SELECTIONS FROM THE BLUE MOON BIBLE
"Selections from The Blue Moon Bible" is a compilation drawing from the first six albums of The Blue Moon Bible series, with the last two volumes of the project to be released in 2014. The Blue Moon Bible project is a loose adaptation of the Greek epic poem The Odyssey by Homer with certain elements taken from Ulysses by James Joyce, itself an adaptation of The Odyssey and Homer’s other big hit, The Iliad, takeing place during The Trojan War.
The first six albums of The Blue Moon Bible project cover the first 13 chapters of The Odyssey and the new compilation presents songs from all six albums roughly corresponding to the events in the order they are told in the original poem. On the original six albums of The Blue Moon Bible, events are told in loose chronological order with flashbacks made throughout to events prior. The original Odyssey tells its story slightly out-of-order and the sequence of songs on Selections From The Blue Moon Bible also does this, jumping back and forth between all six albums to present a self-contained story.
Below are a list of the songs preseted on the compilation with quotes from The Odyssey attached to show how a particular song relates to the original poem, as well as some author notes that hopefully provide insight to the uninitiated. Though The Blue Moon Bible is quite freely adaptating The Odyssey, with much inspiration on how to do so from Ulysses, the parallels to the original poem in terms of character and certain events are designed to be consistent from album to album and song to song. Though beware, ambiguity DOES comes in to play quite often since these are songs meant to be enjoyed by their lonesome first and foremost....so any fuzziness in the storytelling is (mostly) meant to be mysterious not lazy.
I'm using the Robert Fitzgerald free-verse translation of The Odyssey for the quotes, which I prefer to any straight prose translation. The original Alexander Pope translation in rhyme is best but I'm not sure would be as helpful in isolated quotes to relate the parallels I have in mind between the Odyssey and the songs.
A couple other notes for any English-lit or Classics majors reading this: I mostly stick to referring in name to the Greek versions of the various characters and gods/goddesses in “The Odyssey.”; however, the huge exception is constantly referring to the hero in his Roman variation of Ulysses instead of the original Greek of Odysseus. Thank pop-culture and Joyce (and Cream) for my not being able to call our hero anything else.
1.The Sugar Nile
(from "The Sugar Nile" Vol.D)
Ithaca/Penelope/Circe
(Book I, lines 17-22))
“Of all these adventures, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
tell us in our time, lift the great song again.
Begin when all the rest who left behind them
headlong death in battle or at sea
had long ago returned, while he alone still hungered
for home and wife.”
The 4th track on each of The Blue Moon Bible album's is always thus far sung by myself from the point-of-view of a woman named Diana. This is somewhat of a red herring since Diana is the Italian designation for the Greek goddess Artemis, but here she is meant to be The BMB's version of Circe, the witch-goddess Ulysses meets in Chapter 9 of The Odyssey and who prepares Ulysses for his subsequent encounters with the ghosts in the land of the Cimmerians, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis while on way his home to Ithaca. In my telling of The Odyssey, Circe is far more of a focus than Penelope and used as a way to explore the age-old symbolism of love itself being like a spell and what long-lasting effects may culminate. At this stage, Circe/Diana is sending Ulysses/the narrator on his way down the journey that can take him both away from her AND back to her via memory. The song in this sequence introduces the central "sugar" metaphor that is used (perhaps ad nauseum) throughout all of The Blue Moon Bible.
2. Fire at Captain Mike's
(from "The Youngest Sister" Vol.B)
-Menelaus/Helen/Trojan War
(Book X, lines 207-216)
“’Shipmates, companions in disastrous times
O my dear friends, where Dawn lies, and the West,
and where the great Sun, light of men, may go
under the earth by night, and where he rises—
of these things we know nothing. Do we know
my least thing to serve us now? I wonder—
A that I saw when I went up the rock
was one more island in the boundless main
a low landscape, covered with woods and scrub,
and puffs of smoke ascending in mid-forest.’”
And so here we have what would be a flashback to events before the ones in question occur. Much as the first four chapters of The Odyssey refer to the events of The Iliad and depict events both past and present of the hero's home, as do the first few songs in this sequence. The Blue Moon Bible is meant to depict the journey back to home not as a place or even time but to a state of control and option. In the narrator's mind, he had most control over life during adolescence, and post-adolescence is constantly referred to in the BMB as a "neverending summer" in which one is waiting to return to the structure his adolescent provided and option for identity-shaping provided. Here, we flashback and introduce the restaurant setting, which will be returned to in The Blue Moon Bible time and time again. We also introduce the specific restaurant of The Boathouse, a real restaurant in Kenosha, WI (which I indeed did once wait tables at), as well as one of the heroes of The Blue Moon Bible, Christopher Moon the parallel to Agamemnon from both The Iliad and The Odyssey throughout the albums. He is voiced in certain songs (including on this comp) by James Apollo.
3. Salted Caramel Sinner
(from "The Salted Caramel Sinner" Vol.C)
-Athena & Telemachus
(Book IV, lines 877-82)
“Now the dim phantom spoke to her once more:
‘Lift up thy heart, and fear not overmuch.
For by his side goes whom all men else
invoke as their defender, one so powerful---
Pallas Athena; in thy tears she pitied thee
and now hath sent me that I so assure thee”
We have here what at first appears to be a straightforward losing-virginity song ala Edge of Seventeen, and can indeed be read as such. However this song features Kate Noson on co-vocals who through The BMB is a mysterious and ambiguous character. Is she Penelope/Katie-from-The-Katie-Sermon? The goddess Athena aiding Ulysses through his journey? A hallucination from a spell cast by Circe? All of these? I hope the bridge in the song provides some cues...but it probably won't. And of course, we have more sugar passed off as metaphor, if only in the title.
Kate:
some things never seem to go right when they’re done for the very first time
but if you work hard and try to get better to the very top you can climb
Sam:
from magazines you’ll learn all the ways certain things ought to be done
but when the moment finally arrives a fear is there you can’t outrun
Kate:
all the years you’ve waited so patient for the one to make your heart go numb
Sam:
and take you to the top of the mountain
Kate & Sam:
here it comes here it comes here it comes
Kate:
and this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
if this is what it’s like, is this how it should feel
oh darling let me know how you want it go
if this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
Sam:
people always want to talk about what they heard about what went wrong
how could they know, who would have told a secret that only two were supposed to hold
Kate:
pressure inside builds to exploding, it could burst out with just one touch
Sam: as revenge for a promise now broken
Kate
& Sam::
that you wanted kept so much
and this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
if this is what it’s like, is this how it should feel
oh darling let me know how you want it go
if this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
Kate:
I’m listening and I hear an engine outside passing by
Sam:
it moves so slowly and never stops at red...
