From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V5 #274 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 Thursday, December 4 2003 Volume 05 : Number 274 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Wedding Song ["scott shindell" ] [RS] Richard on video? [alderon@comcast.net] [RS] REDBIRD (Delmhorst, Mulvey, Foucault) [Kerry Bernard Subject: [RS] Wedding Song When our father remarried a few years back we all got together for the wedding, and as everyone filed into the church Richard played a slow, very quiet instrumental version of Reunion Hill. Perfect. I'll never forget it. Scott _________________________________________________________________ Shop online for kids toys by age group, price range, and toy category at MSN Shopping. No waiting for a clerk to help you! http://shopping.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 14:11:13 +0000 From: alderon@comcast.net Subject: [RS] Richard on video? Does anyone know if Richard appears on video at all? If not, I wish he would! (Preferably with Lucy!) If Fleetwood Mac and the Dixie Chicks can do videos, so can Richard....(said with tongue firmly in cheek). Anyway, if there is something out there, I'd love to know. And if you have something recorded off your TV, or similar, write me off-list. Ron - waiting for the snow to arrive - Alderfer ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 15:43:18 -0500 From: Kerry Bernard Subject: [RS] REDBIRD (Delmhorst, Mulvey, Foucault) It's quiet... I feel ok about posting this off-topic plug... Kerry ;) NOW AVAILABLE: REDBIRD - An album featuring singer/songwriters Peter Mulvey, Kris Delmhorst, and Jeffrey Foucault http://www.younghunter.com/redbird.html REDBIRD is both the name of a new album and a loose affiliation of three American songwriters that began to take shape during a common tour experience. In January of 2003, KRIS DELMHORST, JEFFREY FOUCAULT, and PETER MULVEY did a run of shows together in England. Thanks to excellent routing, they found themselves with a few hours at a hotel every afternoon, and without fail they engaged in an off-the-cuff song circle. (Nighttime after gigs was reserved for poker.) Across the tour, they discovered musical affinity and a shared love of a fairly diverse spectrum of Americana. It was a no-brainer to do a record, but in keeping with the spontaneous nature of their original sessions, they did it in a living room, around one microphone, in three days in August of 2003. What emerged is a love letter to the body of American song. The members enlisted the talents of multi-instrumentalist David "Goody" Goodrich, and became multi-instrumentalists themselves. The bulk of the record speaks from the common tongue of music: traditional tunes, old jazz standards, country songs, and things that blur the line between those forms. There are also a handful of originals as well as songs by contemporary writers who are well entangled in the great briar patch of this music. Listen to Redbird and you will hear three American songwriters in the midst of a good solid attempt to catch the shine that comes from attending to the musical past in order to live in the musical present. Soundclips & more info: http://www.younghunter.com/redbird.html Kerry Bernard Young/Hunter Management 350 Mass Ave, #230 Arlington, MA 02474 781.643.2773 ph 781.643.0416 fax http://www.younghunter.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 16:37:25 -0500 From: rfoxwell@wso.williams.edu Subject: [RS] An interpretation of "On A Sea Of Fleur-de-lis" Hello all, the listserv has been kind of quiet lately on the RS front, so I thought I'd throw something out here to generate some discussion. I thought I'd take a crack at solving the mystery that is "On A Sea Of Fleur-de-lis". It's been said before that the song is confusing and puzzling, without a clearly-expressed central story or point. I agree with the former two sentiments, but not the latter; although it is undoubtedly a difficult song, it has always struck me as having a very coherent, intelligible story, albeit one that requires a little esoteric knowledge to comprehend. (Specifically, knowledge of early Christian symbolism and mysticism, the kind of stuff that Richard himself studied before becoming a professional musician.) A few caveats before I get down to it: 1. I'm no student of Christian theology or history. The very few obscure references here were taught to me by a kinda/sorta ex-girlfriend, who is a doctoral student in medieval art and symbolism. I took what she told me and applied it to the song and came up with this interpretation. I hope you'll agree, though, that the interpretation doesn't depend upon such obscurity, that it makes sense in a broader sense as well as a specific one. 2. I know that lots of people really dislike the level of line-by-line analysis that I'm about to employ, feeling that it detracts from the beauty of the song and its overall status as a piece of art. Without tackling the subject right now, I'll say that a discussion about techniques of interpretation would also be very cool and might spark some interesting debate here. Obviously I disagree with this view, but I enjoy a good debate. :-) 3. Sorry, I know this is long. Heck, this little intro is longer than is decent. Thanks for bearing with me... In my opinion, the narrator of "Fleur-de-lis" is a young medieval nun who is devoted to Mary. The song is a prayer, in which the nun beseeches Mary's blessing for her decision to leave the nunnery. The nun wants to leave because she fervently wishes to experience that which Mary herself exemplifies: motherhood, which is unavailable to nuns due to their vows of chastity. An examination of the lyrics of the song reveals plenty of imagery that supports this view, so indulge me while I dive into a precise review and analysis of the verses. "I adore thee, Mother Mary / But would you change me back to a witch" One clue to figuring out what this line refers to lies in the fact that in medieval times, rustic or rural women who did not belong to established nunneries or monasteries and yet who professed strong mystical or religious beliefs were commonly shunned as witches, even if they did not hold pagan beliefs (although their views were somewhat left of standard, as evidenced by the singer's reasoning behind her request). The church supported this view, since it encouraged everyone to sign up in order to be able to "properly" believe in Christ. Also note that witches were closely associated with sexuality and maternity, and were feared for their supposed power over procreation and nature. This fits with the singer's desire for childbirth and her need to ask for Mary's blessing for what might be construed as a simple carnal