Close-Up: a closer look on some DMB-related stuff.
Following what I did for 'Sweet' and 'What You Are', I want now to go a bit deeper for 'The Last Stop'.
I won’t discuss too much which version is better than another (I’ve found at least a dozen similar threads here), instead I will try to focus more on some less knows stuff and the meaning of this – extremely powerful – tune.
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The Last Stop, is probably, one of the most desired songs in the whole DMB catalog. Its sound has been defined as “urgent” and “mysterious”, and for the fanbase, it was not played enough, during all these years.
Some Numbers:
https://images2.imgbox.com/a0/c4/N2KRpVVE_o.png
Watching the data above, taken from the Almanac, the Last Stop desire has some justification: the song was fully played only 119 times, since his debut on 4.18.98 (Victory Stadium, Roanoke, VA). Those 119 plays correspond to a rarity index of 6% (in other words, The Last Stop was played at 6 percent of the shows that took place from 4.18.98). To have some comparison, DDTW has a rarity index of 46% (it was played at almost half of the shows from its debut), whereas, on the other hand, Spoon is even lower (3%).
See here for a complete list of all the appearances
https://www.antsmarching.org/tour/Vi....php?SongID=59
So, this tune was definitely not played enough through the years, but fortunately it came back on mild rotation with DMB 4.0 (with Buddy), and also it closed the recent 2021 tour, in MSG (“the last stop” of the tour, indeed).
Song Facts:
• The song was written by Dave and Fonz. It is one of the two Dave/Fonz songs on BTCS, the other one is 'Dreaming Tree'.
• Before getting its final name, the song was named in studio “
Egyptian”, and then “
Black and White”, from the line “
This black and white lie” (we’ll focus on the meaning later).
• Regarding the middle eastern sound of The Last Stop, Dave tells:
Quote:
"I have been moving towards this type of music because the sounds of their scales tend to be more desperate in nature. Eastern prayer, for example, allows for a certain level of loose improvisation, which can be very overwhelming. Combined with a certain element - maybe because it is somewhat foreign - that ultimately makes the music inherently holy. Almost as if the scales themselves hit you right in the center of your soul."
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Dave was listening to a lot of music from
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a master of the sacred Pakistani qawwali music. He had discovered him on a Peter Gabriel album (Passion) and also in his collaborations with Pearl Jam (Dead Man Walking Soundtrack).
He tried to reproduce the particular way of singing of this artist, mostly at the beginning of the track, but he admitted that they had totally different tunes, and that he couldn't reach all the scale of Nusrat.
But still, they wanted to make something different out of this tune:
Quote:
"So, I thought, to turn something like that into a rock song, with a heavy Zeppelinesque style, would be quite a challenge. Musically, the song has a much simpler guitar sound than some of our other songs, almost like a stereotyped movie soundtrack. We wanted to make it rock, but we also wanted to make it serene".
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(see following links for the whole article).
Song Meaning:
The central theme of the song is clear. It is meant to speak out against war and violence in general.
Dave is not speaking, or making a statement, he is literally shouting to the world (I find here some similarities with 'What You Are', even if the subject is different).
Dave said:
Quote:
"I am yelling, aren't I? It's really not at myself, but maybe it should be. I find it a little frustrating that maybe because it's been so long since there's been a really devastating war that we are all so headstrong, and it just scares me.
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While Minarets was written during the first Gulf was, back in the early 90es, in 1998 the situation in Middle East is rapidly mutating. In Iraq, the search for suspected weapons were the pretext for crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive missile strikes at the end of 1998. Violence was rising also in Israel, with the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin (1995). Dave cannot accept the idea that any war can be fought in the name of a god:
Quote:
"I know growing up in South Africa how quickly hatred can turn to blind violence on all levels, but the way the media all over the world -- I don't want to just indict the powers that be in America, because certainly they're not alone in stupid behavior, so I'm not at all saying that Saddam Hussein is not bananafish, but I mean, hey, we put him there, but I'm getting off track -- but I find the eagerness to go to... the willingness of the media, or at the least the popular voice, the prevailing voice, the louded voice, the willingness to want to go to war. I just don't think it always ends up as you want it to.... It's frightening to me when people say, 'We're not gonna stand for it.' I don't like strong language when there's guns to back it up."
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Quote:
(Allstar Magazine - April 10th, 1998).
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Let’s have a look at the lyrics, with a screen shot from the original album liner::
https://images2.imgbox.com/83/6f/2iHlFcwh_o.png
[COLOR="DarkSlateGray"]
Fire
The sun is well asleep
Moon is high above
Fire grows from the east[/COLOR]
As first thing, the song catapult the audience in the east war. “Fire”... the “Fire Fire grows from the east”. The feeling here is urgent and immediate, and it is totally different from what was in Minarets, where the audience was watching the new conflict from their couches, just like they were watching any other TV show (“
The TV´s on, to me this explains it Wearing a tie like daddy speaks it”).
Here Dave bring us in the middle of the night-shootings, and immediately asks the big question:
How is this
Hate so deep
Lead us all so blindly killing killing
Fools we are
If hate's the gate to peace
This is the last stop
For raining tears
Dave’s songwriting here is just perfect. He use the first person “we”, “not them”. “We” is not Americans or Palestinians or Iraquis. "We", is all of us.
And no matter in which god we believe in.
War
The only way to Peace
I don't fall for that
Raining tears
Somebody noticed as the references to religion and Jesus in this line. However, this is probably used only to back up the main point, which is showing how much people try to justify war with ideas such as the only possible solution. “
The only way to Peace”. How many time have we heard that?
The two times he repeat “
Raining tears”, such a vivid and hurtful image.