Kate & Sam:
: ..lights
many times I’ve broke down and cried when I realized how they all lied
and that love will never be true and each time won’t feel brand new
Kate:
and maybe some things sometimes go right even on the very first try
Sam:
but if they do they’ll never get better
Kate & Sam:
time after time and night after night
and this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
if this is what it’s like, is this how it should feel
oh darling let me know how you want it go
if this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
don’t hurt me one more time...
Kate Noson-vocals
Sam Russell-vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Michael Spaly-electric violin, electric guitar
Ian Rodney-electric guitar
Joan Dirska-Hammond organ
Ken Nottingham-electric bass #1
Schuyler Jones-electric bass #2
Dave Forrester-drum kit #1, percussion
Daniel Hunt-drum kit #2, percussion
Isaac Chirino-percussion
Recorded at Egg Studios by Conrad Uno
and Crackle & Pop Studios by Johnny Sangster
Mixed at Electrokitty Studios by Johnny Sangster
4. Mt.Prospect
(from "The Katie Sermon" Vol.A)
-Telemachus, Trojan War
(Book III, 247-257)
“What strange talk you permit yourself Telemachus
A god could save the man by simply wishing it---
from the farthest shore in the world.
If I were he, I should prefer to suffer
years at sea, and then be safe at home;
better that than a knife at my hearthside
where Agamemnon found it---killed by adulterers.
Though as for death, of course all men must suffer it:
the gods may love a man, but they can’t help him
when cold death comes to lay him on his bier”
This song depicts a funeral in Mt. Prospect, Illinois (not far from my hometown of Kenosha, WI) and the narrator's youth-contrived fight to view the ceremony as celebration to live life not revel in death. We flash back again to the post-adolescent war suffered by the narrator which he is returning "home" from. The “Katie” character is mentioned for the first time on the compilation. And though meant to be partly mysterious and not necessarily ALWAYS portraying this character, when she DOES voice her, she’s meant to be the character our narrator mistakes for his Penelope when in actuality she is the form Athena will most often take to guide our hero.
5. Dinner Rush/E.L.L.
(from "The Water Balloon" Vol.E)
-Calypso
(Book V, lines 212-222)
“Son of Laertes, versatile Odysseus
after all these years with me, you still desire
your old home? Even so, I wish you well
If you could see it at all, before you go---
all the adversity you face at sea—
you would stay here, and guard this house, and be
immortal—though you wanted her forever,
that bride for whom you pine each day.
Can I be less desirable than she is?
Less interesting? Less beautiful? Can mortals
compare with goddesses in grace and form?
In the original poem of The Odyssey, the first four chapter depict his son Telemachus' search for news about his father, aided by the goddess Athena and amidst a bunch of suitors hanging around his dad's estate in attempt to get his mother Penelope to remarry one of them, while also plotting to kill Telemachus. Telemachus finds out from Menelaus that his father is trapped as a resident on another goddess's (Calpyso's) island. And so in the fifth chapter, we first meet Ulysses/Odysseus for the first time as a prisoner of sorts, longing for home. The god Hermes is eventually sent to tell Calypso to let Ulysses go and she memorably makes a speech how male gods can go screwing around with whoever they want but she is not allowed to do so as a FEMALE goddess. This song originally appears on "The Water Balloon" album, which not-ambiguously depicts a waitress Libby in Seattle as being a substitute or even an "emotional reincarnation" of Katie, the narrator's Penelope. This is admittedly a lot of backstory for what is a pretty straightforward song about a lusting after a lonely waitress but not wanting to admit you are.
6. I Am the Ghost
(from "The Year of the Cow" Vol.F)
-Nausicaa
(Book VI, lines 161-173)
“Mistress: please: are you divine, or mortal?
If one of those who dwell in the wide heaven,
you are most near to Artemis, I should say---
great Zeus’s daughter—in your grace and presence.
If you are one of earth’s inhabitants,
how blest your father, and your gentle mother,
blest all your kin. I know what happiness
must send the warm tears to their eyes each time
they see their wondrous child go to the dancing!
But one man’s destiny is more than blest---
he who prevails, and takes you as his bride.
Never have I laid eyes on equal beauty
in man or woman. I am hushed indeed.”
After Ulysses is released by Calypso and sent on his way, he takes a rough ride on the seas via the god Poseidon, whose son the Cyclops Ulysses blinded…...but we'll get to that. Poseidon conjures a huge storm that Ulysses barely survives and he washes up on the sore of the Phaeacians, where he encounters the princess Nausicaa. Nausicaa shows him kindness and invites him into her parents palace for shelter, while becoming quite entranced with him and him with her. Scholars note that at the end of The Odyssey, after Ulysses finally makes it home (spolier!) and slays all the suitors (ditto) then recounts his adventures to his wife Penelope, he conveniently leaves out mention of Nausicaa. Anyway, this track is supposed to be somewhat ambiguous in who it is being sung to or even from. Like "The Sugar Nile" it is the 4th track on the album and sung from a female point of view but it is also the first 4th track to feature Kate Noson on prominent co-lead vocal. My hope is that the sentiments of the song could be applicable to Ulysses' relations to Penelope, Circe, Nausicaa and Athena. Once again, none of this really matters if the song can’t be enjoyed WITHOUT thinking about any of it.
7. Candyland
(from "The Sugar Nile"Vol.D)
-The Phaeacians & The Lotus-Eaters
(Book IX, Lines 98-104)
“They fell in, soon enough, with Lotus Eaters,
who showed no will to do us harm, only
offering the sweet Lotus to our friends—
but those who ate this honeyed plant, the Lotus,
never cared to report, nor to return;
they longed to stay forever, browsing on
that native bloom, forgetful of their homeland.”
Bringing back the sugar metaphor (again), I would like to mention that the sequence of songs on this compilation does not overtly serve the "failed Christian" theme of The Blue Moon Bible until the last couple songs. Most people want to escape somewhere at some point, so this backstory is not important to enjoying any of these songs or this song in particular; however this song corresponds with Ulysses beginning to relate his exploits since the end of the Iliad and the Trojan War to the Phaeacians, starting here with The Lotus-Eaters, who famously provide Ulysses' crew with the honey-taste of the lotus-flower that makes the recipient forget all about going home. Through the albums of The Blue Moon Bible, one may realize that the narrator with his church background may consider the dogma of Christianity to be the "sugar" he is constantly escaping from or returning to and thus any mention made COULD somehow be related. But you didn’t hear that from me.
8. Abercrombie Girl
(from "The Salted Caramel Sinner" Vol.C)
The Laestrygonians/Athena
(Book X, lines 117-135)
“and near the settlement they met a daughter
of Antiphates the Laestrygonian—a stalwart
young girl taking her pail to Artakia,
the fountain where these people go for water.
My fellows hailed her, put their questions to her:
who might the king be? ruling over whom?
She waved her hand, showing her father’s lodge,
so they approached it. In its gloom they say
a woman like a mountain crag, the queen—
and loathed the sight of her. But she, for greeting,
called from the meeting ground her lord and master,
Antiphates, who came to drink their blood.
