Contributors:

The TMBG FAQ

Jonathan Chaffer

Peter Kesting

Gary Manka

Anthony

Yossarian

Leah Goldman

Jonathan Chaffer

There are several ideas about the meaning of the obscure lyrics of this song. One idea is that the song is about getting high. The imagery does seem surreal such as might be experienced in an encounter with drugs. However, the song does state outright that "it's not a drug trip," so there are a couple of related possibilities to explain this. One is that the song is from the perspective of a drug user who is using some fake drug; hence they feel a bit insulted when they find out. Another is that it has nothing to do with drugs, but it deals with some other surreal experience such as waking up from a nightmare, or even dying-- you live in an isolated place like the moon, and are insulted that death is not euphoric like the drug trip people make it out to be.

A substantially different interp plays on the "big whoredom" bit. If the song is about prostitution, then one could interpret the nightgown as attire for the job. Drug use is indeed part of the prostitution world, which could explain that bit. The rest of the soung could deal with the dehumanizing aspect of the world's oldest profession.

And the FAQ states:

33. Did you know that Nightgown of the Sullen Moon is a book?

Martin Holger Peters <mrpeters@ocf.berkeley.edu> writes:

Thanks to my handy-dandy Books in Print computer at work (the general bookstore on campus, if you must know), I found this out:

Nightgown of the Sullen Moon; author Nancy Willard, illus. David McPhail

32 pages Paperback copyright 9/87 $4.95 Hardcover copyright 9/83 $14.95

Publisher: Harcourt Brace & Company phone orders: 1-800-346-8648

paper ISBN 0152574301 hard ISBN 0152574298

TMBG did not know about the book at the time the song was written, but they do now.