From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2001 #352 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/joni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Friday, August 17 2001 Volume 2001 : Number 352 The Official Joni Mitchell Homepage, created by Wally Breese, can be found at http://www.jonimitchell.com. It contains the latest news, a detailed bio, Original Interviews, essays, lyrics and much much more. The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. Information on the 4th "Annual" New England JoniFest: http://www.jmdl.com/jfne2001.cfm ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Best of the 80s? (md) [MDESTE1@aol.com] Re: Best of the 80s? (md) ["Kakki" ] Re: her best sleeve, 100% jc ["jlamadoo, home account" ] elvis NJC [bbBear ] Re: Tim Curry/CBSASF [FredNow@aol.com] RE: 'Mark E's in Love' or someone told me it's all happening at the zoo NJC - LONG ["patrick leader" > Au contrair mon ami, I have always PRAISED 'LA production values". David Foster is state of the art. Quincy Jones. Good Grief. They are the end. I dont know how I got lumped into the negative side. Marcel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 20:44:51 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: Re: Best of the 80s? (md) > << I don't understand how you and Marcel criticize "west coast/LA production > values" >> > > Au contrair mon ami, I have always PRAISED 'LA production values". David > Foster is state of the art. Quincy Jones. Good Grief. They are the end. I > dont know how I got lumped into the negative side. Marcel Oh good grief yourself, Marcel! ;-) I was referring to a number of your posts over time regarding *Joni's* 80s albums. Haven't you in the past attributed the less than stellar production in them to the "LA music mafia"? Look, I respect your opinions and Philip's opinions VERY highly when it comes to music and take what you two say in that regard to heart. But, I felt like the whole music biz in LA was being written off to some extent. If there is an inherent pox on the production of music in LA, then I wish the both of you would come to LA and straighten it out for us. I mean that as a compliment!! Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 00:20:11 -0400 From: "jlamadoo, home account" Subject: Re: her best sleeve, 100% jc I dunno, Brei. Are you talking about the _vaginal_ symbol on the cover of "Clouds"? That red flower looks very available and willing to me...... Jim L'Hommedieu Nuriel Tobias wrote: > what do you think is joni's best album sleeve? i would love to know. Brei answered, > I like the three penis album covers ;-) (Clouds, Hejira, and Mingus) Note to the kids: Vagina is a city in Canada..... where "the stork" originated..... and where he longs to return.... Over and over again. tee hee hee ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 00:42:07 -0400 From: "jlamadoo, home account" Subject: Paiting with ?? and music JC Hmmm. There's only one thing to do, Russ. I guess you have no choice but to buy "Painting With Words and Music" on VHS Hi-Fi or DVD! Write up a review and post your findings. We're counting on ya, buckaroo! Quick! Seriously though, I whine like an audiophile, so here's my opinion. The lyrics are plenty clear but it sounds like Larry mixed it. There's plenty of bass, that's for sure. I wouldn't call the sound "extremely poor". No way. I remember thinking that her vocals had this electronic, whisssssssspy sibilance too now that I reflect. If I remember, the credits show that Joni herself mixed it. But there are only about 3 people on this list that are bothered by that kind of thing. (What do you think, Randy?) Is Simon lurking? Besides, it's so great to see her doing that stuff, it's kinda poor form to complain about the audio. (It was recorded for video after all, not for disc. No offense, Michael.) She looks a lot better dancing on video than on CD too. :) In other words, video is a different animal. Next time they should put Simon in charge of audio. Get him a Calrec, give him a personal assistant, call him "Sir" for once, set him up WHEREEVER THE HELL HE DECIDES IT SOUNDS BEST, and do it right!! Lamadoo ps: Go buy the silly thing! Russ said, >>>> Last night on KQED (PBS station here in San Francisco) at the end of some stupid pledge break, the screen went immediately into what I guess was the last half of PWWAM. The video portion of the program was excellent, but the sound quality was extremely poor. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 22:03:29 -0700 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: 'Mark E's in Love' or someone told me it's all happening at the zoo NJC - LONG Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo was where Rickie Lee Jones was happening last night. And something happened to me as Melanie, Travis & I watched & listened to her perform. Walls of resistance that had stood for years finally tumbled down & I let this incredible singer into my heart. These walls have been cracking for some time (thanks very much to Mr. Patrick Leader and the gentle assistance that came from my dear friend Melanie). But last night there was absolutely no way they could remain standing any longer. I was enchanted. I was enthralled. I didn't want her to stop. Before I go any further I want to get a bit of a rant out of the way. The venue at the Woodland Park Zoo is an open field with a small stage at one end. People bring blankets & seats and spread out in front of this stage. It was a hot evening for Seattle - sunny, really pretty decent weather so the outdoor experience was fine - except for the constant chatter that some people insisted on keeping up all during the concert. What is it about an outdoor venue that makes people think it's ok to be rude? Why do they come in the first place if they aren't going to *listen* to the music? Now if it was Foghat or REO Speedwagon playing I'd say fine! Talk away! Chances are no-one will hear you or care. But Rickie Lee Jones requires intent listening - you have to pay attention to her - and that was sometimes difficult because of the unbelievable rudeness of people who seemed to think they were sitting in their livingrooms. It was the same thing when Joni, Van & Dylan played the Gorge. I wanted to stand up and yell at people to SHUT THE FUCK UP! But I didn't. I wanted to. But I didn't. It's a nice fantasy, anyway. Ok, rant mode off. Rickie Lee opened with 'Weasel and the White Boy's Cool', explaining that she wrote it for her good friend Sal Bernardi who was playing electric guitar with her last night. There was also a drummer and an upright bass. Rickie switched back & forth between acoustic guitar and piano, rounding out the minimal but highly competent ensemble. I really liked the sound and rhythm that the bass provided. It added something to this music that an electric bass would not have, in my opinion. It almost felt like Rickie had picked the set list out of my head because, in spite of the fact that I am only familiar with about four of her records, I recognized almost every song. I had always liked 'Last Chance Texaco'. When I finally bought the cd of Rickie Lee's first album, I remembered that I had actually liked a lot of the songs on that record way back when I first heard them. 'Last Chance Texaco' is such a great song and it was so nice to hear it performed live. She also did a devastating rendition of 'Coolsville' that she dedicated to her mother. Later, Rickie commented on her own motherhood after singing 'Horses', saying of her 13 year old daughter, 'it's a good thing I wrote that when she was a baby.' She implied that being the mother of a 13 year old was not easy but added that she was lucky and that her daughter has a courageous & beautiful spirit. Oh, and Patrick, she also performed 'Young Blood' and I thought of you as she sang it. I'm still not completely comfortable with some of Rickie's interpretations of standards. She did a kind of be-bop version of 'On the Street Where You Live'. In my head I can hear Annie Ross doing this but Rickie's version wasn't one of my favorites. Maybe if I heard it a few more times I might warm up to it. She also sang 'My Funny Valentine' which was nice but not one of my favorite songs. No fault with Rickie Lee or her performance, I just don't particularly like the lyrics to that song. During a brief break when the audience was standing up & stretching, she favored us with an impromptu rendition of 'Summertime' which was quite nice. She was mostly jamming with the bass on that number and it was very, very cooool.... Another cover of a different nature was a highlight for me. I really like what she does with David Bowie's 'Rebel Rebel' and she rocked it last night. She brings something to this song that captures the spirit of the original yet manages to be uniquely her own. It's funny but one of my complaints about Rickie Lee Jones used to be that I couldn't understand the words when she sings. While I can't say that I could hear every word crystal clear, I will say that I was able to pick up most of what she was singing. The song 'Satellites' really clicked for me. I have 'Flying Cowboys' and am somewhat familiar with this song but, hearing it live last night, something fell into place in my head and I really 'got it'. Another song that came across for me this way was 'We Belong Together'. I had a room-mate once upon a time who played 'Pirates' a lot. Enough to make me dislike it - mostly out of frustration that I couldn't understand the words and partly because the persona Rickie seemed to be projecting didn't feel genuine to me. Maybe I just didn't fully understand it. Anyway, last night she told a story about seeing some graffiti in Echo Park with the name 'Johnny the King' written in red. Suddenly I was able to catch enough of the lyrics that the aura of the song became clear to me and her vocal just cut right through me. Another goose-bump moment came when she was at the piano singing 'Magazine'. I'm not familiar with this song or the album at all but this performance of it gave me shivers. 