He seized one man and tore him on the spot,
making a meal of him; the other two
leaped out of doors and ran to join the ships.
Behind, he raised the whole tribe howling, countless
Laestrygonians—and more than men they seemed,
gigantic when they gathered on the sky line”
The placement of this song on the compilation is kind of a cheat, since Ulysses and his crew encountered the Laestrygonians AFTER the Cyclops (which is dealt with in the song after this one), not before. And in the sequence of events as I envision them, it would fit that sequence as well. However it just worked too well to have My Pink Booth immediately followed by "One More Cigarette," so I took a liberty here…..So the Laestrygonians were a race of giant cannibals who Ulysses & crew are led to via the king's becoming daughter encountered at a well. For years, this was our most popular song to play out live and the one I got asked about most frequently: who or what IS an Abercrombie Girl? Does it refer to Abercrombie and Fitch? Well, I'd like to think common sense would dictate yes but the Abercrombie name without the Fitch has general upper-class connotations that I'd like to think make the song not necessarily about the famous brand….though maybe when you're going for a materialism-as-cannibalism metaphor, making fun of a brand-name IS necessary. On another note, this is the only "group vocal" song included on the collection, though there are a quite a few throughout the six BMB albums. The other singers besides myself that pop up are meant to portray the
changing forms of Athena who guides Ulysses by mostly appearing as people he knows….or to add more ambiguity, perhaps these voices are just Ulysses hallucinating while caught in Circe's spell heh heh.
Allison:
you wake up in the morning, ready to start working
you slip on your worn-out shoes and wait
Shelby:
all day long to see her, you dream of being with her
but at night, you’re on your lonely way
Kate:
into your apartment where you’ll turn on the TV
pretty soon it’s only her you’re...
Allison, Shelby & Kate:
...watching on the screen and
your feet start tapping
your toes start laughing
your stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
and all the day long
you’ll give in and play along
because you’re stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
Sam:
it started off so gently, you swore that you wouldn’t be
in deep always wishing she was there
James:
you thought that she was cute so you asked her out one night
and had fun til she asked you in
Michael:
then you went upstairs and took a look around
and something deep inside said...
Sam, James & Michael:
“we got to get out now!” but
Allison. Shelby, Kate, Sam, James, Michael, Scott & Nathan:
your feet start tapping
your toes start laughing
your stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
and all the day long
you’ll give in and play along
because you’re stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
Shelby:
wipe those thoughts out of your mind child
Kate & Allison:
if you know what’s good for you
Allison:
and now it’s time to step right up now
Allison. Shelby, Kate, Sam, James, Michael, Scott & Nathan:
and take whatever the teller gives to you.
cause your feet start tapping
your toes start laughing
your stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
and all the day long
you’ll give in and play along
because you’re stuck on the Abercrombie Girl..
Sam:
and any gift you’ll ever buy her
Michael:
well she’ll take it right on back
Kate &
James:
and exchange it for a brand name
Allison. Shelby, Kate, Sam, James, Michael, Scott & Nathan:
and a color completely different cause
your feet start tapping
your toes start laughing
your stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
and all the day long
you’ll give in and play along
because you’re stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
Allison Tulloss-lead vocals, flute, keyboards
Shelby Earl-lead vocals, percussion
Kate Noson-lead vocals, percussion
Sam Russell-lead vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards, percussion
James Apollo-lead vocals
Michael Spaly-lead vocals, electric guitar, violin, mandolin, nose flute
Nathan Wade-backing vocals
Scott Andrew-backing vocals
Joan Dirska-Hammond organ, farfisa, other keyboards gang vocals
Rachel Ferguson-gang vocals
Andrea Yoshida-gang vocals, viola
Chris Mulally-gang vocals, percussion
Clayton Ballard-gang vocals
Justin Roeser-backing vocals, percussion
Schuyler Jones-electric bass #1
Ken Nottingham-electric bass #2, gang vocals
Dave Forrester-drum kit #1, percussion
Daniel Hunt-drum kit #2, percussion
Isaac Chirino-congas, percussion, drum break, gang vocals
Karl Benitez-trumpet, trombone
Recorded at Egg Studios by Conrad Uno
, Crackle & Pop by Johnny Sangster,
and Chroma Studios by Brad Zeffren
Mixed by Johnny Sangster at Electrokitty Studios
9.My Pink Booth
(from "The Salted Caramel Sinner" Vol.C)
-Cyclops
(Book IX, 406-423)
“Now by the gods, I drove my big hand spike
deep in the embers, charring it again,
and cheered my men along with battle talk
to keep their courage up: no quitting now
The pike of olive, green though it had been,
reddened and glowed as if about to catch.
I drew it from the coals and my four-fellows
gave me a hand, lugging it near the Cyclops
as more than natural force nerved them; straight
forward they sprinted, lifted it, and rammed it
deep in his crater eye, and I leaned on it
turning it as a shipwright turns a drill
in planking, having men below to swing
the two-handled strap that spins it in the groove.
So with our brand we bored that great eye socket
while blood ran out around the red hot bar
Eyelid and lash were seared; the pierced ball
hissed broiling, and the roots popped.”
I'm not going to linger too long on this one though I will say no matter how base or obvious the metaphor of what The Cyclops is here is on a literal level, overall it's meant to be a blurred combination of ego and confidence within the narrator. If the suitors he must slay down surrounding his castle and true love are competing versions of myself inside trying to overcome a pure, enlightened self, then the Cyclops is a monster arising from repressed sexuality, and from the religious undertones here, out of a repressed background.
you thought that I was something special
one little look gave it away
I always watched in amazement
the one that I wanted being replaced
and I know that I acted like a child
couldn’t peel shell of the egg
the trouble came in remembering
the moment while another was taking place
then I’d bring back every word you said
consider gospel what should have been dead but
only in the shelter of my pink booth
could I confess at all in my pink booth
and fill every corner in my pink booth
to make the curtain fall in my pink booth
I didn’t take all I wanted
but I didn’t stop wanting all I could take
only when I was abandoned
I decided to do to another the same
after begging for penance on the floor
spilling my same sin over and over
trembling in the brightness of my pink booth
a light always providing in my pink booth
and funneling fulfillment in my pink booth
til we’re safe and secure in my pink booth
my pink booth little by little is crumbling down
I must go in one last time to empty out
knowing just one more opening is all I get
to hide away and truly repent
but i don’t want to let go of what I want
and miss all the juices I know will haunt
and think it’s not too late to right a wrong
even as alarms keep going off
and they’ll ring in the walls of my pink booth
going ding-dong-ding in my pink booth
the clanging here to stay in my pink booth
so I’ll sink all the way in my pink booth
where the milkman sings in my pink booth
and the half-wing wrings in my pink booth
on the throne sits the king of my pink booth
Mama don’t take away my pink booth
Mama don’t take away my pink booth
Sam Russell-lead vocals, electric guitars
Sean Lambrecht-keyboards, electric guitar, outro bass
Clay Ballard-backing vocals
James Apollo-backing vocals
Michael Spaly-violins
Andrea Yoshida-viola
Joan Dirska-keyboards
Andrew Blakehall-keyboards
Schuyler Jones-electric bass #1
Russ Fuller-electric bass #2
Daniel Hunt-drum kit #1
Isaac Chirino-drum kit #2, percussion
Dennis Jolin-cowbell, percussion, Speak n' Say
recorded at Egg Studios by Conrad Uno
mixed by Johnny Sangster at Avast! Recording Co.
