Friday's Grief Song, 5.5.23
"I spoke about wings/you just flew"
Sometimes the algorithm gods work in your favor.
Like when Facebook ads targeted me for writer Lidia Yuknavitch’s online school, Corporeal Writing, and led me to Amanda Montei’s class on Motherhood called, Writing And/As The Mother, which I loved! (Amanda writes a newsletter called Mad Woman, which I recommend you read).
So thanks to YouTube for sending this Friday’s Grief Song my way last year.
If you know me at all you will not be surprised because it’s by one of my favorite singers of all time, Fiona Apple. I think Fiona is one of the greatest songwriters alive today and something of a skilled grief practitioner in her own right; she’ll be the feature of a longer post coming out later this year.
It’s a cover of a song called The Whole of the Moon, by Scottish band, The Waterboys. I'm slightly embarrassed to say that before Fiona’s version of their song, I’d never heard of this band. Drop a comment below and let me know if you’ve heard of them and if you know this song!
Naturally, Fiona knocks it out of the fucking ball park accompanied by a swell of beautiful musical arrangement featuring piano, feisty drums, a chamberlain (a type of electric keyboard), steady bass line, and lush backing vocals.
Her voice. Her expression. Her sheer full body singing in the video- gah… it’s wonderful to witness- so watch her sing it, don’t just listen to it. Then close your eyes and listen to it again. The lyrics speaking to all those we know who seem to be able to travel across expanses of time and space, the grief and love inherent in that knowing, knowing what it costs them… “too far, too soon.”
I love it and I hope you do too.
Turn it up and let this song saturate you.
Watch and listen to The Whole of the Moon, sung live in studio by Fiona Apple here on YouTube
The Whole of the Moon
The Waterboys
1985
written by Mike Scott
I pictured a rainbow
You held it in your hands
I had flashes
But you saw the plan
I wandered out in the world for years
While you just stayed in your room
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon
The whole of the moon
Hmm, you were there in the turnstiles, with the wind at your heels
You stretched for the stars and you know how it feels to reach too high
Too far
Too soon
You saw the whole of the moon
I was grounded
While you filled the skies
I was dumbfounded by truth
You cut through lies
I saw the rain dirty valley
You saw Brigadoon
I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon
I spoke about wings
You just flew
I wondered, I guessed and I tried
You just knew
I sighed
But you swooned, I saw the crescent
You saw the whole of the moon
The whole of the moon
(The whole of the moon) with a torch in your pocket and the wind at your heels
You climbed on the ladder and you know how it feels to get too high
Too far
Too soon
You saw the whole of the moon
The whole of the moon, hey yeah!
Unicorns and cannonballs, palaces and piers
Trumpets, towers and tenements
Wide oceans full of tears
Flags, rags ferryboats
Scimitars and scarves
Every precious dream and vision
Underneath the stars, yes, you climbed on the ladder
With the wind in your sails
You came like a comet
Blazing your trail too high
Too far
Too soon
You saw the whole of the moon