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[miko2]

Today's Song: Vaccination Scar by The Tragically Hip

I didn't do a song of the day yesterday, so I did one this morning and backdated my entry. Yesterday's Song: Vapour Trails by the Tragically Hip

While I was doing this I realized that I hadn't picked up the last The Tragically HIp cd, In Between Evolution. They even have a newer cd ready to be released this year. After reading a bit, I downloaded their first single, vaccination Scar. I need to pick the whole cd up -- it's reportedly one of their best cds in years, and I can already tell this song is going to be one of my favorites. It's got everything that a classic song by the Hip has -- great rocking tune with lyrics that are poetic and make you think.

The lyrics on the cd are anti-war and critcal of the Iraq War in particular. According to a review I read, Vaccination Scar compares the collapse of the rationale for the Iraq War to the collapse of Galloping Gertie, the first Tacoma Narrows Bridge. As usual it's hard to draw the exact meaning out of Gordon Downie's lyrics:

So the chemistry's set,
and I'm not the saddest cheerleader
to forget the american word
for the gang in the head
that dwindles 'til no members when
The mystery's met,
the sky looks threatened
heading home in the dust,
singing 'Life Is Forgettin
good enough for the frivilous'

There's one thing I remember is
this tear on your bare shoulder this
little silver boulder
this slowly falling star
rolling, so what
never getting older
where the moon-shocked curtains part
The start of enough
a tear dropped in a vaccination scar

I'll tell ya if I'm able that is
I'll tell ya like it is
He went down like a bad card table, like
the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

Swimming on a bit
stop you're treading water as the sun assimilated the words
For lighthouse fire
burning down to embers' end
The mystery met
the sky just reddened,
heading home under dusk
Is life just forgetting
another word for frivilous?
or little silver boulder
silence from Mars
For the heart of enough
or a teardrop in a Vaccination Scar?

Wherever you are, scar

In one of those weird coincidences that crop up on occasion, I spent part of Friday reading about the collapse of Galloping Gertie. I'd always known about it but never really read up on it and I hadn't watched video of it in I don't know how long, if ever. It's one of the cool things about life today with the internet at our fingertips that I can think about a topic like this, decide I want to know more, and in seconds I have the video in front of me and a lengthy article on the subject.

I really knew very little about the collapse of the bridge. It happened in November 1940, less than a year after the bridge was completed and opened (May 1940). From the outset people knew that the bridge had something wrong with it, and they were conducting wind tunnel studies to try and figure out what it was that made it sway and "gallop" in even mildly windy conditions. They tried to anchor it with extra cables and had plans to do more that would have hopefully fixed some or most of the problem. In any event, nobody really thought the problem would lead to the dramatic collapse in which the bridge literally tore itself apart.

The Tragically Hip Myspace page

As I noted in "yesterday's" post, the Hip are playing at Marrymoor Park in Seattle on July 11th. Tickets are $37.50. Dunno if I want to see them for that price or not, but I bet they play this song. ^_^