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Shoot The Moon Lyrics
Looking for a life in the back of your mind
Looking so hard, you're going blind
Swear you tasted it down the sun
Sooner or later, darkness will come
On your high horse overlookin' the plains
You're in a place where no one remains
Shoot the moon it's already shot
It's coming for you or are you gone
Shoot the moon
What you got's been shot to hell
Shoot the moon
What you got's been shot to hell
Shoot the moon
What you got's been shot to hell
Can't keep on holding her
Can't keep on
You know you've got to
She's gonna wander around
Can't keep on holding her
Where's she gone
You know you've got to
She's gonna wander around
[...]
Looking so hard, you're going blind
Swear you tasted it down the sun
Sooner or later, darkness will come
You're in a place where no one remains
Shoot the moon it's already shot
It's coming for you or are you gone
What you got's been shot to hell
Shoot the moon
What you got's been shot to hell
Shoot the moon
What you got's been shot to hell
Can't keep on
You know you've got to
She's gonna wander around
Can't keep on holding her
Where's she gone
You know you've got to
She's gonna wander around
[...]
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great song, about a girl who leaves you?
Could possibly be about a girl. "Can't keep on holding her / Can't keep on / You know you've got to / She's gonna wander around / Can't keep on holding her / Where's she gone" Huh.
I get the impression this song is about someone who is trying to achieve a goal that is no longer relevant. It might have been about underground musicians trying to get signed to a major label and get rich and famous. Since this album came out 2 months before "Nevermind", no one had yet seen "grunge" catch on yet, BUT a bunch of Mudhoney's peers or forebears - Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Dinosaur Jr., even fIREHOSE and Hüsker Dü - had signed to majors. But in the punk rock days of the 1980s, the dream of being on a major label and selling a million records and becoming a household name was something you associated with bands line Journey and Fleetwood Mac. That was commerce over art. Punk rock was supposed to be an alternative to that, where being on an independent record label meant the freedom to make the music YOU wanted to make, and express yourself in an original way, and if only 10 people bought your record or came to your shows, they were true fans. And they could see you in an intimate setting and be up front and actually meet & talk to you, because the line between audience and performer was being erased. "None of that fake rock star bullshit, man!" No elite, no scalpers, no standing in line, lost in some huge impersonal crowd. And now the independent bands were signing to these major labels, but to what end? To just repeat the past, and become some watered down commercialized impersonal product, like what happened to rock back in the 70s? (Which is exactly what ended up happening in the 90s with independent rock.) So I could see this song being about that. It certainly fits Mark & the band's MO - even when they signed to a major, they seemed totally ambivalent to fame and self conscious about their scene becoming the flavor of the month.
Then again this tune could just as easily be about a girl, or about someone pining away to be a major league ball player when they're well past their prime, or someone 50 years old still dreaming of being a famous (insert glamorous dream job title here).
Ain't it fun when a song can be interpreted any number of possible ways and they all fit? :-D
[Edit: added clarification about 90s rock]