From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V4 #258 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk JMDL Digest Monday, June 14 1999 Volume 04 : Number 258 The Laborday JoniFest is happening this fall! For information: send a message to Join the mailing list at: ------- The Official Joni Mitchell Homepage is maintained by Wally Breese at http://www.jonimitchell.com and contains the latest news, a detailed bio, original interviews and essays, lyrics, and much more. ------- The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- the siquomb tour [evian ] Re: message to joni, larry, or anyone with sway; some jc ["Eric Taylor" <] Re: Saskatoon (NJC) [Brian Gross ] Re: Butch Solutions to Joni [MDESTE1@aol.com] Re: abstract expressionism, etc.? (njc) [TerryM2442@aol.com] Re: (NJC) Birthday Guuurrrl [Susan Chaloner ] ?s about JMDL post of long ago [Ryan Lantrip ] NJC ?s about JMDL post of long ago [RMuRocks@aol.com] Re: ?s about JMDL post of long ago [IVPAUL42@aol.com] aussie listers ["Takats, Angela" ] stay in touch... [RickieLee1@aol.com] RE: abstract expressionism, etc.? (njc) [patrick leader ] Sisostowbell Lane(JC) [Lisa Kowalski ] joni covers on tape tree #8, etc. (jc) a review [patrick leader Subject: the siquomb tour Maidstone is about... hmmm... I would say...about a three hour drive from Saskatoon, give or take. The population is about 1000 people, and I really don't know if anything exciting exists in the town. The town is right on the highway, and they used to have good ice cream at the gas station, but that's about as far as I've explored it, except to pose for a picture with 5 friends outside the Maidstone sign when we were really hung over..... Evian p.s. Lori... a disclaimer... it isn't as flat in S'toon and Maidstone as it is on the border! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 04:07:41 -0400 From: "Eric Taylor" Subject: Re: message to joni, larry, or anyone with sway; some jc David Lahm pointed out: << I'd be surprised if she endorsed the sentiment of "Come Rain or Come Shine." The persona I hear in her recordings celebrates the INTENSITY of love but from "Chelsea Morning" to "All I Want" to "Night Ride Home," hasn't had much to say about the PERMANENCE that is so much the subject of "Come Rain..." Ironically, for the Joni-persona I perceive, there is a perfect song from the same musical which introduced "Come Rain.." i.e, ST. LOUIS WOMAN (1946 w/ Lena Horne). That song is "Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home." >> Well Judy certainly couldn't seem to last in a relationship as long as Joni but that didn't stop her from blowing everyone away with scorching renditions of torch songs (which by the way were meant to be belted). If Joni includes Come Rain Or Come Shine on her latest I only hope that she doesn't fall back on the laid-back approach taken by Barbra & Bette. This song requires a really BIG band & even more guts. Witnessing Joni's breathtaking cover of Come's Love (Nothing Can Be Done) the thought of her doing CROCS is overwhelming! Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home is another GREAT suggestion! Lena is ever amazing & Babs didn't do a shabby job with this classic either. & how about Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out? Life is just a bowl of cherries.... E.T. NP: The Blest Of Joni Mitchell ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 05:24:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Gross Subject: Re: Saskatoon (NJC) Penny, Screw him ! Leave him home !! ;-) Brian === "No paper thin walls No folks above No one else can hear the crazy cries of love" yeah, right - ---Rick & Penny Gibbons wrote: > > The party in Saskatoon 2000 is too great a temptation for this kid to > miss. My husband and I will try to make a mini-vacation out of it, but > one problem....Rick doesn't especially care for Joni or art. Remember > my husband? He's the one that started mocking me and the rest of the > JMDL, by doing the Meg Ryan resturaunt scene from When Harry Met Sally > while we were out for Chinese and Help Me played over the radio. Silly > guy, he seems to feel he's had Joni crammed down his throat for 25 > years....the nerve! ;-) Anyway, what I'm getting at, if there are other > JMDLers that are taking their non-Joni appreciating significant other's > who happen to play golf, let me know. If Rick can get in 18 a couple of > times we're up there, we'd both be happier! The bar hopping, or sing > alongs he can handle, but I don't think he'll be at all entertained > with "Oh, well honey, now we're on our way to look at the bridge from > Cherokee Louise. Then we're going to look at her high school. Maybe > see if Mr Kratzman is still teaching there. Then were going to see if > Bill and Myrtle want to be taken out for an intimate dinner with 600 > people, etc." ;-D If there are others out there in the same situation > maybe these guys will be able to bond with a foursome or two while > telling funny horror stories about their love's obsession of The Joan. > I know this is still a ways down the road, but it might take some time > to sell, the non-Joni's of the trip, how much fun they'll have. > > Smiles, > Penny > > _________________________________________________________ DO YOU YAHOO!