Richard Shindell, Hier Soir au Cinéma de Genevilliers

Richard Shindell, après un concert, Avril 2006.

Richard Shindell - Wisteria


Richard Shindell - Are you happy now ?
You took the toaster when you went
You never paid your half the rent
You took the spices from the rack
But you don’t have to put them back
Cause in your haste on Halloween
You left your camera on the bed
Where we played roles in black and white
You left a role of black and white
I set the timer and thought of you
And put the lense up to my head
I took a photograph for you
What comes out gray is really red

Are you happy now?

I smashed your pumpkin on the floor
The candle flickered at my feet
As goblins flew across the room
The children peered into the room
A cowboy shivered on the porch
As Cinderella checked her watch
A hobo waited in the street
An angel whispered, trick-or-treat
But what was I supposed to do
But to sit there in the dark?
I was amazed to think that you
Could take the candy with you too

Are you happy now?

I’ve sat all night and now it’s dawn
And I cannot believe my eyes
There’s garbage strewn across the lawn
Where we once stared up at the sky
And streams of paper fill the tree
That hovered over you and me
Shaving cream covers the car
That we picked up in Baltimore
Though I know it’s hard to tell
I hope that what’s-his-name treats you well
I still maintain that he’s a bum
But it’s your money – have some fun

And are you happy now?

You always asked why I had not
Written you a verse or two
Since that’s the one thing I regret
I dedicate this one to you

Are you happy now?
Are you?



Richard Shindell - Ballad of Mary Magdalen
My name is Mary Magdalen
I come from Palestine
Please excuse these rags I’m in
But I’ve fallen on hard times
But long ago I had my work
When I was in my prime
But I gave it up, and all for love
It was his career or mine

Jesus loved me
This I know
But why on earth
Did I ever let him go
He was always faithful
He was always kind
But he walked off
With this heart of mine

A love like this will come but once
This I do believe
And I’ll not see his like again
As I live and breath
And I’m sorry if I might offend
But I will never see
How the tenderness I shared with him
Became a heresy

Jesus loved me
This I know
But why on earth
Did I ever let him go
He was always faithful
He was always kind
But he walked off
With this heart of mine

But I remember nights we spent
Whispering our creed
Our rituals, our sacraments
The stars our canopy
There beneath an olive tree
We’d offer up our plea
God’s creation innocent
His arms surrounding me

Jesus loves me
This I know
But why on earth
Did he ever have to go
He was always faithful
He was always kind
But he walked off
With this heart of mine



Richard Shindell - Fleur de Lis

Must’ve been in late September
When last I climbed Reunion Hill
I fell asleep on Indian Boulder
And dreamed a dream I will not tell
I came home as the sun went down
One eye trained upon the ground
Even now I find their things
Glasses, coins, and golden rings

It’s ten years since that ragged army
Limped across these fields of mine
I gave them bread, I gave them brandy
But most of all I gave them time
My well is deep, the water pure
The streams are fed by mountain lakes
I cleaned the brow of many a soldier
Dousing for my husband’s face

I won’t forget our sad farewell
And how I ran to climb that hill
Just to watch him walk across the valley
And disappear into the trees

Along there in a sea of blue
It circles every afternoon
A single hawk in God’s great sky
Looking down with God’s own eyes
He soars above Reunion Hill
I pray he spiral higher still
As if from such an altitude
He might just keep our love in view

Richard Shindell - Reunion Hill

Must’ve been in late September
When last I climbed Reunion Hill
I fell asleep on Indian Boulder
And dreamed a dream I will not tell
I came home as the sun went down
One eye trained upon the ground
Even now I find their things
Glasses, coins, and golden rings

It’s ten years since that ragged army
Limped across these fields of mine
I gave them bread, I gave them brandy
But most of all I gave them time
My well is deep, the water pure
The streams are fed by mountain lakes
I cleaned the brow of many a soldier
Dousing for my husband’s face

I won’t forget our sad farewell
And how I ran to climb that hill
Just to watch him walk across the valley
And disappear into the trees

Along there in a sea of blue
It circles every afternoon
A single hawk in God’s great sky
Looking down with God’s own eyes
He soars above Reunion Hill
I pray he spiral higher still
As if from such an altitude
He might just keep our love in view

Richard Shindell : Next Best Western

It’s the middle of the night
Near the Indiana line
I’m pulling in a Christian station
The signal’s crystal clear
But I cannot really hear
What he says about the Revelation
I am wretched, I am tired
But the preacher is on fire
And I wish I could believe

Whoever watches over all these truckers
Show a little mercy for a weary sinner
And deliver me – Lord, deliver me
Deliver me to the next best western

Did he who made the lamb
Put the tremble in the hand
That reaches out to take me quarter
I look him in the eye
But there isn’t any time
Just time enough to pass the tender
The highway takes its toll
The green light flashes go
And it’s welcome to Ohio

(chorus)

At four a.m. on 80 East
It’s in the nature of the beast
To wonder if there’s something missing
I am wretched, I am tired
But the preacher is on fire
And I wish I could believe

(chorus)

Richard Shindell - Fishing

Richard Shindell - You stay here

Richard Shindell - Transit

The merge from the turnpike was murder, but it’s never a cinch
It was Friday at five, and no one was giving an inch
They squeezed and the edged and they glared
Half them clearly impaired by rage or exhaustion
The rest were just touchy as hell

Somewhere near Paterson everything slowed to a crawl
The all-news station was thanking someone for the call
It’s a van from St. Agnes’s choir
There’s a nun out there changing a tire
By the time they got by her, tempers were out of control

So they all hit the gas in a dash for position
Bobing and weaving and flashing their highbeams
Fliping the bird and screaming obscenities
A well-insured hoard hell-bent on Saturday

And so they continued west-bound and into the sun
Law and decorum constraining nary a one
By then it was devil-may-care
Not one even vaguely aware
That they had come all the way to the Delaware Water Gap

But how had it happened? They had all missed their exits
How had it happened? Was it some kind of vortex?
And in they all went, bumper to bumper
Faster and faster, no sign of a trooper
In they all went, like sheep to the slaughter
Bankers and carpenters, doctors and lawyers
And in they all went, families in minivans
Ashcroft republicans, weekend militiamen
They followed the river, and rounded the bend
Between minsi and tammany and into their destiny
Lying in ambush right their before them
The angry old sun right on the horizon

Sister Maria tightened the bolts of the spare
She said a quick prayer and put the old van into gear
Thank God that the traffic was light
If she hurried she might not be late
For that evening’s performance at the state penetentiary

She entered the common room and their was her choir
Altos and baritones, basses and tenors
Car thieves and crack dealers, mobsters and murderers
Husbands and sons, fathers and brothers
And so it began in glorious harmony
Softly and Tenderly – calling for you and me
With the interstate whining way off in the distance
And the sun going down through the bars of the prison
They poured out their souls, they poured out their memories
They poured out their hopes for what’s left of eternity
To sister Maria – her soul like a prism
For the light of forgiveness on all of their faces