Kind Tune of the Moment

Moonlight Mile, Rolling Stones

Of all the great songs the Stones wrote, none may be better than their country inflected ballads: No Expectations, Dead Flowers, Torn and Frayed, Wild Horses, Sweet Virginia, and really too many to name. Right up there at the top of the list is Moonlight Mile. Possibly what makes this the Stones strong suit is it finds them at their most honest and vulnerable. The cliched rock star bravado has been stripped away, as these are the songs written in the early hours of the morning, when all self-consciousness has long since been forgotten. It taps into the ultimate bitter-sweetness of the come-down: a celebration of all that's come before, the breakthrough you've had, and the realization that this feeling is slipping through your hands like so many grains of sand. 

Reminds me of a time spent up all night tripping, and as the sun began to rise, I heard a noise, a "thunk" getting closer and closer, over and over. What the fuck was that?! Suspense, here it comes, then the realization, it was the paperboy. Oh shit, reality. Let me forget about today until tomorrow. 

When the wind blows and the rain feels cold

With a head full of snow

With a head full of snow

In the window there's a face you know

Don't the nights pass slow

Don't the nights pass slow

The sound of strangers sending nothing to my mind

Just another mad mad day on the road

I am just living to be lying by your side

But Im just about a moonlight mile on down the road

Made a rag pile of my shiny clothes

Gonna warm my bones

Gonna warm my bones

I got silence on my radio

Let the air waves flow

Let the air waves flow

Oh Im sleeping under strange strange skies

Just another mad mad day on the road

My dreams is fading down the railway line

Im just about a moonlight mile down the road

Im hiding sister and Im dreaming

Im riding down your moonlight mile

Im hiding baby and Im dreaming

Im riding down your moonlight mile

Im riding down you moonlight mile

Let it go now, come on up babe

Yeah, let it go now

Yeah, flow now baby

Yeah move on now yeah

Yeah, Im coming home

Cause, Im just about a moonlight mile on down the road

Down the road, down the road

A couple versions of the song from artists who also spent a lot of long, glorious, lonely nights on the road, searching for the cosmic salvation, but ending in the country come-down.

Jerry Garcia

The Flaming Lips

The Glimmer Twins