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 09:14:20 EDT From: MDESTE1@aol.com Subject: Re: Butch Solutions to Joni If someone has a poor or average melodic ability all the more important to sing it in the proper key for their voice. It is always possible to find the exotic tuning in YOUR key that will have different yet interesting harmonics and tones. Its all in practicing and having someone show you the tuning. It may take some effort (like finding someone who knows another tuning) but its possible. The point is dont try to hit jonis notes. Ask Bob Dylan. marcel. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 10:59:12 EDT From: TerryM2442@aol.com Subject: Re: abstract expressionism, etc.? (njc) Patrick, I enjoyed our mutual visit to the museum in Pittsburgh during the JoniFest and recognize we have differences in opinions. Here's my take... In a message dated 6/13/99 2:10:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time, trxschwa@bway.net writes: << but where does that leave the viewer who comes to the work without all that baggage? >> I think that most artists don't care where their viewers come from. They are painting from their own point of view in time, not for those who might see their art ten, twenty or more years into their careers. Good analogy. That's one way how I judge an artist's strength- by seeing the artist evolve. And that's one thing that to me, proves Picasso's genius, though we seem to disagree on his greatness. If you look at his earliest works- his early sketches- and watch his work unfold, TO ME it is evident that here was a man who, unlike any other artist of his time, continued to re-invent the wheel, so to speak. There are many many Picassos that I don't care for, but I still appreciate his vision, his boldness. I can't stand the work of Marc Chagall, but understand his greatness as a painter. I find O'Keefe's work too flat, simple and unemotional at times..but I appreciate her greatness as well. That's where I think some people get stuck. They dismiss artists whose work doesn't hit them. I know I'm in the minority here, but Rothko just blows me away. When I first saw his canvases, I laughed and wondered what the hell all the commotion was about- anyone could paint like that. His images were so simple! So I began to study them and forced myself to stick with it, standing in front of them and wondering what he was trying to say. It took a while for him to grow on me..years..hell, it took effort..then I had what could only be described as something akin to a religious experience, well ok, in the artist's sense of it. It dawned on me that this man was incredibly spiritual and was taking his painting a dozen steps above the others. He wasn't painting pictures, he was expressing a different part of himself that I didn't see in other's works. Not being a religious or spiritual person myself, I was surprised at my reaction and began to read about him a bit. But for some reason, I decided I didn't want to know WHY he painted the way he did. I just wanted the freedom to appreciate him on my terms. Wolfe documents no, wolfe opines. he's a great writer, but he's never documented anything... >> I think this can be said of all art critics, IMHO. And to go even further, I find most are incredibly grandiose to presume they know what an artist is doing and thinking. Better to read what the artist has to say, or better yet, study their work. I'm not familiar with Diebendorn's work. But I have to disagree with you on DeKooning and Pollock. I appreciate Pollack's process, but find the repetition of his final products boring after a while. I'd much rather watch him paint then view his final pieces. It seems to me that he has said too, that the process of painting them were more important than how they turned out. With DeKooning, I could stare at his canvases for hours. I am fascinated in his process of destroying and reworking images until they are complete. His process was as important as Pollack's, but he was more interested in what he wanted to convey, I think. I personally think that Pollack is a bit overrated. I will admit that there are periods of DeKoonings career that I find pretty