From: les@jmdl.com (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2005 #124 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 Sunday, March 20 2005 Volume 2005 : Number 124 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- DJRD / first post [Paul Bishop ] Re: sacrilege ["mike pritchard" ] NJC Re: dc joni fest? [Bob Muller ] RE: sacrilege ["David Henderson" ] Tree Musea [Jamie Zubairi ] Re: Prairie Girl Track List? [Bob Muller ] RE: sacrilege ["David Henderson" ] Re: DJRD / first post [Bob Muller ] Re:Re: DJRD on CD ["Michael O'Malley" ] DJRD at my funeral ["David Henderson" ] Re: DJRD at my funeral [Catherine McKay ] 80s Joni ["David Henderson" ] Re: DJRD / first post [Catherine McKay ] Re: Prairie Girl Track List? [Catherine McKay ] RE: Nice article about TBOS and Dreamland ["Azeem" ] Corbieres Jonifest weather report ["Laurent Olszer" ] Jonifest ["Laurent Olszer" ] njc baseball/hockey stuff [vince ] Re: DJRD at my funeral [vince ] Re: DJRD / first post [Smurf ] Re: Prairie Girl Track List? ["Mark or Travis" ] Re: Sacrilege ["Mark or Travis" ] Re: Prairie Girl Track List? [Randy Remote ] Re: DJRD on CD ["Mark or Travis" ] Re: DJRD / first post [Randy Remote ] Re: What's missing from "Artist's Choice"? ["Mark or Travis" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:53:45 +0000 (GMT) From: Paul Bishop Subject: DJRD / first post Hi All, my first post here (if i'm doing this right), and i'll start by saying that listening to a second-hand double LP DJRD was what made me sign up for this list. It seems as if every single Joni article skips over this album, lumping it in with her turn to less sturctured songs, more free-form songs, but i feel it is one of her richest albums. What i like most about the lyrics is that they tell stories, but they hint at so much more. A lot of Joni's narrative-songs tell a story, and sure there is more to it than we get, but the ones on DJRD seem to require the most reading between the lines. Dreamland is one of my favourite songs by anyone. The rhythm and feel of the percussion, and the bounce in her voice, make it seem as if this is the music of the spheres. Have any of you read about Super String Theory? The idea that the Universe is fundamentally constructed of tiny vibrating strings? Well, the rhythm of this song seems to me to be the rhythm of these things. Dreamland "gets" me on such a fundamental level. The repeated use of "dream" imagery throughout the album is worth investigating (if you have time!) and prbably deliberate by Joni, and worthy of far deeper investigation than any music magazine has given to it. Paprika Plains is central to this idea, especially the wordless poem bit. This is really an album that needed tens of listens before anything started to sink in. (I didnt even like the album at first - dreamland excepted) I love Blue, LOTC and C&S, hated HOSL when i first heard it, though love it more with each listen now, and am waiting for the right moment to buy Hejira. And i'll say a word for Travelogue too. Having heard most of these songs brand new on Travelogue, not owning any post-78 Joni, i thought it was stunning and beautiful. The lush orchestra works very well behind her voice, and the drums are superb. Her older, smoky voice is a delight to listen to (can she re-do every one of her old songs, please?), and this album saved me from a potential bad drug-experience (though i'm sure this is a topic for another time!). Thanks for reading, Paul The raindrops. Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 11:07:54 +0100 From: "mike pritchard" Subject: Re: sacrilege >>One shining facet of her genius is that she makes me want to be a better man.<< Julius Hi Julius, I have to say that this is one of the more profound, and enigmatic, statements I have read on this list. Care to elaborate (off-line if you prefer...) what you mean by this? I am thinking (partly) about my 'masculinity in songs' thesis (thanks for the John Henry stuff) but more than anything I'm intrigued by what you could do to be a better man, and how listening to Joni could inspire this wish. Best, mike in bcn np - brad mehldau - blackbird ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 04:36:06 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: NJC Re: dc joni fest? Well, it's not exactly a FEST Bill, but I'm heading up to DC to catch Sherelle's show on Saturday night April 16, and will be hanging out with Lori and hopefully Ruth from Richmond too. I don't fly back until Monday AM, so Sunday all day is open - was hoping to put together some sort of mega-musical-brunch thing. This would be Sunday, April 17. Bob NP: Ryan Adams, "Don't Ask For The Water" Bill Dollinger wrote: Richard Flynn and I were discussing how great it would be to have a mini joni fest in dc. I know we had mentioned this before but don't think anything was moving along. I know a great cafe that would host it, if people are interested, let's discuss. Bill Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 07:49:44 -0500 From: "David Henderson" Subject: RE: sacrilege LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL . . . OMG!! I knew from the 'sacrilege' posts that you didn't like Mingus, but I SWEAR I had no idea your favorite was FTR. David NP The Curtis Mayfield Remixes >>>-----Original Message----- >>>From: Jerry Notaro [mailto:gnotaro@tampabay.rr.com] >>>Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2005 9:26 AM >>>To: David Henderson; Smurf; jmdl >>>Subject: Re: sacrilege >>> >>> >>>On 3/19/05 9:15 AM, "David Henderson" wrote: >>> >>> Mingus >>>> and FTR have the same feel to me - sparkling and crystalline >>>like the bright >>>> sun on a hardwood floor in the morning. >>>> >>>> David >>> >>>Oh Lord. There he goes mentioning Brooklyn with Sondheim again :) >>> >>>Jerry, whose #1 Joni album is FTR ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 12:52:38 +0000 (GMT) From: Jamie Zubairi Subject: Tree Musea There is a website which might be even better (sadly I can't remember the name of which) but basically you donate to this organisation which then buys up howefver many acreage of Brazillian rainforest and protects it as, for example, The Joni Mitchell Forest. When a colleague and friend of mine passed away, the office had a pot going round asking for donations for Mary's Memorial Fund but in the end once we held a memorial there was an amount of money to go round so it was deceided that we did 3 things with it - some of it went to her 18 year old son, some of it went towards a project that she was working on for the office (she wanted to paint a mural on the outside wall of our office and everyone was going to collaborate in it's design so now, as we are relocating the company have decided that a 10 foot canvas is more appropriate) and the other thing is that some of the money goes to this rainforest fund... I dunno... if I got some information on it, whaddaya think? Much Joni Jamie Zoob Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 05:12:17 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Prairie Girl Track List? Michael O'Malley wrote: Well of course she does, but why lump her in with every other pop/jazz vocalist who has taken this route? I can't think of ANYONE who exhibited the career trajectory and artistic growth that Joni did. Certainly not any of her singer-songwriter contemporaries...the ones that are still working are still pretty much following the same formula they did when they started. Neil Young is probably the only other one who continually re-examines and re-invents himself - I would argue that Joni's transformational arc is more logical and less haphazard than Neil's. And she does it in an industry that demands that an artist find a niche and STAY PUT. We all hear every record that Joni has ever made (all the way up to T'log) referred to as "Folk" because that was the idiom she was working in at the outset; I would argue that she hasn't released a "folk" record yet. Other pop/jazz singers? If that's all that Joni was then sure, compile away and keep 'em coming like sugar-covered doughnuts on a conveyor belt. But one of the things I admired about Joni was the integrity she kept regarding her treatment of each of her albums as separate projects and not as random collections of songs, one record spilling into the next. Travelogue, for all its faults, does at least make an attempt to unify her career and string together songs from all of her various "periods" into a whole. In that respect, it's an interesting project. And it would have been an appropriate "Swan Song" which was its working title for so long. Joni herself fought against "Hits" for so long for the exact same reasons. It is difficult to criticize the decisions of an artist that has created an almost spiritual bond with most of her long-time fans. For those that say "Joni Mitchell has sung my life" or whatever, it may seem like a betrayal to see beyond that and be objective about releases that are nothing more than thinly veiled "product". Supporting whatever she decides to do becomes tantamount. And if the compilations are successful, it's merely a tribute to the legions of Joni's fans who will keep buying anything she releases, even if they already have it many times over - for what? A new photo? New thumb-size prints of paintings? A random liner note? The sadder implication, the way I see it, is that if these compilations are successful, why in the world would an artist do the WORK required in composition, arranging, production when they can take the much easier route of slapping together a collection of recordings that are already done? I'm certainly not surprised when most commercial artists decide to do this. But I've always held Joni Mitchell in higher esteem and given her more credit than being typical. Bob NP: XTC, "Ten Feet Tall" Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 08:20:36 -0500 From: "David Henderson" Subject: RE: sacrilege Wow, the guys that sang 'are you gonna be my girl'? That's a surprise. Good song. Thanks Catherine. David NP Janis Ian, Janey's Blues -----Original Message----- From: Catherine McKay [mailto:anima_rising@yahoo.ca] Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2005 5:09 PM To: Randy Remote; David Henderson; joni@smoe.org Subject: Re: sacrilege It's by a group named Jet. I think it's called "Look what you've done." Randy Remote wrote: David Henderson wrote: > IHey, does anybody know what this song is on the radio . . the chorus is > something like "You've made a fool of everyone," kind of 70s/McCartney > sounding . . I've been hearing it every morning for about a week Is it Sexy Sadie from The Beatles white album? Lennon's disillusioned slam on the Maharishi? Sexy Sadie, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone Catherine Toronto -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ----- - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -- Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 