Song of the Day (Covers): Pavement – The Killing Moon

Day 4. Today’s cover is Pavement’s effortlessly cool cover of Echo & The Bunnymen’s 1984 Top Ten smash, The Killing Moon. You’ve definitely heard this song, I guarantee it. It appears on many TV & Movie soundtracks, most notably cult time travel mystery Donnie Darko.

Pavement traded in the eerie mysticism of the Echo & The Bunnymen original for the laconic slacker-cool they helped to define, turning the ’80’s New Wave anthem into, essentially, a classic Pavement song. The “Cucumber, cu-cu-cumber, ca-ca-ca-ca-cabbage” line is a homage to yet another Echo & The Bunnymen tune, Crown Of Thorns, taken form the same album as Killing Moon, Ocean Rain.

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’s up against your will
Through the thick and thin
You must wait until
You give yourself to him

In starlit nights I saw you
So cruel you’ll take me
Your lips a magic world
Your sky all hung with jewels
The killing moon will come too soon

Fate’s up against your will
Through the thick and thin
You must wait until
You give yourself to him

Cucumber, cu-cu-cumber, ca-ca-ca-ca-cabbage
Cucumber, cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cu-cabbage
He’s a yo-yo man, always up and down
So take him to the end of his temper

Fate’s up against your will
Through the thick and thin
You must wait until
You give yourself to him

Fate’s up against your will
Through the thick and thin
You must wait until
You give yourself
You give yourself to him
You give yourself to him
You give yourself to him

Looking for some great music? Why not check out the Song of the Day (Covers) Spotify Playlist.