weak, but his portraits of women are incredibly moving, expressionistic and unlike anything anyone had done before. I appreciate his aggressiveness in those. Perhaps his weakness is in his inconsistency of historically making great works. What really gets me is how critics raved about his final paintings, which I thought were utter crap. <> Aren't you contradicting yourself here? If he pioneered every major style, then how could he change with the weather? He MADE the weather, so to speak. Again, a painter where many may not like the actual works, but without seeing them within the context of history, including his own as a painter, may not appreciate his genius. All artists take from their culture, their history, but I think he did it best. Borrowing from here and there, but making it all his own language, yet not getting stuck in it either. Another whose work I haven't seen mentioned but whom I admire greatly is Matisse. Funny how I can't appreciate Chagall, yet am blown away by the colors and music of Matisse's work. I'd love to know if Pollack was a fan, because both speak to me in similar ways. Terry ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 08:54:59 -0700 From: Susan Chaloner Subject: Re: (NJC) Birthday Guuurrrl Mega-mega thankyou hugs to Linda Worster, Lori Fye, Catman and WallyK for the happy birthday wishes...Very much appreciated!!! I love those bold red letters Catman! They go with perfectly with this Geminian wit and Scorpion uprisings ;~) And to the rest of you: What's the matter with you(s) anyway? Not enough honey in your digests ;~D My best to all, Susan L.A. Honey McBabe-"...Remember this Each new day Is a kiss Sent from up above With an angel's love..."-that Joni ;~) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 12:01:31 CDT From: Ryan Lantrip Subject: ?s about JMDL post of long ago There were a number of posts ago that I should have written down who they were about, because I really want to know now Can anyone refresh my memory on some of these people in past posts: A few posts about an Oriental director(Chinese?) that had died, and was a big to do director and made big changes in the ways things were filmed. Someone said they were going to even have a personal little *director's name*-athon. Another was a Plug of the Week of a woman that played dulcimer or harpsicord or something, that was on a lot of more famous people's albums. She had three albums of her own, I think 2 were in the 70s and 1 in the 90s or 80s. Its probably a lot to ask, but I would really, _REALLY_ appreciate the names of these 2 people Thanks, RL _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 13:30:46 EDT From: RMuRocks@aol.com Subject: NJC ?s about JMDL post of long ago In a message dated 6/13/99 12:03:33 PM Central Daylight Time, jagaww@hotmail.com writes: << A few posts about an Oriental director(Chinese?) that had died, and was a big to do director and made big changes in the ways things were filmed. Someone said they were going to even have a personal little *director's name*-athon. >> Hey Ryan, This was from me about the Japanese writer/director Akira Kurosawa. He died last year, so I checked out as many of his films as I could from the library. I still have some to see, but boy, they're ALL great. (Kagemusha, Do-des-ke-den, Stray Dogs, Ran, Seven Samurai, Ihuru (I think that's it...) anyway, you can't go wrong, of course, you have to not mind reading subtitles - - some people can't get beyond that... Bob ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 15:30:33 EDT From: IVPAUL42@aol.com Subject: Re: ?s about JMDL post of long ago In a message dated 6/13/99 1:03:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time, jagaww@hotmail.com writes: << A few posts about an Oriental director(Chinese?) that had died, and was a big to do director and made big changes in the ways things were filmed. Someone said they were going to even have a personal little *director's name*-athon. >> Renowned Japanese director (forget his first name) Kurasowa died a few months ago. That's probably who you were thinking of. I don't know of any famous Chinese directors. Among Kurasowa's best-known films is the "Seven Samurai," from which the American film "The Magnificent Seven" was taken. Paul I ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 05:52:15 +1000 From: "Takats, Angela" Subject: aussie listers Hello, Don't know if any of you are fans of Australian band "You Am I", but lead singer Tim Rogers has put out a solo song that has a reference to JM....unfortunately not a very good one. I don't know what this guy's problem is, but the first lines of his latest song are something like: "I've been doing things lately that I hate to do the worst Like