Desert Moon

#1204: By The Light of the Silvery Moon

O, By the light of the silvery moon
I want to spoon, to my honey I’ll croon love’s tune
Honeymoon keep a-shining in June
Your silv’ry beams will bring love dreams
We’ll be cuddling soon
By the silvery moon
(Edwards/Madden 1909)

Oh, the moon! That might explain things. You see, the moon affects the brain.
(Amman – Clash of the Titans 1982)

RECORD STORE TALES #1204:  By The Light of the Silvery Moon

I’m not a nocturnal person, though I used to pull a few allnighters with Jen when we were first dating.  I do have insomnia, so I often wake in the middle of the night.  At home, this usually means checking my email and having a drink before heading back to the sheets.  At the cottage, I enjoy stepping out into the cool summer air and having a look around.

I don’t bring a flashlight.  I let my eyes adjust to the darkness and wander.

You see things at night.  When visible, the moon lends a silvery sheen over the entire landscape.  Not quite enough to read by, but certainly enough to see the ripples of waves on the water.  Under the cover of trees, silver slits of light pierce the darkness, creating spotlights on the earth.  If there is a breeze, the movement of the trees can really make you feel as if you’re not alone.

You hear things at night.  Once or twice I heard a coyote, crying like a human child and echoing through the valley.  Another deep dark night, I heard a growling that I could not see.  We do get bears here.  Sometimes the swaying trees can create a growling sound as they move in the night, but this growl scared me and I made a quick retreat back to the house.

I enjoy the total solitude at 3 AM.  I feel more connected to nature by the silence (other than wind, waves and nocturnal beasts).  I don’t wear shoes on these walks.  I can feel the grass or cool sand beneath my feet.  Sometimes I stub my toe on a tree root, but that’s a small annoyance in the grand calculus of the pitch black night.

I try not to make a sound.  Just observe with my senses. Feel the cool air on my back.  It’s mental health maintenance.  While I love living in Kitchener (for many great reasons), I feel truly free and alive in the wilderness.

A special moonlight treat is when the silvery satellite turns blood orange.  A moonset is a very special sight that not many get to know, or even know about.  I’ve seen a few of them.  When a crescent moon hits the horizon, people describe as the image of a blazing sailing ship on the edge of the lake.  This year, wildfire smoke has prevented us from seeing the moon kiss the horizon, but its orange glory remains as a fiery ember in the sky.  When the moon is full, you can imagine it is a burning Balrog, climbing out of a gaping maw in the dark mines of Moria.

Truly the world looks alien at night in the light of the moon.  Perhaps that is why I love it so much.  I have always yearned to see other worlds, but the beauty of the Earth is enough to last many lifetimes, if you go out at night under the light of the silvery moon.

 


Of all the versions of “By the Light of the Silvery Moon”, Little Richard’s is one of the highest charting, going to #17 in the UK, 50 years after the song was written. Other renditions were performed by Gene Vincent, Doris Day, Fats Waller, Etta Jams, Burl Ives, Ray Charles, Julie Andrews, and even Bugs Bunny (Mel Blanc) among countless versions.

REVIEW: Dennis DeYoung – Desert Moon (1984)

DENNIS DeYOUNG – Desert Moon (1984 A&M, 2013 BGO reissue)

Alas for me in ’83, Styx were coming very close to an end.  Tommy Shaw didn’t want to sing songs about robots (or something) but what it really came down to was Dennis DeYoung’s vision vs. his.  Dennis was the theatrical one, and Tommy was the rocker.  That’s putting it in simplistic terms, but by the end of the tour, Tommy was out.  The other three members of Styx wanted to replace him and carry on, but Dennis was not interested.  In 1984, Styx issued their live album Caught in the Act, and said goodbye.  Less than six months later, Dennis DeYoung was out of the gates with his debut solo album.

Desert Moon demonstrated that Dennis was full of new ideas.  He wrote seven of the eight songs, with a Hendrix cover in the mix, and no co-writers.  Not that Dennis needed co-writers before, but he did often share credits on early Styx tracks with his bandmates.  Guitars on Desert Moon were handled by Tom Dziallo, who also programmed drums when necessary.  Dennis takes care of all keyboard duties, augmented by saxophone on some tracks.

