Moby's Song About Losing His Mother, 'The Day,' Pulls Double Duty as Protest Track

Posted on May 6th 2011 1:30PM by Steve Baltin
Comments

Dimitrios Kambouris, WireImage

It's hard to find a more personal subject than the loss of a parent, which Moby poignantly documents in his moving new single, 'The Day.' Written about a day he spent in the hospital with his dying mother, it might seem like an odd song to become the soundtrack for a protest, but 'The Day' was adopted by the organization MoveOn.org to accompany a video they did to protest recent budget cuts. For his part, Moby believes it's a great testament to his mother.

Watch Moby's 'The Day' Video Feat. Actress Heather Graham

"One of my earliest memories of my mom was marching in anti-war protests in the late '60s and when I was like 7 or 8 years old," he tells Spinner. "On Saturdays, we used to volunteer at the local Public Interest Research Group, so my Saturdays growing up were spent volunteering for lefty organizations. I'm sure that if she were still alive she'd really be thrilled that this song was being used for good purpose."

So how did this fitting tribute to his mom come to be? "Well, I'd given a copy of the record to my friend Laura at Move On and when they were putting the ad together she asked me if they could use this song," he says. "If the people at Move On and the people who've made the video believe this song made it more powerful, I'm honestly really happy to help out."

The clip features over 30,000 people who joined a nationwide fast to protest what they viewed as budget cuts that favor the wealthiest and hurt the middle class. Many of them shot images of themselves with messages written out detailing why they were giving up food.

Watch the Move On Video Feat. Moby's 'The Day'

While Moby says he doesn't "want to get too much in partisan name-calling or slandering," he shares the outrage of those moved to fast. "The Republicans have tried to occupy this disingenuous moral high ground. They've claimed moral outrage and it's been so disingenuous. Essentially, the Republican agenda has been a very short-sighted corporate agenda," he says. "Ultimately, people need to know that a lot of Republicans exist solely to do the bidding of people like the Koch brothers."

Thus far, the response has been positive, with support coming from some surprising sources. "Laura and I have a lot of friends who work on Wall Street and they're offended too," Moby says. "There comes a time when egregious corporate self-interest offends even the people who essentially benefit from that self-interest. People realize redistributing money away from people who need it to the people who don't, at its core, that's offensive."

Download Moby Songs | Buy Moby Albums