Odes to Midtown Atlanta · Track 5 · middle
The Fox Theatre's Moorish Revival Stars
The Fox Theatre — 1929 Moorish-Revival movie palace at Peachtree + Ponce, the ceiling painted with twinkling stars and clouds that drift, the Mighty Möller pipe organ, the way the theater was saved by the "Save the Fox" campaign in 1974. The acoustic cathedral of Atlanta. Lydia performs at the Fox.
Lyrics
[Intro] You can hear the building breathe, can't you? Even now. Listen. [Verse 1] Christmas night, 1929. The air on Peachtree Street smelled of coal smoke and progress. Inside, it was fresh paint and Persian carpets. Mayre, Alger, and Vinour drew a map to a dream. They told the plasterers to build a desert sky. And when the house lights went down... people forgot they were in Atlanta. [Chorus] A ceiling of cobalt blue. Four thousand stars, each with its own switch. And a cloud projector, moving slow as memory across the firmament. A whole Arabian night, tucked inside a building at the corner of Ponce de Leon. [Verse 2] Then came the silence. 1974. The dust motes dancing in the projector beam were the only ghosts left. They were going to tear it all down. For a parking lot. A BellSouth tower. Anything but this. The stars were numbered. The sky had a price. [Chorus] A ceiling of cobalt blue. Four thousand stars, each with its own switch. And a cloud projector, still moving slow as memory across the firmament. Our Arabian night, tucked inside a building we almost lost. [Bridge] They stood on the sidewalks with petitions. They held bake sales. They ran a telethon. And someone had the idea... to sell the stars. Five dollars for a single bulb from the sky. Five dollars to own a piece of the night. The Mighty Moeller played anthems to an empty house, praying for its own walls. [Outro] So I stand here tonight. Under the same slow clouds. Under the same five-dollar stars. They're all still here. Every single one. Because we bought the sky. We bought our own sky back.