie Street drinking and fighting drunk against the bottle until just once more over the rainbow he catches the end of a very blue moon keening gleaning gleaming grimly reaping sewing a stitch in time to save nine patching quilting comforting as part of a drunkard’s healing process

but still he rides for short money and for Katie and the Navajo Rug and always hits seventeen when playing against the dealer and when its rolling thunder out under the heaven he is singing Loco Gringo’s Lament riding a horse named Lame of course and there is a love that he will not name and there is a line that he will not cross and he’s never seen a sight that doesn’t look better looking back except maybe for the quarter moon on the golden

gate is open and its starting to kick and buck and kick and buck and fxxxxg kick and fxxxxxg buck and he is the rider on the poster of that old rodeo not some suited and booted urban cowboy with the dust sprayed on his boots holding on with one hand waving free to impress the mini skirted girls at cocktail hour before driving one away in his coupe de ville

pale rider

the unforgiven

hearing the coyote howling at the very blue moon just once to hear a response and call and response and call and response and call to those unanswered prayers that see him alone on a rock in the desert night waiting on another tequila sunrise to enlighten the moon quieten the moon whiten the

moon river wider than miles to go before he sleeps and he has promises to keep to bring to deliver to break into moon dust that would be some kind of proof but there ain’t no man in the moon and sure as hell there wasn’t no man on the moon where love is a fair-weather friend

blue moon of Kentucky to keep on shining so long as she is singing the juke box songs number eighteen with a bullet at the bluebird café where they all came from and go to and still end the new tunes with the audience rattling their jewellery to show whether they have passed the audition in some gladiatorial duel of the songwriters all of them wanting to write a song about the moon and searching for that

nickel moon, lover’s moon, hunter’s moon, harvest moon that

ding a dang ding a dang a ding dang a danga ding ding blue moon

blue blue blue moon

who knows just what they are there for

and that once, just f***xxg once is all that is asked

just once

not twice

not thrice

just once in a very blue moon

there’ll be love at the five and dime.

• for a track listing of songs referenced in this article, see below

tracks suggested by Once in A Very Blue Moon by Nanci Griffith

BLUE MOONLIGHT

a sidetracks & detours compilation

Three Blind Mice                                                        Nursery Rhyme

Somewhere Down The Crazy River                          Robbie Robertson

Home Thoughts from Abroad                                    Robert Browning

Blue Suede Shoes                                                        Elvis Presley

Boots of Spanish Leather                                            Joan Baez

Mason Dixon Line                                                      Jeff Wilson

Rider In The Rain                                                        Randy Newman

Rawhide                                                                       Frankie Laine

Boogie Street                                                               Leonard Cohen

Spin Me Dreams                                                 Lendanear

The Navajo Rug                                                           Tom Russell

Nothing But A Summer Storm Lendanear

Loco Gringo´s Lament Ray Wylie Hubbard

Night Rider´s Lament                                                  Emmylou Harris

500 Miles Away From Home                                     Bobby Bare

I Was Born Under A Wandering Star                        Lee Marvin

Quarter Moon On The Golden Gate                          John Stewart

Angel From Montgomery                                           John Prine

The Theme From Urban Cowboy                              John Travolta

Cowboy In The Coupe De Ville                       Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Pale Rider Theme Song                                              Big Screen Orch

Cowboy And The Coyote                                           Ian Tyson

Tequila Sunrise                                                             The Eagles

Moon River                                                                  Andy Williams

Stopping By Woods                                                    Robert Frost

Man On The Moon                                                     REM

Lovie Is A Fair-weather Friend Colin Lever

Blue Moon                                                                   The Marcels

Blue Moon Of Kentucky                                            Bill Monroe

Eighteen With A Bullet                                              Pete Wingfield

Song About The Moon                                               Paul Simon

Harvest Moon                                                              Neil Young

Love At The Five And Dime                                      Nanci Griffith

virtually collated by Norman Warwick