Ticket to the Moon

Electric Light Orchestra

Remember the good old 1980's
When things were so uncomplicated
I wish I could go back there again
And everything could be the same

I've got a ticket to the moon
I'll be leaving here any day soon
Yeah, I've got a ticket to the moon
But I'd rather see the sunrise, in your eyes

Got a ticket to the moon
I'll be rising high above the earth so soon
And the tears I cry might turn into the rain
That gently falls upon your window
You'll never know

Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon

Fly, fly through a troubled sky
Up to a new world shining bright, oh oh

Flying high above
Soaring madly through the mysteries that come
Wondering sadly if the ways that led me here
Could turn around and I would see you there
Standing there (I would see you there)

Ticket to the moon
Flight leaves here today from Satellite 2
As the minutes go by, what shall I do
I paid the fare, what more can I say?
It's just one way

Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon

Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon
Ticket to the moon


Lyrics submitted by webmasterdee

Ticket to the Moon Lyrics as written by Jeff Lynne

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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Ticket to the Moon song meanings
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    My Interpretation

    During the early 80s, I was a young teenager (maybe aged 12), and there were quite a few tapes I owned for myself. ELO's Time album was one of them, and I must have listened a hundred times to it, back then. As I'm not a native English speaker, just having started learning English by then, I even copied the lyrics of all songs using my father's type writer, trying to figure out the meaning of all those beatiful songs.

    By then, I was (like many boys in this age), quite interested in astrophysics and in science fiction. Therefor, ELOs way to use robot voices (vocoders), or beeping synths was an additional (if not even the original) attraction for me, then.

    For this reason, it never came into my mind that the story of this song could be anything else but a science fiction story, set in the future (like its succeeding track "yours truly 2095", which I took for a letter back from the same guy who was going to the moon here).

    "Back in the 80s, when things were less complicated" - this is a kind of nostalgy towards today from a future point of view, kind of ironic, I'd say.

    I took the song in a direct way, as a farewell song of a moon tourist (or even worker in a colony, like in Heinlein's: Moon is a harsh mistress).

    P.S.: It's interesting that death and drugs seem to be read in any song, for instance also in "Boat on the River" (see there). But art is open to individual interpretation, so I am glad having found this forum.

    teashawon June 20, 2013   Link

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