"Children of the Moon"

In "Children of the Moon," the line "The seas were empty; there was hunger in the land" exhibits a sort of parallelism:  both clauses illustrate a lack.  Because "sea" and "land" are opposites, however, this lack is emphasized, and its widespread nature is demonstrated.

"Children of the Moon"

In the lines "Children, children of the moon watch the world go by" and "Children, children of the moon watch it all go by" in "Children of the Moon," the "by"s are sung with a melisma (F C), musically giving a sense of movement.

"Children of the Moon"

The Alan Parsons Project page on Facebook posted scans of an article about the new Eye in the Sky boxset.  One of the pictures in the article shows some of Eric Woolfson's hand-written lyrics, including those for "Children of the Moon."  I realized something about the first line ("Pay no attention to the writing on the wall") that should have been obvious a long time ago.  While the phrase "the writing on the wall" has taken on a broader application, it ultimately comes from the Bible, specifically Daniel 5, in which a hand writes on a wall in the king's palace and Daniel interprets the writing.