The Whole of the Moon (song)
Encyclopedia
"The Whole of the Moon" is a 1985 single taken from The Waterboys
' album This Is the Sea
. It is a classic of the band's repertoire and has been consistently played at live shows ever since its release. Written and produced by Mike Scott
, the subject of the song has inspired some speculation. The single was not a big success when initially released in 1985, only making the lower ends of the chart. Subsequently it became one of The Waterboys' best-known songs and their most commercially successful. It is arguably the band's signature song
and was the Ivor Novello Award winner "Best Song Musically and Lyrically" in 1991.
Like The Waterboys' first single "A Girl Called Johnny", the song is a tribute to an inspirational figure or figures. In each line, the singer describes his own perspective and immediately contrasts it with that of the song's subject, summarizing the difference with the line "I saw the crescent / You saw the whole of the moon".
Allmusic instead suggests that its subject is a number of people who inspired Scott, including Christian
writer C. S. Lewis
and the musician Prince. Scott himself says that he "couldn't have written" the song without having read Mark Helprin
's novel Winter's Tale
, but goes on to state that the song is not about Helprin. The official Waterboys website's Frequently Asked Questions clarifies that Scott has said that the song's subject is "a composite of many people", including C. S. Lewis, but explicitly states that it is not about Prince. Musician Nikki Sudden
, with whom Scott had collaborated before forming The Waterboys, has claimed that the song was written about himself.
, Karl Wallinger
, and Roddy Lorimer
. Drummer Kevin Wilkinson
had left the band by the time "The Whole of the Moon" was recorded and drums were played by session player, Chris Whitten. Demo'd but not finished at the beginning of the recording sessions, the song was eventually completed in May 1985.
A feature of "The Whole of the Moon" is the trumpet work on the recording, courtesy of the classically trained Lorimer. Lorimer spent three days with Scott working on the song's arrangement and "went home with a tape of the song and thought about a more classical approach. After a while sitting at the piano I came up with the idea of antiphonal trumpets. A piccolo trumpet on the left answered a piccolo on the right and then the same again, growing by adding a Bb trumpet below each side of the stereo picture. Mike loved it, except the slightly jazzy chords I had used on the run down at the very end, which he simplified. I used the same classical approach later in the song, mixing two classical-type trumpets behind a later verse."
Lorimer also contributes falsetto
background vocals to the song, while Thistlethwaite, another brass section member, performs a saxophone solo near the end. Wallinger provided synthesizer, synth bass and backing vocals.
It was first released as a seven and twelve-inch single, which reached number twenty-eight on the United Kingdom singles chart. The single also contained a live recording of "The Girl in the Swing", from The Waterboys
, the band's first album, an extended mix of "Spirit", and a song titled "Medicine Jack". Following various sell-out tours by the band from 1986-90 the song appeared on the group's greatest hits package The Best of the Waterboys 81–90
in 1991. That year, this song was re-released as a single (7", 12" and CD) from the album and was a big hit, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart
and receiving an Ivor Novello Award as "Best Song Musically and Lyrically" in 1991. The second single release had different B sides from the 1985 version. "Golden Age" was on the 7" B side and the 12" had "The Golden Age Medley", which included "A Golden Age", "Higher In Time" (fast), "High Far Soon" and "Soon As I Get Home".
Including the 2004 remastered album, the song has been officially released four times and appears on the following Waterboys albums:
on her 1992 album The Hunter
, by Mandy Moore
on her 2003 album Coverage
, by the band Human Drama
on the compilation album New Wave Goes to Hell and by folk singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey
on his 1995 release Rapture. Other covers were made by Terry Reid
on his album The Driver, Tom Baxter
, Celtic Pride, Boys Of A New Age, Little Caesar, Paddy Casey, Cousin Leonard, DJ Marco, Cousin Leonard and Paddy Casey & The Frames, and Steve Hogarth
of Marillion
has included it in his solo "h natural" shows. It was also a hit on the Balearic dance scene
in the 1980s and has appeared on numerous other compilations.
The song was also performed in an episode of Father Ted
by Father Noel Furlong (played by Graham Norton
).
The Waterboys
The Waterboys are a band formed in 1983 by Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland and England. Edinburgh, London, Dublin, Spiddal, New York, and Findhorn have all served as homes for the group. The band has played in a...
' album This Is the Sea
This Is the Sea
This Is the Sea is the third and last of The Waterboys' "Big Music" albums. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment", it was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom charts, peaking at number...
. It is a classic of the band's repertoire and has been consistently played at live shows ever since its release. Written and produced by Mike Scott
Mike Scott (musician)
Michael 'Mike' Scott is the founding member, lead singer and chief songwriter of rock band The Waterboys. He has also produced two solo albums, Bring 'em All In and Still Burning...
