The WELL: deadsongs.vue.110: Jack Straw

#39: William Jason Baggett (billybaggs) Thu 24 Apr 08 08:23

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:23:00 PDT

Does anyone still watch music videos? [Read entire topic]

#38: Scott MacFarlane (s-macfarlane) Thu 24 Apr 08 07:49

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:49:00 PDT

And that's why music videos are problematic. They tend to delimit our imagination about songs. [Read entire topic]

#37: William Jason Baggett (billybaggs) Thu 24 Apr 08 06:53

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:53:00 PDT

"there are as many other potential meanings as there are listeners"

Word...That's one of my favorite things about dead lyrics: they are so open to interpretation. It's been really interesting to me to have the songs evolve in my own mind over the years. [Read entire topic]

#36: David Dodd (ddodd) Wed 23 Apr 08 07:57

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:57:00 PDT

And yet, Hunter himself has repeatedly weighed in on the idea that regardless of what HE thinks (knows) the song to "be about," there are as many other potential meanings as there are listeners, and that is kind of the point of this entire deadsongs.vue conference! I personally love the wildest of interpretations or perceived references, because it shows up the whole idea of how we create or assign meaning, not just to Dead lyrics, but to all art, and, ultimately, to everything in our lives. [Read entire topic]

#35: Marked from the Day That I was Born (ssol) Wed 23 Apr 08 04:29

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 04:29:00 PDT

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. According to Hunter the story is actually about two down and outers in the depression era. [Read entire topic]

#34: coal will turn to gray (comet) Sun 20 Apr 08 21:43

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:43:00 PDT

"keep him from the sun" is an odd construction, possibly a cryptical envelopment. [Read entire topic]

#33: David Gans (tnf) Sat 19 Apr 08 10:52

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:52:00 PDT

That's a bit of a stretch, but interesting to contemplate. [Read entire topic]

#32: David Dodd (ddodd) Fri 18 Apr 08 11:45

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:45:00 PDT

Posted on behalf of Peter Johnson:

An Historical observation.

There ain't a place a man can hide, Shannon, will keep him from the sun

I do not remember the exact text of the reference but you can find it in the Time/Life book series on the old west. In the volume about "The Gunfoghters". Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the wall gang robbed a train that had money belonging to an eastern newspaper magnate, possibly the Boston sun or the Chicago sun, I am not really sure which.. The "paper" then put up a substantial reward for the capture of the hole in the wall gang and then hired the Pinkerton detective agency to track them down and capture them. The published exploits of the Pinkertons and the hole in the wall gang increased the circulation of the paper so much that he may have hired the pinkertons to track down other outlaws to further increase or maintain circulation of the paper. The Pinkertons were kept on the payroll of the Sun for at least two years until Butch and Sundance went to Bolivia. So I think that the above line is in reference to either the Chicago Sun 0r The Boston Sun.

Peter Johnson [Read entire topic]

#31: David Dodd (ddodd) Wed 26 Sep 07 14:10

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 14:10:00 PDT

That gets back to that "cut his buddy down" line, with its ambiguity. But yes, watch yer back at all times! [Read entire topic]

#30: David Gans (tnf) Mon 24 Sep 07 09:04

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:04:00 PDT

Watch yer back :^) [Read entire topic]