From: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org (fegmaniax-digest) To: fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Subject: fegmaniax-digest V6 #58 Reply-To: fegmaniax@smoe.org Sender: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-fegmaniax-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk fegmaniax-digest Thursday, November 6 1997 Volume 06 : Number 058 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Live and Let Die [M R Godwin ] Nick Drake article in NY Times (.5% RH) [lj lindhurst ] "Robin" [hal brandt ] Live & Let Die (no RH) [Russ Reynolds ] Live & Let Die (no RH) [spine@iastate.edu (James Francis)] fwd: Live & Let Die (no RH) [Russ Reynolds ] Re: fegmaniax-digest V6 #57 [dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich)] safe & warm in LA [Carole Reichstein ] Re: I with Robyn would do something so we could talk about him [james.dig] LA Fegs - Largo Shows [griffith ] Re: safe & warm in LA [Tom Clark ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 12:29:24 +0000 (GMT) From: M R Godwin Subject: Re: Live and Let Die I volunteered: > "But if this ever-changing world in which we live in makes you break down > and cry" (Sir Paul McCartney, 'Live and Let Die') Bayard commented: > >i always thought it was "..in which we're livin'" However, James confirms my ears. On Tue, 4 Nov 1997, Ken Ostrander wrote: also, isn't it "give in and cry"? If it is, we have three "in"s in rapid succession. Has anyone actually got a copy of the studio version of this song? - - Mike G. PS Easy quiz question: Which group had the most guitarists called McCullough who dropped dead after leaving? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 09:36:27 -0500 (EST) From: lj lindhurst Subject: Nick Drake article in NY Times (.5% RH) Did all of y'all Nick Drake fans see this article? In the paper, they had a gorgeous picture of him in a big black cape. The article even mentions Robyn (spelled incorrectly as "Robin")(stoopid un-hip NY Times)(big dummies), and an interview with Rebecca Moore (are there any other Rebecca Moore fans out there?). Now I'm REALLY thinking about going to this show. do I use enough parenthesis? (or could I use more?) your little cup of sunshine, lj - ------------------------------- Little Known but Not Forgotten By JOHN MILWARD When Nick Drake died in 1974, he was an obscure 26-year-old British singer-songwriter who had made three albums. Today he is one of the best-known unknown artists in popular music. Consider just the most recent evidence. Last February, the British rock magazine Mojo opted to put Drake on the cover instead of the artist formerly known as Prince. The article was itself adapted from a forthcoming biography of Drake. And on Saturday, more than a dozen singers and musicians with hipster credentials will take part in a tribute to the singer-songwriter, "Bryter Layter: The Music of Nick Drake," at St. Ann's Church in Brooklyn Heights. What explains such interest in the work of a painfully introverted singer-songwriter who died after overdosing on a prescribed antidepressant? Though his death was officially ruled a suicide, some people close to Drake believe that it was accidental. "Nobody commits suicide as a career move," said Peter Holsapple, who will lead a house band at the tribute. "But the addition of his premature death alongside his beautiful, introspective songs can't help but add a disquieting element to the package. Still, nobody would remember him had he not left work that was so very moving." Indeed, Drake's three albums of arty folk-pop tunes -- "Five Leaves Left" (1969), "Brayter Layter"(1970) and "Pink Moon" (1972) -- have long been favorites among critics and musicians, many of whom are similarly drawn to Van Morrison's 1968 album, "Astral Weeks." That work was characterized by the brooding quality of its jazz-inflected music and lyrical flights, and it was a favorite of Drake's. His music has inspired a wide variety of musicians. In 1985, the British group Dream Academy dedicated its hit "Life in a Northern Town" to Drake; in 1992,the singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams included a version of his song "Which Will" on her album "Sweet Old World." His work has been praised by, among others, Peter Buck of R.E.M., Paul Weller, Robin Hitchcock, Kate Bush and Tom Verlaine. Among the singers scheduled to perform at St. Ann's are Duncan Sheik, whose recent debut album included the hit single "Barely Breathing"; Terry Roche of the Roches; Susan Cowsill, a member of the Cowsills who now performs with her husband, Mr. Holsapple, in the Continental Drifters; the singer-songwriter Syd Straw, and Richard Barone, who has pursued a solo career after leading the Bongos. "The key to Nick Drake for me," explained Mr. Barone, "is that his songs can be exuberantly happy and sad at the same time." Joe Boyd produced "Five Leaves Left" and "Bryter Layter" at the same time that he was recording the seminal British folk-rock band Fairport Convention. He says the arrangements were informed by Drake's distinctive guitar playing. His picking drew from the subtle, cabaret-style blues of Josh White and was as likely to find its rhythms in the bossa nova as in British folk. Drake's songs were also colored by his use of unorthodox guitar tunings. His melancholy lyrics could be as mysterious as these tunings. "Time has told me, you're a