05:23:32 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: DJRD / first post Paul Bishop wrote: Hi Paul, and welcome to the JMDL - yes, you did it right and thanks for a great first post. I've always liked DJRD, and remember vividly when it came out. It was highly anticipated as Hejira was such a mind-blower for me, and indeed there was LOTS of pressure for it to be as awesome if not more so. I agree with you that it's worthy of extensive thematic examination; the mysticism of dreams, the duality of love & relationships, the connection to earth & heritage...it is a very powerful piece of work - Joni's only studio work to eclipse the one-album limit! She really put a musical and lyrical edge on this one, it was exactly what I was wanting then and it still rewards listenings to this day. Interesting enough, my only criticism of DJRD has been The Tenth World. Well, about a month ago I burned DJRD into my mp3 player that I listen to while I run, and while it was pretty neat to warm up to the ethereal Overture and lose myself in the lushness of Paprika Plains, The Tenth World is a prett awesome track to run to. I felt like I was in the jungle trying to escape from wild animals - LOL! Anyway, I'm rambling this morning, but did want to say thanks again for the intro. And you haven't immersed yourself in Hejira yet? My, oh my. Bob NP: Earth, Wind, & Fire, "See The Light" Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 13:50:17 +0000 From: "Michael O'Malley" Subject: Re:Re: DJRD on CD I keep thinking about this music. How does one classify it? What is it? More than any other of Joni's work, this album defies categorization. Is it Pop? Certainly not. Rock? Folk? Jazz? Classical? Worldbeat? Alternative? It's none of these really, and yet it combines elements of all. I don't recall if there were prototypes for this kind of music at the time, maybe others on the list do. But it seems to me that this was a very original work for the period, and perhaps ahead of its time as well. In hindsight we can see how it perfectly reflects the transition from Hejira to Mingus. DJRD is not only truly unique in Joni's oeuvre, it also features her best album art! (after Hejira, of course.) Michael in Quebec _________________________________________________________________ Take charge with a pop-up guard built on patented Microsoft. SmartScreen Technology http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-ca&page=byoa/prem&xAPID=1994&DI=1034&SU=http://hotmail.com/enca&HL=Market_MSNIS_Taglines Start enjoying all the benefits of MSN. Premium right now and get the first two months FREE*. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:04:17 -0500 From: "David Henderson" Subject: DJRD at my funeral Richard said: >>> I finally got DJRD on Compact Disc and I must say I love it as I've never loved it before. No getting up to turn over the records! I think my twenty-two year old self just wasn't ready for it. (Though my 21-year-old self wore out the groves on Hejira.) I can't really articulate why it seems new to me, but it does.>>> Michael said: >>> I hear you Richard. I was hesitant to fork out for DJRD when I upgraded my Joni vinyl, it was low on my list, but now it counts among my top 5 Joni albums. I love this disc because the music and singing is perhaps the most free-flowing, relaxed and open of all her work. It foreshadows her dive into Mingus, but is much more accessible. It has a very hip feel to it, and is also the only Joni album that really rocks, after C&S. Think Cotton Avenue, Talk To Me, DJRD, Dreamland, Tenth World.>>> I completely agree with you guys (although I have loved DJRD since day one)! Like Michael said, it has always felt very relaxed and hip and cool. I think it's a very sexy album - her only smoky-club-sexy album. I do not like Paprika Plains, and I think the live Jericho version is far superior . . . was never sure why she rerecorded it . . . but every other song is a gem. I think she sets up the whole relaxed, contented feel with the way she sings the very first lines, "The red sun comes rolling down a grey sky . . . " The whole Otis/Tenth World/Dreamland suite was a completely new sound to me (I was a junior in high school), but for some reason I took to it right away. The penultimate for me though is DJRD. I think this is one of Joni's five best and definitely one of my all-time favorites. It's just brilliant in every way . . . vocally, lyrically, musically. This is a great song to crank-up to ear-splitting levels in the car when you're going 80 mph and just soar to another planet. I love these lyrics: "Behind my bolt locked door The eagle and the serpent are at war in me The serpent fighting for blind desire The eagle for clarity What strange prizes these battles bring These hectic joys-these weary blues Puffed up and strutting when I think I win Down and shaken when I think I lose" I always tell my partner that when I die (which hopefully will be many years away!) that I don't want anyone to say anything . . . just have everyone sit and listen to DJRD from beginning to end at an ear-splitting volume and then the service will be over. It's probably a sign of some sort of mental illness to plan the entertainment at your funeral . . . hmmm. ;) David NP Just let loose (?), Emimem (he he, one of the only performers than make me laugh out loud) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:57:01 