Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).
The Killing Moon (1984)
Some songs are just meant to be epic. They just play out as widescreen David Lean extravaganzas, as opposed to something a little less dramatic. Echo & the Bunnymen frontman Ian McCulloch claims to have woken up one morning with the phrase "Fate up against your will. Through the thick and thin. He will wait until you give yourself to him" in his head.
McCulloch then played David Bowie's "Space Oddity" backwards and came up with different chords that made up "The Killing Moon," the first single off the band's 1984 album Ocean Rain.
The post-punk band was formed in 1978 in Liverpool, England, by McCulloch, guitarist Will Sergeant and bassist Les Pattinson. They were joined by drummer Pete de Freitas in 1980. The band's debut album Crocodiles was a hit, hitting the top 20 of the U.K. Albums Chart. Echo's third album, Porcupine, went to #2 in the U.K.
For their fourth album, Echo went all out, incorporating a string section and having de Freitas use brushes to make the drums sound jazzier. McCulloch's lyrics leaned toward a spacey vibe.
"Under blue moon, I saw you/So soon you'll take me/Up in your arms, too late to beg you/Or cancel it, though I know it must be/The killing time/Unwillingly mine/Fate/Up against your will/Through the thick and thin/He will wait until/You give yourself to him."
Meanwhile, Sergeant used a twangy guitar line he had recorded while tuning his guitar.
"In starlit nights, I saw you/So cruelly, you kissed me/Your lips, a magic world/Your sky, all hung with jewels/The killing moon/Will come too soon."
The lush song ended up reaching #9 on the U.K. Singles Chart and the album went to #4 in the U.K. The band released a single in 1985, "Bring on the Dancing Horses," and a compilation album. Drummer de Freitas left the band and was replaced by former Haircut 100 drummer Blair Cunningham, who left after the 1986 tour and was replaced former ABC drummer David Palmer. The band recorded a self-titled album in 1987 with Palmer, but de Freitas returned and re-recorded the parts. McCulloch left the band in 1988 and was replaced by Noel Burke. Meanwhile, de Freitas died in a motorcycle accident in 1989. The band released a few singles before breaking up in 1993.
In 1994, McCulloch and Sergeant started working together as Electrafixion. A few years later, Pattinson joined them and they started calling themselves Echo & the Bunnymen again and released the 1997 album Evergreen. Just as they were releasing an album in 1999, Pattinson quit to take care of his mother. McCulloch and Sergeant continued to tour and record as Echo & the Bunnymen, releasing albums in 2005, 2009 and 2014, as well as a 2018 album of reworked orchestral versions of older songs and two new ones.
There's no shame in peaking with an epic song. It was used in the 2001 movie Donnie Darko and has been covered by Pavement and Chvrches.
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