10. One More Cigarette
(from "The Youngest Sister" Vol.B)
-Circe
(Book X, 432-444)
“But Circe had already turned away.
Her long staff in hand, she left the hall
and opened up the sty. I saw her enter,
turning those men turned swine to stand before me.
She stroked them, each in turn, with some new chrism;
and then, behold! their bristles fell away,
the coarse pelt grown upon them by her drug
melted away and they were men again,
younger, more handsome, taller than before.
Their eyes upon me, each one took my hands,
and wild regret and longing pierced them through
so the room rang with sobs, and even Circe
pitied that transformation”
Another reason for sequencing this song right after My Pink Booth on this compilation is that I always read Ulysses willingness to stay with Circe for so long as a respite following his men being slayed by both the Cyclops and the Laestrygonians, but especially the Cyclops. Which brings me to point out that in this version of The Odyssey, the main "love interest" per say is not Penelope. In my retelling, Penelope is a combination of sanctified memory and an ideal the narrator has engraved into heart and soul that no lover can live up to, until Circe. The metaphor of Circe turning Ulysses men to swine then changing them back into being taller and more handsome than they were should be obvious to anyone who’s been in love before. The procedure Ulysses has to take too to calm and seduce Circe is nothing more than a courting ritual to me. And so taking the "love-as-a-spell" motif, here it is used to open the narrator's eyes to possible past lives lived, either within his own or an actual past life of the soul. In last verse the narrator and the Diana/Circe figure abandon going to church because there is no need; they have their own, without need to be homesick.
11. Angels 'Round the Throne Pt.1
(from "The Water Balloon" Vol.E)
-Hades & The Sirens
(Book XI, lines 40-46)
“Now the souls gathered, stirring out of Erebos,
brides and young men, and men grown old in pain,
and tender girls whose hearts were new to grief;
many were there, too, torn by brazen lanceheads,
battle-slain, bearing still their bloody gear.
From every side they came and sought the pit
with rustling cries; and I grew sick with fear.”
(Book XII, lines 185-194)
“Dear friends,
more than one man, or two, should know those things
Circe foresaw for us and shared with me,
so let me tell her forecast; then we die
wth our eyes open, if we are going to die,
or know what death we baffle if we can. Sirens
weaving a haunting song over the sea
we are to shun, she said, and their green shore
all sweet with clover; yet she urged that I
alone should listen to their song.”
If you've made it this far listening and/or reading, you can see that The Blue Moon Bibe is not a rock-opera in the traditional sense of the term, where songs tell a story AS they go. The Blue Moon Bible is more like a jigsaw puzzle, with the pieces of the story scattered for the listener to put together if they feel so inclined but not necessary if you want to just hold the individual pieces. But certain songs from the BMB when placed together CAN give the rock-opera illusion. For instance, going here from One More Cigarette to Angels 'Round the Throne Pt.1. can alert the listener in both thematic and literal terms what happened to the lovers in One More Cigarette. It helps at this point, if you are listening in order, to have heard the funeral story of Mt. Prospect and the Libby-as-lonely-waitress-song of "Dinner Rush/E.L.L" as well as the general restaurant setting and deification of waitresses provided by "Fire at Captain Mike's" The narrator's father, revealed to be a preacher in the next song on this compilation, is introduced here, as part of the "water balloon" metaphor found on the album of the same name. And though the dead abound on The Blue Moon Bible, and some of the voices heard by the narrator are ghosts, the trip to Hades Ulysses takes in The Odyssey is more paralleled by the narrator's overload of nostalgia rather than mourning just the dead.
12. Grenadine = Red Dye No.5
(from "The Sugar Nile" Vol.D)
Scylla and Charybdis
(Book XII, lines 289-319)
““But as I sent them towards Scylla, I
told them nothing , as they could do nothing.
They would have dropped their oars again, in panic,
to roll for cover under the decking. Circe’s
bidding against arms had slipped my mind,
so I tied on my cuirass and took up
two heavy spears, then made my way along
to the foredeck---thinking to see her first from there,
the monster of the grey rock, harboring
torment for my friends, I strained my eyes
upon that cliffside veiled in cloud, but nowhere
could I catch sight of her.
And all this time,
in travail, sobbing, gaining on the current,
we rowed into the strait—Scylla to port
and on our starboard beam Charybdis, dire
gorge of the salt sea tide. By heaven! when she
vomited, all the sea was like a cauldron
seething over intense fire, when the mixture
suddenly heaves and rises.”
One last trip (on this comp) to the sugar nile setting and again with one of our heroes Chris Moon, here being directly addressed by the narrator in a state of remorse. This track, as do many on The Sugar Nile & The Water Balloon albums, tries to encapsulate the classic Scylla and Charybdis or "rock and a hard pace" mindset, here applied to the necessity of living in the moment day-to-day versus living with constant reminders of past failures and gone friendships, all while trying to make it through a shift at a restaurant. If one has been in a restaurant or other type of environment from ages 16 to 30, than either viewpoint is usually an option, neither healthy.
13. All These Passing Fields
(from "The Year of the Cow" Vol.F)
The Phaeacians/Ithaca
(Book V, lines 514-520)
“A man in a distant field, no hearthfires near
will hide a fresh brand in his bed of embers
to keep a spark alive for the next day;
so in the leaves Odysseus hid himself,
while over him Athena showered sleep
that his distress should end, and soon, soon.
In quiet sleep she sealed his cherished eyes.”
There are perhaps a couple songs from “The Year of the Cow” album that would have been more appropriate tp depict how the Naussica figure in The Blue Moon Bible helps the Ulysses one back to a state of home and self-awareness of secular spirituality….but maybe not. There are parallels here in Nausicaa’s mother assisting in Ulysses’ journey back home corresponding to this song explaining how the true higher power in the narrator's eyes is found through union of the flesh, not surrender of the soul. By having Kate Noson as a co-lead vocalist here, she becomes the Athena figure taking the form of the Katie?Penelope character. The point of all this detail is to provide a route through this compilation in answer to those who may ask exactly how The Blue Moon Bible is adapting The Odyssey. Well….