desire to escape the constraints of chasteness. Notice that the singer says "change me BACK to a witch", suggesting that she was one of these independent worshippers earlier in time, before she became a nun. This reference, coupled with the prefaced statement of reverence for Mary and the direct tone used to address Mary (along with other lyrics later in the song), suggests that the identity of the singer is that which I describe above: a nun who once worshipped Mary on her own, and who now wishes to leave the Church to return to her previous style of worship. I don't want to play psychoanalyst here, but this theme bears a certain resemblence to Richard's own struggles to define his faith within and outside of the Church. (Not that I know anything about that, of course; please don't mistake my attempts at careful analysis with an arrogant belief that I can blindly make conclusions about Richard's life. I believe nothing of the sort, I'm just throwing ideas out.) Moving on... "And let me live in the arms of a sorry old elm / give the gypsy moths a realm of their own" A "sorry old elm" refers to the nun's wish to go back to living in a rural setting, in contrast to the dignified, powerful walls of an abbey or monastery. I believe that the "gypsy moths" literally refer to gypsies, with the moth imagery being used to fit in with the tree image. Gypsies wandered the countryside and had their own not-quite-accepted views of Christianity, and the singer is asking for those who are living outside of the Church, as she wishes to do, to have some sort of "realm", their own accepted belief in Mary. "For a postman's fee would I work for thee / from that tree would I swoop down and leave / a billion blue eggs of eternity / and in no time you'd have your own see" The singer is saying that if Mary would but grant her her request, she would require nothing else while "working" for Mary in that most holy of enterprises: bearing children. The billion blue eggs would then be her children, and their children, extended forward into "eternity", the sum total of which would form a religious see of sorts, a group dedicated in love and devotion to Mary. (The fact that the eggs are described as those of a robin fits in with the tree/moth nature imagery.) So, basically, the nun is asking to be allowed to leave her monastery and have children yet still be considered to be a devotee of Mary. She is trying to show Mary that this seeming contradiction actually works, and will wind up increasing the number of Mary's devotees. "Don't just stare, I mean it really / hear my prayer, I give it freely / are you there, Fleur-de-lis?" The fleur-de-lis was a symbol for Mary, and is being used as the literal object of the nun's prayer, as she begs Mary for her wish. The first line is great, acknowledging the seeming absurdity of her request: to be allowed to leave the church in order to procreate in the name of Mary. "I adore thee, Mother Mary / But would you change me back to a witch / And let me live in the arms of a willow / And fly around not wearing a stitch" More of the same witch imagery. "For so long has this room been so hollow / as we wait at the gate for an echo / in the flesh of your newly-cleaned frescoes / where Jesus holds John to his breast" These lines evoke the pain and loneliness felt by the singer, who desperately wants a child, wants to bear life. The hollow room, with its "flesh" of clean frescoes and images of devotion to God, has a double-meaning: it refers to the singer's womb in addition to the actual monastery. The singer feels hollow, empty, echoing, her body full of devotion to Christ but devoid of life of its own. "Wrapped around, and rocking slowly / no one bound to be so holy / in your gown of fleur-de-lis" This is self-evident. These lines evoke more intense longing for a child, for someone to wrap in the gown of the singer's love for Mary. Such a child would be cherished more by far than any holy object in any monastery. "I adore thee, Mother Mary / But would you change me back to a witch / as a witch would I love you more than any man / so give a wink, give a nod, give a damn" The singer reassures Mary that despite her leaving the flock, she would still be completely devoted to her; she swears to Mary that she would continue to love Mary more than she would love any man that she married, any father of the children she longs for. The last line is pretty clever, asking Mary to play along and agree despite the "damning" element of what she is asking to do. "Be a sport Mary, and don't tell dad / he need never know how he's been had / and never you mind about those seven seals / 'cause daddy was a one-shot deal" I have a little trouble with this part. The first part has a seemingly easy explanation, but I am not convinced that it is the best one. The young nun is asking for Mary to grant her wish without telling her father, who wouldccontinue to believe that she is safe and sound (and chaste) within the monastery like a good girl, not cavorting about outside of the nunnery. However, this seems a little too...I dunno, mundane, in comparison to the rest of the song. I want to make some sort of connection to Jesus's father Joseph and how he had "been had" by God in the conception of Christ, but I can't really make that fit with the rest of the song. I have no idea what the last two lines might mean, with the seven seals and the one-shot deal. "One, two, three (do-re-mi), it could be that easy / there we'd be, I with my baby / on a sea of fleur-de-lis" This is also self-evident, displaying more passionate longing for motherhood, for having a child while afloat on the sea of Mary's love. So, that's what I've come up with. It may not be what RS intended, it may be waaay out in left field, but this pattern pretty much fits the song to a T and makes for a very beautiful, passionate prayer. I especially like how it addresses the central irony in the worship of Mary: Mary is the eternal mother, the mother of Christ and of humanity, but those who worship her most directly are required to be chaste and cannot experience the beauty and holiness of childbirth and motherhood. I love how the song, with this interpretation, conveys the passion and religious love of a nun who wants only to be a mother while remaining in the service of the Eternal Mother. What do you all think? I cringe to think of how Richard would react to such a poking-and-prodding analysis, especially of a song that by his own statement is supposed to be cloudy and vague. I can't help it, though, the interpretation fits so beautifully and powerfully. Any thoughts/criticisms are welcome. ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V5 #274 ***********************************