From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V7 #272 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 Saturday, November 12 2005 Volume 07 : Number 272 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Last fare ["Sally Green Heaven" ] [RS] Kudos to Us [RockinRonD@aol.com] [RS] youi have to live the last fare [sharon G ] [RS] Last Fare ["Susan Krauss" ] [RS] RE: Last Fare [Jamie Younghans / John McDonnell Subject: [RS] Last fare I always thought the first couple was upset because they lost a loved one in the 9/11 disaster and couldn't find the person, not because the first woman had had a miscarriage. - --Sally ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 17:53:26 EST From: RockinRonD@aol.com Subject: [RS] Kudos to Us Shout outs and thanks to Lisa Davis and Janet Cinelli from this list who came to my rescue when I needed copies of Dylan covers by Richard, Ellis Paul and John Gorka. The people on this list, as well as those on a few other lists (T&C) are so incredible. Except for maybe one friend, I have no one to really talk to about the music we all love so much, especially Richard's. None of them know virtually anything about Richard, Dar, Carter & Grammer, etc. If I asked any of them about the Dylan covers by Ellis Paul, Richard Shindell and John Gorka 99% of the people I'm friends with would look at me like I had two heads. That's what makes this community so great. We here in New York are lucky in that we have so many venues for our kind of music. I suffer for all you folks out in the hinterlands who have to make do with just CD's and the occasional show every few years. I can't imagine what things would be like if you didn't have the rest of us to chat with about the music. I wish we could have a live chat room sometime...that might be even more fun. RockinRonD ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 18:36:30 -0500 From: sharon G Subject: [RS] youi have to live the last fare I was stuck in NYC expressway traffic today for two hours before I could get near the Brooklyn Bridge. A tracker trailer lost a back hoe and it was across the highway. I was diverted and made a quick left to get to the red light and a quick left and got on the Bridge, the back way ( tillary street) To those who know Brooklyn. I hit the bridge and due to traffic being rerouted there was No traffic. I hit the FDR going north and I thought about Last fare of the Day. The Cabbies and I and whatever cars were the ballet described in the song. Then I hit the ramp to the Deegan, catching green lights all the way and up to the Deegan itself.. again, the traffic flowed, Racing cabbies and we zipped under the George Washington Bridge. The driver In LFOTD hits the Bridge from Upper Manhattan, I hit it from the Bronx... The speed was fast, the adrenaline was pumping and the curves were dangerous, one false turn and we would have been into each other and a pile up could have occurred. Needless to say, I made Yonkers with a 1/2 hour to spare... The clipping green lights line played in my head over and over. I had a discussion with Richard about St Lukes and the Methodone clinic The hospital operates and the Junkies who are always hanging outside. They do not have cab fare but they are the people I see in the beginning of the song.... Sharon G ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 20:48:40 -0800 From: "Susan Krauss" Subject: [RS] Last Fare The first time I heard "Last Fare of the Day" I just knew it was connected to 9/11. Maybe because I lived in NYC for 12 years and grew up in New Jersey. But it was apparent to me. Sunday night in Berkeley, Richard was very explicit about the connection saying that the first part of the song takes place "September 15th, not 14th" and that there was a drought that winter and it started raining in spring. susan in alameda ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 04:49:23 -0500 From: Jamie Younghans / John McDonnell Subject: [RS] RE: Last Fare Hi All, The eloquent defense of this song by Randy, Chris and Adam, prompted me to listen to it a couple of more times, but I'm still not convinced. Where Chris and Adam sees subtlety, I see absence. A couple in the rain on Seventh Avenue could be any couple at any time, and the fact that one of them may need help standing is not unusual in NYC. It's almost as if any song set in New York has to have September 11 as a leitmotif, so at this stage, I think it's more in our minds than in the song itself. As for the radio--there is no awful news on there, and the cab driver's turning it off I take as his sensitivity to her apparent distress. I will admit that the meter being dark gave me some pause, and still does, but to me this wasn't enough to place the song close to 9/11. I thought he was originally off duty and felt sorry for the couple because of the woman's infirmity, a la Randy's sensitive cabbie. I like Chris' "fluid" read--RS has the described the driving of New York cabbies "like dolphins," which is a great way to capture that flow and sway of the way they drive in traffic--it lends a consistency to the song that was not immediately apparent to me, since I was distracted by the "taking them home" in the "cruel rain" and then the "sweet rain," which I found a little pedestrian (if you'll pardon the pun). In terms of the symbolic use of nature, he has done infinitely better. I also like Randy's focus on the cabbie's sensitivity, since there is more evidence of that in the song than any 9/11 reference, but I'm still struck by the absence of any connection between these couples. If they are not the same couple, why pick these two to write about--there seems nothing particular about their predicament or their joy which gives us any reason to care about them, or which would provide any of the insight I usually get from an RS song. If they are the same couple, then you've got the cycle of sorrow and joy, as well as the fickleness of nature focused on one couple--it may be Hallmark cheesy, but it's there. One confession--despite what I've written so far, I do like the song. I just feel it's not as good as some of his others, and there is something about it (I still cannot put my finger on what) which reminds of a song that I do not like--the one by Ani Di Franco with the plastic castles. When I hear Last Fare in my head, the other invariably bleeds in, like someone just turned another radio on. Ultimately, it may be this reminder which is spoiling my appreciation for Last Fare. John McD. ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V7 #272 ***********************************