Lyrics for The Killing Moon as interpreted by numb

The Killing Moon Lyrics
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 up against your will
Through the thick and thin
He will wait until
You give yourself to him

In starlit nights I saw you
So cruelly you kissed me
Your lips a magic world
Your sky all hung with jewels
The killing moon
Will come too soon

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

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

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Gutter
05-11-2005

Rated 0 
I agree with you PLAS. This song fit a lot better than the one they changed it to in the Director's Cut, it just didn't feel right. But I think that was the only negative I had about it.

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delial
08-01-2005

Rated 0 
this is one of those haunting songs that forever will live in my heart as one of my favorites ever. =P

I love how strong his voice is during the chorus, it sounds like something out of a horror movie involving voodoo or something.

as for the whole donnie darko director's cut thing, yeah, it was freaking bizarre hearing a different song in the beginning, but I have to say I loved the way they fit it into the background during the scene at the halloween party towards the end. it fit in REALLY well there, I thought.

I don't really have anything else to add here that hasn't already been said, but this song really hits me during various times in my life, and right now is one of those times. it's like life keeps throwing weird crap at me seemingly out of nowhere, and it's really as if it must be fated or something the way such odd stuff comes out of nowhere these days. all i can do is uh... hope it turns out alright.

it definitely is up against your will through the thick and thin. is that good or bad? I have no idea yet. =P

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freud
08-06-2005

Rated 0 
Predestination is actually a very hypocritical idea in relation to the Church. I've been writing a thesis on predestination in relation to free will, theology and the chaos theory. It was all inspired by a combination of this song and the Donnie Darko movie. If God gave us free will, how surely can everything be predestined? That's the question I asked. Any comments would be appreciated.

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whackedtollie
08-14-2005

Rated 0 
This song is also on Grosse Pointe Blank.... though it seems to be famous because of Donnie Darko, and yeah, that is the first place I heard it. Oh well.

I think I'm falling in love with Echo and the Bunnymen though!

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merovingian
08-30-2005

Rated 0 
Yes, it's definitely about death, but not seen as something happening because of chance, but a fateful event. It says "death is imminent".

I think it's one of the most beautiful songs ever written. I LOVE it, and my heart stops when I dance it in dark parties. =P

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treeweasel
11-11-2005

Rated 0 
This song is based on a story called "The Woman of the Snow" by Lafcadio Hearn a Greek writer who moved to Japan and wrote most of his work there. The tale is portrayed in the second segment of a film titled Kwaidan based on his stories. The segment is not on VHS copies but was restored for the release of the Criterion DVD. Once you see it, you will easily understand what this song is about.

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bloc_party15
12-18-2005

Rated 0 
I love this song so much. I first heard it on Donny Darko and I just think it's great! The lyrics are really kool too!

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Gwynbleidd
01-22-2006

Rated 0 
A beautiful song about death..

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eeriemily
02-22-2006

Rated 0 
i agree - about death.
has a bit of the haunting element along w/ the word choice yet the guitar makes it so digestable- it is definitely one of the more uplifting songs in Donnie Darko- puts a smile on my face everytime i hear it. even though it's at the start of the movie it reminds me of donnie laughing in the end...

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CharmingMan
02-27-2006

Rated 0 
..this song was written nearly twenty years before Donnie Darko. It was a great British song of the mid-80s by a great British band. It is good that the song was used in the film Donnie Darko, however the song was known and highly regarded well before the film.
The song captures the threshold of death and has one of Ian's best vocal perfromances.

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aczinke
03-19-2006

Rated 0 
This song sends chills down my back.

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Marcus7
04-14-2006

Rated 0 
Yep, this song was a massive euro and college hit when originally released. And remained a staple at many 80's/old wave/goth radio stations and dance clubs.

Glad the movie brought new fans to this musically classic tune and the great band behind it.

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aphekqs
04-28-2006

Rated 0 
I didn't know that, treeweasel, and I love Kwaidan. Have you seen Harakiri?

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supertramp
05-02-2006

Rated 0 
yeah this song is heaps good, as expressed by others..... but.... as good as it is, Pavement do a cover which i think is probably better, but maybe i'm a bit bias. I live in this small mountain town in Australia and i love riding down the street in autumn with the 'weeds' i mean trees turning red and yellow whilst listerning to this song- puts me in a very philosophical mood. i'm over love songs.

