by DreamRedux » Mon Feb 04, 2008 2:35 am
Yes, in a six-degrees-of-separation kind of way:
Many years ago, someone claims to have died and gone to heaven. He wrote a small pamphlet about it and distributed around, and one ended up in the hands of someone who believed it.
17 years ago, the person who believed it, a cab driver, gave a ride to an aspiring singer/songwriter and told him all about it.
The singer/songwriter wrote a thoughtful but clearly skeptical little tune about it.
He played the song recently at a concert that I attended.
Here is what he had to say about it:
[quote]This is the story of a cab driver I knew who showed me this pamphlet that was written by a man who claims to have died, gone to heaven, came back and was inspired to write a pamphlet and distribute it to cab drivers. A lot of lines in the song came straight from that pamphlet (going 100 miles a second, angels building mansions for everyone). And apparently, the entrance to heaven isn’t at all fancy – according to this guy, heaven has automatic sliding glass doors. Yes, that’s what he says.[/quote]
This is the song:
Saving the Best for Last
Marc Cohn
Got into a cab in New York City
Was an Oriental man behind the wheel
Started talking about heaven
Like it was real
Said, They got mansions in heaven
Yeah the angels are building one for me right now
And I know...
They’re saving the best for last
Look around this town
And tell me that it ain’t so
They’re saving the best for last
Don’t ask me how I know
‘Cause it must be
Saving the best for last for me
You can go a hundred miles a second
Don’t have to drive no lousy cab
Got everything you want and more man
And the King picks up the tab
You walk around on streets of gold all day
And you never have to listen
To what these customers say and I know...
(Chorus)
I remember when I was a child
Lost in the streets of Chinatown
My mother had a vision and I was found
(Saving the best for last for me)
Oh-oh — saving the best for last
And when I finally take this journey
I’m gonna wave goodbye to Earth
Gonna throw this meter in the ocean
And prove what I was worth
And I don’t care who tries to flag me down
They’re gonna have to find another ride uptown
And I know
They’re saving the best for last...
**********************************
Yeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhh, I don’t buy that take on it, either.