From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V9 #127 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 Monday, July 30 2007 Volume 09 : Number 127 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] tape trading [Jim Colbert ] [RS] Covers Vs Originals [rockinrond@aol.com] Re: [RS] tape trading [Rongrittz@aol.com] Re: [RS] New songs! ["Vanessa Wills" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:13:47 -0400 From: Jim Colbert Subject: [RS] tape trading > \ > Hmm. When was that recorded? Since the file contains quite a bit of > chat > after the song, was this a whole concert on cd, or a compilation > album? Are > there many early shows circulating in trader's hands? Are they > soundboard or > mostly audience? Do we ever do trades on this list? In the Good Olde Days, such things were done offlist as far as Richard's shows, party to party. There was a copy of the entire Emelin Theatre Saturday show from years back, I can't recall if it was soundboard or MD at which most of the Courier tracks were recorded, around that may have been where that came from. I'm not aware of a lot of shows being traded, although they pop up now and then. - -jim c. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:21:42 -0400 From: rockinrond@aol.com Subject: [RS] Covers Vs Originals Tom brings up a point not largely debated on this forum. Interestingly, I listened to SOD yesterday after not hearing it for about a month and I realized that Richard's vocals on this record outshine virtually every other of his recordings to date.? It's almost as if he is purposefully trying to stretch and evolve his singing voice.? I really do love the emotion and phrasing, the way he emphasizes certain words on so many of the tunes.? In addition, musically, it is spare yet wonderfully textured, sprinkled with just the right additions of percussion, second guitar, violin and bass.? Save for "Born in the USA," which I just plain don't like, the vocal "performances" on SOD are truly what defines the record and makes it very special. IMHO. of course. Man, do I look forward to hearing those new songs...they sound amazing.? Thanks Chris for that terrific review. RockinRonD ________________________________________________________________________ AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:19:09 -0400 From: Rongrittz@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] tape trading >> There was a copy of the entire Emelin Theatre Saturday show from years back, I can't recall if it was soundboard or MD at which most of the Courier tracks were recorded, around that may have been where that came from. << It's definitely not from the Emelin show. He did "Hideous Grin" with the band at that show, while this version is solo. That would be around the era of this track, though, since the song was part of Richard's set list for only a relatively short period of time. The file says "Canal Street Disc," whatever that is . . . RG ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:07:57 -0400 From: "Vanessa Wills" Subject: Re: [RS] New songs! (I wrote this at 3am last night and apparently fell asleep before I sent it! The fact that I am surprised to learn this tells you something about how bone-tired I was when I was writing it. So please forgive me if my writing here is less than strictly erudite.) I just got home from Falcon Ridge. It was my first time back in about five years. I am so glad I went, and fully intend to return next year if I can. Things were a little crazy with my little band of fellow FRFF-ers. There were three of us who had done Falcon Ridge twice together, and three newcomers. My friend M. and her husband had to leave quickly on Saturday morning because of a family emergency, and one of our newcomers was a brat all weekend (after going on beforehand about how outdoorsy she was, she declared hours after we arrived Thursday that she just realized that she hated camping and wanted civilization and spent most of the weekend sleeping in her car. uggh.) So that left me trying to keep things organized and lead what was left of our little band of Falcon Ridge neophytes through the weekend. As it happened, my companions (there were effectively three of us by Saturday) were just wonderful to enjoy Falcon Ridge with. It made the experience that much better to help share it with people who were new to the Ridge. But alas, the craziness meant that I didn't get to spend as much time wandering through campsites looking for familiar faces (or unfamiliar faces that belonged to familiar e-mail addresses) as I would have liked to. It's a shame; finding cool song circles and such was one of my favorite things I missed from FRFFs past. But for a first festival in a long while (or just a first festival, period) we were pretty happy with ourselves in terms of doing a lot of what we wanted to do and honestly, it was hard not to feel positively blissful a good amount of the time. I was just so wiped by the time midnight rolled around and I know that I am antsy all day if I don't have an excellent spot near the mainstage, which of course necessitates getting up at what some may affectionately refer to as the buttcrack of dawn. I'm happy Gene and Isabel managed to spot me at the mainstage early in the weekend, and we touched base and chatted several times throughout the festival. (It was so great to see you guys!! I feel like I was always slightly zombietastic--chalk it up to sleep deprivation!) During Richard's set, I also managed to recognize Reinhard snapping a photo, so I got to meet him for the first time. I caught all of Richard's workshop and mainstage sets, so I got to hear "Walden Well," "State of the Union," "Parasol Ants," and "Balloon Man." Walden Well, most of us have heard in some form by now, I think. The melody is lovely as ever, but I think I could still use a few more listens before I have a real take on it. I really came to love "State of the Union" by the end of the weekend. Richard performed it at the Friday Night Summer's Eve Song Swap, but the circumstances were less than ideal, given that a huge electrical storm actually shut down the stage for a time and sent muddy campers slipping and sliding into the dining tent for cover. (Out