I'm 52 and I'm still possessed by the music of Genesis, which I glommed onto when I was 16. I love the Peter Gabriel years and post-Gabriel alike. A song that has hit me hard in recent weeks, without warning and without my ever being a huge fan of the song, is the seven-minute "Mad Man Moon," the story of a man who goes on a chimera quest and becomes disconnected from reality and the human race, spending his remaining years in regret. The song is tinged with unimaginable beauty and melancholy.
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote a famous short story, "Winter Dreams," whose Dexter Green, chasing the cipher Judy Jones, has gone on a "Mad Man Moon" quest.
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