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Post by cam83 on Aug 29, 2006 19:39:02 GMT -5
Hi Cameron, The correct lyric for CRESCENT NOON from the 1970 CLOSE TO YOU album is ..."quiet mountain bird".. Regarding the post - I received it from another fan recently. Thank you. Becky Boxberger Personal Assistant to Richard Carpenter www.richardandkarencarpenter.comHa Ha Ha...well at least I got a reply. I had always thought it was mountain birth...but I stand corrected. Cameron |
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Post by wisejester7 on Aug 29, 2006 20:27:35 GMT -5
Woot! Way to go on finding the 'true' lyrics...and from Becky, no less!
I always thought it was 'mountain bird' , but with Karen's sometimes softened word endings and her accent...well, you never can tell.
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Post by GoodOldDreams on Aug 29, 2006 21:19:59 GMT -5
Woot! Way to go on finding the 'true' lyrics...and from Becky, no less! I always thought it was 'mountain bird' , but with Karen's sometimes softened word endings and her accent...well, you never can tell. Hi wisejester7, I remember from the days when I was in my junior high school choir class (yes, music was an elective and I had some vocal training), the teacher coached us to sing with full, round sounds that would project and sound better to the audience. Sometimes syllables ending with "d" and "t" sound way too harsh to the ears, or syllables ending in "th" way too soft to be really heard, so we would drop them for a more pleasing enunciation. Given this, it seems understandable why we might have a confusion whether it is "... a quiet mountain birD..." or "a quiet mountain birTH...". As Rick and I found out, the same company that published various Carpenters' song books with "Crescent Noon" in them back in the mid-1970's had the lyrics both ways! Moving on, what does everyone think about the meaning of the phrase "Crescent Noon" (as opposed to the more common expression "Crescent Moon")? |
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Post by Rick Henry on Aug 29, 2006 22:55:05 GMT -5
 Thanks Cam for posting this. I am happy someone asked about this lyric.
Now with knowing the correct lyric I do plan on coming back with my "verse by verse" breakdown of this song - as there really is a lot of meaing and different interpretations in the lyrics.
I will also come back with my take of what the term "Crescent Noon" means. |
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Post by wisejester7 on Aug 30, 2006 7:38:20 GMT -5
What is the meaning of the phrase "Crescent Noon" vs "Crescent Moon"?
A crescent Moon is a sun phase or position on its normal journey through its cycle.
The crescent moon is found part way between a half moon and a new moon, and found again (on the turn around of its cycle) between a new moon and a half moon.
A new moon to us looks totally dark. A half moon looks half light and half dark to us.
So we are talking about half of a half light.
The lyrics of Crescent Noon talk of changing seasons in our lives. They make the direct tie between the seasons we can see and we live through each year...
"green september burned to october brown
bare november led to decembers frozen ground
the seasons stumbled round our drifting lives are bound to a falling
crescent noon"
to the seasons we don't see as readily...the seasons of our lives
"you and i were born like the breaking day
all our seasons all our green septembers burn away
slowly well fade into a sea of midnight blue
and the falling crescent noon"
Like the moons constant change and move, we too are on a constantly moving path.
The early part of our lives (childhood) is so "new". We are busy just exploring the world around us. These are likened to 'dark days' (lyrically speaking) in our overall awareness of life. We are blissfully unaware of how short life is.
The next phase of our lives usually brings on the storm of awareness. We now know we are finite as we currently stand. We feel the crunch of life. Society pushes us to 'do' something useful with our lives...get a profession...become successful...have a family, etc. The stress is tremendous. And there is fear, too. Fear of failure, of not meeting someone else's expectations or your own, there is the fear of death...the huge unknown. We're sooo busy.
"feather clouds cry a vale of tears to earth
morning breaks and no one sees a quiet mountain bird
dressed in a brand new day the sun is on its way
to a falling crescent noon"
We see all of life slipping away...day by day. It doesn't matter if we are successful, famous, poor, etc. None of that matters in the grand scheme of life. So we reach out. We reach out to a GREATER source. Some one who is ABOVE all our stresses. We seek the safe shelter to hide away from the storm. We seek God...by whatever name we choose to call him/her by.
"somewhere in a fairy tale forest lies
one
answer that is waiting to be heard"
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Post by Rick Henry on Aug 30, 2006 11:41:35 GMT -5
Nice interpretation Wisejester7 - the song really does have many shades to it.
I'll be back with more diggings into this song. |
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Dave
Ultra Emissary 
"sleeping in the arms of the cosmos..."