, the subject of the song has inspired some speculation. The single was not a big success when initially released in 1985, only making the lower ends of the chart. Subsequently it became one of The Waterboys' best-known songs and their most commercially successful. It is arguably the band's signature song
Signature song
A signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best known for, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...
and was the Ivor Novello Award winner "Best Song Musically and Lyrically" in 1991.
Lyrics
The subject of the lyrics has inspired speculation, some of which has been rebutted by the writer. The song apparently began as a "scribble on the back of an envelope on a wintry New York street", after Scott's girlfriend asked him if it was difficult to write a song.Like The Waterboys' first single "A Girl Called Johnny", the song is a tribute to an inspirational figure or figures. In each line, the singer describes his own perspective and immediately contrasts it with that of the song's subject, summarizing the difference with the line "I saw the crescent / You saw the whole of the moon".
Allmusic instead suggests that its subject is a number of people who inspired Scott, including Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
writer C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
and the musician Prince. Scott himself says that he "couldn't have written" the song without having read Mark Helprin
Mark Helprin
Mark Helprin is an American novelist, journalist, and conservative commentator.-Background:Helprin was raised on the Hudson River and in the British West Indies, and holds degrees from Harvard College and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His postgraduate work was done at Princeton...
's novel Winter's Tale
Winter's Tale (Helprin)
Winter's Tale is a 1983 novel by Mark Helprin. It takes place in a mythic New York City, markedly different than our own. It takes place mainly near the turn of the 20th century.-Peter Lake:...
, but goes on to state that the song is not about Helprin. The official Waterboys website's Frequently Asked Questions clarifies that Scott has said that the song's subject is "a composite of many people", including C. S. Lewis, but explicitly states that it is not about Prince. Musician Nikki Sudden
Nikki Sudden
Nikki Sudden was a prolific English singer-songwriter and guitarist. He co-founded the post-punk band Swell Maps with his brother Epic Soundtracks while attending Solihull School in Solihull.-Career:...
, with whom Scott had collaborated before forming The Waterboys, has claimed that the song was written about himself.
Music
The band members at the time were Mike Scott himself, Anthony ThistlethwaiteAnthony Thistlethwaite
Anthony "Anto" Thistlethwaite is a British multi-instrumentalist best known as a founder member of the folk-rock group The Waterboys and later as a long-standing member of Irish rock band The Saw Doctors.After a year busking in Paris, playing tenor saxophone around the streets of the Latin...
, Karl Wallinger
Karl Wallinger
Karl Edmond De Vere Wallinger is a Welsh musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for leading the band World Party and for his mid-1980s stint in The Waterboys...
, and Roddy Lorimer
Roddy Lorimer
Roddy Lorimer is a Scottish musician who has performed with a number of bands, including Blur, Gene, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton, Suede and The Waterboys. He is currently a member of the horn section Kick Horns....
. Drummer Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson
Kevin Wilkinson was a musician based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England.- Career :Born Kevin Michael Wilkinson in Stoke-on-Trent, he is credited as a former official member of several successful British pop groups, including The League of Gentlemen , The Waterboys , China Crisis and Squeeze...
had left the band by the time "The Whole of the Moon" was recorded and drums were played by session player, Chris Whitten. Demo'd but not finished at the beginning of the recording sessions, the song was eventually completed in May 1985.
Lorimer also contributes falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
background vocals to the song, while Thistlethwaite, another brass section member, performs a saxophone solo near the end. Wallinger provided synthesizer, synth bass and backing vocals.
Releases
The Waterboys (album)
This eponymously named debut album from The Waterboys was recorded in several studio sessions between December 1981 and November 1982. Allmusic describes the sound of the album as "part Van Morrison, part U2"....
, the band's first album, an extended mix of "Spirit", and a song titled "Medicine Jack". Following various sell-out tours by the band from 1986-90 the song appeared on the group's greatest hits package The Best of the Waterboys 81–90
The Best of the Waterboys 81–90
The Best of the Waterboys 81–90 is a compilation album by The Waterboys, released April 29, 1991.-Track listing:Tracks written by Mike Scott, unless otherwise noted.# "A Girl Called Johnny"# "The Big Music"# "All The Things She Gave Me"...
in 1991. That year, this song was re-released as a single (7", 12" and CD) from the album and was a big hit, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
and receiving an Ivor Novello Award as "Best Song Musically and Lyrically" in 1991. The second single release had different B sides from the 1985 version. "Golden Age" was on the 7" B side and the 12" had "The Golden Age Medley", which included "A Golden Age", "Higher In Time" (fast), "High Far Soon" and "Soon As I Get Home".
