From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V10 #103 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, May 28 2009 Volume 10 : Number 103 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Gethsemani Goodbye [Carol Love ] Re: [RS] Gethsemani Goodbye [] [RS] I saw my Gethsemani on tour today [Johannes Schult ] RE: [RS] I saw my Gethsemani on tour today [Ronnie de Champs ] Re: [RS] Blue Divide a romantic song? [Chris Foxwell ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 08:31:30 -0400 From: Carol Love Subject: [RS] Gethsemani Goodbye OK, Ron proposed a discussion of the new album a couple weeks ago. I'm going with "the dog ate my homework". I had all my music stored digitally on my PC and then our motherboard blew up. I've just started the tedious process of adding music back from the old hard drive -- and then burned myself a disk of the new album. I've literally only been listening to it for just two days now. Gethsemani Goodbye was puzzling me, but he mentions Louisville, so on a lark I Googled "Gethsemani, KY". Sure enough, there is an abbey there where Merton (also mentioned in the song) is buried. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_of_Gethsemani I love it that the song's MALE narrator is lost and won't ask for directions. I'm sure with RS that has a double meaning such as not having direction in life or a relationship, but it also makes me smile because men WILL not ask for directions. So why does the woman in the song want to go to Gethsemani, and why won't the narrator take her?? Talk to me -- I talk back!! Another thing that came to me just last night -- other than "AYHN" -- has RS written any other "I've been dumped" songs?? This occured to me as I was listening to Shawn Colvin's GEM "Shotgun Down the Avalanche", which is one of my favorite break up songs of all time. I also wondered about RS covering "Shotgun". Although it's really Colvin's song, I'd love to hear RS's take. Am I correct -- is AYHN his only "dumped" song??? *Ciao!* .....Carol ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 8:19:19 -0700 From: Subject: Re: [RS] Gethsemani Goodbye >> Ron proposed a discussion of the new album a couple weeks ago. I'm going with "the dog ate my homework". << I was starting to get worried. After all the activity we had in our recent snip-fest, I was starting to fear that the only thing that was going to drive any disucssion on this list was if Richard was to write a song about Proposition 8. Anyway, I unfortunately don't have much to say about "Gethsemani Goodbye." Like several of the songs on this record, unfortunately, I'm simply not emotionally invested enough in the protagonist to care much. Get back to me when we start discussing "State of the Union" or "Balloon Man," though. I do like the guitar work, I'll say that. >> Am I correct -- is AYHN his only "dumped" song??? << I'll take it one step further . . . is AYHN one of only a very few present-day (meaning "Reunion Hill" and "Mary Magdelane" don't count) romantic (either positive or negative) songs at ALL? "You Again," "Summer Wind, Cotton Dress," "Blue Divide," and a few others come to mind, but very few. RG ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 21:11:48 +0200 From: Johannes Schult Subject: [RS] I saw my Gethsemani on tour today My first post - please forgive me for merging three topics; I don't want to flood your mailboxes. I Saw My Youth Today is the song most played on my computer. Along with Reunion Hill and Wisteria it is one of the stories that get me every time I hear them. It tells so much about growing up and loss with so few words - and still allows for many other, different interpretations. I usually take the lyrics rather literally, so I imagine the persons to be father, kid, and mother. (Until it was posted here I had the same couple in Last Fare of the Day - but now I'm intrigued by the two couples idea, mainly because it seems less 'manufactured' to me.) What amazes me about Gethsemani Goodbye (and many other RS songs) is how Richard turns an everyday situation into an emotional mini opera, sort of. We probably all know the situation of getting lost, but if we get emotional about it, it's usually a bit distressed. The song manages to leave out all the anger. Instead, it takes regret, honesty and a bit of helplessness and shows another perspective. While it's not my favourite track, I do like the middle-eight. Also, I find it fascination how Richard managed to recreate the whole song with just his guitar and voice in the live/radio version that surfaced on YouTube recently. Richard is now on tour in Europe. I hope some reports will surface on this list! Living in Germany, I had a hard time figuring out a way to attend at least one show. Looks like I'll make it to Colchester, UK; hopefully I can get my ticket tomorrow. Kind regards, Johannes ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 00:19:22 +0200 From: Ronnie de Champs Subject: RE: [RS] I saw my Gethsemani on tour today Johannes wrote: > > Richard is now on tour in Europe. I hope some reports will surface on this list! > > Tonight in Volendam was Richard's first night of the tour, a duo bill with Rod Picott & Amanda Shires, so it was a relatively short set. After some trouble with guitar connections, feedback and hiss, he could finally start with Mavis. As the Dutch princess Maxima is from Argentina he joked he was here to make sure people in Holland loved her (we do!) setlist (from memory, I didn't write it down) Mavis unknown Olabelle song Get Up clare Sitting on top of the World Next Best Western Mary Magdalene Are You Happy Now Sparrows Point Reunion Hill Transit encore : Balloon Man It was a nice warmup for the rest of the Dutch tour, starting tomorrow in Lage Vuursche (in the Woods) where he will probably play 2 sets (yippie) Ronnie _________________________________________________________________ See all the ways you can stay connected to friends and family http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/default.aspx ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 16:24:04 -0700 From: "Matthew Bullis" Subject: [RS] Blue Divide a romantic song? Hmm, I don't see where Ron's classification of Blue Divide is romantic. I frankly don't understand the song, other than a boat trip that didn't go so well. Perhaps the line about You and I were lost, but the focus seems to be about the trip to me. Thanks a lot. Matthew ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 May 2009 19:45:11 -0400 From: Subject: Re: [RS] Blue Divide a romantic song? >> I don't see where Ron's classification of Blue Divide is romantic. << The guy is separated by a body of water (a "blue divide") from the one he loves. He doesn't fly, can't reach her via boat, gets slammed and drenched by a wave, and has to resort to sitting on a cliff and waving a handerchief in the hopes that she'll see him via her telescope, until he sees her approaching via a balloon. All metaphorical, naturally, I mean, this IS Richard Shindell we're talking about. Now, to be honest, the song doesn't come right out and SAY it's someone he loves -- heck, he could just be a stranded castaway -- but there's always been something about the song -- perhaps the plaintive wail at the end -- that makes me hear a lot of heartache in it. I'm not alone here, right? RG ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 29 May 2009 02:47:25 +0300 From: Chris Foxwell Subject: Re: [RS] Blue Divide a romantic song? On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 2:24 AM, Matthew Bullis wrote: > Hmm, I don't see where Ron's classification of Blue Divide is romantic. I > frankly don't understand the song, other than a boat trip that didn't go so > well. Perhaps the line about You and I were lost, but the focus seems to be > about the trip to me. > Thanks a lot. > Matthew > It's always struck me as extremely romantic. But then again I'm partial to the whole "unrequited / long-time-coming / circle-made-complete" type of love. Yes, there are reasons. ;) Matthew, take a look at the lyrics again, and imagine the singer kept apart from his lover-to-be by a vast ocean. The singer tries many different ways to cross the ocean to reach her: first he tries to row across the ocean ('cause you know he hates to fly), but he was defeated by the tide, and also dumped into the sea and got banged up and soaked. Then, feeling pretty hopeless about his chances ("you and I were lost"; "a toss long fallen wide"), he climbs up and finds Marconi--the inventor who first successfully sent radio signals across the Atlantic Ocean--ostensibly in the hopes of reaching his lover via radio...but "his antenna was rusted long ago." So again, no luck, and he has a good sob ("shares a handkerchief") with Marconi. Out of desperation, he even tries waving the handkerchief, hoping maybe she owns a telescope and will see him. Then, he has finally all but given up, thinking himself marooned"...but then he catches sight of his lover-to-be rising with the moon, coming to find him in a balloon. I've always found it wonderfully poignant. The ocean can be a metaphor for anything that might keep lovers apart: rejection (hinted at in the song, or so I see it, with the whole getting dumped in the surf and crying bit), logistics, timing, whatever. It's a song about persistence, trying again and again, meeting with defeat each time...until one's heart's desire is achieved after all hope is lost, in the unlikeliest of ways. Alas, would that could be so all the time... (Perhaps the lover in question had some help from Balloon Man? ;) ) 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 ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V10 #103 ************************************