From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V7 #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 Monday, November 14 2005 Volume 07 : Number 274 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare [DBri732722@aol.com] [RS] RE: Last Fare [Jamie Younghans / John McDonnell ] Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare [Janet Cinelli ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 08:38:55 EST From: DBri732722@aol.com Subject: Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare I haven't disputed the connection, but I hadn't heard of it before this discussion. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 12:59:07 -0500 From: Jamie Younghans / John McDonnell Subject: [RS] RE: Last Fare Hi All Tom wrote: >> I am puzzled that people would be bothering to debate the original connection. It seemed plain enough in context and from Richard's own onstage comments when the song was first performed and released. Is there some particular reason why the idea is offensive? Is this some left over emotion about 9/11 itself?<< I didn't find it offensive at all, just absent. My thought was that the connection was not plain at all from the song, and that it was only revealed by explanation from RS. It may be, however, that any song set in New York after 9/11 will have that connection. The question, I suppose is whether this connection makes any difference. If the song is written well enough, 9/11 will not have to be invoked (subtly, or otherwise) to bring us into the song and the characters. However, if the song is reliant on the events of that day to give it some significance, I think it's a cheap trick that forces the listener to do the work the song doesn't. That would be offensive. I find the song falls somewhere between these two scenarios. It seems to me irrelevant whether it starts out on September 15, 2001, or September 15, 2002--the couple, to me has no defining characteristics which would connect them to the events of that or any other day--they could just as easily be from the nearby methadone clinic, as Sharon G mentioned. The fact that RS says the song starts on September 15, 2001 makes it so, but I don't feel that lends the song any emotional resonance. It may not be a fair comparison, but I think of the momentary meeting between the trucker and the toll booth clerk in "The Next Best Western": Did he who made the lamb Put the tremble in the Hand That reaches out to take my quarter. That's a five-second encounter which prompts an unexpectedly profound question. I don't find anything close to that in LFOTD, though it appears I am in the minority. I find the song has an appeal, but not as much as other listers. I am less put off by the idea of the couple being the same (although, gestationally, I'm not sure it's possible) than I am of the spring rain as fecundity metaphor, or the taking them home as some form of rescue. In fact, it was this song which prompted my earlier inquiries of more "experienced" RS fans as to why they found that Vuelta demonstrated a progress in his songwriting. While I still like it and LFOTD--it is a Richard Shindell work after all--I think he has done better and perhaps only because he set the bar so high. John McD. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 18:25:26 -0500 From: Jamie Younghans / John McDonnell Subject: [RS] RE: Tickets for Carnegie Hall Show Hi All, I posted about having two tickets available for the upcoming Carnegie Hall show with Lucy Kaplansky on Friday, November 18, but it was part of a Last Fare of the Day post. In case anyone missed it, I have two tickets available for face value ($38 apiece) Section P1, Row BB, seats 1& 2. Someone or something has apparently conspired against my using these tickets, since I have had them since June. They have to be good seats, and anyone on this list will appreciate them. E-mail me above, or at jmcdonn@gmail.com. John McD. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 20:14:07 -0500 From: Tom Neff Subject: Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare Just to make it clear, I am not arguing that "Last Fare" is better or worse than some other particular Shindell work, or that it doesn't have value as a well-written song for folks who either don't understand the hammerblow to our souls on the day or don't want to hear about it in music. That's all fine. I'm just mentioning, not on a whim but as a troth of remembrance, that "Last Fare" really is about the day, in Richard's ever-subtle way. That the rent veil and the rebirth afterwards are as clear as a rainbow for many of us who were there. Up Amsterdam, the meter dark, I turned off the radio She said, "Thanks, I could not bear another word." It's no cheap trick - I gagged at the cheap tricks people tried to pull in the aftermath. It's a portrait whose repeated viewing helps us see how we've healed. Email and folk fans being what they are respectively, I probably won't change too many minds with this. Doesn't matter - that's not the deal. It still has to be said. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 19:46:46 -0800 (PST) From: Janet Cinelli Subject: Re: [RS] RE: Last Fare - --- Tom Neff wrote: > I'm just mentioning, not on a whim but as a troth of > remembrance, that "Last Fare" really is about the day, in Richard's ever-subtle way. > I have to chime in here and agree, this song seems clear to me it's about the days after 9/11 when people were still looking for their loved ones. I can also relate to shutting the radio off, it was brutal listening to the constant rehashing of the story. Plus the rumors that were spread like they were hard facts. I'm glad Richard was subtle with his song. I remember being overwhelmed with grief when Lucy sang her song, "Land of the Living" at a festival. I had no idea she wrote such a song and it blindsighted me, to say the least. Janet __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V7 #274 ***********************************