Though the song could be explored as a poetic examination of any number of (mainly psychedelic) drugs that have taken the street name “moon rock”, this song is better viewed as the surreal stream of consciousness of a space traveler due to the largely accepted claim that David Byrne never partook in drugs and Byrne’s philosophy towards lyrics and music (particularly on Speaking In Tongues) as something that needn’t necessarily make sense, as something more visceral than cognitive.