From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V9 #211 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, March 6 2008 Volume 09 : Number 211 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] 4 tickets to the Emelin saturday... [rich ] Re: [RS] WUMB Live at Noon today - Feb. 29, 2008 ["Chris Foxwell" Subject: [RS] 4 tickets to the Emelin saturday... Face value Contact Peter: pcohen@bloomberg.net Happy Wednesday!!!! ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 10:26:01 -0500 From: "Chris Foxwell" Subject: Re: [RS] WUMB Live at Noon today - Feb. 29, 2008 On 3/4/08, Matthew Bullis wrote: > > That's Nic Jones by the way, not Nick Lowe. Oh man...sorry, random goof on my part. Ha, Nick Jones. Oops. > Dave Palmater, the interviewer, thought that Balloon Man was either about > nostalgia or loss. Didn't mean to disparage him, by the way. I love Dave, he's a great guy. (For whatever reason, I keep thinking this interview took place on WFUV, probably because that's where I first heard about the interview, and I was trying to figure out which 'FUV interviewer that was.) Bit of a clarification of Richard's comments during the interview, to which I went back and listened more carefully: Most of Richard's comments were directed towards the narrative component of his songwriting, and his tendency to want to have everything "mean" something, have a point, or multiple potential points. He said that he is a little weary of writing "beat-you-over-the-head" narratives, that progress from A to B to C, etc. Ditto for writing songs that have distinct "points," be they obvious or subtle/symbolic. He said that "after all these years," he has come to the conclusion that if you have a good melody and a solid chord progression, it doesn't matter in the *least*--emphasis his--what the lyrics are, or what the song is about. Kind of a radical comment, to my ears at least, from an artist whose songwriting and storytelling are among the tightest and most finely-tuned in the business. Richard then went on to comment on how difficult it is for him to write "pointless" songs, tunes that are descriptive instead of narrative, and how his brain always tries, relentlessly, to find the overall point(s): what the last lyric means, how it logically constructs the following lyric, and why it should do so. He is in a mindset nowadays where he appreciates songs that are descriptive rather than narrative, that paint beautiful pictures rather than (necessarily) telling beautiful stories. He and Dave then discussed Bill Staines and Michael Stipe in this vein. The latter was especially interesting to me; Richard said that fifteen years ago he hated Michael Stipe's songwriting, because it just didn't make sense to him, there was often no "point" within the songs, but that now he is coming to appreciate them more and more, and perhaps pursuing a similar style in his current songwriting. Dave then went on to compare this to Jackson Pollock, suggesting that there is a similar appreciation there, where people can love Pollock's work while being totally mystified about its overall point. Richard bowed out of that discussion, though, claiming not to be a visual person in that way and having little to contribute. So, yeah. Sorry, this is the e-mail I tried to write yesterday. Amazing what having the source material at hand does for you, rather than relying on memory... 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: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:50:31 -0700 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?john_cl=E9irigh?= Subject: Re: [RS] WUMB Live at Noon today - Feb. 29, 2008 I wish I had heard the interview, but your synopsis pushed me into introspection in a couple keys areas of my own craft. Thanks Chris, that was worth more than the laugh I provided for you yesterday. I'll find some way to make it up to you...*or RS*...or something... john Chris Foxwell wrote: > Bit of a clarification of Richard's comments during the > interview, to which I went back and listened more carefully: ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 20:29:43 -0500 From: "MICHAEL MARMER LINDA MARMER" Subject: [RS] Time has come today Sadly, I am old enough to remember "Time Has Come Today"! Great song, as I still have my "March On Washington" button for November 1969!!! Mike Marmer ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V9 #211 ***********************************