"Selections from The Blue Moon Bible" is a compilation drawing from the first six albums of The Blue Moon Bible series, with the last two volumes of the project to be released in 2014. The Blue Moon Bible project is a loose adaptation of the Greek epic poem The Odyssey by Homer with certain elements taken from Ulysses by James Joyce, itself an adaptation of The Odyssey and Homer’s other big hit, The Iliad, takeing place during The Trojan War.
The first six albums of The Blue Moon Bible project cover the first 13 chapters of The Odyssey and the new compilation presents songs from all six albums roughly corresponding to the events in the order they are told in the original poem. On the original six albums of The Blue Moon Bible, events are told in loose chronological order with flashbacks made throughout to events prior. The original Odyssey tells its story slightly out-of-order and the sequence of songs on Selections From The Blue Moon Bible also does this, jumping back and forth between all six albums to present a self-contained story.
Below are a list of the songs preseted on the compilation with quotes from The Odyssey attached to show how a particular song relates to the original poem, as well as some author notes that hopefully provide insight to the uninitiated. Though The Blue Moon Bible is quite freely adaptating The Odyssey, with much inspiration on how to do so from Ulysses, the parallels to the original poem in terms of character and certain events are designed to be consistent from album to album and song to song. Though beware, ambiguity DOES comes in to play quite often since these are songs meant to be enjoyed by their lonesome first and foremost....so any fuzziness in the storytelling is (mostly) meant to be mysterious not lazy.
I'm using the Robert Fitzgerald free-verse translation of The Odyssey for the quotes, which I prefer to any straight prose translation. The original Alexander Pope translation in rhyme is best but I'm not sure would be as helpful in isolated quotes to relate the parallels I have in mind between the Odyssey and the songs.
A couple other notes for any English-lit or Classics majors reading this: I mostly stick to referring in name to the Greek versions of the various characters and gods/goddesses in “The Odyssey.”; however, the huge exception is constantly referring to the hero in his Roman variation of Ulysses instead of the original Greek of Odysseus. Thank pop-culture and Joyce (and Cream) for my not being able to call our hero anything else.
1.The Sugar Nile
(from "The Sugar Nile" Vol.D)
Ithaca/Penelope/Circe
(Book I, lines 17-22))
“Of all these adventures, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
tell us in our time, lift the great song again.
Begin when all the rest who left behind them
headlong death in battle or at sea
had long ago returned, while he alone still hungered
for home and wife.”
The 4th track on each of The Blue Moon Bible album's is always thus far sung by myself from the point-of-view of a woman named Diana. This is somewhat of a red herring since Diana is the Italian designation for the Greek goddess Artemis, but here she is meant to be The BMB's version of Circe, the witch-goddess Ulysses meets in Chapter 9 of The Odyssey and who prepares Ulysses for his subsequent encounters with the ghosts in the land of the Cimmerians, the Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis while on way his home to Ithaca. In my telling of The Odyssey, Circe is far more of a focus than Penelope and used as a way to explore the age-old symbolism of love itself being like a spell and what long-lasting effects may culminate. At this stage, Circe/Diana is sending Ulysses/the narrator on his way down the journey that can take him both away from her AND back to her via memory. The song in this sequence introduces the central "sugar" metaphor that is used (perhaps ad nauseum) throughout all of The Blue Moon Bible.
2. Fire at Captain Mike's
(from "The Youngest Sister" Vol.B)
-Menelaus/Helen/Trojan War
(Book X, lines 207-216)
“’Shipmates, companions in disastrous times
O my dear friends, where Dawn lies, and the West,
and where the great Sun, light of men, may go
under the earth by night, and where he rises—
of these things we know nothing. Do we know
my least thing to serve us now? I wonder—
A that I saw when I went up the rock
was one more island in the boundless main
a low landscape, covered with woods and scrub,
and puffs of smoke ascending in mid-forest.’”
And so here we have what would be a flashback to events before the ones in question occur. Much as the first four chapters of The Odyssey refer to the events of The Iliad and depict events both past and present of the hero's home, as do the first few songs in this sequence. The Blue Moon Bible is meant to depict the journey back to home not as a place or even time but to a state of control and option. In the narrator's mind, he had most control over life during adolescence, and post-adolescence is constantly referred to in the BMB as a "neverending summer" in which one is waiting to return to the structure his adolescent provided and option for identity-shaping provided. Here, we flashback and introduce the restaurant setting, which will be returned to in The Blue Moon Bible time and time again. We also introduce the specific restaurant of The Boathouse, a real restaurant in Kenosha, WI (which I indeed did once wait tables at), as well as one of the heroes of The Blue Moon Bible, Christopher Moon the parallel to Agamemnon from both The Iliad and The Odyssey throughout the albums. He is voiced in certain songs (including on this comp) by James Apollo.
3. Salted Caramel Sinner
(from "The Salted Caramel Sinner" Vol.C)
-Athena & Telemachus
(Book IV, lines 877-82)
“Now the dim phantom spoke to her once more:
‘Lift up thy heart, and fear not overmuch.
For by his side goes whom all men else
invoke as their defender, one so powerful---
Pallas Athena; in thy tears she pitied thee
and now hath sent me that I so assure thee”
We have here what at first appears to be a straightforward losing-virginity song ala Edge of Seventeen, and can indeed be read as such. However this song features Kate Noson on co-vocals who through The BMB is a mysterious and ambiguous character. Is she Penelope/Katie-from-The-Katie-Sermon? The goddess Athena aiding Ulysses through his journey? A hallucination from a spell cast by Circe? All of these? I hope the bridge in the song provides some cues...but it probably won't. And of course, we have more sugar passed off as metaphor, if only in the title.
Kate:
some things never seem to go right when they’re done for the very first time
but if you work hard and try to get better to the very top you can climb
Sam:
from magazines you’ll learn all the ways certain things ought to be done
but when the moment finally arrives a fear is there you can’t outrun
Kate:
all the years you’ve waited so patient for the one to make your heart go numb
Sam:
and take you to the top of the mountain
Kate & Sam:
here it comes here it comes here it comes
Kate:
and this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
if this is what it’s like, is this how it should feel
oh darling let me know how you want it go
if this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
Sam:
people always want to talk about what they heard about what went wrong
how could they know, who would have told a secret that only two were supposed to hold
Kate:
pressure inside builds to exploding, it could burst out with just one touch
Sam: as revenge for a promise now broken
Kate
& Sam::
that you wanted kept so much
and this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
if this is what it’s like, is this how it should feel
oh darling let me know how you want it go
if this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
Kate:
I’m listening and I hear an engine outside passing by
Sam:
it moves so slowly and never stops at red...