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: DJRD at my funeral I think it's a good thing to plan your own funeral; otherwise, someone else will take the whole thing over and do something you'd hate, and, unless you're prepared and able to haunt them, there won't be a durn thing you can do about it. I know of people who have even picked out the caterers who would serve food at their funeral/memorial service. I think your idea of playing DJRD is a good one - write it down! (and I should do the same, otherwise, they'll give me some dreadful Catholic thing and bury me when I've decided cremation is the better - and cheaper - alternative.) David Henderson wrote: I always tell my partner that when I die (which hopefully will be many years away!) that I don't want anyone to say anything . . . just have everyone sit and listen to DJRD from beginning to end at an ear-splitting volume and then the service will be over. It's probably a sign of some sort of mental illness to plan the entertainment at your funeral . . . hmmm. ;) Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - --------------------------------- Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:57:58 -0500 From: "David Henderson" Subject: 80s Joni RANDY SAID: "The messages in these songs are great, I'm totally in tune with that aspect. It's not her best work, though, on a musical level. The inventiveness, melodic, and harmonic content of these compositions, not to mention the production, pale in comparison to much of her other work. IMO. That's part of why they didn't fly, not because of the era. The 80's songs got more exposure (via MTV) than her earlier stuff.RR" I know most people on the list disagree with me, but I think during the DED and Chalk Mark period, Joni was one of the strongest voices musically and lyrically of the times - some really empty and complacent times, both musically and politically. Granted, DED has a very dated sound now, but it certainly was close to cutting edge at the time. This was the period when the charts were dominated by Madonna, George Michael, Tears for Fears, Whitney Houston - all fluffy and light stuff. When Chalk Mark was released, the number one song in America was Don't Worry, Be Happy! Joni was in the (better, imho) company of U2, Talking Heads, Don Henley, Eurythmics, Sting, Tracy Chapman and my favorites, The Smiths. Her work not only fits in with this group doing the most interesting work, but it was also even more experimental and risky than the others. I really feel like she stepped up to the plate, and I think she should be commended for that. And I think those albums are loaded with some first-rate songs: Fiction, The Three Great Stimulants, Dog Eat Dog, Ethiopia, My Secret Place, Lakota, The Tea Leaf Prophecy, The Reoccurring Dream. In the late 80's, I felt like the world was being ruled by Reaganite zombies, and Joni was one great friend - cool, smart and very tough. Okay, I'll shut up now. David NP Green Day, Holiday ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:12:44 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: DJRD / first post Welcome, Paul. I never even heard DJRD until maybe about five years ago when I bought it on CD. For some reason, I missed everything between Hejira and WTRF. (Right now, it's too long ago to remember.) I immediately fell in love with it and I think I could listen to the opening bits over and over - those dreamy opening chords and the segue into "Cotton Avenue." I don't remember who said it, but I completely agree about the line, "If you've got no place special... well then, my dear, you just go no place special." It gets a chuckle out of me every time. It's just so HAPPY and truly evokes for me the feeling of just going out to dance and have a good time when the weather is fine and there's nothing troubling your mind. I do like the idea of the universe being made up of tiny vibrating strings. It sounds so musical. One of the reasons I love Joni so much is that the words and music don't always grab me right away. Sometimes they just percolate down and stay there. And yet, there's always something new to discover on each listen, particularly if you haven't listened to something for a long time. And so, I also agree with whoever it was that said they'd have a hard time picking a least-favourite Joni song, because, even when I think I don't like one (and the ones that spring to mind are the ones that are done and done and done again, like "Circle Game", "Both Sides Now", "Woodstock") once I start listening to one of these, I find myself sucked back into it again. NP House noises, cats stirring, the gentle breathing-but-not-quite-snoring of cats and sleeping teenagers. Paul Bishop wrote: Hi All, my first post here (if i'm doing this right), and i'll start by saying that listening to a second-hand double LP DJRD was what made me sign up for this list. It seems as if every single Joni article skips over this album, lumping it in with her turn to less sturctured songs, more free-form songs, but i feel it is one of her richest albums. What i like most about the lyrics is that they tell stories, but they hint at so much more. A lot of Joni's narrative-songs tell a story, and sure there is more to it than we get, but the ones on DJRD seem to require the most reading between the lines. Dreamland is one of my favourite songs by anyone. The rhythm and feel of the percussion, and the bounce in her voice, make it seem as if this is