From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V2 #364 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Wednesday, December 6 2000 Volume 02 : Number 364 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Just a puppet? ["Clary, John (CLRY)" ] Re: [RS] Just a puppet? [Rongrittz@aol.com] RE: [RS] "Sing Me Back Home" by Merle Haggard [Katrin.Uhl@t-online.de (Ka] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 16:38:14 -0800 From: "Clary, John (CLRY)" Subject: [RS] Just a puppet? Norman interjected: >> How could this description be left out: > "A hundred men, all knee to chest > A hundred marionettes. > > I am the string pulled by the sure hand > Animating what was still > I am invisible and faithful > I am a courier." << > Pure poetry. At least to me. I'm not that well-read but this puppet imagery seems genius to me. I wonder if the Courier finds confidence in that Sure Hand? I mean, his job is very dangerous (he can't always be hidden in the fox holes), but because his task is being directed, perhaps he has no fear? The mail must go through, so to speak. This songs always conjures up the film Galipoli for me. Anyone know for sure in what era this battle takes place? Some of Richard's images are anachronistically juxtaposed. j a c ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 19:48:09 EST From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] Just a puppet? << This songs always conjures up the film Galipoli for me. Anyone know for sure in what era this battle takes place? Some of Richard's images are anachronistically juxtaposed. >> Great minds must think alike . . . here's Richard's take on the song from an old interview: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ "The Courier" came about when I picked up a book of Wilfred Owen's poems. I was reading some of his poems from the trenches in World War I, and also, I'd seen and read about the Battle of Gallipoli. Sending all these guys over the top, and I just wanted to write a song about the guy who would deliver the message. The position that person was in, of having to take orders and not giving the order. But having to deliver it. It's absolutely necessary for the efficient running of an army. Somebody has to transmit the orders. You've got to have somebody to make them, somebody to carry them out, and somebody to deliver them. I wanted to just talk about this guy -- I couldn't really write a song about the guys actually going over the top of the trench and getting mown down. That's already been done and -- I couldn't rewrite "The Green Fields of France," for example. Eric Bogle wrote that song. Unbelievable song. I don't feel I have the power to deal with people getting mown down by machine guns. Instead, I wanted focus on the story behind the story. Call attention to the difficult place that person is in, without trying to be judgmental about it. I could have turned the song into some kind of politically correct thing, where the guy refuses to deliver the order and is court martialed and shot. That would be a perfectly good story. Perhaps I should do that, because that's a noble thing to do in some circumstances. In this case, it seemed too easy for me, and that it was more interesting to have him not disobey - to have him deliver the order. That's actually how things usually work. Not very inspirational. I know the song is not very inspirational, but a song where he refuses would be inspirational. Sort of like Arthur McBride and the sergeant, that Paul Brady sings about. And Dick Gaughan, too. There's a perfectly good example about a bunch of guys getting recruited and then telling the guy to take a walk. That's fine, but I don't know, it just seemed to me like I wanted to write a song about the way things usually happen. Which is, following the orders. I had to figure out a way to end the damned song, and so he takes all their letters home. His job is to deliver those. It's a small consolation. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2000 09:02:55 +0100 From: Katrin.Uhl@t-online.de (Katrin Uhl) Subject: RE: [RS] "Sing Me Back Home" by Merle Haggard > Katrin asked: > >> Bildungsroman is actually a word used in the English > language??? Wow. << thanks guys for clearing that one up for me! > You have to add the "-ish" to make it English =) I heard a rumor that > Richard was going to incorporate this word into his next song. > > j a c :-) Oh, that's great news. I can see it used in a follow-up to By now. Definitely. Katrin, who thought she left that word behind her with her high school German classes a century ago :-) ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V2 #364 ***********************************