Kate & Sam:
: ..lights
many times I’ve broke down and cried when I realized how they all lied
and that love will never be true and each time won’t feel brand new
Kate:
and maybe some things sometimes go right even on the very first try
Sam:
but if they do they’ll never get better
Kate & Sam:
time after time and night after night
and this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
if this is what it’s like, is this how it should feel
oh darling let me know how you want it go
if this is what it’s like and this is how it feels
don’t hurt me one more time...
Kate Noson-vocals
Sam Russell-vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Michael Spaly-electric violin, electric guitar
Ian Rodney-electric guitar
Joan Dirska-Hammond organ
Ken Nottingham-electric bass #1
Schuyler Jones-electric bass #2
Dave Forrester-drum kit #1, percussion
Daniel Hunt-drum kit #2, percussion
Isaac Chirino-percussion
Recorded at Egg Studios by Conrad Uno
and Crackle & Pop Studios by Johnny Sangster
Mixed at Electrokitty Studios by Johnny Sangster
4. Mt.Prospect
(from "The Katie Sermon" Vol.A)
-Telemachus, Trojan War
(Book III, 247-257)
“What strange talk you permit yourself Telemachus
A god could save the man by simply wishing it---
from the farthest shore in the world.
If I were he, I should prefer to suffer
years at sea, and then be safe at home;
better that than a knife at my hearthside
where Agamemnon found it---killed by adulterers.
Though as for death, of course all men must suffer it:
the gods may love a man, but they can’t help him
when cold death comes to lay him on his bier”
This song depicts a funeral in Mt. Prospect, Illinois (not far from my hometown of Kenosha, WI) and the narrator's youth-contrived fight to view the ceremony as celebration to live life not revel in death. We flash back again to the post-adolescent war suffered by the narrator which he is returning "home" from. The “Katie” character is mentioned for the first time on the compilation. And though meant to be partly mysterious and not necessarily ALWAYS portraying this character, when she DOES voice her, she’s meant to be the character our narrator mistakes for his Penelope when in actuality she is the form Athena will most often take to guide our hero.
5. Dinner Rush/E.L.L.
(from "The Water Balloon" Vol.E)
-Calypso
(Book V, lines 212-222)
“Son of Laertes, versatile Odysseus
after all these years with me, you still desire
your old home? Even so, I wish you well
If you could see it at all, before you go---
all the adversity you face at sea—
you would stay here, and guard this house, and be
immortal—though you wanted her forever,
that bride for whom you pine each day.
Can I be less desirable than she is?
Less interesting? Less beautiful? Can mortals
compare with goddesses in grace and form?
In the original poem of The Odyssey, the first four chapter depict his son Telemachus' search for news about his father, aided by the goddess Athena and amidst a bunch of suitors hanging around his dad's estate in attempt to get his mother Penelope to remarry one of them, while also plotting to kill Telemachus. Telemachus finds out from Menelaus that his father is trapped as a resident on another goddess's (Calpyso's) island. And so in the fifth chapter, we first meet Ulysses/Odysseus for the first time as a prisoner of sorts, longing for home. The god Hermes is eventually sent to tell Calypso to let Ulysses go and she memorably makes a speech how male gods can go screwing around with whoever they want but she is not allowed to do so as a FEMALE goddess. This song originally appears on "The Water Balloon" album, which not-ambiguously depicts a waitress Libby in Seattle as being a substitute or even an "emotional reincarnation" of Katie, the narrator's Penelope. This is admittedly a lot of backstory for what is a pretty straightforward song about a lusting after a lonely waitress but not wanting to admit you are.
6. I Am the Ghost
(from "The Year of the Cow" Vol.F)
-Nausicaa
(Book VI, lines 161-173)
“Mistress: please: are you divine, or mortal?
If one of those who dwell in the wide heaven,
you are most near to Artemis, I should say---
great Zeus’s daughter—in your grace and presence.
If you are one of earth’s inhabitants,
how blest your father, and your gentle mother,
blest all your kin. I know what happiness
must send the warm tears to their eyes each time
they see their wondrous child go to the dancing!
But one man’s destiny is more than blest---
he who prevails, and takes you as his bride.
Never have I laid eyes on equal beauty
in man or woman. I am hushed indeed.”
After Ulysses is released by Calypso and sent on his way, he takes a rough ride on the seas via the god Poseidon, whose son the Cyclops Ulysses blinded…...but we'll get to that. Poseidon conjures a huge storm that Ulysses barely survives and he washes up on the sore of the Phaeacians, where he encounters the princess Nausicaa. Nausicaa shows him kindness and invites him into her parents palace for shelter, while becoming quite entranced with him and him with her. Scholars note that at the end of The Odyssey, after Ulysses finally makes it home (spolier!) and slays all the suitors (ditto) then recounts his adventures to his wife Penelope, he conveniently leaves out mention of Nausicaa. Anyway, this track is supposed to be somewhat ambiguous in who it is being sung to or even from. Like "The Sugar Nile" it is the 4th track on the album and sung from a female point of view but it is also the first 4th track to feature Kate Noson on prominent co-lead vocal. My hope is that the sentiments of the song could be applicable to Ulysses' relations to Penelope, Circe, Nausicaa and Athena. Once again, none of this really matters if the song can’t be enjoyed WITHOUT thinking about any of it.
7. Candyland
(from "The Sugar Nile"Vol.D)
-The Phaeacians & The Lotus-Eaters
(Book IX, Lines 98-104)
“They fell in, soon enough, with Lotus Eaters,
who showed no will to do us harm, only
offering the sweet Lotus to our friends—
but those who ate this honeyed plant, the Lotus,
never cared to report, nor to return;
they longed to stay forever, browsing on
that native bloom, forgetful of their homeland.”
Bringing back the sugar metaphor (again), I would like to mention that the sequence of songs on this compilation does not overtly serve the "failed Christian" theme of The Blue Moon Bible until the last couple songs. Most people want to escape somewhere at some point, so this backstory is not important to enjoying any of these songs or this song in particular; however this song corresponds with Ulysses beginning to relate his exploits since the end of the Iliad and the Trojan War to the Phaeacians, starting here with The Lotus-Eaters, who famously provide Ulysses' crew with the honey-taste of the lotus-flower that makes the recipient forget all about going home. Through the albums of The Blue Moon Bible, one may realize that the narrator with his church background may consider the dogma of Christianity to be the "sugar" he is constantly escaping from or returning to and thus any mention made COULD somehow be related. But you didn’t hear that from me.
8. Abercrombie Girl
(from "The Salted Caramel Sinner" Vol.C)
The Laestrygonians/Athena
(Book X, lines 117-135)
“and near the settlement they met a daughter
of Antiphates the Laestrygonian—a stalwart
young girl taking her pail to Artakia,
the fountain where these people go for water.
My fellows hailed her, put their questions to her:
who might the king be? ruling over whom?
She waved her hand, showing her father’s lodge,
so they approached it. In its gloom they say
a woman like a mountain crag, the queen—
and loathed the sight of her. But she, for greeting,
called from the meeting ground her lord and master,
Antiphates, who came to drink their blood.
