Song Lyrics - Why do we like them?

(By Ann Alex)

If Lance, Blogmaster, allows, this will be the first in an occasional series of appreciation of song lyrics, a subject which I’m particularly interested in.  

Here goes! It seems to me that the song No Moon At All is especially clever, both lyrically and musically.  I first heard this sung delightfully by Claire Kelly (pictured) a few weeks ago at the Globe, and was intrigued by the idea that it is the opposite of the standard ‘moon in June’ songs.  Then a piece of luck - the song turned up in our repertoire on the Blue Jazz Voices jazz singing course.

It’s written by Redd Evans and Dave Mann:

No Moon at All

What a Night

Even lightnin’ bugs have dimmed their light

Stars have disappeared from sight

And there’s no moon at all

Don’t make a sound

It’s so dark

Even Fido is afraid to bark

What a perfect chance to park

And there’s no moon at all

Should we want atmosphere

For inspiration, dear

One kiss will make it clear

That tonight is right and bright moonlight might interfere

No moon at all

Up above

This is nothing like they told us of

Just to think we fell in love

And there’s no moon at all

As soon as you hear the words no moon at all the song gets your attention because it denies what you expect from a love song and you wonder if it will be a sad tale of lost love.  But the jaunty tune leads you to realise that this is highly flirtatious stuff with a lovely light touch and added humour even Fido is afraid to bark. (When we first tackled this song at Blue Jazz, Lindsay’s dog Chaplin was present as an illustration.  And don’t reverse the words as I did, by swopping round ‘bark’ and ‘park’.  Not what the writers intended!)

You’re not allowed to forget the couple’s intentions with the constant repetition of no moon at all.

I consider that the cleverest line in the whole song is This is nothing like they told us of, which has two meanings, referring to both what people traditionally say about falling in love by moonlight, and also what other song writers have written.  The line is a gentle criticism of all the other lyricists, from Cole Porter to Lorenz Hart to goodness knows who else.

Another favourite line for me is tonight is right and bright moonlight might interfere. These words are sung mostly on one note until we come to interfere, which jumps up to higher notes and so literally interferes with the musical sound.  And of course the internal rhymes within the line add to this effect, then interfere has completely different vowel sounds, so both words and music add to the effect.

I could go on more about the many rhymes and repetitions which are obvious, but I’d become a total bore.  Suffice to say that the last two statements are quite defiant, suggesting that they didn’t need the moon to get them to fall in love, so let’s just leave them to it!

Ann Alex.