From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V7 #270 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 Friday, November 11 2005 Volume 07 : Number 270 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Re: Wisteria [DrTobs@aol.com] Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare [DBri732722@aol.com] [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #269 ["Randy Beckham" ] Re: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #269 [Adam Plunkett ] Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare [Chris Foxwell ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 08:41:51 EST From: DrTobs@aol.com Subject: [RS] Re: Wisteria A bit of a late entry on this one, but Wisteria is probably the only RS song that evoked a strong emotional response from me on the first listen. I usually need several times through a song, Richard or anyone else, to pick up the nuances and wrap myself around the lyrics. The first time I heard Wisteria I had just moved out of a house I'd lived in for 10 years, a 200yr+ farmhouse that I'm convinced I'd lived in in some other lifetime ( well, maybe not really). The memories that were left behind, along with much Wisteria and other vines, were ones that will live on with me forever. An ex-husband, my deceased father ( who helped us chose the house and move) a deceased grandmother, a deceased brother-in-law and my puppy " soulmate." Not to mention it was the house where my son took his first steps and spoke his first words. I cry EVERY time I hear that song, it's such a visceral response that I can't help it. But...my life needed to move forward, and it did. I drive by the house every now and then, and the Wisteria is still there, as is the "vine of my memory." I can't wait to see RS next weekend at the Sellersville theater. If he plays Wisteria I'll be the weepy one in Row 11. Actually, on a lighter note, I'm thinking of borrowing a T-shirt that my son has-it's the guy from the show "Family Guy", Peter, I think is his name, as Che Gueverra, and yes, the shirt is red! Toby ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 09:58:15 EST From: DBri732722@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare I, too, enjoy hearing the many interpretaions of RS songs. Last Fare leaves me a bit confused as to it's storyline. It is, however, the first RS song I heard. I was listening to an NPR station at work, so there were distractions. The melody was enchanting, but I couldn't really concentrate on the lyrics.I hadn't heard of Richard yet, but I knew the approximate time I heard the song, although I didn't hear the DJ identify the performer. Fortunately, the station listed the programming by date and time on their website. I tried the Duhks, Dave somebody, and finally found the listing for Richard. As I listened to one of those 30 second clips, I truly loved the meoldy and ordered Vuelta on line. The rest is history. So, this song has a unique appeal to me, if for no other reason than my appreciation for it leading me to all of his other music. I do enjoy the metaphoric visualizations his music creates, and the reference of the cabbie swaying in and out of traffic with the rythym of a ballet is one of my favorites. I 'm just not sure I understand much of the rest of it. Why is he holding her as if she'd fall? Was she pregnant then? Why couldn't she bear to hear another word? Maybe the 9-11 explanation answers that. And, if it isn't the same couple, is it a song that is merely "a day in the life" of a NYC cabbie? A very cryptic song, I think. Doug ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:34:10 GMT From: "Randy Beckham" Subject: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #269 Jim Colbert wrote: "I've been revisiting Jackson Browne a lot lately since picking up his solo acoustic disc. He used to be my absolute favorite back in the days when the Pretender and Late for the Sky were new, or nearly so." That's me too, Jim. I was pained by his later direction. I hear he's touring with just another guitar player. What do think of the acoustic disk? Also, the name Bruce Cockburn popped up the other day--anyone kept up with him? I see him and Richard having things in common. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 11:14:16 -0500 From: "Beth DeSombre" Subject: [RS] concert attendance RG on Thursday, November 10, 2005 at 11:39 PM -0500 wrote: >Ah, yes. Richard sells out Carnegie Hall, but played to 20 people here >in a >coffeehouse dive here in San Diego last night. I'm now more convinced >than >ever that the sun must do something to the brains of these SoCal folks. I don't know if you can blame it on the sun, necessarily. The smallest RS concert (heck, possibly the smallest concert by anyone) I've ever seen was at the coffeehouse at Colby College (in central Maine) where I used to teach. I think there *might* have been three of us there, not counting Richard. You'll notice I felt the need to move from