Biography: "Man on the Moon"

"Man on the Moon"
By Mario Spinetti

"We were first to the moon,"

(Moon to Houston we're doomed!)

"Get the president...

On the phone

There's a note signed " The Man"

It appears that his planning was imminent-

We're alone

It reads:

'Venus, I'm so sorry

Oh Venus, I'm so sorry'

It reads:

'Venus, I'm so sorry,

But the sign on the s___eship, it brought me to this

As I step to the edge and I sign with a kiss

It said 'Let our nation rise'

I'm a victim to prose in that...

Send my love to the spoon and cat

It said 'Let our nation rise'

Here's to you, here's to solitaire

Here's to star-fishing in the air

Goodbye'"

Breaking news, this just in:

Let the ice age begin!

Let it all fall down!

(It all falls down)

"An ingenious plan,"

Said the newspaper man

Break America

To the sun

But between us,

I'm so sorry

Oh between us,

I'm so sorry

Just between us,

I'm so sorry

But the God we confide in,

Salute, and command

Is a cowboy it seems,

With a gun in his hand

Saying,

"Let our nation rise!"

I'm a victim to prose in that,

Send my love to the spoon and cat

Saying "let our nation rise!"

Here's to you, here's to solitaire,

Here's to star-fishing in the air

Goodbye

---

INSPIRATION

"Man on the Moon" was conceived as a backhanded national anthem. It was written in a time and place of remarkable political unrest and anti-American sentiment: post 9/11 New York City, at the beginning of the Bush Administration's announcements on foreign policy.

In my life, there had never been a more perfect opportunity to write a reactionary work. It was "my Vietnam."

THE STORY

"Man on the Moon" begins as a dialogue between an astronaut who's landed on the moon, and "The Man" himself via what seems to be a post-mortem suicide letter. It evolves into The Astronaut's Monologue, which lasts for the entire second half of the song.

In the letter, "The Man," believes that the US has come to take over the moon, and writes a letter to Venus, his former love, detailing the dilemma. "It appears" that he's killed himself just before the American astronaut's arrival.

I've envisioned Venus as the solitary ex-lover of The Man - someone to whom he never fully committed, but still, the great love of his life. I see her as the equivalent of a neighboring country to an independent nation with which a luxury commodity is traded (i.e. silk or tea imported from the East to the British Empire in the 1700's).

"Love" is the luxury commodity to The Man, and that which defines him as a tragic figure. He doesn't understand that Love, just as food and water, is a sustaining resource without which life has no value or purpose. It is the reason he is so apt to committing suicide -- he has nothing beyond his independence to live or die for.

The Astronaut undergoes an emotional revolution after discovering the consequences of his landing, and begins to reevaluate his "loveless" role as the p___ of a take-over. His Monologue (the 2nd verse, through chorus), represents his rebellion, and resignation.

POLITICAL COMMENTARY

"Man on the Moon" is a commentary on imperialism - both political and emotional. It is directed at the United States of the W. Bush administration, in response to its post 9/11 foreign policy regarding democracy and the imposition thereof in the Middle East.

I was always intrigued by popular representations of the man on the moon. I particularly love the image of him fishing for stars in the sky. To me, this visual always made him seem quintessentially independent, with full access to natural, sustaining resources (food in the form of stars, and water in the form of the sky).

When George W. Bush sought to "offer" democracy to Middle Eastern regions in "peril," it conjured textbook images of imperialism, and religious crusades; missions in which "foreign" lands were deemed "barbarian," and, "uncivilized" by greater powers with ulterior motives to usurp the area's resources.

I thought to myself: how better to make a commentary on the enormity of the issues at hand then by taking it to inter-stellar proportions in metaphor. It didn't seem so far-fetched at the time; that if the moon had resources immediately lucrative to the United States, it would be the next in line to incur democracy, and a proposed take-over at its behest. Hence this song.

THE MUSIC

Themes that I've embellished upon in "Man on the Moon" are primarily The Star Spangled Banner, and TAPS - both quintessential American anthems.

Something to make note of are the arrangement and performance shifts that take place between the first and second half of the record. The first appearance of the Chorus "hook," which pays homage to The Star Spangled Banner, varies greatly from its follow-up.

I don't want to force my interpretation too much, but if interested in a deeper read, please approach the work knowing that all configuration and delivery shifts are very much intentional. The arrangement and vocal delivery between sections matter a great deal to the tone of the Astronaut, and the evolution of his consciousness.

The broad and sweeping variation on TAPS that concludes the record represents the height of the work's tension between irony and sincerity. As the theme most commonly used in funerals for fallen war veterans, it is used here as a plea for the death of the imperialist way.

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