He seized one man and tore him on the spot,
making a meal of him; the other two
leaped out of doors and ran to join the ships.
Behind, he raised the whole tribe howling, countless
Laestrygonians—and more than men they seemed,
gigantic when they gathered on the sky line”
The placement of this song on the compilation is kind of a cheat, since Ulysses and his crew encountered the Laestrygonians AFTER the Cyclops (which is dealt with in the song after this one), not before. And in the sequence of events as I envision them, it would fit that sequence as well. However it just worked too well to have My Pink Booth immediately followed by "One More Cigarette," so I took a liberty here…..So the Laestrygonians were a race of giant cannibals who Ulysses & crew are led to via the king's becoming daughter encountered at a well. For years, this was our most popular song to play out live and the one I got asked about most frequently: who or what IS an Abercrombie Girl? Does it refer to Abercrombie and Fitch? Well, I'd like to think common sense would dictate yes but the Abercrombie name without the Fitch has general upper-class connotations that I'd like to think make the song not necessarily about the famous brand….though maybe when you're going for a materialism-as-cannibalism metaphor, making fun of a brand-name IS necessary. On another note, this is the only "group vocal" song included on the collection, though there are a quite a few throughout the six BMB albums. The other singers besides myself that pop up are meant to portray the
changing forms of Athena who guides Ulysses by mostly appearing as people he knows….or to add more ambiguity, perhaps these voices are just Ulysses hallucinating while caught in Circe's spell heh heh.
Allison:
you wake up in the morning, ready to start working
you slip on your worn-out shoes and wait
Shelby:
all day long to see her, you dream of being with her
but at night, you’re on your lonely way
Kate:
into your apartment where you’ll turn on the TV
pretty soon it’s only her you’re...
Allison, Shelby & Kate:
...watching on the screen and
your feet start tapping
your toes start laughing
your stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
and all the day long
you’ll give in and play along
because you’re stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
Sam:
it started off so gently, you swore that you wouldn’t be
in deep always wishing she was there
James:
you thought that she was cute so you asked her out one night
and had fun til she asked you in
Michael:
then you went upstairs and took a look around
and something deep inside said...
Sam, James & Michael:
“we got to get out now!” but
Allison. Shelby, Kate, Sam, James, Michael, Scott & Nathan:
your feet start tapping
your toes start laughing
your stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
and all the day long
you’ll give in and play along
because you’re stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
Shelby:
wipe those thoughts out of your mind child
Kate & Allison:
if you know what’s good for you
Allison:
and now it’s time to step right up now
Allison. Shelby, Kate, Sam, James, Michael, Scott & Nathan:
and take whatever the teller gives to you.
cause your feet start tapping
your toes start laughing
your stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
and all the day long
you’ll give in and play along
because you’re stuck on the Abercrombie Girl..
Sam:
and any gift you’ll ever buy her
Michael:
well she’ll take it right on back
Kate &
James:
and exchange it for a brand name
Allison. Shelby, Kate, Sam, James, Michael, Scott & Nathan:
and a color completely different cause
your feet start tapping
your toes start laughing
your stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
and all the day long
you’ll give in and play along
because you’re stuck on the Abercrombie Girl
Allison Tulloss-lead vocals, flute, keyboards
Shelby Earl-lead vocals, percussion
Kate Noson-lead vocals, percussion
Sam Russell-lead vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards, percussion
James Apollo-lead vocals
Michael Spaly-lead vocals, electric guitar, violin, mandolin, nose flute
Nathan Wade-backing vocals
Scott Andrew-backing vocals
Joan Dirska-Hammond organ, farfisa, other keyboards gang vocals
Rachel Ferguson-gang vocals
Andrea Yoshida-gang vocals, viola
Chris Mulally-gang vocals, percussion
Clayton Ballard-gang vocals
Justin Roeser-backing vocals, percussion
Schuyler Jones-electric bass #1
Ken Nottingham-electric bass #2, gang vocals
Dave Forrester-drum kit #1, percussion
Daniel Hunt-drum kit #2, percussion
Isaac Chirino-congas, percussion, drum break, gang vocals
Karl Benitez-trumpet, trombone
Recorded at Egg Studios by Conrad Uno
, Crackle & Pop by Johnny Sangster,
and Chroma Studios by Brad Zeffren
Mixed by Johnny Sangster at Electrokitty Studios
9.My Pink Booth
(from "The Salted Caramel Sinner" Vol.C)
-Cyclops
(Book IX, 406-423)
“Now by the gods, I drove my big hand spike
deep in the embers, charring it again,
and cheered my men along with battle talk
to keep their courage up: no quitting now
The pike of olive, green though it had been,
reddened and glowed as if about to catch.
I drew it from the coals and my four-fellows
gave me a hand, lugging it near the Cyclops
as more than natural force nerved them; straight
forward they sprinted, lifted it, and rammed it
deep in his crater eye, and I leaned on it
turning it as a shipwright turns a drill
in planking, having men below to swing
the two-handled strap that spins it in the groove.
So with our brand we bored that great eye socket
while blood ran out around the red hot bar
Eyelid and lash were seared; the pierced ball
hissed broiling, and the roots popped.”
I'm not going to linger too long on this one though I will say no matter how base or obvious the metaphor of what The Cyclops is here is on a literal level, overall it's meant to be a blurred combination of ego and confidence within the narrator. If the suitors he must slay down surrounding his castle and true love are competing versions of myself inside trying to overcome a pure, enlightened self, then the Cyclops is a monster arising from repressed sexuality, and from the religious undertones here, out of a repressed background.
you thought that I was something special
one little look gave it away
I always watched in amazement
the one that I wanted being replaced
and I know that I acted like a child
couldn’t peel shell of the egg
the trouble came in remembering
the moment while another was taking place
then I’d bring back every word you said
consider gospel what should have been dead but
only in the shelter of my pink booth
could I confess at all in my pink booth
and fill every corner in my pink booth
to make the curtain fall in my pink booth
I didn’t take all I wanted
but I didn’t stop wanting all I could take
only when I was abandoned
I decided to do to another the same
after begging for penance on the floor
spilling my same sin over and over
trembling in the brightness of my pink booth
a light always providing in my pink booth
and funneling fulfillment in my pink booth
til we’re safe and secure in my pink booth
my pink booth little by little is crumbling down
I must go in one last time to empty out
knowing just one more opening is all I get
to hide away and truly repent
but i don’t want to let go of what I want
and miss all the juices I know will haunt
and think it’s not too late to right a wrong
even as alarms keep going off
and they’ll ring in the walls of my pink booth
going ding-dong-ding in my pink booth
the clanging here to stay in my pink booth
so I’ll sink all the way in my pink booth
where the milkman sings in my pink booth
and the half-wing wrings in my pink booth
on the throne sits the king of my pink booth
Mama don’t take away my pink booth
Mama don’t take away my pink booth
Sam Russell-lead vocals, electric guitars
Sean Lambrecht-keyboards, electric guitar, outro bass
Clay Ballard-backing vocals
James Apollo-backing vocals
Michael Spaly-violins
Andrea Yoshida-viola
Joan Dirska-keyboards
Andrew Blakehall-keyboards
Schuyler Jones-electric bass #1
Russ Fuller-electric bass #2
Daniel Hunt-drum kit #1
Isaac Chirino-drum kit #2, percussion
Dennis Jolin-cowbell, percussion, Speak n' Say
recorded at Egg Studios by Conrad Uno
mixed by Johnny Sangster at Avast! Recording Co.
