Moon Woman II

"Moon Woman II" is a riddle.

The lyrics can be understood on two levels: there's an immediately accessible literal meaning, and a more inscrutable metaphorical meaning.

For years, whenever I listened to this song I imagined that it told a fairly straightforward story in a traditional linear narrative style. Elvis Perkins uses the first person throughout, so it's easy to envision a male narrator.

The first two stanzas set the mise-en-scène: the narrator describes the moon, which is unusually bright in the night sky, and mentions a "deck" of some sort. I picture him standing on a roofless porch with a railing, probably constructed of wide wooden planks. It may actually be a ship's deck, but this is unlikely because he also mentions trees casting visible shadows. (It could even be a deck of cards, or a tape deck -- all we know for certain is that moonlight hits it.)

In the chorus, he expresses feelings of loneliness and isolation.

The two stanzas of the second verse reveal the source of his loneliness to be a woman, to whom he feels powerfully attracted. He addresses her in the second person (as "you") but apparently he does not enjoy her company on this moonlit evening.

Despite their profound mutual attraction, they "must not ever meet." She is far away, with a life of her own, perhaps even betrothed to another. One wonders whether their intimate connection originated in a clandestine affaire de cœur.

There follows a brief bridge, wherein the narrator again apparently addresses the absent woman, twice asking her the rhetorical question "Does anybody love you?"

After this, the narrator takes an unexpected detour into matters of personal hair removal, and then inexplicably uses the second person again, as though the distant "you" addressed in the second verse were actually right there in his presence all along. This adds a mysterious aura to the entire song -- who is this woman? How can she be so far away, and yet so close?

Careful reflection on the dense wordplay and brilliant double-entendres found in almost every line of this song illuminate the song's original, literal story.

The title is a clue to the song's secondary, metaphorical reading. Most of the songs on Elvis Perkins' debut album "Ash Wednesday" contain their titles in the lyrics; generally, the titles are made obvious by repetition. (The other exception to this rule is "Sleep Sandwich"; although "It's A Sad World After All" does not contain its entire title in the lyrics, the chorus does include the repeated phrase "a sad world".)

"Moon Woman II" actually alternates between two narrative voices. The male narrator is the Earth personified, and the female narrator represents the Moon.

The first verse is sung from the perspective of the Earth, although the lyrics are carefully crafted to be subtle enough that they could also refer to a man standing on the Earth.

The chorus shifts to the Moon's perspective. She asks "Does anybody have a light?" because the Moon produces no light on its own; it can only reflect the light of the Sun. Appropriately, she is "cold as a stone" and "up here all alone" in the dark night sky. (At least on this planet, there are no other moons up there in the sky to keep her company.)

Again, as with the first verse, the lyrics are open to both metaphorical and literal interpretation -- the vast cold emptiness of outer space readily suggests familiar human feelings of alienation and isolation, and we commonly hear the Moon's question used as a convenient pretext for lonely young smokers in bars (or, these days, more likely outside them) to strike up a conversation with an attractive stranger.

The second verse returns to the Earth's point of view. The power which the Moon exerts over the earth is the attractive force of gravity, which draws the oceans heavenward, changing their shape and thereby causing the tides. The Earth's hungry shadow does not touch the Moon's surface very often; on the rare occasions when this does happen, we refer to it as a lunar eclipse. And if these two celestial bodies (here cast in the role of star-crossed lovers) were ever to meet, well, that would be a disaster of epic proportions.

The second half of this verse doesn't appear to have any metaphorical reading consistent with the rest of the lyrics -- if such a reading exists, it eludes me. This reinforces the song's literal meaning, reminding us that it is indeed about human beings and their emotions. When the song reaches its plaintive bridge, Elvis Perkins really is telling the story of a man who has lost his love, and wonders whether she has found a new lover or whether she still yearns for him.

The lunar and terrestrial metaphors do not replace the literal meaning of the song; they enhance it. By allowing us to compare and contrast the estranged couple on the ground with the planet and moon (permanently estranged, yet eternally circling one another in wary fascination) Perkins creates a deeply moving and resonant experience.

Until I solved this moon riddle, I never knew what to make of the last verse. I guess I assumed that since Elvis Perkins lived in Los Angeles at the time this song was recorded, the character in the song may have been a movie star or model with a compelling reason for a regularly-scheduled Brazilian wax or other depilatory rituals. Even if the narrative voice remained male throughout, I supposed it was plausible that male celebrities in Los Angeles also "get waxed." But now the answer is as clear as moonlight.

The last verse returns to the Moon's narrative voice, and of course she gets waxed regularly -- that is to say, the Moon is "waxing" when she gradually transitions from a new moon to a full moon, and "waning" when she dwindles back to black. She "can't have shadows by noon" -- less a reference to bikini line stubble than yet another punning reference to sunlight and shadow, whether on Earth or in outer space. Indeed, noon is the time of day when the Sun casts no shadow. When she says "You just stay put and relax," she is addressing the Earth, which serves as a stable reference point for the Moon's orbit (although the planet hardly remains stationary, since it, in turn, orbits the Sun).

The last line of the last verse, "I'll be round again soon," is a magnificent triple-entendre.

The Moon is roughly spherical, and appears as a circle in the sky when full -- yet on the next night she begins to wane. For the rest of the month, she appears as various deformed partial circles: waning gibbous, half, and crescent, followed by new (a practically invisible Moon) and then waxing crescent, half and gibbous. Viewed on these terms, she is only "round" for a few days each month, but it is never very long before she becomes full again -- "round again soon."

The Moon's orbit takes it 'round and 'round the Earth -- but also, the Earth's far more rapid rotation on its axis creates the illusion that Sun and Moon rise and set each day and night. In this sense, the Moon apparently goes away every day, but comes back every night, which brings her 'round again even sooner than in the first interpretation.

Finally, back on the ground, there is also a literal interpretation of this lyric which deals solely with the human element. The female narrator, who has been visiting the male narrator (even if only in his memories), assures him (even if only in his imagination) that her memory will soon return again to haunt him.

Moon Woman II brings me to tears everytime I listen to it or play it on my guitar.

[Beautiful, beautiful work]