From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V2 #158 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, July 14 2000 Volume 02 : Number 158 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Spring [Kerry Bernard ] [RS] Chris Smither (no RS) [Tricia9999@aol.com] [RS] Richard (virtual) encounter [Evan Gordon ] [RS] oops, bad link [Evan Gordon ] Re: [RS] Castaway [HEYJC01@aol.com] Re: [RS] Castaway [Vanessa Wills ] [RS] more on Castaway [Vanessa Wills ] Re: [RS] Castaway [patrick t power ] Re: [RS] Castaway [SMOKEY596@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 10:10:58 -0400 From: Kerry Bernard Subject: [RS] Spring Ed wrote: >The RS web-site's "tunings" page does not have the song "Spring" listed. Hrm... I only have what Richard gave me but I'll see if I can't snag that from him. Thanks for the heads up! (We useless guitarists don't notice this kind of thing... ;) Kerry :) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 10:23:16 EDT From: Tricia9999@aol.com Subject: [RS] Chris Smither (no RS) Does anyone know if Chris was ever in Little Feat. He made mention of something like that at the Kate Wolf festival, but it doesn't indicate anything like that in any bios that I've seen. Thanks, Tricia ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 13:00:37 -0400 (EDT) From: Evan Gordon Subject: [RS] Richard (virtual) encounter I haven't posted in awhile, but I've been reading everything, so here goes! I've been dealing w/ this high-end dealer of Recording equipment in Boston recently, Mercenary Audio. Been buying some great mics, compressors, and recently a Great River pre (sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about). I'm on the phone with them, they put me on hold, and guess what's starts playing - Richard! A song from Sparrows Point (I forgot which one). The guy comes back on the line and I mention this, he says, "oh, Richard shops here alot as does Cry3x" It also turns out that Richard and a guy from the store went to High School together... So another claim to fame for me is that Richard and I shop at the same Audio store! Sorry if no one cares, but I thought it was pretty cool! Anyway, I just put up a new mp3, if anyone wants to listen, my girlfriend says it sounds like Wisteria, must have been a subconscious thing! Let me know what you think! http://www.driveway.com/share?sid=779fc6ef.784fa&name=mp3 Regards, Evan Evan A. Gordon Folksinger/Software Engineer egordon99@earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~egordon99/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 13:20:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Evan Gordon Subject: [RS] oops, bad link Let's try this again! http://www.driveway.com/share?sid=779fc6ef.784fa&name=mp3 - -Evan Evan A. Gordon Folksinger/Software Engineer egordon99@earthlink.net http://home.earthlink.net/~egordon99/ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 19:10:47 EDT From: HEYJC01@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] Castaway My apologies if this has been discussed before, but Im enthralled by the song "Castaway". Obviously the song is about a baby boy's birth. Did Richard write it about his son (I assume he has a son)? And the line "Cut loose from her, this calloused hand". Should we assume he cut the umbilical cord? And what "silver cup" exactly is it? And what "debris from your catastrophe" is he referring to? With three kids, Ive seen my share of catastrophe's...so is that what it is? Any thoughts? Jeff ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 21:49:11 -0400 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: Re: [RS] Castaway Jeff, (HEYJC01@aol.com) wrote: > My apologies if this has been discussed before, but Im enthralled by the song > "Castaway". Obviously the song is about a baby boy's birth. Did Richard write > it about his son (I assume he has a son)? And the line "Cut loose from her, > this calloused hand." Should we assume he cut the umbilical cord? Actually, it's "my calloused hand," which makes your assumption all the fairer. While this song seems particularly ripe for explication as a confessional ballad, I would, however, be careful to remember that by "he," we should be referring to the protagonist and not to Richard. But it *does* seem very personal and confessional, doesn't it? Or maybe it was a c-section? That would fit better with the idea of the baby being "stolen from his sleepy land," an "exile." Wait, I've got it. (I think). Mother and child both died in childbirth. The child died first, though. It was a problematic birth, and the child was delivered through c-section, ("cut loose from her," "stolen," "exile") but later passed away. This is the catastrophe. "The ocean parted when you wailed:" the ocean that separates this world and the next, and an opening in it was created through which the child passes away to the next life. His