of the thousands of folks on the hill, I would say that maybe about 150-200 remained when the lightning subsided, the rain continued to pour down, and the show began again. But then, it wouldn't be Falcon Ridge if you weren't at some point soaking wet and sitting on a muddy tarp in the dead of night, hearing music weave its way between raindrops to meet you.) Anyway, Richard performed it again in his own mainstage set on Sunday, with John Putnam, Lincoln Schleiffer, Sara Milonovich, and a drummer whose name escapes me right now. It's wonderful, I think; I really like it. It reminds me a little of "Confession," actually. The song opens with the narrator pondering why he hesitates to rob from an "easy mark;" it is his routine to victimize others in order to support a heroin habit, until he's struck by unfamiliar pangs of conscience. He soon sees that there is a cycle of pain here, him spreading his suffering to others, and he tries to end it by kicking his own habit. He enters a methadone clinic and starts treatment, and it seems to go well for a while, but then he falls back in with his old friends, falls back into his heroin addiction, and while on a run to get more, he's stopped by the police, arrested, and then sent to jail where he one day sees the president giving a State of the Union address, "grinning that grin," "thinking he's some John Wayne," and talking about "shooting and drilling our way out of this," and he sees that the situation seems hopeless, that the cycle of pain seems like it will never end, and as Chris mentioned the character describes that he feels as though trying to end it is akin to rolling a stone up a hill endlessly a la Sisyphus. The chorus of the song is: "If not now, then when?, I keep asking myself, Over and over again Make it right, break free, get rid of the junk, They say it can happen that way." Except I believe that after the part where the narrator's addiction relapse is described, the last line of the chorus becomes: "But it just didn't happen that way." I do love Richard's voice on this song. In some ways it's as bleak as "Confession"--both characters seem trapped in their sadness, and neither song gives the listener any very good reason to think that the character will find his way out soon. Of course, both characters have chemical dependencies. Here, the character can't kick his; in Confession, it's a little less clear, I think, whether the character can't kick it or won't kick it because he prioritizes his material success over his mental health. In both, though, one character's personal anguish is presented as a symptom of a larger social sickness. I think that's an important similarity between them. "State of the Union" has a more explicitly political content, obviously. I meant to write much more, but I'm getting pretty exhausted (still haven't slept since coming home from Falcon Ridge!), so I'll just say that Chris, I didn't see this character so much as aiming to "spread freedom" (such a loaded concept these days) as simply trying to end his perceived complicity in perpetuating suffering (only to discover, of course, that forces larger than him keep him locked in that cycle, so that breaking the cycle seems a Sisyphean task). The other thing I'll mention before I move on is that I think "Get rid of the junk" is such a nice line here since it ties together the parallels and the connections between the character's personal challenges kicking his drug habit and the broader project of "cleansing the world of all evil, oppression, and violence," as one famous Russian once put it. I heard "Balloon Man" for the first time today. I forget the chorus exactly--I think it was, "You are half a world away,/ I thought you would just like to know,/ That balloon man is here, too," or something very much to that effect. Like Chris said, it's mostly a kind of admiring description of a very odd character. I like the idea fine of simply beautifully describing a peculiar sight--but then the chorus comes, and it's intriguing enough that I begin to want more out of this song. It goes from being this very sweet, simple song with modest aspirations during the verses, to all of a sudden being a song that has a "you" and that makes metatextual references to the point of describing Balloon Man at all. I want this song to choose, although I appreciate that if the narrator says much more about why he decided to tell about Balloon Man, that undercuts the reason he's already given, namely that he "thought you would just like to know." I guess the thing is, there are lots of things we say just because we figure that others might want to know, but somehow the chorus comes off sounding as though taking time and effort to carefully describe Balloon Man needs to be apologized for, when I think perhaps it would be better to just let the description stand on its own without that. Or, if there really are deeper, more interesting claims to be read out of the chorus, I wish these were explored more. I hope some of this makes sense, I am very tired. Anyway, I tend to like the song but I think I'm a little confused by it because it seems like the song wants to be both a beautiful description for description's sake _and_ a kind of commentary on the point or use or value of telling, but I'm not sure it's going about all that in the best way. Ron G asked: <> Yes, Virginia; there is an odder Richard song than "Hideous Grin," (which I've found intriguing, actually). Of the other three new Richard songs, I really love "State of the Union" and think I could stand to spend a little more time with "Walden Well" and "Balloon Man," but I'm overall favorable towards them. "Parasol Ants" isn't really one I can see myself warming up to, unfortunately. OK--my eyes can barely focus anymore. Time to sleep! - --Vanessa On 7/27/07, Rongrittz@aol.com < Rongrittz@aol.com> wrote: > > >> Richard described it as the oddest song he's ever written << > > Odder than "Hideous Grin?" To me, that one pretty much set the bar on odd > Richard songs. > > RG > - -- "True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring." - --Martin Luther King ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V9 #127 ***********************************