listening to Joni Mitchell..... (yadda yadda yadda)" I've never been a "You Am I" fan - don't think I ever will now. - - Ange ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 16:31:20 EDT From: RickieLee1@aol.com Subject: stay in touch... greetings listers! the prodigal has returned, if only for a moment. i think of you all, and always fondly, and miss the joni banter, but, as you may or may not know, real life has intervened. but i keep tabs on you guys with my spies and secret agents, and am apprised of some of the threads and exchanges in this wacky little enclave. and i am very much looking forward to seeing many of you again at ashara's over labor day, if circumstances permit. (why can't that joy be allowed, i ask? and, receiving no answer to the contrary, i am planning to attend.) but today, bright and sunny, i was driving along the beach here, on my way home, and "stay in touch" came around on one of my music tapes, and i got all sentimental. i listened to the words of that song a little differently than i ever had before and wanted to yak it up with my list friends. so, like it or not, here i am. listen up now... i was always under the impression this song was about donald freed. in fact, i can swear i read in print somewhere, joni saying that she had not had time to "process" the reunion with kilauren at the time TTT was being composed, and there were, therefore, no songs that dealt with finding her daughter and grandson on that disc. so i always listened to this song as describing a parting with mr. freed. (does anyone else invent little scenarios to accompany joni's more personal songs, or am i the only wierdo who does this? in this particular song, i used to picture either donald returning to canada or joni leaving him for california, with promises to, well, stay in touch. deep, farewell kisses and the sun going down...) but then i also seem to recall in subsequent interviews joni saying (quixotically as ever) that stay in touch was, in fact, about kilauren, so today, for the first time, i listened to it with that subtext in mind, and the song moved me in a wholly new, and more powerful way. i had thought it was a love song, equal to, if not exceeding, joni's very best love song (IMHO), jericho. but now i heard it as a sort of bookend to little green; a mother saying a temporary goodbye to her long lost daughter, heart full, and profound with promises to "stay in touch, we should stay in touch." even the title seemed rich to me, awkward, as i am sure joni intended it to sound, when spoken between two people with the deepest of connections and yet still strangers - still so much to learn and know as they tried to bridge the gulf that 30 years had left. stay in touch...we should stay in touch. and the lines about being "loyal and wary" and taking care "not to give away too much, til we build a firm foundation..." became even more moving when referring to a mother and daughter, parting again after so long - as opposed to two middle aged adults who had found love and seemed a bit surprised and off balance as a result. "in the middle of this continent, in the middle of our time on earth, we perceive one another." such a rich, beautiful song, made infinitely more so, for me anyway, when finally provided this belated context. it was a real joni moment, and i missed not being able to share it with some of you. ...these are very sad times for me and my family, as many of you know. judy has had a second surgery that has left her with significant speech deficits. she has always been an amazingly articulate woman. her vocabulary and her facility with language (something that initially drew me to her all those years ago) has always been one of her great prides. (she was one of those people who did the new york times sunday puzzle in ink without a single error. try living with one of those!!!) so things don't look good and it is hard to keep our spirits up, or maintain any sense of hope. but you know, we are all going to be ok! i won't allow anything less! it seems as though my older daughter, rebecca, has found some place that can accomodate the reality of what is happening to her mother, and she has carried on with her activities and her school and her life as usual, and is, i think, ok for now. my lindsay is not quite so facile at compartmentalization, and has gotten a little clingy and weepy. what can i do? i cannot protect her from this, no matter what. and 8, it seems to me, is pretty young to learn that shit happens. but we carry on. and i am here. this is not the first time i have encountered loss or sorrow in my life, and i suppose it will not be the last. (now there's a comforting thought.) i have gotten a cleaning lady to help with the housework and