10. One More Cigarette
(from "The Youngest Sister" Vol.B)
-Circe
(Book X, 432-444)
“But Circe had already turned away.
Her long staff in hand, she left the hall
and opened up the sty. I saw her enter,
turning those men turned swine to stand before me.
She stroked them, each in turn, with some new chrism;
and then, behold! their bristles fell away,
the coarse pelt grown upon them by her drug
melted away and they were men again,
younger, more handsome, taller than before.
Their eyes upon me, each one took my hands,
and wild regret and longing pierced them through
so the room rang with sobs, and even Circe
pitied that transformation”
Another reason for sequencing this song right after My Pink Booth on this compilation is that I always read Ulysses willingness to stay with Circe for so long as a respite following his men being slayed by both the Cyclops and the Laestrygonians, but especially the Cyclops. Which brings me to point out that in this version of The Odyssey, the main "love interest" per say is not Penelope. In my retelling, Penelope is a combination of sanctified memory and an ideal the narrator has engraved into heart and soul that no lover can live up to, until Circe. The metaphor of Circe turning Ulysses men to swine then changing them back into being taller and more handsome than they were should be obvious to anyone who’s been in love before. The procedure Ulysses has to take too to calm and seduce Circe is nothing more than a courting ritual to me. And so taking the "love-as-a-spell" motif, here it is used to open the narrator's eyes to possible past lives lived, either within his own or an actual past life of the soul. In last verse the narrator and the Diana/Circe figure abandon going to church because there is no need; they have their own, without need to be homesick.
11. Angels 'Round the Throne Pt.1
(from "The Water Balloon" Vol.E)
-Hades & The Sirens
(Book XI, lines 40-46)
“Now the souls gathered, stirring out of Erebos,
brides and young men, and men grown old in pain,
and tender girls whose hearts were new to grief;
many were there, too, torn by brazen lanceheads,
battle-slain, bearing still their bloody gear.
From every side they came and sought the pit
with rustling cries; and I grew sick with fear.”
(Book XII, lines 185-194)
“Dear friends,
more than one man, or two, should know those things
Circe foresaw for us and shared with me,
so let me tell her forecast; then we die
wth our eyes open, if we are going to die,
or know what death we baffle if we can. Sirens
weaving a haunting song over the sea
we are to shun, she said, and their green shore
all sweet with clover; yet she urged that I
alone should listen to their song.”
If you've made it this far listening and/or reading, you can see that The Blue Moon Bibe is not a rock-opera in the traditional sense of the term, where songs tell a story AS they go. The Blue Moon Bible is more like a jigsaw puzzle, with the pieces of the story scattered for the listener to put together if they feel so inclined but not necessary if you want to just hold the individual pieces. But certain songs from the BMB when placed together CAN give the rock-opera illusion. For instance, going here from One More Cigarette to Angels 'Round the Throne Pt.1. can alert the listener in both thematic and literal terms what happened to the lovers in One More Cigarette. It helps at this point, if you are listening in order, to have heard the funeral story of Mt. Prospect and the Libby-as-lonely-waitress-song of "Dinner Rush/E.L.L" as well as the general restaurant setting and deification of waitresses provided by "Fire at Captain Mike's" The narrator's father, revealed to be a preacher in the next song on this compilation, is introduced here, as part of the "water balloon" metaphor found on the album of the same name. And though the dead abound on The Blue Moon Bible, and some of the voices heard by the narrator are ghosts, the trip to Hades Ulysses takes in The Odyssey is more paralleled by the narrator's overload of nostalgia rather than mourning just the dead.
12. Grenadine = Red Dye No.5
(from "The Sugar Nile" Vol.D)
Scylla and Charybdis
(Book XII, lines 289-319)
““But as I sent them towards Scylla, I
told them nothing , as they could do nothing.
They would have dropped their oars again, in panic,
to roll for cover under the decking. Circe’s
bidding against arms had slipped my mind,
so I tied on my cuirass and took up
two heavy spears, then made my way along
to the foredeck---thinking to see her first from there,
the monster of the grey rock, harboring
torment for my friends, I strained my eyes
upon that cliffside veiled in cloud, but nowhere
could I catch sight of her.
And all this time,
in travail, sobbing, gaining on the current,
we rowed into the strait—Scylla to port
and on our starboard beam Charybdis, dire
gorge of the salt sea tide. By heaven! when she
vomited, all the sea was like a cauldron
seething over intense fire, when the mixture
suddenly heaves and rises.”
One last trip (on this comp) to the sugar nile setting and again with one of our heroes Chris Moon, here being directly addressed by the narrator in a state of remorse. This track, as do many on The Sugar Nile & The Water Balloon albums, tries to encapsulate the classic Scylla and Charybdis or "rock and a hard pace" mindset, here applied to the necessity of living in the moment day-to-day versus living with constant reminders of past failures and gone friendships, all while trying to make it through a shift at a restaurant. If one has been in a restaurant or other type of environment from ages 16 to 30, than either viewpoint is usually an option, neither healthy.
13. All These Passing Fields
(from "The Year of the Cow" Vol.F)
The Phaeacians/Ithaca
(Book V, lines 514-520)
“A man in a distant field, no hearthfires near
will hide a fresh brand in his bed of embers
to keep a spark alive for the next day;
so in the leaves Odysseus hid himself,
while over him Athena showered sleep
that his distress should end, and soon, soon.
In quiet sleep she sealed his cherished eyes.”
There are perhaps a couple songs from “The Year of the Cow” album that would have been more appropriate tp depict how the Naussica figure in The Blue Moon Bible helps the Ulysses one back to a state of home and self-awareness of secular spirituality….but maybe not. There are parallels here in Nausicaa’s mother assisting in Ulysses’ journey back home corresponding to this song explaining how the true higher power in the narrator's eyes is found through union of the flesh, not surrender of the soul. By having Kate Noson as a co-lead vocalist here, she becomes the Athena figure taking the form of the Katie?Penelope character. The point of all this detail is to provide a route through this compilation in answer to those who may ask exactly how The Blue Moon Bible is adapting The Odyssey. Well….