From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V2 #159 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, July 15 2000 Volume 02 : Number 159 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [RS] Castaway ["L. Davis" ] Re: [RS] Castaway [Vanessa Wills ] Re: [RS] Castaway [Vanessa Wills ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 23:20:10 -0400 From: "L. Davis" Subject: Re: [RS] Castaway Well actually folks this one IS a "confessional," Richard has told the story of writing it on the subject of his (first) son's birth - prior wife -- and it is cutting the umbilical cord -- and I won't tell you the joke-story part of it if you haven't heard it because it is very nicely funny and I don't want to spoil it for you! I asked him about that about the 2nd time I heard him and he was stunned that someone would *recognize* what it was about. Anyone else out there feel compelled to sing (bad) harmony to these songs? Mostly I'm the sort who sings along (alone, in the car) to the melody line, but with Richard's music it's always the harmony. I thought at first I was making it up! And subsequently realized it was the backing harmonies that are sung so quietly you can overlook them. This song really needs the backup though, the way the voices overlap. lisa ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 01:59:08 -0400 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: Re: [RS] Castaway Lisa wrote: > Richard has told the story of writing it on the subject of his (first) > son's birth - prior > wife -- and it is cutting the umbilical cord Oh. . . well. . . he's wrong! Ha! ;-) You can tell him I said so! BTW, I am soooooo kidding right now--well, sort of ;-). Vanessa, who is checking e-mail at this time of night because she is trying to avoid going to sleep because there was a huge beetle, like, the size of a donkey in here, and she made her mommy kill it, but what if there are more? Oh, I am such a dweeb sometimes. eek. np: Ellis Paul, "Translucent Soul" ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2000 02:36:48 -0400 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: Re: [RS] Castaway So, I get it. . . "my calloused hand/ Branded you an exile" equals "I cut the umbilical cord, thereby leaving you your navel, the scarred and healed remains of both your (literal) connection to your mother and your separation from her." The brand then, is the child's belly button. The debris= the placenta? the cord? If I were to amend my earlier explication, I might say that the three will be reunited not in the afterlife, but in a kind of innocence. The father sees the innocence/sea/oasis that his son is losing, and wants it back not only for his son, but also for himself. There must be a good way to integrate my earlier post with the "real" story behind this song. . . More of a figurative dying than anything, I suppose. . . and the separations that occur are not between people on either side of that iron gate, as it were, but perhaps through geography, through divorce. Ahh, got. . . to. . . think. . . Anybody headed to the WXPN singer/songwriter weekend tomorrow and sunday in Philly? I'm thinking I'll try to go, but not if it's raining outside like it did today. Peace, Vanessa "L. Davis" wrote: > Well actually folks this one IS a "confessional," Richard has told the > story of writing it on the subject of his (first) son's birth - prior > wife -- and it is cutting the umbilical cord -- and I won't tell you the > joke-story part of it if you haven't heard it because it is very nicely > funny and I don't want to spoil it for you! I asked him about that > about the 2nd time I heard him and he was stunned that someone would > *recognize* what it was about. > > Anyone else out there feel compelled to sing (bad) harmony to these > songs? Mostly I'm the sort who sings along (alone, in the car) to the > melody line, but with Richard's music it's always the harmony. I > thought at first I was making it up! And subsequently realized it was > the backing harmonies that are sung so quietly you can overlook them. > This song really needs the backup though, the way the voices overlap. > > lisa ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V2 #159 ***********************************