Including the 2004 remastered album, the song has been officially released four times and appears on the following Waterboys albums:
- This Is the SeaThis Is the SeaThis Is the Sea is the third and last of The Waterboys' "Big Music" albums. Considered by critics to be the finest album of their early rock-oriented sound, described as "epic" and "a defining moment", it was the first Waterboys album to enter the United Kingdom charts, peaking at number...
(1985) - The Best Of The Waterboys 81–90 (1991)
- The Whole Of The Moon: The Music Of Mike Scott & The Waterboys (1998)
- This Is The Sea - special remastered 2CD edition (2004)
- Karma to Burn (live) (2005)
Covers
"The Whole of the Moon" was covered by Jennifer WarnesJennifer Warnes
Jennifer Jean Warnes is an American singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer. She is known for her interpretations of compositions written by herself and many others, as well as an extensive playlist as a vocalist on movie soundtracks.Between 1979 and 1987 Warnes surpassed Frank Sinatra as...
on her 1992 album The Hunter
The Hunter (Jennifer Warnes album)
The Hunter is the seventh album by Jennifer Warnes, released in 1992. It peaked at No. 13 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts.The Hunter was released five years after her breakthrough album Famous Blue Raincoat. Classified as adult contemporary, the album is jazz/R&B infused...
, by Mandy Moore
Mandy Moore
Amanda Leigh "Mandy" Moore is an American singer-songwriter, actress and fashion designer. Moore became famous as a teenager in the late 1990s, after the release of her teen pop albums So Real, I Wanna Be with You, and Mandy Moore. In 2007, she took an adult pop-folk direction with the release of...
on her 2003 album Coverage
Coverage (album)
Coverage is the fourth album released by pop singer Mandy Moore, composed exclusively of covers of songs from the 1970s and 1980s. The album was released by Epic Records.-History:...
, by the band Human Drama
Human Drama
Human Drama was a gothic rock/dark wave band led by singer/songwriter Johnny Indovina. They are primarily known for playing a mixture of sad acoustic and gothic atmospheric melodies. Although they don't count themselves as being only a gothic band, they are often named so by music critics.-Human...
on the compilation album New Wave Goes to Hell and by folk singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey
Peter Mulvey
Peter Mulvey is an American folk singer-songwriter based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since the early 1990s, he has developed a strong national following in the indie folk/rock scene through his relentless touring and critically acclaimed albums. Starting his musical career in Milwaukee while at...
on his 1995 release Rapture. Other covers were made by Terry Reid
Terry Reid
Terry Reid is an English rock vocalist and guitarist. He has performed with high profile musicians, as a supporting act, a session musician, and sideman.- History :...
on his album The Driver, Tom Baxter
Tom Baxter
Tom Baxter is an English singer-songwriter based in London. He was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, and grew up in Cornwall with his sister Vashti Anna, two brothers, Jo Spencer and Charlie Winston, and parents Jeff and Julie Gleave...
, Celtic Pride, Boys Of A New Age, Little Caesar, Paddy Casey, Cousin Leonard, DJ Marco, Cousin Leonard and Paddy Casey & The Frames, and Steve Hogarth
Steve Hogarth
Steve Hogarth also known as "h", is the lead vocalist and occasional keyboardist/guitarist with the British rock band Marillion. Hogarth was formerly a keyboard player and co-lead vocalist with The Europeans and vocalist with How We Live...
of Marillion
Marillion
Marillion are a British rock band, formed in Aylesbury, England in 1979. Their recorded studio output comprises sixteen albums generally regarded in two distinct eras, delineated by the departure of original vocalist & frontman Fish in late 1988, and the subsequent arrival of replacement Steve...
has included it in his solo "h natural" shows. It was also a hit on the Balearic dance scene
Balearic Beat
Balearic Beat or either Balearic House and Balearic Trance is an eclectic blend of DJed dance music that originally emerged in the mid-1980s. It later became the name of a more specific style of electronic dance music that was popular into the mid-1990s...
in the 1980s and has appeared on numerous other compilations.
The song was also performed in an episode of Father Ted
Father Ted
Father Ted is a comedy series set in Ireland that was produced by Hat Trick Productions for British broadcaster Channel 4. Written jointly by Irish writers Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan and starring a predominantly Irish cast, it originally aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May...
by Father Noel Furlong (played by Graham Norton
Graham Norton
Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist...
).
External links
- Video directed by Irish film-maker Meiert Avis, and shot at the Lyceum Theatre, London in November 1985. Mike Scott sings live over an amended version of the record, on which fiddle and acoustic guitar were added at Wessex Studios, London. Lu Edmonds of Public Image Ltd.Public Image Ltd.Public Image Ltd are an English post-punk band formed by vocalist John Lydon , guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble, with frequent subsequent personnel changes. Lydon is the sole constant member of the band....
mimes the bass in the video.