I can distinctly remember watching MuchMusic in 1984, when a new Dennis DeYoung video came on, called “Desert Moon”.   It was a top 10 hit, and a ballad.  I was quite clear in my youth that I did not like Styx for their ballads.  I dismissed Dennis as a solo artist immediately.  I am sure he was broken-hearted that a 12 year old Canadian kid didn’t like his new direction.

I should not have dismissed Dennis so easily.  If I had bought his new album, I would have loved the opening rocker “Don’t Wait For Heroes”.  It could have been a Styx song, the upbeat triumphant kind of single that they were known for pre-“Roboto”.  Styx fans might have considered it a return to form for the singer.  While not as guitar-heavy as the two-guitar band, it does rock, with the drums (by Tom Radtke) in particular driving the song.  The melodies evoke “Don’t Let It End (Reprise)” on Kilroy Was Here, but with more edge.  The end refrain of “get up, get up, get up!” should indeed make you get up.

Guitars come to the forefront on “Please”, with a riff and a chug.  Then on the pre-chorus, Dennis lets the keyboards come out.  “Please” is a duet with Rosemary Butler, a singer with dozens of albums on her resumé.  A tasty guitar solo continues to keep things accessible to Styx fans, but the duet is really impressive.  Butler goes head to head with DeYoung, and blows him away by the end with some incredible high notes.

New wave sounds inflect “Boys Will Be Boys”, which Dennis delivers with spoken-word verses.  The fast beats and bouncing synth recall Devo and bands of a similar nature, not to mention that Alice Cooper ’80 sound.  There is also a clear 1950s influence on the chorus, with that “dip dip dip dip dow!”  The production recalls “Music Time” from the final Styx record Caught in the Act.

You don’t know that you’re listening to a Hendrix cover at first.  It sounds more like a slowed down “Peter Gunn”, but then Dennis sings those lines.  “You don’t care for me, I don’t care about that…”  Only then do you realize you are grooving to “Fire”.  Unlike every other cover of it, Dennis all but rewrites it as a slow rock groove.  While “Fire” is not an album highlight (think about that a moment), it is one of the most interesting versions you’ll ever hear.  It takes guts to reimagine a song like “Fire”, and it takes talent to pull it off so well.

The aforementioned title track “Desert Moon” opens side two.  It was the top ten ballad, and it’s easy to hear why.  It’s a slow, romantic sounding song with a resounding nostalgic chorus about summer nights, innocence and dreams.  The formula worked.  In the liner notes of the BGO edition CD release, Dennis credits the arrangement which emphasizes his voice, and therefore the lyrics.  The guitar solo is also a thing of beauty, with one sustained note that just sings.  A magnificent solo.

Dennis digs into his classic rock and broadway roots for “Suspicious”.  It’s a DeYoung trademark, but in light of exceptional material preceding it, it tends to go unremembered.  It might be a case of too much synth.  “Gravity” uses such electronics as well, but in more upbeat setting.  “I wanna climb Mt. Everest, and find my Shangri-La,” sings Dennis.  The fast New Wave beats during the chorus are fun but the song struggles to find an identity, and the listener has trouble hanging on.

Desert Moon ends on “Dear Darling (I’ll Be There)”, a final ballad, and just not enough to recover the album from a dip in memorability at the end.  It’s simply too much saccharine at the end of the day.  Another upbeat track should have ended the album, though at least there is a fine sax solo to dig into.

Dennis suffered an injury while making a music video and never got to tour Desert Moon properly.  Would it have made a difference?  Unlikely.  While Dennis was more than capable of delivering a good album on his own, left to his own devices, it didn’t have the consistency we were used to with Styx.  Perhaps a co-producer would have made a difference, since Dennis produced this album by himself.  The performances are all excellent, particularly lead vocals, but there needed to be more spark within some of the songs.

3/5 stars