On this 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings, and also coinciding with a full moon, an upbeat sounding rock-pop classic with a prescient, environmentally apocalyptic edge written by John Fogerty that was a hit half a century ago. Taken from the album Green River, the devastating weather events depicted in the the lyrics were inspired by a 1941 black-and-white film The Devil and Daniel Webster, in which Fogerty says “the scene I liked is where there’s a devastating hurricane; furniture, trees, houses, everything’s blowing around. That story and that look really stuck in my mind.” The moon landings may have just been coincidence, but really the song is far more about what was happening on Earth: “The song was a metaphor. I wasn’t just writing about the weather. The times seemed to be in turmoil. Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated. I knew it was a tumultuous time.”
Performed also by John’s brother rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook, and drummer Doug Clifford, he song has been used in several films, including to brilliant effect in An American Werewolf in London (1981). Written, like man of the best songs, around a simple three-chord structure (D, A and G) It appears to be one strangely apt for similar times, not just politically, but with a climate crisis already on the horizon.
I see the bad moon arising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today
Don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
I hear hurricanes a blowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers overflowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin
Don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye
Well don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
Don't go around tonight
Well, it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise
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