SONG:
ARTIST: grant.
SOURCE:Based on “Puzzle of Moon’s origin resolved”, Nature, 8 April 2015, as used in the post “Scientists: The moon was formed when Earth smacked her twin sister.”
ABSTRACT: Once again, Allison said this was the story that needed a song, and she was right. At around the same time, I was listening to “Cruel Sister” and thinking about murder ballads, but somehow, this didn’t come out folksy at all. I mean, except that it’s about ancient sisters getting into some kind of deadly fight. And has finger picking in it.
I also kind of set out to write a *gushi* again, but that didn’t happen either – it kept wanting to rhyme, and then slant or else kind of extend past the rhyme (what’s the name for when that happens? Cole Porter does it all the time…).
The thing that sounds like an accordion, isn’t. It’s a vintage electric organ – you can probably hear the blower motor running in the background if you listen. I really can’t figure out why the G bass notes (that very first note of the intro an all the choruses) are so heavy in this, and why nothing I tried would gate them out or limit them in a compressor or anything. Especially strange since there wasn’t a real bass anywhere near this – that’s an acoustic guitar, shifted down an octave. Sound is weird.
LYRICS:
(High E tuned to D, D tuned down an octave)
Em-Em-D-D-C-C-C-C
We had a sister
We we we were young
Could have stepped from a mirror
As we circled the sunShe stole the morning
Left us in her shade
Ignored every warning
Look what you made us do…CH:
G-D-C-(walkdown) B/E — G-D-Em- (walkup) C
We were walking… in the morning sun
Side by side …it was never enough
Sisters fight… as only sisters can
This is how the moon began.Em-Em-D-D-C-C-C-C
We couldn’t have planned it
We were never that kind
We wouldn’t have slammed (her pretty face)
If only she would mind (leave us behind)And when it was over
We still weren’t alone
A silver reminder
Of the anger we’d known
Written in stone…CH:
G-D-C-(walkdown) B/E — G-D-Em- (walkup) C
We were walking… in the morning sun
Side by side …it was never enough
Sisters fight… as only sisters can
This is how the moon began.