Reprise » Friday Forgotten Song: Everyone’s Gone To The Moon

There are songs, if I happen to catch them on the radio or the web, that can instantly transport me back to another time. To begin with, place doesn’t matter since the time machine remains all in my head. Random access memory via grey matter, all byway of music and lyrics. For instance, I can find myself back in the 90s whenever I come across Santana’s Smooth (or other tracks from that album) — all of this care of my wife because she brought the CD home one day.

My friend and blogging colleague Sci-fi Fanatic is well-known to send me back to the 80s with his thoughtful music posts (Cutting Crew’s Been In Love Before will do that to me rather instantly). Just so I don’t forget surviving the 70s, Macca and Wings’ Band on the Run (along with How Long by Ace) will not let me leave behind that troublesome span. And if pressed, I will say it is my daughter via Coldplay’s Viva La Vida that does it for the 00s.

Four years ago, during the one particular week in November I found myself knee-deep in my youth (no, not the 50s) when I came across a particularly unique tune. One from smack dab in the middle of the next decade over. Jonathan King’s beautifully odd song, Everyone’s Gone to the Moon. It’s one of those ditties that affixes me to the decade like only a handful do. Maybe even more so than the popular songs of the period since it was a one-hit-wonder here in the U.S.

The 1965 number retains a distinctly ethereal quality, and one that predated the historic moon landing of 1969, when the song enjoyed a later reprise. The fact that the tune was marked with some simple but mind-bending lyrics (see below) also added to its peripheral appeal. If you listen to the song’s verse, the words seem to elicit a surrealistic and tangential imagery. An attribute that was another distinct aspect of the decade’s British Invasion.

I continue to find the pop track strangely compelling. Enjoyed more overseas (“…a top-ten hit in the UK and also reached #17 on the US Billboard Hot 100” per Wikipedia), the song sold over 4 million copies. The song doesn’t get much play, or get cited, these days¹. Its haunting melody, something She-who-must-be-obeyed firmly believes a musical quality I’m always attracted to, juxtaposed with its mystifying, sci-fi tinged lines, made it easily recognizable to those of us who lived through the trippy and Swinging Sixties.

Together with those distinct hairstyles, which somehow keep coming back (yeah, I’m looking at you, Anton Chigurh), along with heavy horned-rimmed glasses, makes it a worthy song for a forgotten post, I think. Well, for me, anyways ;-).

Have a great weekend, folks.

Streets full of people
All alone
Roads full of houses
Never home
Church full of singing
Out of tune
Everyone's gone to the moon

Eyes full of sorrow
Never wet
Hands full of money
All in debt
Sun coming out in
The middle of June
Everyone's gone to the moon

Long time ago
Life has begun
Everyone went to the sun

Cars full of motors
Painted green
Mouths full of chocolate
Covered cream
Arms that can only
Lift a spoon
Everyone's gone to the moon

Everyone's gone to the moon
Everyone's gone to the moon