i keep busy with my job; dreaming up "kodak moments" i hope my children will cherish in the not too distant future, and running everyone around to and from place to place (picture me as a soccer mom...one with a stubbly face and who scratches himself with impunity...not a pretty picture) i have even learned how to cook a few things!! (this is kind of scary...) i always had a repetoire of maybe 4 dishes that i could whip together and fool folks into thinking i was adept in the old kitchen. i think i am up to 8 or 9 now!! nothing wrong with that! why i even made a couple of things from the jmdl cookbook!! i can't remember whose recipes they were, but they were actually quite good! emailing the ones who submitted them is on my "to do" list. and i fully intend to come back to this list someday and kick ass. so behave yourselves, be nice to each other, and celebrate the moments of your lives. and stay in touch. bless you all. love and peace, ric ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 17:52:36 -0400 From: patrick leader Subject: RE: abstract expressionism, etc.? (njc) hey terry, i was absolutely hoping you would come in on this, i was going to insist. inarticulate? give me a break my friend... let me clarify what i said about rothko, in response to kakki's post as well. i, like you, had a long journey to appreciating rothko. i went through something very, very much like this >It took a while for him to grow on me..years..hell, it took effort..then I had what could only be described as something akin to a religious experience, well ok, in the artist's sense of it. It dawned on me that this man was incredibly spiritual exactly!!! and once you read about him, you realize he was trying for something like this, in his messy way. he had his own spirituality, felt he could try and convey it in his canvasses, and i honor him for trying. what caused me to cool off was that at a retrospective i was just overloaded and underwhelmed. what he was trying to have happen canvas by canvas just cannot happen (at least to me) 100+ times in two hours. but his works are still affecting people, including me. the philips collection in dc has a lovely small room with a rothko on each of its four walls, nothing else in there. i heard a girl trying to explain to her boyfriend what it's like to fall into one of his paintings, to appreciate each of the three or four choices he makes for each canvas. something beautiful is living there, in those canvasses and in that exchange. you wrote on picasso >how I judge an artist's strength- by seeing the artist evolve. And that's one thing that to me, proves Picasso's genius, though we seem to disagree on his greatness. If you look at his earliest works- his early sketches- and watch his work unfold, TO ME it is evident that here was a man who, unlike any other artist of his time, continued to re-invent the wheel, so to speak. There are many many Picassos that I don't care for, but I still appreciate his vision, his boldness. believe me, in this long journey of art appreciation i've been on, noone's been more surprised than me, that i haven't been blown away by picasso. i can see the craft, the invention. i definitely have had good experiences, most recently a blue-period 'bather' at the philips. in general, that era works best for me, and of course i love his iconic portrait of gertrude stein. but i'm so rarely touched at the heart by his work. you wrote earlier >I think that most artists don't care where their viewers come from. They are painting from their own point of view in time, not for those who might see their art ten, twenty or more years into their careers. and i don't think that's true of picasso. i think he was always looking for appreciation, and even as he made huge conceptual leaps his paintings demanded that you say, 'how clever!' really irritating. and he had his paris claque; he was, with co-conspiritors, historically the single-most energetic self promoter in 20th century visual art, after all. the best analogy i can give is in comparing the writing of umberto eco, a.s byatt and robertson davies. they are all three polymaths, scholars, with incredible life-experiences to draw on, and they all write works that are just full of what looks like (but usually isn't) extraneous information. but eco's books say: 'look how much i know, look how clever i am at presenting it to you', while the best of byatt's, and all of davies', say: 'look at how marvelous and full the world it is, i offer it to you' and it's that simple. picasso says, over and over again, 'clever'. even when he's 'making the weather'. especially then. patrick, wishing i had more time to write about 1) matisse (work i love) and 2) chagall (who i also love, and