AP Feature Article on Moon Martin

Moon Martin acquired his unusual nick- name and presto, he could write songs. Martin and his band ~ the Ravens, now are on tour as an opening act with Rockpile, the rockabilly band put together by Nick Lowe & Dave Edmunds. He started out rockabilly, too, back home in Altus, Oklahoma.

Around 1973, Martin recalls, he and some friends who had bands and who wrote songs would play their songs for each other. "I had a lot of songs with the word moon in them," he says. "I didn't realize it. They called me Moon and it kind of stuck. It was like I just woke up one morning and said , 'Hey, people are calling me Moon. That's a neat name. I'm going to use that.' I'd been a closet writer. From then on I could write and had a lot more confidence."

His real name is Johnny Martin but all his friends call him Moon now. His father is dead. His mother doesn't call him Moon. He was 30 on Halloween and lives now in Southern California.

The third Moon Martin album on Capitol Records, "Street Fever," was released this fall. The first was "Shots from a Cold Nightmare" in 1978, followed by "Escape from Domination". Somebody one said that Martin concentrated on his misery, turned it into rage and wrote it into songs. He says, "I like that. I don't like those real weepy singer-songwriter songs. Oh, I don't mind them every now and then. Jackson Browne does them real good. He has got that market cornered. I don't think I could improve on it."

His songs, he says, can usually be sung by either a man or a woman. "I think some of them would work better when sung by a woman. For instance, you always have women singing weepy songs. If they sang, let's say, a song from my first album called 'Hands Down', it would be different. 'I'd been made mean with misery. What a fool you proved I could be'. You don't usually have women singing songs like that. Rachel Sweet did 'I Got a Reason', real fiery, like the music is. 'I had a vision like a shining fire at nght, I can't believe it hurt so much. It's gone now from my sight. I've got a reason I'm feeling this way. I've got a reason and I'm going to make you pay'.

When I sing that, I don't necessarily feel it is about a man-woman relationship. A vision can be whatever it is to you, like 'Tiger, tiger burning bright' by William Blake. I'm not sure what that means exactly, you know."

Before Martin had a recording contract, in 1976, Mink DeVille recorded his "Cadillac Walk". Martin played guitar on Michelle Phillips' "Victim of Romance" LP and wrote three songs on it, including the title song.

Robert Palmer had a hit song with Martin's "Bad Case of Lovin' You", from his second LP [webmaster note: Bad Case actually appeared on Martin's first LP]. Martin says, "Capitol is the home of the mellow hits. They didn't think 'Bad Case of Lovin' You' was a hit. Palmer said he tried to make his record sound like mine. I'm glad he had a hit on it."

His best-selling single has been "Rolene", which contains the line "She has a cheerleader smile, Tijuana style". Martin says, "I like that, but no way did I think "Rolene" was a hit single. I thought it was a fair rock song. There were things about it that I didn't like, because I didn't pay much attention to it. That's the one the company loves."