rare, rare find/A troubled cure, for a troubled mind." begins "Time Has Told Me," the first tune of his debut album. From the start, Drake's words suggested a tormented romantic in a perilous world. By his third album, "Pink Moon," recorded over two nights, mostly with solo guitar, the words seemed as if they were lifted from a fever dream. The lyrics to the title song read in their entirety: "Saw it written and I saw it say, pink moon is on its way. None of you will stand so tall, pink moon is gonna get ye all. And it's a pink moon." It is not surprising that "Pink Moon," a favorite of many Drake aficionados, invites the sort of intellectual musings that his fans relish. Mr. Buck described the album as the British answer to Robert Johnson's "Hellhound on My Trail," a Delta blues classic. Where Mat Snow, the editor of Mojo, considers it a "chill-out" album best appreciated in the deep of the night, Ms. Straw thinks otherwise. "Call me macabre, call me adrift, but I like 'Pink Moon' in the morning," Ms. Straw said, who paused upon noticing that she was appropriating Robert Duvall's famous line from the 1979 movie "Apocalypse Now." She continued, realizing that the end of Mr. Duvall's speech could also apply to "Pink Moon": "It smells like victory." But it was a victory borne of defeat. Drake grow up in Tanworth-in-Arden, a bucolic village outside Birmingham, and was an avid guitar player and aspiring songwriter by the time he started studying English literature at Cambridge in 1967. He recorded "Five Leaves Left" while still a student and soon quit school to pursue a career in music. Yet Drake was ill-equipped to capitalize on his talents. During his short career, he performed only a few live concerts, and with virtually no radio play, his albums sold only a few thousand in Britain and were never released in the United States. A shy man, Drake sank into a debilitating depression when stardom failed to beckon and ultimately withdrew to his parent's home. Paradoxically, his only sibling, Gabrielle Drake, became a successful actress. When Mr. Boyd sold his production company, Witchseason, to Island Records in 1971, one provision of the deal was that the label keep Drake's albums in print. By the mid-70's, they were released in America.(The catalogue is now on Rykodisc, which released a sampler CD in 1994 called "Way to Blue," which Mr. Boyd said had sold 60,000 copies.) The singer Rebecca Moore, 29, suspects that when she performs at Saturday's tribute she will think fondly of her friend, the musician Jeff Buckley, who drowned earlier this year. She met him at St. Ann's when he sang at a concert dedicated to the music of his father, Tim Buckley, who died at 26 in 1975. But Ms. Moore said that even while singing a sad song by Drake, she would be mourning neither the premature death of her friend nor that of the artist being honored. "I grew up with the whole tortured-artist thing," Ms. Moore explained. "And I've worked for years to shake it. These days, I think the greatest act of rebellion is to be optimistic." ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 10:17:29 -0700 From: hal brandt Subject: "Robin" lj lindhurst wrote: > Robyn (spelled incorrectly as "Robin")(stoopid un-hip NY Times)(big > dummies) I was aghast to see the same stoopid error (over and over) in the songwriting credits at the end of A&M's "Brenda Of The Lightbulb Eyes" video compilation! "Robin", indeed! /hal ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 97 09:24:00 -0800 From: Russ Reynolds Subject: Live & Let Die (no RH) >Has anyone actually got >a copy of the studio version of this song? Doubt it. Hardly anyone has ever bought a Paul McCartney record. ;) I just put the headphones on. It sure sounds like "In Which We Live in", which also happens to sound like "In Which We're Livin'" with a liverpool accent. I think you gotta go with common sense in this case and assume that a songwriter of Paul's caliber wouldn't be redundant with his ins. - -rr ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Nov 97 12:19:43 -500 From: spine@iastate.edu (James Francis) Subject: Live & Let Die (no RH) It's definitely "in which we live in." I had a copy of it once. I think Paul knows it's a "non-standard" usage, and he's just being goofy or cheeky or whatever. It's not _actually_ a sin to deviate from the standard usage of a language--most people just act like it is. Same thing with Robyn and "Feelers was everywhere," "it's in the shape of you and I," "we was listenin'," "ain't you never seen a disembodied soul before," etc. Crawling back into the cave in which I live, "Jim" Francis ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 97 11:41:00 -0800 From: Russ Reynolds Subject: fwd: Live & Let Die (no RH) ======== Original Message ======== It's definitely "in which we live in." I had a copy of it once. I think Paul knows it's a "non-standard" usage, and he's just being goofy or cheeky or whatever. It's not _actually_ a sin to deviate from the standard usage of a language--most people just act like it is. Same thing with Robyn and "Feelers was everywhere," "it's in the shape of you and I," "we was listenin'," "ain't you never seen a disembodied soul before," etc. Crawling back into the cave in which I live, "Jim" Francis ======== Fwd by: Russ Reynolds ======== ...except that terms like "we was" and "ain't you never" are widely accepted rock'n'roll terms that date back to rock's black roots. "in which we live in" would have been a new one on everybody. I don't think there was any cheekiness happening, just a case of widely misunderstood lyrics--which as you know is extremely common in rock & roll. For the record, the lyrics to this song as printed in Guns n'Roses "Use Your Illusion" CD booklet say "in which we live in". Who ya gonna side with, Axl Rose or me? - -rr I believe in Malcom. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Nov 1997 22:05:23 GMT From: dwdudic@erols.com (David W. Dudich) Subject: Re: fegmaniax-digest V6 #57 =20 >Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 05:15:50 -0500 (EST) >From: Terrence M Marks >Subject: I with Robyn would do something so we could talk about him =20 > >2) Musically, I've run out of steam recently. I'm wondering what = you-all >do when you run out of things to sing about... >(I've pre-emptively rejected writing a song about how uninspired I am >because, well, that's self-defeating no matter what happens, and drugs >because, well, I'm not cool enough to do drugs.) > Well, remember the rule of thumb, courtesy of Beck: "Anything can be a song. There's nothing special about it. Eat a buritto, write a song." So, have you had any really interesting mexican food recently? Or, look out your window, and write down the first thing that comes to mind...Remember, Uncle Bobby writes that way, and (unless your dead, in which case it will just sound great :-)) you will have thoughts- write them down! and, when all else fails, keep a notebook by your bed, and write down your dreams. Hope this helps! -luther w. dudich dwdudic@erols.com "All you need is love, all you get is afraid." -Robyn Hitchcock =09 >------------------------------ > >Date: Tue, 4 Nov 1997 13:18:03 +0000 (GMT) >From: M R Godwin >Subject: Re: And In The Element Of Style > >On Mon, 3 Nov 1997, Anton Szander Lavash wrote: >> "If he treat you horribly he's probably a Scorpio..." >> Do you see that? He actually wrote the lyric in the subjunctive!!! > >I have a nagging feeling that this should be something like: >"If he were to treat you horribly, then he would probably be a = Scorpio"... > >As for lack of grammar in Liverpool, how about: >"But if this ever-changing world in which we live in makes you break = down >and cry" (Sir Paul McCartney, 'Live and Let Die')=20 > >Not only does he end a phrase with a preposition, the preposition is = also >pleonastic because he has already used it once. You could also argue = that >'in which we live' is redundant, because "this world" clearly implies = "the >world in which we live". But 'in which we live in' just fits the tune >nicely, and Macca has always preferred tunes to sense... I always thought this line sounded like a bit of Ed Wood dialoge ("man is a hard working human"..."how future events will affect us in the future"...). ok, I'll shut up now. -luther w. dudich > dwdudic@erols.com > "All you need is love, all you get is afraid." > -Robyn Hitchcock =20 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 15:23:00 -0800 (PST) From: Carole Reichstein Subject: safe & warm in LA ..maybe everyone is too busy diagramming musician's sentences or something, but who is planning to go see Robyn in LA on the 18th & 19th? I figure the Bay area fegbunch are going, but is anyone making a special trek? What is this venue like? Hmmm..I expected more chatter about this upcoming gig. Odd things, lefts. - --Carole p.s--any yanks going to see the London shows this December? I'm in an "armchair traveller" mood of late. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 6 Nov 1997 12:56:54 +1300 (NZDT) From: james.dignan@stonebow.otago.ac.nz (James Dignan) Subject: Re: I with Robyn would do something so we could talk about him ah, Terrence, but what would you with Robyn do? Oh, and yes, but Cambodia did for a while, and a few others use stars to make a map (like Tuvalu and Nauru) James (his German word order practicing, and realising that the digest form of the list means that he can happily say what half a dozen others have already said more clearly) ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 1997 16:21:38 -0800 (PST) From: griffith Subject: LA Fegs - Largo Shows Trying to figure out the dates of the Largo shows is near impossible. I called Largo last week. They tell me that RH is playing there on Nov 13 & 14. Now it looks like he will be playing on Nov 8 and 15. The only one I am sure of is the show on the 15th. I'll try to confirm more as time progresses. If there is a show on Nov 8 - I will be there. griffith = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Griffith Davies hbrtv219@huey.csun.edu ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Nov 97 16:15:58 -0800 From: Tom Clark Subject: Re: safe & warm in LA On 11/5/97 3:23 PM, Carole Reichstein wrote: >I figure the Bay area fegbunch are going, but is anyone making a special >trek? Absolutely! As a matter of fact we're gonna take public transit since it's only 450 MILES AWAY! ;^) Seriously, I don't think any of us here in the Silly-Cone Valley will be making the trek. Especially mid-week. Word up, - -tc ******************************************* Tom Clark Apple Computer, Inc. tclark@apple.com http://www.netgate.net/~tclark "Knowledge Is Good" - Emile Faber ------------------------------ End of fegmaniax-digest V6 #58 ******************************