From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V12 #268 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, February 2 2013 Volume 12 : Number 268 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [RS] Much Madness, Round One. [Vanessa Wills ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2013 10:24:54 -0500 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: Re: [RS] Much Madness, Round One. Ron! This was soooooooooo tough!!! ::whines:: Seriously, though, this is even more fun than I expected, and I expected it to be damn fun. I didn't realize how tough it would be to make some of these calls. I had a blast thinking about these songs, especially ones I hadn't heard or thought of in a while. One thing that was really interesting is that in some cases, the process of writing about why I preferred one song in a match-up made me change my mind and realize that if I thought about it, I really preferred the other song! In (13) for instance, I started out choosing Whippoorwill and then switched to Mary Magdalene. 1. *"You Stay Here"* (v. "Mariana's Table") 1. I like Mariana's Table all right, but it's nowhere close to achieving the depth or urgency of You Stay Here, which I think is a far more complex song. For instance, if I had to choose just one of these songs to introduce Richard's music to a new listener, it would be You Stay Here, hands down. It's much more definitive of his style and distinct from the work of others, and really showcases his ability to comment on a political reality through the eyes of a character living inside it. 2. *Waiting for the Storm* (v. "A Tune for Nowhere") 1. These are both great songs but I love the strange combination of the snappy, upbeat tune and the narrator's self-destructive tendencies. 3. *Wisteria* (v. "Abuelita") 1. OOOOOH this is a tough one!!! Wisteria really wins it by a nose. They are truly both wonderful songs, but Wisteria is such a tender and wistful love song (for a plant and for a house in this case, as well as wistfully looking back on the love shared so far between the narrator and his partner). Richard writes so few love songs but IMHO they're knock-outs. I really hate voting Abuelita out of this first round, thoughit's such a wonderful song. 4. *Last Fare of the Day* (v. "Get Up Clara") 1. Man, you're not making this easy, dude. Get Up Clara is seriously one of my favorite songs ever, so this is killing me. But it's almost like a guilty pleasure-- Last Fare of the Day is clearly the superior song and genius in its treatment of 9/11. The way Richard's voice soars over that refrain gets me every. damn. time. 5. *Ascent* (v. "TV Light") 1. This is a song you don't hear that much about. I think that's a shame as in my opinion, at least, it is one of Richard's most haunting and beautiful songs. What's striking is that there is little visual language used in this song and yet, at least for me, it always transports me right into that prison cell, shifting my perspective between the prisoner and his confidant. It's also a song I absolutely love to sing. 6. *Easy Street* (v. "Balloon Man") 1. If I had to choose, it would be Easy Street. Balloon Man always struck me as undermotivated, somehow. 7. *Fenario* (v. "Confession") 1. Between this and Confession? This is an excruciating decision to make! Confession made more of an impression on me right away and like every other WXPN listener I listened to it, and loved it, over and over... and over. And I still love it. In making this call, I went back and listened to the album version of Confession for the first time in years, maybe, and good God, is Richard's vocal performance *great* on this.Still, I'm giving this one to Fenario because the poetry and striking imagery of its lyrics is just so rich and gorgeous. And the guitar work on this songso intricate and hypnotic, it really does feel like a meditation and a prayer. Interesting, too, that these songs are both album-openers! 8. *By Now* (v. "Howling at the Trouble") 1. By Now wins because it is more gripping, more engaging, and more memorable, even if it also wins the prize of Song Most Likely to Be Held Against Its Author in a Court of Law. Howling at the Trouble is deliciously sexy but I'll never quite understand why that sleeping dog makes so many appearances. 9. *You Again* (v. "I Saw My Youth Today") 1. You Again gets an advantage because in my mind it's part of a pair with the beautiful Memory of You. I also think Richard's voice is so great on this. 10. *There Goes Mavis* (v. "Parasol Ants") 1. These are two of my least favorite RS songs. There Goes Mavis is better and the more I listen to it, I do find myself kind of rooting for that little bird who wants freedom even though freedom for her is a dangerous thing. Parasol Ants on the other hand I just plain do not care for. 11. *State of the Union* (v. "One Man's Arkansas") 1. One Man's Arkansas is great and all, but State of the Union is flat-out AMAZING!!! The central character, his growth, his struggles, rehab, a car chase, the connection between his life and the political realities of the day, and a condemnation of U.S. militarism, to boot... this song has Master Songwriter written all over it because seriously, how does Richard pack a whole novel into a five-minute song? There was a rumor that Richard wasn't going to put this song on Not Far Now and I was seriously upset when I heard that because this is an amazing song, one of Richard's best. 12. *On a Sea of Fleur-De-Lis* (v. "Hazel's House") 1. I don't have too much to say about this match-upI feel like Fleur-de-Lis is obviously the more engaging and complex song. The earnest yearning of its narrator is palpable and undeniable. 13. * Mary Magdalene* (v. "So Says the Whippoorwill") 1. These are both beautiful songs. Mary Magdalene wins because of how uncannily Richard explores and portrays this character, because it manages to be both witty and heartbreaking occasionally at the very same time, and because of its great storytelling. OK, 'Nessa out! On Fri, Feb 1, 2013 at 3:12 PM, wrote: > This is the first round. Your job is to choose your favorite song from > each pairing. Just indicate the winning song with its pair number. What > makes them qualify as your favorite is completely up to you, and youb re > not really limited to just choosing a song based on its studio CD version > (that is, you may choose b State of the Unionb based on its b Marianab s > EPb version instead of its b Not Far Nowb version). But it would be nice > for a little insight into why youb re making the choices youb re making > since this is, after all, supposed to be a discussion generating exercise. ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V12 #268 ************************************