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 Written by Elvis Costello Performed by Elvis Costello Produced by T Bone Burnett Musicians Elvis Costello - vocal Pete Thomas - drums Dennis Crouch - double bass Jeff Taylor - piano Marc Ribot - acoustic guitar Tom Peterson - bass clarinet Darrell Leonard - flugelhorn Ira Nepus - trombone George Bohanon - baritone horn Maurice Spears - bass trombone Bruce Dukov (concertmaster), Caroline Campbell, Radu Pieptea, Neel Hammond, Lucia Micarelli - violins Andrew Duckles, Matt Funes - viola Dave Eggar - cello Strings and bass clarinet arranged by Elvis Costello Horns arranged by Darrell Leonard Jill Dell'Abate - string contractor Albums National Ransom, 2010 Singles A Slow Drag With Josephine Length 3:55 First known performance:  April 24, 2009, Birmingham, England Last known performance:  November 11, 2013, Port Chester, NY      (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.

Covers

Erich Sellheim

home studio production, sung in German

2022

YouTube

Internal links

• Lyrics  •  Covers

External links

• elviscostello.com