From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V3 #279 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, August 22 2001 Volume 03 : Number 279 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [RS] Wisteria ["Amanda Bennett Thomas"] [RS] Words for The Next Best Western ["musicmate" ] [RS] wooster sauce [Lee Wessman ] Re: [RS] electric guitar [Rongrittz@aol.com] [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V3 #277 [LBECKLAW@aol.com] [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V3 #278 [LBECKLAW@aol.com] [RS] Name That Tuning ["Gene Frey" ] Re: [RS] Words for The Next Best Western [Bill Wynn ] Re: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V3 #277 ["Vanessa C. Wills" Subject: Re: [RS] Wisteria Hi everyone! I hear Wisteria in a very specific way -- when I was 4 my parents bought an old farm house outside of Philadelphia as a last effort to save their marriage (I'm 28 now and I still don't understand the concept of major land purchse=saved marriage, but whatever:) and when I hear that song I am taken back to the first few months of living in that house -- which was a ton of work to maintain -- and living with my both of my parents for the last time. I wonder now if my parents made love the first night we were there like the narrator and if they ever look back at the time and place with the same nostalgia that I do. I am a bit of a lurker here, I know :) But the thing that always touches me about Richard's songs is the fact that they can transform me to another time and place -- it may be the place spoken about -- it may be my own place but he never fails to tell a wonderful story. Cheers, Amanda >Question about my favorite RS song ... Wisteria. > >I'm interested in how everything "hears" the song ... in particular, who's >house is the song's character driving by? I've learned that each of us forms >impressions about songs (and everything else) based on our own experiences. >When I first heard the song, my parents and I had just severed all ties >(they're alcoholic), and I pictured the song's character as driving by the >house and being afraid to knock on the door and say hello ... and realizing >that sometimes it's best to "just let it be" ... > >How do others "hear" the song??? > >Brian from Dallas ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 11:17:32 +0200 From: "musicmate" Subject: [RS] Words for The Next Best Western Will someone please send me the words for The Next Best Western. My cd's are storage at the moment and I want to play the song at our local folk club next week. I remember the words for the first verse and the chords but the old memory ain't what it once was. I envy all you people able to see RS in concert. I live in Durban, South Africa and we don't get to see many performers out here. Thanks Robert ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 11:43:05 -0700 From: jim colbert Subject: [RS] electric guitar > Geez. You miss one show and it happens to be the first time Richard has > picked up an electric guitar in front of a crowd in over twenty years?! > Hey, what kind of guitar was he playing? I always pictured rs as a telecaster kinda guy. Or else something esoteric like an old teardrop vox... - -an inquiring mind in state college pa ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 08:31:25 -0700 From: Lee Wessman Subject: [RS] wooster sauce Someone queried: "And how do you pronounce "Worchestershire sauce" It's a good thing you don't pronounce it "wooster sauce," that's all I've got to say. That would have some pretty unappetizing connotations. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 12:07:38 EDT From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] electric guitar >> Hey, what kind of guitar was he playing? I always pictured rs as a telecaster kinda guy. << It's an Elvis-suit gold-lame colored Gibson Flying V, I'm pretty sure. RG ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 12:23:50 EDT From: LBECKLAW@aol.com Subject: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V3 #277 Okay, mebbe I'm dating myself here, but what about "Edmund Fitzgerald" as a good disaster song? Certainly in the Top Ten, anyway... Laura P.S. Vanessa, thanks for the pronunciation of Worcestershire sauce. I can finally ask for it by name! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 12:28:03 EDT From: LBECKLAW@aol.com Subject: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V3 #278 Funny, I always "heard" this song as auto-biographical--Richard and his family leaving their house in the U.S. for Argentina maybe...I don't see it as several visits, just one where they've sold the house to another family, and have driven by for one last look...and are overcome by memories/nostalgia, not to mention anger at the family's disregard for the wisteria they had nurtured over the years. I just love Richard's metaphor for memories snaking back over the years like wisteria vines... This is my story and I'm sticking to it! Laura ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 13:28:18 -0400 From: "Gene Frey" Subject: [RS] Name That Tuning Hey you guys, Jim Colbert Kreskined: >>Hey, what kind of guitar was he playing? I always pictured rs as a >>telecaster kinda guy. << Johnny, tell him what he's won... It was indeed a Telecaster, turquoise no less. Enjoy the Rice-A-Roni and Turtle Wax. Gene F. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 13:46:53 -0500 From: Bill Wynn Subject: Re: [RS] Words for The Next Best Western This sort of cross cultural test of the universality of music is quite interesting. What are the demographics of the folk club's patrons? Are there Best Westerns in South Africa? Richard has commented that he has given up trying to explain the line "kicking over port-a-cans at the 4-H Rodeo" to his in-laws. Several years ago while in northern Thailand I took a bus from Mae Hong Son to Chaing Mai, stopping overnight in the village of Pai (not a major tourist spot, and with few English speaking locals). I wandered into a small bar to be greeted by the music of Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Bob Marley, Robert Hunter, et al., although sung with a distinct Thai accent. The guitarist/lead singer told me he had spent time in London, where he had become hooked on western folk music and reggae. None of his band-mates spoke or understood a word of English, nor did more than a couple of audience members, however everyone was having a wonderful time. The singer said he liked the songs and how they felt, and he hoped to communicate this to others who had never heard them. This is of course a bit different from the South African scenario, where language is not likely to be an issue, and yet I wonder which is the more sociologically challenging? I listen to a great deal of music with lyrics in many languages unknown to me, and there is a comforting simplicity about being able to absorb the rhythm, melody, feel and cadence of a song without giving thought to the specific meaning of the words. The brilliant Russian poet Yevtushenko (now living here in Tulsa, of all places!) gives bilingual readings of his work, and often challenges the audience to forget the translation and focus on the words' emotion, rhyme and meter. Perhaps it is actually more difficult to grasp the meaning of a song in a language you understand but with unfamiliar references and idioms. If true, this is particularly the case with Richard's songs, which, as all of you here know, are widely open to interpretation, even among the most literate list members. Sorry, Robert, I don't have the lyrics you requested handy, but you did get me thinking about something other than work for a change ;) - -Bill > Will someone please send me the words for The Next Best Western. My cd's are > storage at the moment and I want to play the song at our local folk club next > week. I remember the words for the first verse and the chords but the old > memory ain't what it once was. > > I envy all you people able to see RS in concert. I live in Durban, South > Africa and we don't get to see many performers out here. > > Thanks Robert ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 15:40:06 EDT From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: [RS] Re: Words for The Next Best Western >> This sort of cross cultural test of the universality of music is quite interesting. << Reminds me of a conversation I was having with my pal (and sometime-list-participant) Buffy From England regarding "May," in which Richard -- in the voice of the (what I've always assumed is an) Irish fugitive -- says "I'm calling from some booth." Well, I was advised that in Great Britain, they're called boxes, not booths. Somehow, "I'm calling from some box" makes for a bizarre visual, don'cha think? RG ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 19:09:30 -0400 From: "Norman A. Johnson" Subject: [RS] The Wreck Laura wrote: >>Okay, mebbe I'm dating myself here, but what about "Edmund Fitzgerald" as a good disaster song? Certainly in the Top Ten, anyway... << Well, it certainly is the standard. And by the way, I saw Gordon Lightfoot play at the Calvin last year and even he was in awe of the "Wreck". But I think it was Ron who put it best when he said "If Richard wrote 'The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald' he would be on the boat". The difference is that in CMW, the story is told by someone who had to make and live with his decisions. It's personal. Norman, who thinks "If You Could Read My Mind" is Gord's best song. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 21:59:06 -0400 (EDT) From: "Vanessa C. Wills" Subject: Re: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V3 #277 On Wed, 22 Aug 2001 LBECKLAW@aol.com wrote: > P.S. Vanessa, thanks for the pronunciation of Worcestershire sauce. I can finally ask for it by name! Yeah, but I think my pronunciation of the afore-mentioned sauce is pretty much limited to the Philadelphia metropolitan area! ;-) ah, well ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V3 #279 ***********************************