WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 51awesome as the Great January Comet,
Halley was still a spectacular sight.
It certainly made an impression on a
boy named John S. Stewart, who was living
with his parents near Lexington, Kentucky,
at the Transylvania Inn, where his father
was a horse trainer. The young boy’s expe-
rience seeing Halley’s Comet remained
with him the rest of his life. Some 60 years
later, his son tape-recorded his memories of
that long-ago spring in 1910.
His son was John C. Stewart, a folk
singer and songwriter probably best known
as a member of the Kingston Trio and the
composer of the Monkees’ hit “Daydream
Believer.” But Stewart also had a successful
solo career that stretched from the late
1960s to his death in 2008. He was an
acknowledged and continuing influence on
contemporary folk music’s so-called
“Americana” sound. An enthusiastic sup-
porter of the U.S. space program, Stewart
wrote “Armstrong,” a tribute to the first
lunar landing with not-so-subtle references
to troubling social issues still with us today.
His song about his father and a comet,
though, is particularly touching, both for
its subject matter and its lyrics.
Stewart began with his father’s tape-
recorded recollections. To them he added a
musical arrangement with a string section
and a simple but driving chorus. The result
was “An Account of Haley’s [sic] Comet.” It
opens with John S. narrating his personal
story. “It must have been in the late spring
or early summer, my mother came to me
and said, ‘Let’s go upstairs on the veranda.’
She said, ‘I want you to see Haley’s
Comet.’ ” At first it looked like a bright star,
but as it came closer to Earth, it “started to
take on the look of a ball of fire with a tail
behind it.” John C. and several backup
singers then sing the refrain: “Kentucky
light shine / Will it fall from the sky? /
Kentucky light shine / Stranger in the sky.”His father continues his story, recalling
how the comet got larger and brighter until
one night “it was over the Tattersall’s barn.
... The horses were restless ... [and] my
father ... went to the barn to try and quiet”
them. The young John S. runs to his
mother and tells her he’s afraid, and she
replies, “So am I.” He describes the light
as “eerie” and so bright the eaves of the
barn cast shadows. The refrain cuts back
in: “Kentucky light shine / Will it fall from
the sky?”
Some of the senior Stewart’s memories
may have been colored by the passing years.
He may have confused the spectacular
twilight sight of the Great Comet a few
months earlier with his experience of
Halley. In the end, though, it doesn’t matter
much. In 1910, John S. Stewart saw Halley’s
Comet during one of its most impressive
appearances. Sixty years later, his folk
singer son turned his memories into a
moving “music of the spheres” account of
an astronomical experience most of us will
have only once in a lifetime.
We’ve been singing songs about the awe-
inspiring worlds of the night sky for a long
time, maybe as long as we’ve been human.
From meteor storms to comets, from solar
eclipses to quasars — and much more —
the night sky continues to inspire us to
make celestial music right here on Earth.Joel Davis has worked as a technical writer
at Microsoft and WideOrbit. He blogs regularly
at notjustminorplanets.blogspot.com.The Byrds (pictured in 1970; from left are Roger McGuinn, Skip Battin, Clarence White, and
Gene Parsons) found musical inspiration in the radio-loud quasar CTA-102. Their song of the same
name communicates a positive message of hope that the quasar is an alien beacon. JOOST EVERS/ANEFO;
COURTESY OF THE NATIONAAL ARCHIEF, THE DUTCH NATIONAL ARCHIVES, AND SPAARNESTAD PHOTOHalley’s Comet also
lit up the sky in 1910,
during an especially
close pass to Earth;
in fact, Earth passed
through the comet’s
extensive tail in May
that year. This photo
was taken during the
comet’s subsequent
apparition in March- NASA/W. LILLER