Monday Musical Tribute as Well as a Question of the Day for 1/19: On Loving Songs We Do Not Understand

Harrogate celebrates the Yes song, "Shoot High Aim Low," which comes off of their practically forgotten late-80s record, Big Generator.

But today's Musical Tribute raises a question that Harrogate suspects all Situationers have dealt with. Even those who pay little attention to song lyrics tend to have a handful of much-loved pop songs, the lyrics to which they do not understand. Such has always been the case for Harrogate with "Shoot Hight Aim Low." Clearly some sort of story is being told here, perhaps even two stories being interwoven with one another. But damned if Harrogate can put it together coherently in his mind.

And yet just about every time he listen to this song Harrogate finds it mesmerizing. Yes (no pun intened), part of it is the sheer sound of the Song. Something about "Shoot High Aim Low" proclaims: Take Me Seriously Because I Deserve to Be Taken Seriously. Granted, part of it is the absolutely devastating guitar work that takes place beginning with the 3:50 mark of the video provided below: guitar work that will drop a plummet line into the depths of your ear and cause, as it were, an eargasm. But yet, there is something more.....

So here are the lyrics, followed by a very tight version of this wonderfully enigmatic song.

And it brings Harrogate to his Question of the Day: What songs if any, Situationers, come to mind as Songs Ye Love, but for the LIfe of you have no idea what the hell it is doing?


We hit the blue fields
In the blue sedan we didn't get much further
Just as the sun was rising in the mist
We were all alone we didn't need much more
So fast this expidition
So vast this heavy load
With a touch of luck and a sense of need
Seeing the guns and their faces
We look around the open shore
Waiting for something

Shoot high break low
Aim high shoot low
Break high let go
Shoot high aim low

This was to be our last ride
With the steel guitar and the love you give me
Underneath the skin a feeling, a breakdown
Well we sat for hours on the crimson sand
Exchanges in the currency of humans bought and sold
And the leaders seem to lose control
Shall we lose ourselves for a reason
Shall we burn ourselves for the answer
Have we found the place that we're looking for
Someone shouted "open the door"
Lookout

Shoot high break low
Aim high shoot low
Feeling of imagination
Break high let go
Shoot high aim low
Shoot high aim low
Nothing you can say
Shoot high let go
Takes me by surprise
Shoot high aim low
Who says's there's got to be a reason
Shoot high let go
Who says there's got to be an answer
We were all alone, we didn't need much more
Shoot high aim low
The sun's so hard on this endless highway
Shoot high let go
Shoot high aim low
I've heard the singers, who sing of love
Shoot high let go
In the blue sedan we never got much further
Shoot high aim low

In that case...

...Supa-T says, "Challah!"

Friday Night Smooth w/ Shelby Lynne

Harrogate Endorses Barack Obama for President; and, a Happy Thursday Musical Tribute

Here you go, Andrew Sullivan. You can add this to your list of "stunning" endorsements.

Harrogate, after considering the many brilliant brain things in his head, Officially endorses Barack Obama for Presidency of the United States. For further explanation, see at least half of the posts that he has posted on this site in 2008.

Also, here's the song that Harrogate has listened to three times today already. It's really a wonderful song. He thinks Readers are familiar with it.

Happy Tuesday Music Tribute; Or, Things That Make Oxywife Moan

As some of you already know, I have been slowly resurrecting my once-famous and now defunct listening room. It's been a slow process because I've had to acquire a few additional components. What's more, the pieces I want are not always readily available on the used market. So there's a lot of waiting involved.

But finally, last week, one of my two preamp choices was listed for sale. The price was right, so I bought it. It's a full-function tube preamp with a 100% tube phono stage. This is my first foray into vacuum tubes, so I was eager to give a listen.

Because the conditions for the reestablishment of the listening room have not yet been met, my audition of the new preamp was rather makeshift. The active monitors sat on floor, flanking both sides of the preamp, which sat in the middle of the room, also on the floor. My iPod was connected directly to the preamplifier.

I have say that I didn't expect much out of the system on this particular evening because the audio files on my iPod are compressed to the point that songs lose their sense of realism. But when I pushed play, the music just sang. Everything sounded so right. I could not believe how realistic the tubes made vocals and instruments--especially acoustic instruments--sound. And again, this is through the iPod.

I was so impressed that I called Oxywife into the room to listen. I knew she would also be impressed. And this is no small assumption, as she tends to think that I spend too much money on audio equipment. For the record, she is probably right. She also tends to say things like, "Well, I don't really hear much of a difference," usually just to emphasize her belief that a purchase was wasteful.

But the night my preamp arrived, things were different. As I shuffled through numerous songs, I paused the iPod on Michael Buble's cover of "You Don't Know Me." Since Oxywife likes Buble, I invited her to listen to this song. To my surprise, she said "Wow! That really sounds good." And then shortly thereafter, it happened: Oxywife experienced her first eargasm.

So as a tribue to my beautiful wife, I post here for you the song that made her moan.