"Moondance" and the coolness of autumn

By Richard K. Barry

In the late 1970s, I was working at an NPR radio station in Oswego, New York, writing and reading the news on the hour. It was something I did while attending university, more or less for the hell of it. There was certainly no money in it. 

Late one night, about this time of year, the DJ and I got talking about songs that reminded us of autumn. We realized pretty quickly we couldn't think of many.

For some reason, Van Morrison's "Moondance" was all that came to mind. It's a little spooky, a little haunting. Halloween-like. A very cool tune. Cool enough to make you feel the season change. I don't know. Anyway, that's what I thought of and that's what the DJ put on the air during the late night shift on that particular evening at WRVO - 89.9 Oswego, New York.

Here's a clip of Van the Man doing the song at the 1980 Montreux Jazz Festival.

(Cross-posted at Lippmann's Ghost.)