Otis Spann and "Moon Blues"
Katy Perry got launched into space and all I got was this lousy inflation.
Yesterday, Katy Perry and some other B-List celebrities got chucked into space for 11 minutes on a rocket that looked even more like a wiener than rockets usually do. It looked something like that thing you accidentally found in your mom’s sock drawer that one time. That thing you never mentioned out loud, and never will.
Ms. Perry claims that, while blasting into space, her fellow passengers begged her to sing “Firework”, her 2010 hit song that Wikipedia calls “a dance pop self-empowerment anthem”, but Perry insisted on singing Louis Armstrong’s 1968 classic “What a Wonderful World”. That song, which was given such gravitas by Armstrong’s gravelly, emotive voice, was originally written by a songwriter called Bob Thiele.
Thiele was a veteran songwriter, producer, and label owner from Brooklyn, NY. He’d worked with a veritable who’s-who of blues and jazz greats, and in the late 60’s formed his own “Flying Dutchman” label. Around this time he co-wrote, with his partner George Weiss, a song called “Moon Blues”. This song was about the 1969 moon landing, but I think the lyrics are still quite effective today.
“It is a brand new moon, since two men walked up there
Yes, we got a brand new moon, since two men they walked up there
But it's the same old world for us babe, you know we ain't goin nowhere
They got all of that bread, just to send people into space
You know they got all of that bread, just to send people into space
But there's trouble here for us, baby we ain’t goin any place
I saw a flag on the moon, and I was just as proud as I could be
I saw a flag on the moon, and I was just as proud as I could be
You know, I love my country, baby, but my country don’t love me
Ooh ooo ooh, you know I just got the moon blues
Yes, I said ooh ooh, peoples I just got the moon blues
Cause all we got down here on earth, babe
I think we might as well go to the moon…”
—”Moon Blues”, by George Weiss and Bob Thiele.
“Moon Blues” was recorded by Blues great Otis Spann in 1970 for his “Sweet Giant of the Blues” album, which was released on Thiele’s “Flying Dutchman” label. Otis had risen to fame as the pianist of the great Muddy Waters’ band- widely considered the finest group of head-cuttin’ players in Chicago in the early 50’s. A deadlier band of blues musicians you would not find in the era. Arguably, only Howlin’ Wolf’s band came close. By 1970, Otis had emerged from that milieu to become a star in his own right.
In Otis’ capable hands, “Moon Blues” becomes a smoky, elegant, slow burn blues. There is a deep, resigned aching feeling in the song itself, echoed in Spann’s perfect, pleading vocal. “You know they got all that bread, just to send people into space/But there’s trouble here for us baby, we ain’t going anyplace…”
These words were written by the same man who wrote “What a Wonderful World”, which was the song that Katy Perry chose to sing to her fellow astro-elites as they hurtled into space and the pages of history. Isn’t it ironic, don’t ya think? Listen to the great Otis Spann’s “Moon Blues” below.
-CM