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Cracked Pleasures
06-03-2006

Rated 0 
Ian has told a few times what it's about (sorry to ruin debates with interview quotes, but that's being a true Bunnymen addict for you). It's about religion, about ignoring earthly pleasures and desires because of wanting to stay true to your religious believes. "He will wait until you give yourself to Him" - the He and Him is not some distant boyfriend or so, it's God. Ian has clearly confirmed this in several interviews, and it was also shortly mentionned in Turquoise Days, the EATB biograpghy. Apart from that I do adore the imaginary of this song: "your lips' magic world, the sky all hung with jewels" - you will rarely find a line more romantic than that. The video is also a must-see, deeply romantic yet somewhat macabre, showing Ian's face lit by the moon only. And last but not least, the sleeve pic for the old vinyl single shows a remote nocturnal rocky beach with a little boat drifting near the shoreline, all lit by only the moon. No picture could suit this song better.

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theEasySilence
07-10-2006

Rated 0 
In the liner notes for the 2003 reissue of the 1984 Bunnymen album 'Ocean Rain' Ian (lead singer, just to let all you Bunnymen non-fans know) clearly states that "disguised within the veil of a love song is a song about pre-destiny." He also says "The chorus is key; it's about God rather than a woman..." That should clear things up.

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misterLonely
07-23-2006

Rated 0 
nouvelle vague cover this on their new album, they give it a nice french bossanova sound. nothing matches the original though!

donnie darko sucks, but jake gyllenhaal is a hottie!

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snowprincess0703
10-25-2006

Rated 0 
Well, I do believe it is about death if only because the writer said so. But forever it was a big sexual turn on thinking it was about an overwhelmingly magnetic womanizer who has decided he will have a girl who with all her will is determined not to give herself to him, but his power will break her will and she knows he will break her heart afterward but still she will not be able resist his powerful sexuality on some night of weakness on her part. And to learn it's only about dying, shucks. Jim Morrision related sex and dying as the pinnacle of orgasm and of dying being a brief flash of anxiety followed by the climax of things. This song would have served Jim's philosophy too well. I hope his breaking on through to the other side at 27 (albeit by accident) was all he hoped it would be.

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prpadilla
02-26-2007

Rated 0 
It sounds to me like this song could be about

a. God
b. An obsessive boy friend that kills his girl friend
c. A rapist
d. A serial killer

Any who that’s what I think it could be about all you dumb morons its not just about death it seams that it was written to be about more then one thing or it was written in that it can mean what ever you want it to mean style

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Prometeo
03-20-2007

Rated 0 
I think it's a bit of all those four ideas... It's death as a unrelinquish lover. One that comes for you and won't let you go. You have no other choice than to give up to him (as it seems to be sung to a gal. If it were to a guy, it should say "give yourself to her").
So:

a. If you are a believer, that makes it about God too
b. Death IT'S an obsessive lover
c and d are also killing lovers... or may even be the deliverers of death.

And it's a very goth theme too. Perhaps the whole core of goth movement, and it's facination for death, as the final embracer. Just check out Neil Gaiman's 'Death' in Sandman ( http://tinyurl.com/yqk3f3 ).

As for me, when death comes, I hope she does as Scarlett Johansson :P

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Muzzy
05-02-2007

Rated 0 
Such a haunting atmosphere this song creates, all the instrument and vocals all swirl together so brilliantly that it becomes hypnotizing. Sometimes you hear a song and you just picture a certain image in your head, and that song takes you there. I always imagine a dark but starry night, the moon out full over head shining the only light, a beautiful lady standing out on a balcony and a mysterious man behind her. When I first saw the movie Sin City, I thought how perfectly this song would match that opening scene with the guy who seduces the beautiful woman just to kill her.

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gingerspeed
05-07-2007

Rated 0 
i believe this song is about the story of jesus in the garden of gesthemene the night before his death. perhaps those of you that saw the passion of the christ recall the images of him looking up to the moon. it was the night of his arrest.....and he was betrayed with a kiss. the moon above was the moon that was foretelling that he was about to be killed.

the infinite possibilities magnify the power of this particular piece of scripture, and keep the double edged sword preserved in the haunting lyrics of ian mculloch.

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ascension1
05-29-2007

Rated 0 
Nouvelle vague do an amazing cover of this song.

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naya85
06-13-2007

Rated 0 
it's about drugs, a girl who falls in love with drugs witch kill her.
And I'M SORRY DONNIE DARKO'S FANS but this song appeared first in the film -Gia 1998- in a BETTER STAGE that Donnie Darko's one; when she is going to meet her pusher, and she got the first heroin injection. Then when the doctor diagnosed her Aids he explain her she must have been infected with an injection.

Me esa escena, Gia con un vestido rojo convence a un tío en una moto para q la lleve a buscar droga, y suena esa canción mientras va anocheciendo y conducen los 2 por las calles de NY, y cuando ella llega y no está el de la coca, un tío le da a probar heroína de su jeringuilla.
Y ahí está, es la canción que la conduce a la muerte, porque ese pincho le pasó el sida.

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Joynsey
08-01-2007

Rated 0 
What a song! It really does paint a picture in your mind but does it with so little words. A classic!

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