The frustration inside Dave is growing, he is desperately angry, and he is literally screaming that:
You're righteous, so righteous
You're always so right
Go ahead and dream
Go ahead believe that you are the chosen one
Raining tears
Dave is trying to say here is that in any conflict we tend to think that we are always right. Like in Palestina, for example. The "chosen ones" reminds a lot of muslim extremists, but not only.
Here, for example, I can see a reference to the government, never willing to admit a possibility of being wrong. So, in this case, the “chosen one” can refer also to US presumption, with the fake believe that their military intervention is the problem solver.
Oh no
Gracious even God
Bloodied the cross
Your sins are washed enough
Mother's cry
"Is hate so deep
Must a baby's bones
This hungry fire feed?"
As smoke clouds roll in
The symphony of death
This is the last stop
One of the strongest verses, so powerful and well written. And, like the best things that Dave has written, it can be interpreted in more than a single way.
In the first part Dave maybe refers to the bible, when Mother Mary cries under the cross of Jesus, complaining with God. But with second part, he rapidly reconnects to crude reality, with kids embracing weapons, dragged by hatred and revenge.
When Dave says “
this is the last stop”, he means that we reached the bottom. Not only a dead end, or a way to realize where we ended with all this violence. But it also also the lowest point of humanity, where wars are fought with baby soldiers.
Scream
Right is wrong now
Shut up you big lie
This black and white lie
You comb your hair to hide
Your lying eyes
You're righteous, so righteous
You're always so right
But why your lie
Go ahead and dream
Go ahead believe that you are the chosen one
This is the last stop
Dave refers to the
black and white lie, meaning how it is wrong to assume that one is totally right and the other one is totally wrong.
Dave explains that:
Quote:
“The hook of the song 'Black And White' is somewhat of the idea behind it as well. Life is really a lot more complicated than simply seeing it as black and white. I personally think it is dangerous to easily dismiss [societies] as bad, yet this type of bigotry slowly creeps into our culture. Ultimately, we tend to judge others based on the way we view the leaders that represent them. As a result, we are teaching each other how to hate. It is this type of stereotype that gets ingrained within our society in a self-perpetuating cycle."
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I think Dave really got the point here, and this insane mechanism is still going on and on. You can still find plenty of examples of religious wars, racial conflicts, and we are always forced to believe that we are in the right side, and the other are the bad ones. Think about it. And this is everywhere. Even when we go to the cinema to watch Avengers, it is immediately clear the others (villains) are evil, no further explanation is necessary.
Here there's more than is showing up
Hope that we can break it down
It's not so black and white
You're righteous
You're righteous
You're righteous
You're always so right
There you are nailing a good tree
Then say forgive me, forgive me
Why
Raining tears
This is the last stop
Here there is more than is showing up
Hope that we can break it down
It's not so black and white
The line “
There you are nailing a good tree / Then say forgive me, forgive me” is one of the most cryptic ones.
There might be some other reference to the bible, again (the hypocrites that murdered Jesus, then begging forgiveness), and actually, in some live versions (i.e.Chicago), Dave slightly changes the lyrics in an even more powerful way “
your nailing god to a tree and then saying forgive me" (obviously the tree is the cross).
But, in a more general interpretation, Dave is probably trying to say that fighting wars and all the killing cannot be reconiciled through a simple “
forgive me”, and then the damage will remain forever.
Then, surprisingly, something change, right in the last verse :
Here there is more than is showing up
Hope that we can break it down
It's not so black and white
Like a rainbow after a storm, Dave still finds hopes, and even more than the lyrics, the melody changes completely, following that message (“
serene” is the word that Dave used), and bringing us to the long peaceful outro.
The alternate lyrics of the live versions have also this optimist vision:
Chicago 12.19.98
“Oh, no, it's always passing
this bad days will subside now
don't worry 'bout all of it tonight
the weight of the world should rest on my
come on out and fly
come on out and fly“
The Gorge 8.8.2003
Come in from the cold for a while
everything will be alright
leave your troubles at the door outside
it's alright, it's alright
it's alright, it's alright
it's alright, it's alright
it's all alright
Curiously, the final part of the outro, with Béla, is also included, in form of an hidden track also in the album, after “Spoon”:
“Come in from the cold for a while
Everything will be alright
Come in from the noise for a time
Everything will be alright
Everything will be alright
For now goodbye....friend...goodbye”
So, there is still hope, at the end.
Guests
Since the song has seen Béla participation in the album, one may wonder how many Béla appearances have been on Last Stop.
The answer is,
only 9 times. Eight in 1998 (mostly in the fall tour, between 11.20 and 12.8), and once in 1999. Two of them appear in an official recording: of course 12.8 Worcester (LT1) and also 11.30, Philadelphia (DMBLive vol.26).
Here the complete list:
http://dmbalmanac.com/SongStats.aspx?sid=60&gid=9
Apart from Béla, Last Stop has seen only three other guests during the years:
• Bill Summers in the legendary
8.23.98 gig (Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge Bristow, VA).
• Hamilton de Holanda @ the Gorge 2018 (
9.01.2018), which I recommend, and has a Sirius XM stream.
• Ben “the sax guy” Golder-Novick at MSG, last November.
In addition, there are only two Dave & Tim performances:
•
3.3.1999 at J. T. Kingsbury Hall, Salt Lake City, UT (released as part of the DMBlive series in 2014).
•
3.3.1999 at Berkeley Community Theater, Berkeley, CA (released as Live Trax Vol. 41 in 2017.
Best Live Versions
The debates have been endless, during the years, on these boards.
I am just limiting to show the results of the two polls created, together with some meaningful quotes left by other Ants.
https://images2.imgbox.com/0e/c7/jhLkG8jZ_o.jpg
Now, I would like to know your opinion about this great, powerful, and incredibly written tune.