{"id":973625,"date":"2019-11-20T11:49:36","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T18:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=915340"},"modified":"2019-11-20T11:49:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T18:49:36","slug":"the-waterboys-whole-of-the-moon-is-having-a-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/music-news\/the-waterboys-whole-of-the-moon-is-having-a-moment\/","title":{"rendered":"The Waterboys\u2019 \u2018Whole of the Moon\u2019 Is Having a Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/the-waterboys-.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>In one of this year\u2019s better holiday movies, Netflix\u2019s <em>Let It Snow<\/em>, two teens belt out the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/waterboys\/\" id=\"auto-tag_waterboys\" data-tag=\"waterboys\">Waterboys<\/a>\u2019 \u201cWhole of the Moon\u201d in an empty church, their voices unskilled but sincere. Tobin (Mitchell Hope) plays the organ while \u201cThe Duke\u201d (Kiernan Shipka) sings along \u2014 you don\u2019t need to know much else beyond the fact that Tobin has been hopelessly in love with Angie, a.k.a. the Duke, for years \u2014 and the lyrics of this 34-year-old song are the only words that do when expressing that.<\/p>\n<p>The Waterboys\u2019 classic song, off 1985\u2019s <em>This Is the Sea<\/em>, has been having a moment lately. Not only has it cropped up in more than one TV show and movie, it\u2019s also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/u2\/\" id=\"auto-tag_u2\" data-tag=\"u2\">U2<\/a>\u2019s go-to track for warming up the crowd before shows. \u201cI guess it has timelessness in its sound and I know the lyrics mean a lot to people,\u201d frontman Mike Scott tells <em>Rolling Stone<\/em>.&nbsp;\u201cIf a lyric was true when it was written, it\u2019ll be true today. &nbsp;\u2018The Whole of the Moon\u2019 still means a lot to me and it\u2019s one of my old songs that I never tire of hearing or performing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VESKpib67tM?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The track is also one of Scott\u2019s biggest compositions financially \u2014 it\u2019s even been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JHedRKgUnMQ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">covered by Prince<\/a>. Recently, it appeared in <em>Let It Snow<\/em>, as well as twice on the series finale of <em>The Affair \u2014 <\/em>first with the 1985 Waterboys version, then a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/fiona-apple-waterboys-whole-of-the-moon-cover-907809\/\">Fiona Apple cover<\/a> at the end of the episode. The former version accompanies Noah Solloway (Dominic West) teaching his family a dance routine for his daughter Whitney\u2019s wedding.&nbsp;\u201cI loved the flash mob dance scene and thought Fiona Apple\u2019s cover was beautifully performed and arranged,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Let It Snow<\/em> \u2014 a film about a group of teenagers who find themselves snowed in to comedic and romantic effect \u2014 the song follows Tobin and the Duke as they go from friends (spoiler) to a couple. \u201cWe wanted something that felt bittersweet, melancholic and yet uplifting and iconic,\u201d director Luke Snellin tells <em>Rolling Stone. <\/em>\u201cI listened to it in the car, in the office, everywhere for like a week. It kept deepening, both lyrically and tonally I kept hearing new corners of it \u2014 it quickly became my only choice for the duet in the church, which was initially the only place we were going to use it, I just hoped the band would be into the idea of us using it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- .l-article-content__pull--left --> <\/p>\n<p>As it turns out, Scott was game. \u201cI usually approve [syncs], yes,\u201d he says. \u201cThe rare occasions when I don\u2019t are ads that don\u2019t feel right or a film usage that doesn\u2019t feel ethically okay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/89DxrWX1v3w?version=3&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com&amp;rel=1&amp;fs=1&amp;autohide=2&amp;showsearch=0&amp;showinfo=1&amp;iv_load_policy=1&amp;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\">[embedded content]<\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>As for U2\u2019s use of the song \u2014 most currently on their recently launched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/u2-one-tree-hill-909888\/\">Joshua Tree tour<\/a> \u2014 Scott approves. \u201cU2 has history with \u2018The Whole of the Moon,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThey performed it in a medley with \u2018Where the Streets Have No Name\u2019 on one of their tours, maybe 10 years ago, which was a very cool acknowledgement that the two songs have the same chorus melody. People keep telling me it plays just before they take the stage on their Joshua Tree tours, and that\u2019s supercool too. They must feel it sets the scene, and I can dig that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/waterboys-whole-of-the-moon-moment-915340\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In one of this year\u2019s better holiday movies, Netflix\u2019s Let It Snow, two teens belt out the Waterboys\u2019 \u201cWhole of the Moon\u201d in an empty church, their voices unskilled but sincere. Tobin (Mitchell Hope) plays the organ while \u201cThe Duke\u201d (Kiernan Shipka) sings along \u2014 you don\u2019t need to know much else beyond the fact [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-973625","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 21:23:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KFMU Solar Powered Radio","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=973625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973625\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=973625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=973625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kfmu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=973625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}