You Hung The Moon

The homecoming fanfare is echoing still Now tapping on tables And sensing a chill Poor families expecting loved one's return Only summon some charlatan spectre Oh, when will they learn? You hung the moon From a gallows in the sky Choked out the light From his blue lunar eye The shore is a parchment The sea has no tide Since he was taken from my side The lines of the fallen are viewed through a glass But you cannot touch them at all Or hear their footfall just as they go past The drunken ground is where they are bound You hung the moon From a gallows in the sky Put out the light in his blue lunar eye The shore is a parchment The sea has no tide Since he was taken from my side So slap out his terrors And sneer at his tears We deal with deserters like this From the breech to the barrel, the bead we will level Break earth with a shovel, quick march on the double Lower him shallow like tallow down in the abyss You hung the moon From a gallows in the sky Choked out the light in his blue lunar eye The shore is a parchment The sea has no tide Since he was taken from my side A Drawing Room In Pimlico, London - 1919

You Hung The Moon (unreleased song) Written by Elvis Costello Performed by Elvis Costello Background:  "'You hung the moon' is tentative title for new song performed solo and without any amplification (just to make bootlegging really hard). The song is about the first world war and the interest in spirtualism after it, as those left behind wanted to contact those who had died. Lyrics may be traditional, or from a contemporary poem, melody by EC, written on a train from Liverpool. EC claimed to have found the poem in a book belonging to his in-laws." — Nick Ratcliffe First known performance:  April 24, 2009, Birmingham, England Last known performance:  October 17, 2009, Sydney, Australia      (8 known performances) “Sometimes a song arrives all at once, like this song I wrote on a train the other day, ‘You Hung The Moon’. It’s about a family trying to contact a shell-shocked young man who may have been shot as a coward. They are using a glass and a table and the advice of a charlatan. They did that kind of thing back then.” — Newbury Today interview published April 16, 2009.

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