From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V3 #275 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk JMDL Digest Friday, July 24 1998 Volume 03 : Number 275 The Official 1998 Joni Mitchell Internet Community Shirts are available now. Go to http://www.jmdl.com/ for all the details. ------- The New England Labor Day Weekend JoniFest is coming soon! Send a blank message to for all the details. ------- Trivia buffs! We are compiling an in-depth trivia database on all things Joni. Send your bit of trivia - or your questions you would like answered - to ------- And don't forget about JoniFest 1999! Reserve your spot with a $25 fee. Only 100 rooms have been reserved. Send a blank message to for more info. ------- The Joni Mitchell Homepage is maintained by Wally Breese at and contains the latest news, a detailed bio, Joni's paintings, original essays, lyrics and much more. ------- The JMDL website can be found at and contains Joni-related interviews, articles, member gallery, info on the archives, and much more. ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- TT#7: Morning Becomes Eclectic [simon@icu.com] MOJO [Bmcd@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 01:00:19 -0400 From: simon@icu.com Subject: TT#7: Morning Becomes Eclectic RE: "Morning Becomes Eclectic" Wally's report from the Joni Mitchell HOMEPAGE. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- REPORT ON "MORNING BECOMES ECLECTIC"- (3/27/98) Joni was featured this morning on KCRW-FM's "Morning Becomes Eclectic," hosted by Chris Douridas. Joni has been a guest on this show twice before: In 1994, she performed live with Larry Klein to promote the album Turbulent Indigo, and in 1991 she came all by herself to talk about her album Night Ride Home. On this morning's program, Joni talked about making her new album "Taming the Tiger," and previewed tracks from that upcoming release, which is due out in July on Reprise Records. Joni played these songs: "Harlem in Havana"- about a carnival that came to Joni's hometown of Saskatoon when she was 14. A girlhood friend who had run off with the carnival the year before and come home a wild one with bleached blonde hair, got Joni into this burlesque type of sideshow even though the legal age for entry was 16. Joni said: "It was the first time that I heard live Black music." She talked about how she felt that the tracks for "Harlem in Havana" sonically captured the sounds of the sideshow itself, with the double ferris wheel turning, the calliope playing and the crowds screaming overhead. Before the song had words, Joni called the instrumental version "Zulu Tango." "Man From Mars"- the first track completed for the album and written originally for the soundtrack of the film "Grace of My Heart." She discussed how the song was inspired by her beloved cat, Nietzsche, who had run away. (He came back 18 days later!) The loss and grief that she felt while he was missing, effectively caught the mood of the scene in the film where the song is used, that of a woman at the funeral of her husband who has just drowned. "It's the deepest mix on the record," Joni said. This song features Brian on drums, and Joni on guitar, keyboard and keyboard bass. Joni utilizes one of her new toys, a Roland keyboard with 64 presets, on this track. This keyboard and the new Roland VG-8 also makes this track, as well as the whole album, sound quite symphonic. "Taming the Tiger"- a bigger kitty this time for the second song written. Joni says she asked herself: "Who or what is the tiger? Is it show business?" Joni quotes Sophia Loren on show biz in the second verse, "Sophia says it's hard to catch/ And harder still to ride/ The time to watch the beast the best/ Is when it's purring at your side." I adore this song! "Nice, kitty kitty." Joni's the only musician on the track. "The Crazy Cries of Love" (formerly called "Love's Cries")- was recorded with Brian Blade and Wayne Shorter. It has a slightly jazzier feel than the live versions that we've heard. Plus that great new chorus line: "No one else can hear the crazy cries of love." The text was written, for the most part, by Don Freed. IMHO, this track could be the first single. It chugs along quite nicely. "My Best To You"- a Sons of the Pioneers song which Joni discovered on their greatest hits album, which she bought in a supermarket while up at her house north of Vancouver. She said: "That song gives me hope." Joni told Chris that several of her men friends have cried when they've heard this track. It may be sentimental or cornball, she said, but it's what she needed at this time in her life. "I couldn't write it, so I borrowed it." - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chris and Joni also talked about: Her new instrument, the Roland VG-8, a computer guitar which was given to her in May 1996 by Freddie Walecki of Westwood Music in LA. Joni said that she was more interested in utilizing the VG-8's computer brain which could store her tunings, but was convinced to explore the possibilities of the electric guitar at her performance at the New Orleans Jazz Festival. Joni refers to drummer, Brian Blade, as her "musical partner" on the album. Joni will be performing with his band, The Brian Blade Fellowship, at seven shows, opening for Bob Dylan on his west coast tour this coming May. Jaco Pastorious and his unique, experimental bass playing. Joni said she now appreciates how difficult her ideas about the bass were for most bass players to play. Joni played the bulk of the bass (keyboard bass) on the new album but once or twice she asked Larry Klein to come into the studio and play his bass to lines she'd already written on keyboard. Joni's painting for the cover of TTT which is of her and her cat, El Cafe. "It's kind of a cozy portrait," she said. That Joni really liked Janet Jackson's "Got Til It's Gone," which sampled Joni's song, "Big Yellow Taxi." She said: "I was very proud and pleased to be a part of that project." Aluding to the George Washington reference in the line in "Got Til It's Gone" that goes "Joni Mitchell never lies!," Joni jokingly said "It makes you want to run out and chop down a cherry tree." That none of the songs on TTT are about her daughter, Kilauren and her grandson, Marlin. Joni says that she hasn't had time to digest that experience yet. Those songs are still to come. She called the return of her family a magnificent gift. Her boyfriend, Don Freed, who is also from Saskatoon. Both "Crazy Cries" and "Facelift" were written for him. Joni talks with affection about her four cats, Nietsche, El Cafe, Pansy and Mojo. How her identity has always been as a painter, with music being her "straight job." How she feels optimistic at this time in her life. She has love, her family, and a muse in good condition. Joni said: "My spirit feels quite light these days." - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was such a wonderful show. The tracks previewed from Joni's next album sound fantastic! After the show, I talked to my buddy, simon, and he and I agreed that the feeling we got when listening to Taming the Tiger for the first time was similar to the way we felt when we first heard Dylan's "Time Out of Mind". Both albums have the marks of a classic. Don't forget that Dylan's album was named Grammy's Album of the Year for 1997. Taming the Tiger is due in stores on July 21st. Once again, I want to thank Chris Douridas for his love and support of Joni's music. This was his third to last show because he's leaving KCRW early next week. Best of luck to you, Chris! "Morning Becomes Eclectic" and radio in general will sorely miss you. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- coming soon ~ TapeTree #7 - ------- simon - ------- ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1998 01:55:40 EDT From: Bmcd@aol.com Subject: MOJO Rob - I was enraptured with the interview from MOJO and I thank you, but rest assured all it did was whet my appetite for the actual article to have and hold. I want to see the pics!! I've got to find a few spare moments to run over to our renowned book store, The Tattered Cover and pick it up. I urge any of you coming to jonifest next year to plan on spending half a day there (in Denver). It's like no other. We've got Borders and Barnes and Noble, etc. but they can't hold a candle to The Tattered Cover. Yours in jonispirit Karen Mc ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V3 #275 ************************** Post messages to the list at Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe joni-digest" to ------- Siquomb, isn't she?