whose work seems so full of the heart and feeling that picasso's lacks) np - cassandra - travelling miles ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 15:07:07 -0700 From: Randy Remote Subject: Re: ?s about JMDL post of long ago NJC > Another was a Plug of the Week of a woman that played dulcimer or harpsicord > or something, that was on a lot of more famous people's albums. She had > three albums of her own, I think 2 were in the 70s and 1 in the 90s or 80s. > Maybe you are talking about Laura Allan? She fits that description and has a website http://www.holdontoyourdreams.com also a new album to be out very soon. RR ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Jun 1999 01:03:58 +0200 From: "Peter Holmstedt" Subject: Plug Of The Week #23 Hi there, A couple of weeks ago, when I raved about "This Note's For You Too - A Tribute To Neil Young", I mentioned that distribution by this great disc was handled by Innerstate Records in the U.S. Innerstate Records ( in San Fransisco ) has so far released five great CD's of their own : Epic Soundtracks - Everything Is Temporary ( He was a former member of Swell Maps with Nikki Sudden and has released 4 albums on his own. He also recorded and toured with Sonic Youth, Pere Ubu, Robert Wyatt, Dinasaur Jr, Lemonheads and others ) Gary Floyd - Back Door Preacher Man ( First solo recordings ever released in the U.S. Former lead singer of Sister Double Happiness ) The Okra All Stars - The Okra All Stars ( Dave Schramm of The Schramms, Hank McCoy of The Dead Ringers, Ricky Barnes of The Hoot Owls and Jeb Loy Nichols forms this alternative country rock supergroup! Six original songs plus covers by The Louvin Brothers, George Jones, Merle Haggard and Prince! ) Steve Wynn - Take Your Flunky And Dangle ( Former Dream Syndicate- and Gutterball-member with a collection of songs recorded between 1987 to 1993 ) .....but the real jewel in the label's repertoire is : Sonya Hunter - Finders Keepers ( Singer/songwriter from San Fransisco with backing by musicians from The Charlie Hunter Quartet and Mushroom. Material is equally divided by original songs and songs by Stephen Stills ("4 + 20"), Bob Dylan ("I'll Be Your Baby Tonight") and Buffy Sainte Marie ("Johnny Be Fair"). Highly recommended! ) Copies of these albums are available from : Innerstate Records PO Box 411241 San Fransisco CA 94141-1241 U.S.A. email: info@innerstate.com website: http://www.innerstate.com Great albums from a great label! Take care, Peter ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 18:40:49 From: Lisa Kowalski Subject: Sisostowbell Lane(JC) I was listening to STATS the other day (havent listened to it for quite sometime)and found myself to be very moved by Sisotowbell Lane(warm fuzzy feelings and goose bumps!)When I was in my early 20's and living in Brooklyn and hanging out in Manhatten this particular song never did much for me.I was living in the middle of Brooklyn Heights and there wasnt much in the way of greenery or nature there("I came to the city and lived like old Crusoe on an island of noise in a cobblestone sea")I now live in the country in N.Carolina in an old farmhouse with three acres of land ;trees and wildlife and abundant nature everywhere.As I was listening to the words("anywhere else now would seem very strange,the seasons are changing everyday in everyway")I started thinking about my place and how wonderful it is to be out in the country and to be in an area of the U.S. where you can witness all four seasons and how strange it would feel if I were somewhere else.When Joni started singing "We have a rocking chair,somedays we rock and stare at the woodlands and the grasslands and the badlands cross the river,sometimes we do ,we like the view"I thought I do that!all the time.I sit on my screened in front porch sometimes in the wee morning hours when the sun is just coming up,or the sun is going down and just stare at the trees and bushes ,shrubs,flowers,and the acre of wild growth in front of my house.I like the view!I work in the city and have to leave this idyllic setting everyday and look forward to returning to it at the end of the day;"Go to the city,you'll come back again to wade thru the grain;come back to the stars,sweet well water and pickling jars"I love this song! ;it has so much more meaning for me now. Does anyone else have a story regarding a Joni song they didnt like and now love? It would be interesting to hear why you didnt like it and why you love it now?