Take Aim

Serge performing Take Aim at Festival Beauregard on 1 July 2011

Take Aim was written by Sergio Pizzorno and is the 5th track on West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum.

Background

One of the earliest songs written for West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, Take Aim was originally intended to be included on the 2007 Fast Fuse EP but was eventually left off for unknown reasons. It is sung by Serge and has been described as cinematic, starting out with a "Mexican funeral march" and moving through different moods, like a soundtrack, and as "a song about standing up for yourself and becoming a zombie." In an interview with NME, Tom called Take Aim the band's "darkest side ever" and proclaimed it to be darker than U Boat.

Live

Take Aim was first performed in Nottingham on 24 June 2009 and has been played at almost every gig since, usually following Thick As Thieves during the West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Tour. From summer 2012 until the end of the 2013 Tour Serge occasionally sang a cover of The Korgis' Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime after the song. From August 2012 until the end of the Velociraptor! Tour the original trumpet intro was replaced with the title theme from A Clockwork Orange by Wendy Carlos. During the 48:13 Tour Kasabian initially performed Take Aim with a snippet from The Doberman as an intro and outro, later the song was more often replaced by Bow in the set. A lot of the time Serge will sing a snippet from the remix in Take Aim.

Remixes

Dan the Automator Remix

Dan the Automator is the pseudonym of American hip hop producer Daniel Nakamura, who also co-produced Kasabian's albums West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum and Velociraptor!. The remix was released on

• Where Did All The Love Go? Digital Single
• Where Did All The Love Go? Promo CD-R
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum CD/DVD Tour Edition (PARADISE67)

There is also an unoffical Japanese 7" release of the remix, with Nas & Damian Marley's Nah Mean as a b-side.

Quotes

"Again, it's quite confrontational. Take aim, meaning stand up for what you believe in, not letting things ride, that same loss of community as Where Did All The Love Go. It's a general theme to a lot of the album. This was a weird one cos when I wrote it I was thinking of a '70s rock musical. Not exactly Jesus Christ Superstar, more like Hair. That was my vibe. The Age Of Aquarius. Not that you'd ever know from the end result."

— Serge (Q Magazine, December 2009)

"It's beautiful but dark, [...] sinister, it snarls at you but it's amazing. Your heart sinks and you think 'It's going to take me under'. It throws you about."

— Tom (NME, 30 May 2009)

Releases

Albums

• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum CD Album (PARADISE57)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Digital Album
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 2x10" Vinyl Album (PARADISE59)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum CD/DVD Album (PARADISE58)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Album Promo CD (PARADISE56)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum CD Slipcase (PARADISE62)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum CD/DVD Tour Edition (PARADISE67)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum CD Album (Japan)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Bonus Track CD Album (Japan)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 2xCD Album (Japan)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Album Promo CD-R
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Album Promo CD-R (EMI USA)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum Album Promo CD-R (RCA USA)
• The Albums (PARADISE66)
• Empire / West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum CD Album (German Reissue)
• West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum / Velociraptor!

Live Releases

Audio Live In The UK (PARADISE77) Live! (PARADISE79) Live At The O2 DVD/CD (Japan) Live At The O2 DVD/CD (PARADISE85) Live At The O2 Blu-Ray/CD (PARADISE86) For Crying Out Loud 2xCD Album (PARADISE96) For Crying Out Loud 2xCD Album (Japan)

Video Velociraptor! CD/DVD Album (Japan) Velociraptor! CD/DVD Album (PARADISE70) Live At The O2 DVD/CD (Japan) Live At The O2 DVD/CD (PARADISE85) Live At The O2 Blu-Ray/CD (PARADISE86) Live At The O2 Blu-Ray (PARADISE87) Live At The O2 DVD (PARADISE88) 48:13 CD/DVD Album

Lyrics

Nightmares oh nightmares come on now
Getting my days all wrong now
Risen from prison an outlaw
Spending our times in the lion's jaw

In the end you sink or swim
I'm eager
I'm eager

Love them oh love them come on now
Socially biting your tongue now
Run down oh run down old houses
Feeding the cats to the mouses

Well take aim now
Well take aim now
Can you see me in the way now
Well take aim now
Well take aim now
Gotta get us out of here

Bribe them and give them star prizes
Lock them away in high rises
Held up and called on by truncheons
Rattling keys to the dungeons

Well take aim now
Well take aim now
Can you see me in the way now
Well take aim now
Well take aim now
Gotta get us out of here

Love take me over
I bid you all farewell
I've got to leave
Tears on my shoulder
Switch me off today

Well take aim now
Well take aim now
Can you see me in the way now
Well take aim now
Well take aim now
Gotta get us out of here

Love take me over
I bid you all farewell
I've got to leave