Posts: 1,515
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Post by Dave on Sept 3, 2006 6:02:52 GMT -5
What is the meaning of the phrase "Crescent Noon" vs "Crescent Moon"? A crescent Moon is a sun phase or position on its normal journey through its cycle. The crescent moon is found part way between a half moon and a new moon, and found again (on the turn around of its cycle) between a new moon and a half moon. A new moon to us looks totally dark. A half moon looks half light and half dark to us. So we are talking about half of a half light. The lyrics of Crescent Noon talk of changing seasons in our lives. They make the direct tie between the seasons we can see and we live through each year... "green september burned to october brown bare november led to decembers frozen ground the seasons stumbled round our drifting lives are bound to a falling crescent noon" to the seasons we don't see as readily...the seasons of our lives "you and i were born like the breaking day all our seasons all our green septembers burn away slowly well fade into a sea of midnight blue and the falling crescent noon" Like the moons constant change and move, we too are on a constantly moving path. The early part of our lives (childhood) is so "new". We are busy just exploring the world around us. These are likened to 'dark days' (lyrically speaking) in our overall awareness of life. We are blissfully unaware of how short life is. The next phase of our lives usually brings on the storm of awareness. We now know we are finite as we currently stand. We feel the crunch of life. Society pushes us to 'do' something useful with our lives...get a profession...become successful...have a family, etc. The stress is tremendous. And there is fear, too. Fear of failure, of not meeting someone else's expectations or your own, there is the fear of death...the huge unknown. We're sooo busy. "feather clouds cry a vale of tears to earth morning breaks and no one sees a quiet mountain bird dressed in a brand new day the sun is on its way to a falling crescent noon" We see all of life slipping away...day by day. It doesn't matter if we are successful, famous, poor, etc. None of that matters in the grand scheme of life. So we reach out. We reach out to a GREATER source. Some one who is ABOVE all our stresses. We seek the safe shelter to hide away from the storm. We seek God...by whatever name we choose to call him/her by. "somewhere in a fairy tale forest lies one answer that is waiting to be heard" I thought that I was "strange" for viewing my life as four distinct seasons, measured so far in 25 year slices... Youth is meant to be innocent, and blissful as we watch and learn all about the universe which surrounds us. But sometimes it just doesn't work out that way. We learn that we are finite, as we watch grandparents pass on, and sometimes, the kid who sits across the lunch table from us drives the lesson home: life has no guarantees. By the time our first 25 years have passed, we should know what it is we like to do in this life, and have learned enough to be able to begin doing it. By the time you get to 50, a lot of life has gone past. You've watched children grow, parents and older friends have passed away, and the face in the mirror isn't the one you remember. You remember things that your parents did when they were 50, which seemed a light-year away back then. You sometimes look back, and think "I wish I'd have done this", or "I wish I hadn't done that." But what you've done, for whatever reason, are all part of the tapestries of life that we weave. Like Jacob Marley and his chains, we carry our tapestries with us. They keep us warm when life gets cold... But life is also like farming. The seeds of who and what we are are planted in our childhoods. By the time we reach 50, the last day of summer, our life's experiences should provide a rich harvest. I was fortunate to have had such a rich harvest that allowed me to go beyond what I thought I was, to contribute on a scale I never imagined possible. It was a good harvest... Now, the harvest is in, and I watch the fruits of my labors. I consider what it means to many others, and get overwhelmed with the scope of it all. I've learned to appreciate life, one second at a time, and those around me. It's really a gift, and most folks don't see it. Before my mother passed, I asked her "What if God asks us 'What have you learned?' " I've learned that love is the most powerful force in the universe. As we grow, we first fear death. This is only natural. But once you've passed a certain milestone on this journey, and it's different for everyone, we become less fearful, and eventually, embrace it. We learn that death is not the end, it's a release, a step on the journey. We learn that we will be reunited with friends and family, those who we never knew but whose lives influenced ours, and those whose lives were influenced by what we did. We learn why, and the answer is so simple that we'll laugh because it was right in front of us all the time. We also learn that who we were, and what we did in this life, become meaningless in Heaven. We are all truly equals. For me, summer has come and gone. It's early autumn now, but the sun is still bright and warm. I see the shadows lengthening, and the days getting shorter every day, but I feel somehow satisfied, and comfortable with the approaching winter. Life is progressing as it should... |
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Post by wisejester7 on Sept 3, 2006 21:44:27 GMT -5
Well said, Dave.
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