(what changes have occured in your life to bring about this change of feeling?) Also,does anyone know if there really is a Sisostowbell Lane and where is it? I want to go! If it does exist I think it should be added to the list of Joni sites to visit! Take care...Lisa ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 22:32:46 -0400 From: patrick leader Subject: joni covers on tape tree #8, etc. (jc) a review thank you so much simon for conceiving and arranging this gift. thank you, jim l'hommedieu for my tt8 tapes. i've been loving them, but especially 'back to the garden', the canadian joni-tribute project. i offer this, hoping others will chime in with their likes and dislikes from this project. instant loves for me: lorraine scott - big yellow taxi - this kind of reminds me of the chimes' great 1990 soul-beat cover of u2's 'i still haven't found what i'm looking for'. i've known so many people who wanted to hate that song (a slow dance version of u2? sung by a black female soul singer? horreurs!) still, it's a wonderful cover and this achieves something of the same excellence... andy stochansky - the beat of the black wings - i love cover versions of songs by a writer as talented as joni, i like to think that the work is worthy of being reconsidered. this cover definitely challenges me, in the best sense. her version puts a generally major melody and the comforting johnny/charly angel chorus against the harsh lyrics and that's part of why it works; this version with didgeredoo and indigenous drum score and its generally minor accompaniment is much more direct. but i can't get this one out of my head. the vocal, by a not overly talented man, is impassioned. i'd particularly love to hear comments by the more musically inclined on this one, whether you think his choices serve the song or not... martha and the muffins - shades of scarlett conquering - this is another one i love, because it dares to be so different from the original. the lazy violin is wonderful. these three selections, i enjoy with reservations. the next, hissing of summer lawns done by funky bummer with anne beadle (whatever that all means) is just brilliant. i love, love, love, this. the production gives a much stronger rhythmic profile to the song, and i just love the cheesy instrumental breaks. the vocalist doesn't abandon the complicated melodic line, as happens in many of the other renditions. there's a long electric violin/ (or synthesizer) break that reminds me of a moment in a utopia concert. this is good stuff, some of my favorite moments in the whole project. it's followed by an intense version of river, that i also love deeply. a male vocalist (i can't identify from the credits) who flirts with maudlin, but mostly takes the song to a place i'm glad to go. this is one of my deepest loves in joni's writing, and i'm glad to hear these folks do it so well. songs to aging children come, - john cody & marti jones. i'm in love with this, as well. i hadn't noticed before, but joni's early work is humorless, especially the way she sings it. this is not a negative, just an observation, but it's nice to hear this song with an ironic edge, especially with the swampy harmonica accompaniment. another favorite moment. claire martin's version of 'be cool' wasn't on the canadian tribute, but it's on the tape. i'm going to go out on a limb here. i think her version is BETTER than joni's. the simple jazz guitar, her simple vocal, these really cement the song as one of joni's best. i didn't completely understand david lahm's explanation of why joni's songs are not obvious jazz standards, and i'd really like to know why this song shouldn't be one. it seems so likely. i think that's enough from me tonight, but i'd love to hear other's thoughts. patrick np - redmond - i had a king ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Jun 1999 23:42:34 EDT From: LRFye@aol.com Subject: Re: Joni/Carey/Simon Pat wrote: > "I wonder how many others listen to Blue and assume there was a romantic > relationship between Joni and Carey?" Then pat wrote: > tell me about it! and a hot one at that! Romantic? Maybe. Sexual? Probably most definitely. From Carey: "Let's have another round for the bright red devil who keeps me in this tourist town." From California: "I met a red neck on a Grecian Isle He did the goat dance very well He gave me back my smile But he help my camera to sell Oh the rogue, the red red rogue" Coincidence? Or was Joni writing about the same person? Lori San Antonio NP: constant t.v. babble about the Spurs ... ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V4 #258 ************************** The Song and Album Voting Booths are open! Cast your votes by clicking the links at http://www.jmdl.com/gallery username: jimdle password: siquomb ------- Don't forget about these ongoing projects: Glossary project: Send a blank message to for all the details. FAQ Project: Help compile the JMDL FAQ. 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