'Skeletons' is one song from 'Pirates' that was impossible for me to dismiss or dislike and her live rendition was amply packed with the emotional wallop that this devastating song demands. I just recently bought 'Traffic From Paradise' but I already think that 'Stewart's Coat' is one of the prettiest songs I've ever heard. So I was a happy camper when she sang that one. Very sweet. On a few songs the bassist played his instrument with a bow and the effect was beautiful. The encore last night started with Sal on guitar & the bass player using his bow. The two of them created a melancholy sounding music as Rickie Lee returned to the stage, picked up a tambourine and sang 'Ghostyhead'. The effect was eerie, haunting and exquisite. Melanie later commented that she had thought 'Ghostyhead' was unperformable but had to admit they had pulled it off beautifully. It really was extraordinary. I think there was one other song about fishing boats which ended rather abruptly. I couldn't really tell if it was a real song or something she made up on the spot in response to some seagulls that were making a racket right about that time. Then as she was starting to play something else she said something like "These chords keep coming out as 'Chuck E's in Love'. Let's do Chuck E's in Love' instead." and then she joked about not being able to remember all the chords to that. She did hit a rough spot at one point, chuckling and commenting on it, but managed to pull off a fine rendition of her 'hit'. A few people stood up to dance during this number and there were kids running around and some of them were dancing too. When she had finished, Rickie Lee commented that it was nice to see people up dancing with their kids. Maybe that was what inspired her to close with a very sweet song that she said had been written by her father. Checking her website I see that the name of it is 'The Moon is Made of Gold' and that Rickie's father wrote it for her. It was a lovely end to a great concert. I have to say that last night I finally realized the amazing use this woman makes of her voice. To me it's kind of a strange sounding voice. But as an instrument, which to me is how she uses it, it has amazing range, versatility and flexibility. It can cut right to the bone like a sharp knife. It can wail like a banshee or keen like someone who has lost their only true love. Or it can caress and tug at the heart strings in the most tender and heartbreaking way. She certainly does more than her share of playing around with the beat but she always seems to end up in the right place. I think that's probably one of the hallmarks of a great jazz singer, if that's what you want to call her. It took me a long time to get past that strangeness, though. Maybe hearing her live and watching how her voice seems to move her as much as it does her audience is what finally did it for me. She is also an incredible songwriter. I can no longer say that there is anything phony or affected about her. At least not when she's singing her own material. Rickie Lee Jones is the real thing & I'm glad I finally found that out. Now pass me that plate of crow and give me some recommendations! So far I have 'Rickie Lee Jones', 'Traffic From Paradise' and 'Flying Cowboys'. Should I go for 'Magazine'? 'Ghostyhead'? 'Pirates'? What next! Mark E. in Seattle (my middle name really is Edward) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 02:24:42 -0300 From: "Wally Kairuz" Subject: RE: 'Mark E's in Love' or someone told me it's all happening at the zoo NJC - LONG mark, mark, mark!!!!!!! how long i have waited for this moment! the day your perverse taurus stubbornness would make way for your amazing taurus aural sensitivity and accept, accept, accept. i am so moved: one more person that ''gets'' rickie. and what's more important, that person is you, someone i respect and admire for his emotional depth. thank you for letting the walls come down. my set at the jonifest will include a tribute to rickie lee jones. i deem it fit and fair. such a pity that you will not be there, but i want to dedicate it to you if i have your permission. love you. your adoring wallushka ps: pirates and magazine! both! you won't like everything, but i'll tell you what you'll like: we belong together, livin' it up [except for one part], skeletons [your favorite], i'm a lucky guy and all the returns. form magazine: magazine and deep space [your favorite]. let me know. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 01:37:22 EDT From: KJHSF@aol.com Subject: Re: bad joni portrait/env.(ebay) << In a message dated 8/16/01 8:40:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time, guitarzan@saber.net writes: > If you want to see a really bad portrait of Joni-playing a > classical guitar, no less.... >> Without a doubt, this has got to be the most riotous portrait of Joni ever. The angle of her nose is bad enough, but the depiction of her mouth is almost beyond comprehension. LOL Ken ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 00:02:17 -0600 From: "shane mattison" Subject: rowdy yates those young as me and older may remember rowdy yates, the character on rawhide - -the great early sixties cattle drive t.v. show, played by clint eastwood... but apparently what made joni think of rowdy yates and a few other names for her song dancin' clown was that they were the names of horses at the santa ana racetrack...as relayed to "mimi gal", who had a smoke with joni at the edmonton folk fest... now the other names sound like horses to come to think of it..."last-word suzie", "Jove"... story: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rawhide/message/572 shane http://www.angelfire.com/art/cactussong ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 02:06:18 -0400 From: bbBear Subject: elvis NJC funny he should come up - i'm listening to my all-time favorite album of his (for the 5th time in the past 2 days), "imperial bedroom". when i lived in boston around '79/80, i worked at this place where we listened to & talked about music a lot. i was perhaps in the very pinnacle of my love of bob dylan at the time, and i worked with this guy who was a few years younger than me (i was in college, he was in HS). at the time, i HATED elvis, LOVED bob. i didn't like talking heads or any of what was dubbed "new wave" - it all sounded so non-melodic to me. anyhow, i used to have these long drawn out arguments with this guy at least once a week, because he hated bob dylan. 2 years later, when "imperial" came out, i started getting hooked on elvis & he turned out to be one of my all time favorite artists. ironically, he reminded me more of bob dylan than any other musician (probably his clever, often caustic turn of phrase). brilliant, brilliant, brilliant songwriter! but i can certainly understand not digging the voice. i love it, but i can see how if it ain't your thing, it ain't. barbara np: you know what ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 02:17:03 EDT From: FredNow@aol.com Subject: Re: Tim Curry/CBSASF >SCJoniGuy@aol.com wrote: > ><> > >Yep, the same him. He covers "Cold Blue Steel & Sweet Fire" as well as >"All I Want". I'm not *real* keen on his singing voice, but Joni says that >his spirited vocal is better suited to CBSASF than her own. Nothing will surpass Joni's original for me, but I really dig Tim Curry's version ... he really captures the sound and feel of heroin. When he sings "down, down, down the dark ladder" it sounds like he's been there. Plus, his band rocks like a motha. - -Fred Simon ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 02:58:41 -0400 From: "patrick leader" Subject: RE: 'Mark E's in Love' or someone told me it's all happening at the zoo NJC - LONG mark, thank you for writing so beautifully, as you so often do, about music. i would have loved this post no matter who you were praising. but i do love it even more, that it's rickie lee. pirates and the magazine (and her first, rlj, which you have) are her best 3 albums. i think most of her fans would agree. so you've got some great listening ahead of you, just getting those... i think the tape i made for you includes a couple of songs from 'magazine', including 'the real end'. a very musically upbeat song about fucking up a love affair, with great trumpets at the end; it's really one of my all-time favorite songs from her. you gave such a great song-by-song description. last chance texaco is unusual, more metaphoric than usual for her. i remember a 'rock lyrics' book from the '80s that included 'last chance' among its masterpieces. it sounds like it was a sweet concert, in the best sense. i loved the background material on 'the moon is made of gold'. rickie lee has actually done a version of that song, on a truly excellent rob wasserman album called 'duets'. she's the only one who gets two duets, the other one is a fantastic version of 'autumn leaves'. i was actually at a fantastic outdoor concert this eve, as well. radiohead, at liberty state park. a nice ferry ride from manhattan, a lovely eastern seaboard evening and a band that is inventing something truly new and interesting. fantastic! patrick np - rlj - gravity, from 'the magazine' ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2001 #352 ***************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe ------- Siquomb, isn't she?