corpse then becomes nothing more than the "debris" of his life and his dying, and this debris, or the child's ashes, is what the mother hands to the protagonist in a "silver cup," or urn. Then maybe the mother passed away, not right away, but relatively soon after the child's death. And the baby refugee can then return to "his own inland sea," his mother's womb, in heaven. "Now on a dolphin's back I come to you", crossing the oft-referred-to "ocean." The protagonist is dying, perhaps? Maybe of an aneurysm of some sort ("swollen flood inside my vein"), perhaps a brain aneurysm, and in the pseudo-medical mystical language/world/perception of the protagonist, this was caused by his frustrated attempts at an explanation to the child, and/or his death will allow him to meet the child and explain everything that he's been trying to convey to him? And then the second verse after the "where he can. . ." refrain is odd, for it is simultaneously very earthy and sort of literal, and yet it is a dream that obviously can not be realized, unless the child should return to earth as a ghost. But then, the word "may" is introduced here, whereas elsewhere, everything seems very definite, and the protagonist seems sure in his declarations. Importantly, the protagonist is not dead yet ("I'm an ocean apart from you"). But, he can either see into the other side, or he has kept photographs of the child during his short life ("I see her deep, deep in your eyes"). And the last refrain provides the most support for my little explication here. The protagonist will join his lover and his child in the afterworld, and there is the hope and the excitement of reunion and the renewed promise of happiness together ("'Cause I can play castaway"). And then the next three lines virtually speak for themselves: "Two can play castaway/ Three can play castaway/ And we all play castaway." One, two, three: child, mother, and then the father. The whole family reunited in the afterlife. "Castaway" seems like an especially interesting word to base this song around. Of course, we generally use that word as a synonym for shipwrecked travellers, but then, this strange marriage of the words "cast" and "away" seems so loaded, particularly since we see the child's corpse described as "debris," a synonym for trash, refuse, waste. But then, the whole song seems like the protagonist's attempt to assure himself that the child and his birth was not a waste of time, of effort, of his beloved wife. Why was the child cast away by fate, if you'll pardon me for using such lofty terms? The protagonist does not try to answer this question, but he does search to give the child's existence meaning, and he does so, in part, by turning the child into something splendid that awaits him just an ocean away. This allows him to import meaning to his own dying, as well. Peace, Love, and Mischief, Vanessa ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 22:33:10 -0400 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: [RS] more on Castaway Jeff wrote: Upon further thought, I think the line actually reads, "Cut loose from her", and then, "my calloused hand/ Branded you an exile." So I don't think the protagonist cut the umbilical cord or performed the c-section, which is what I think the cutting refers to. I must say, that line was confounding me for a while--how random would it be for this guy to just deliver his own kid by c-section? Of course, don't ask me what it means for the father to have branded his son an exile. . . I'm still working on that one. Peace, Vanessa ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 23:00:31 -0700 From: patrick t power Subject: Re: [RS] Castaway Vanessa thought out loud: <> . . . The protagonist does not try to answer this question, but he does search to give the child's existence meaning, and he does so, in part, by turning the child into something splendid that awaits him just an ocean away. This allows him to import meaning to his own dying, as well.>> Er, uh . . . I was going to say that! Pat ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 23:12:16 EDT From: SMOKEY596@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] Castaway Wow Vanessa....that was very interesting reading! I have no idea if you're on the mark or not, but it certainly made sense to me. I never thought of this before, but the part where you were describing the child as "debris" and being cast away, stolen from his sleepy land...almost sounds like an abortion. Just another thought to throw in there and confuse things. The way you described it, that's just the thought that came to my mind. SMOKEY Embrace what you have in common, celebrate what sets you apart It takes more than the color that you find on a palate to turn humanity into an art... -Ellis Paul ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V2 #158 ***********************************