"Blue Moon,
Now I'm no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own..."
At the time of this writing, we are on the cusp of a Blue Moon- and a Super Moon at that. It occurs to me that the Moon gets a lot more attention these days than it ever used to, although that can be debated. I also don't consider that a bad thing, because the Moon is pretty danged cool. Blue moons happen just infrequently enough to inspire a colloquialism - "once in a blue moon"- which is about every 2.7 years. This one just so happens to be arriving in time for my birthday, while the last one, on Halloween of 2020, coincided with my wedding.
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| Monsters in love |
On this most auspicious date, and lunar arrangement, I thought it would be a good time to share a little more Elvis weirdness. I recently joined Steph Quick to talk weird Elvis on Project Archivist, and in the course of discussing the alleged connections between Elvis and UFOs I told the story of the mysterious blue light that appeared over his birthplace in Tupelo, right after he was born. Unfortunately the descriptions of this, based on recollections from Elvis's dad Vernon, are rather vague. I said during the recording of the show that I had meant to look into naturally occurring phenomena that might cause such a light, but had never really gotten around to it... so naturally, after recording the show, I did. I ended up finding this article from a few months after his birth in 1935, from the Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA).
The article appeared on March 31 of 1935, and referenced a reported Blue Moon "a few months ago" which would seem to be around the time of Elvis's birth in January. Current news articles about this effect say that it could result from diffraction of light through particles in the atmosphere, such as those thrown up from wildfires or volcanic eruptions. Such was the case in the 1880s, when green moons were reported after the eruption of Krakatoa. If you haven't already, please check out my post UFO Rope Tricks and Threads From Nowhere for a really weird example of a green moon story.
At any rate, the blue light and blue moon idea seems to have had a profound effect on Elvis and informed his choices about songs he recorded. The author(s) of The Elvis/UFO Connection, Richard Daniel, make it a point to list some such songs: Blue Moon, Blue Moon of Kentucky, Blue Christmas, Moody Blue, Blueberry Hill, When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold, and of course, Blue Suede Shoes. While some of these might be a stretch, there does seem to be some numinous significance to the motif in Elvis's life and perhaps as a symbol for us all. Consider the Moon in Tarot, numbered 18 in the Major Arcana. I included Salvador Dali's version up at the top of the post, which includes a lot of blue and gold in its presentation. The usual interpretation of the card has to do with illusions, fear, and madness. After all, the word "lunatic" is derived from the idea that a full moon causes people to lose their minds. I suppose it's fitting, then, as Elvis surely lived a life fraught with hidden insecurities and became more of a mythic figure than an easy-to-pin-down historical one. Furthermore, my bestie SJ and I can attest to exactly how crazy the Elvis synchronicities we experience together are... but they would take far too long to explain here.
Which brings me to a very odd thing indeed- the leak from Secret Sources of a song Elvis wrote himself, and recorded, only to have the demo swiped by the Men in Black. Said Secret Sources were not able to recover the recording, but they were able to send me the chords and lyrics to the song. I was told Uri Geller knows about it, but he's being pretty coy about confirming or denying anything. You know what THAT means... wait, what does that mean?
Anyway, here's the song. I hope you enjoy it. Also, happy birthday to me, and happy Super Blue Moon to you all!
