Track #3 off of Long Before the Wheel is a mysterious gypsy tune about a very strange encounter I had while touring through San Louis Obispo, CA — simple show at the Cal Poly campus that turned into a full moon hike through Poly Canyon with a group of strangers.
[audio:http://tylerstenson.com/audio/wheel/that-moon.mp3|titles=tylerstenson.com,That Moon]THAT MOON
by tyler stenson © 2010
Just before the summer,
I was playing my guitar
When a boy came from the audience
And motioned toward the stars.
He said it was a full moon
And It’s all the light we’ll need
For walking Poly Canyon … it’s a site to see.
He said, We’re walking Poly Canyon,
Come along, it’s a site to see.
So, we rose up in a clearing
That was filled with all these shapes
From all the heads of all these architects
That never grew tired of learning
Of Nature and Her systems
And how man can live within ’em
And how the two can live as one
Just like it was long before the wheel and before the gun
-I wonder how they lived before the wheel and before the gun.
That moon was brighter than day
And who knows, maybe even God’s way to say:
Hey, I know by the looks of it
You’re human and you’re small
So, may that moon make you feel 10 feet tall.
I looked up at the two mountains
With that moon high up above ’em
And it looked much like a pendant
Dangling from the neck of a woman.
With so much beauty there to offer,
There’s that much more to lose.
I said, This might be a stupid question
But do you suppose we’ve landed on that moon?
Oh, please forgive my stupid question,
But some would argue, that we’ve never touched that moon.
Scotty handed me a cig
And I burned it to the ground
And in the dirt, I turned those embers
Into something like a ghost town.
Then a man came out of nowhere-
He was the law but fair.
He said, On such a night like this,
You know it pains me,
But I have to ask you to leave.
That moon was brighter than day
And who knows, maybe even God’s way to say:
Hey, I know by the looks of it
You’re human and you’re small
So, may that moon make you feel 10 feet tall.
The sign said that the Lions
Would be hunting men like us
And that the Snakes had a taste
For human heels just above the dust
But that moon was all we needed
To be giants on that day
And to walk among the comforts
That no evil thing would dare to come our way.
That moon was brighter than day
And who knows, maybe even God’s way to say:
Hey, I know by the looks of it
You’re human and you’re small
So, may My moon make you feel 10 feet tall.
Hey, I know by the looks of it
You’re human and you’re small
So, may that moon make you feel 10 feet tall.