From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V12 #267 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, February 2 2013 Volume 12 : Number 267 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [RS] Much Madness, Round One. [Chris Foxwell ] [RS] You Stay Here [Chris Foxwell ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2013 17:55:50 +0300 From: Chris Foxwell Subject: Re: [RS] Much Madness, Round One. Okay, here are my picks. Ron, many thanks for rejuvenating the list! 1. Mariana's Table vs. *You Stay Here* "You Stay Here" is the clear winner for me, and one of my favorite RS tunes in general. In addition to what I love about it in particular--see accompanying e-mail for details--it is also the one with which I've had the greatest success in converting new RS fans. Plus it also works great in my ESL classes. 2. A Tune for Nowhere vs. *Waiting for the Storm* I'm gonna go with "Waiting for the Storm" on this one. I like "A Tune for Nowhere", but something about the imagery of the singer clearing out the house and waiting for the storm is a very vivid one for me. 3. Abuelita vs. *Wisteria* Ouch. No question though, gotta choose "Wisteria". Having never (yet?) owned a house, I can't claim the specific attachment to the song that others can, but it speaks to me of nostalgia in general, a longing for the past, which I certainly possess in spades. Plus I am completely in love with the way the song's growing intensity is echoed by the increasing force, approaching violence at the song's end, with which Richard strikes that one guitar string in the chorus. Y'all know what I'm talking about. 4. Last Fare of the Day vs. *Get Up Clara (alt mix)* I loves me some 'Last Fare", but "Get Up Clara" tickles just about every bone in my body. It's whimsical, it's catchy, it's about a mule, and it's got all sorts of history geek references. "Vandals, Celts, and Visigoths are everywhere" might be my favorite thing anyone has written in a song ever anyone ever. (Except Josh Ritter's "You're not a good shot but I'm worse".) I MUCH prefer the alt mix from *Mariana's EP*, by the way. 5. *Ascent *vs. TV Light I don't particularly love either, but of the two, Ascent grabs me much more. 6. *Balloon Man (alt version) *vs. Easy Street Another no-brainer. Maybe it was my recent stint in the Peace Corps, but Balloon Man's reference to being so far away, encountering really memorable things and wanting to share them with loved ones, is very powerful to me. Plus the imagery is beautiful. Again, I very much prefer the *Mariana's EP *alt mix. 7. Confessions* *vs. *Fenario* Both of these songs' concepts are much more engaging to me than their actual execution. Fenario grips me much more, as a result of both Richard's voice and guitar work. (And the delivery of "Hey, doc" just really really grates on me.) 8. Howling at the Trouble vs. *By Now *Ambiguous, creepy, haunting...yeah, no contest here. By Now. 9. *I Saw My Youth Today* vs. You Again I guess I'm too young to really feel personally attached to this song, but the melody really grabs me. You Again, despite being "relatable to" (for whom is it not?), just does nothing for me. 10. Parasol Ants vs. *There Goes Mavis* Oy. This is similar to #4 for me: a really good, layered, thoughtful song (There Goes Mavis) vs. a jaunty, fun tune that I just plain like a lot. (I never did write up my Nietzschean analysis of Mavis, did I.) I'm gonna make the opposite choice of #4, and go with Mavis. Not sure why exactly; maybe it's the coolness factor of Puento Celeste bringing along a birdcage to play percussively. Or maybe it's an innate desire to balance things out. (Nah...) Regardless, I will say that I actually kind of dislike every version of Parasol Ants I've heard *except *one from an early bootleg recording, very stripped down and raw. (Although I much prefer a bootleg version of Mavis as well.) 11. One Man's Arkansas vs. *State of the Union (demo version) *OMA is a song I became really excited about upon hearing an early live version (at Club Passim), before it was finished. But when I heard the final version, it just kind of...fizzled. I don't dislike it, but, meh. State of the Union is excellent, and though it's not one of my very favorites, it always grabs me. 12. *On a Sea of Fleur-de-lis* vs. Hazel's House No question, Fleur-de-lis. Hazel's House is nice and sweet, but that's about it (for me); Fleur-de-lis is a tour de fource. Plus I'm very much in love with my own personal interpretation of the song, as I've been quite vociferous about on this list in bygone years. :P 13. *Mary Magdalen* vs. So Says the Whippoorwill I like both, but I love Mary Magdalen two ways from Sunday. (Er, the song, that is.) Plus, when played back-to-back with Sean Hayes's "Mary Magdalene", the latter just gains all new layers of irreverence. Give it a try. 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 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2013 18:12:54 +0300 From: Chris Foxwell Subject: [RS] You Stay Here While trying to articulate my preference for "You Stay Here" in Ron's contest, it occurred to me that the things I was trying to say might be worth a separate e-mail. I'm curious if anyone else is drawn to the same interpretation I am. The song's story alone is haunting and powerful, of course, but I'm more taken with a more general anthro-historical statement it seems to be making. From my very first listen, I've always been really struck by the song's engagement with the concept of human survival, and the things that are (considered to be) essentials for human life throughout our species's evolution. It's like the song is running down a brutal checklist of five of these essentials--fire, food, protection from elements, weapons, faith--while pointedly leaving the sixth, love, completely unmentioned. It's almost like...I dunno, this sounds silly, but it's almost like Richard is constructing a golem in the song, a non-life assembled from the family's lack of those essentials. As though the narrator's sequential noting of each absence, and the bitterness of that noting, is bringing into being a...construct, or something. A Frankenstein's Monster made from the strife and pain and inhumanity that the song's story evokes. By the time the last essential is listed, and the painful "I know where He's *not*" line is uttered, with that harsh emphasis on the final word...it's like the final touch being put on an avatar of human inhumanity. I'm using overly lurid descriptors, of course, but has anyone formed a similar impression of this song? 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 V12 #267 ************************************