I'm not sure where I first heard the song Sugar Water by Cibo Matto but I think it might have been on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I was rewatching late in the evenings one summer during covid. I liked its cruisiness and the lyrics, which caught my attention:
A woman in the moon is singing to the earth
A woman in the moon is singing to the earth
La la la, la la la la la la
La la la, la la la la la la
La la la, la la la la la la
La la la, la la la la la la
Who doesn't like a la la la? But what struck me most was how the song had inverted our relationship to the Moon. Usually, we sing or howl (if you're a dog) to the Moon; we look for the rabbit, duck, old man or old woman; we confide in it; we take its light on Earth and use it for concealment or illumination; we benefit from the effects of gravity which cause the tides. The Moon is ours for what we can make it.
'A woman' could be one woman among many, or the woman in the Moon; it's not clear. I like the indeterminism of it. It's about her relationship to Earth: she's singing maybe not to us, but to the planet she sees in the black sky. It's about the meaning Earth has for her. Maybe the la la las are a lullabye. They feel soothing and affectionate to me. Maybe her words are indistinct by the time they reach us and all we hear is the melody.
It's also random, like you just happen to go outside, and you gradually become aware that there is a song on the air, and it's coming from someone singing on the Moon. Just a woman who happens to be there.
This is a lovely post. Thank you.
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