central Maine . . . But if it is the sun, Ron, you might want to get out before it has the same impact on you. Beth ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 10:22:10 -0600 (CST) From: Adam Plunkett Subject: Re: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #269 I love Bruce Cockburn. I saw him solo, acoustic not too long ago and it was a great concert - quite a great guitar player. Bruce has written a lot of my favorite social commentary songs. His album "Charity of Night" is one of my favorite CD's. From: Randy Beckham Date: Fri Nov 11 09:34:10 CST 2005 To: shindell-list@smoe.org Subject: [RS] Re: shindell-list-digest V7 #269 Also, the name Bruce Cockburn popped up the other day--anyone kept up with him? I see him and Richard having things in common. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 17:01:22 GMT From: "Randy Beckham" Subject: [RS] Last Fare I love this song deep in my bones, so I'm glad Doug suggested talking about it and grateful that John McD did. I do think lyric, melody and performance reinforce each other powerfully, but I wouldn't keep being moved if they weren't reinforcing what the song is "about," and the words are the best clue to that. It occurred to me in thinking about "performance" that the cabbie is an artful performer, transporting his fares in sensitive awareness of their sorrow or joy. And the song's about the cycle of sorrow and joy, reinforced metaphorically by the cycle of the seasons (and "the weather"!). I would never have caught it, but I like the 9/11 idea, supported by "I turned off the radio/She said, Thanks,/I could not bear another word. The song then becomes especially life-affirming in the face of forces that destroy (still true if the first woman has had a miscarriage). I have assumed that it was the same couple, since they aren't differentiated (the pronouns are "they," "he and she"), but I no longer think it matters. Now, what about the title? The song's effect on me was so powerful that it took about 5 listens to Vuelta before I could "hear" Gray Green, a lovely song in its own right and a fitting finish to the album. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 12:41:10 -0500 From: Chris Foxwell Subject: Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare I'm actually very very happy with Last Fare's subtle references to 9/11. I like the fact that you have to puzzle it out, gradually assemble the clues, and that the song doesn't slap you across the face with it's 9/11-ness. (Unlike certain other artists' 9/11 songs...). I don't think the puzzling-out is all that difficult, though. The clues are there: various street names, St. Luke's, I-95, "the Park", etc., all point to New York being the setting, and the reference to some awful news on the radio, the incessant rain during the first part of the song, and the drought in the spring are suggestive of that period in time. (I was nowhere near New York at the time, but of everyone I know who was, not one has failed to dwell, significantly, on that rain.) Granted, these clues do not conclusively add up to New York on 9/11. Not even close, if you don't live near New York. But, in my opinion, there are enough pieces there for one to suspect what's going on, without having it confirmed. (My view here is bolstered by those of my friends to whom I've played the song without any context, some of whom are from Cali, and *all* of whom guessed that it was about 9/11.) I really like that it's not thrown right out there. As for the rain being the focal point, I see that as contributing to the overall "liquid reference" of the song. Both the heavens overhead and the ground underfoot are described as being water: the "stream" into which the cab "pulls away"; the "flow" of the traffic; the wash on the bridge; etc. By returning to the rain between each verse, the song connects the weather--capricious and uncontrollable--to the events going on, and to the stream that is the ground (and life). Life on earth reflects the mood of the heavens, and vice-versa. Ultimately we're all just floating along, doing our best to negotiate the flow and sway. Etc., etc. I don't think there's a single overarching metaphor here; that, to me, would make the song too "pat", given the complexities of the contextual event. Just, I feel like there's a portrayal being suggested, a likeness, which evokes the liquidity and intrinsic neutrality of everything (including liquidity itself! i.e., the drought), on both cosmic and local scales: the weather, traffic, fate, stoplights, life and death. And I still want them to be the same couple, dammit. ;) --Chris - -- "We were born in a dark age out of due time (for us). But there is this comfort: otherwise we should not know, or so much love, what we do love. I imagine the fish out of water is the only fish to have an inkling of water." - -- J.R.R. Tolkien ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V7 #270 ***********************************