Damnations: Half Mad Moon [purchase]
I first talked about The Damnations during Fifty States Week, so for a brief overview of the band, check out that post.
This has always been one of my favorite Damnations numbers, a lovely, staggering, Waits-ian drink of a song. Great lyrics, with a pre-WWII, almost ragtime kinda feel to it. Throw it on scratchy vinyl and you'd think you'd have a lost Harry Smith track. Really, the only thing that might be missing is a saw solo to give it more haunting Old World flavor.
"Love is one of those unstable chemicals,
Beyond all reason it's just divine invention,
It's a gift of contradiction,
A hellish kind of heaven.
That man's the only one who knows his own formula,
There's no equation for random disorder,
He's got the gift of the gab,
And the curse of the bottle.
Take all the chairs and throw 'em out,
Go buy a saddle and tie yourself,
On back of that old yellow round,
No, you can't shoot down that half mad moon upstairs.
It's been a long time let's have ourselves a quarrel,
Let's go and sit upon our drunk and lazy laurels,
It's a gift to find a laugh,
To cure and clear our old debts.
So, take all the chairs and throw 'em out,
Go buy a saddle and tie yourself,
On back of that old yellow round,
No, you can't shoot down that half mad moon upstairs."