the music of the spheres. Have any of you read about Super String Theory? The idea that the Universe is fundamentally constructed of tiny vibrating strings? Well, the rhythm of this song seems to me to be the rhythm of these things. Dreamland "gets" me on such a fundamental level. The repeated use of "dream" imagery throughout the album is worth investigating (if you have time!) and prbably deliberate by Joni, and worthy of far deeper investigation than any music magazine has given to it. Paprika Plains is central to this idea, especially the wordless poem bit. This is really an album that needed tens of listens before anything started to sink in. (I didnt even like the album at first - dreamland excepted) I love Blue, LOTC and C&S, hated HOSL when i first heard it, though love it more with each listen now, and am waiting for the right moment to buy Hejira. And i'll say a word for Travelogue too. Having heard most of these songs brand new on Travelogue, not owning any post-78 Joni, i thought it was stunning and beautiful. The lush orchestra works very well behind her voice, and the drums are superb. Her older, smoky voice is a delight to listen to (can she re-do every one of her old songs, please?), and this album saved me from a potential bad drug-experience (though i'm sure this is a topic for another time!). Thanks for reading, Paul Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - --------------------------------- Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:20:26 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Prairie Girl Track List? I'm sure we've had this discussion before but, is Joni under any contractual agreement to put out x-number of albums by a certain date? The way these things are coming at us, almost as fast as covers frisbees, makes me wonder whether she's doing a "Kiss my ass" to the record companies (?) I don't pay a lot of attention to these things but, I doubt any of her recent re-releases (with new art) has sold enough to make any money - in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they were money-losers, and yet, they keep coming. If they're losing money though, wouldn't the record companies just nix the whole thing? Joni says the industry is a cesspool (or something like that.) I can't see them continuing to put out product unless they know it's going to make money for them. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Bob Muller wrote:Joni herself fought against "Hits" for so long for the exact same reasons. It is difficult to criticize the decisions of an artist that has created an almost spiritual bond with most of her long-time fans. For those that say "Joni Mitchell has sung my life" or whatever, it may seem like a betrayal to see beyond that and be objective about releases that are nothing more than thinly veiled "product". Supporting whatever she decides to do becomes tantamount. And if the compilations are successful, it's merely a tribute to the legions of Joni's fans who will keep buying anything she releases, even if they already have it many times over - for what? A new photo? New thumb-size prints of paintings? A random liner note? The sadder implication, the way I see it, is that if these compilations are successful, why in the world would an artist do the WORK required in composition, arranging, production when they can take the much easier route of slapping together a collection of recordings that are already done? I'm certainly not surprised when most commercial artists decide to do this. But I've always held Joni Mitchell in higher esteem and given her more credit than being typical. Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - --------------------------------- Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 16:02:18 -0000 From: "Azeem" Subject: RE: Nice article about TBOS and Dreamland << Writing in her own blood, but for deaf ears By Warwick McFadyen March 19, 2005 >> I know Joni didn't choose this headline, but Jeez, it's SO gratingly self-aggrandising - and simultaneously martyr-like - that it makes me want to go out and buy a Kylie Minogue album. << "They were introduced into a very awkward period in American culture," she told Costello, "when people just didn't want to look at it . . . It's a bad time to be right. This (Survival) is my best work, and it has not gone into the culture. I wanted to be a voice in there. I wanted to participate, but the songs had been deemed sophomoric and negative." >> I think this whole interview shows Joni in her most humourless and self-important mode, in stark contrast to the person so many of us on the list have been lucky enough to meet. Oh, and I think she's just plain wrong in saying it's her best work, so there! Sex Kills is one of a relatively small number of Joni songs I really dislike. I've said this before but what the hell, I'll say it again: to my ears and head and heart, Joni has said INFINTELY more profound things when she has written about human relationships than she has when being overtly political. And the tunes were better too. She can repackage her dour and tune-light polemics as often as she cares to; they still stand little chance of "going into the culture" as her true masterpieces have done. I find this reissue fever as baffling and dispiriting as Bob and Randy (and others, I imagine) - and I still haven't given up hope that she'll surprise us by writing some more songs and making a record that showcases what is left of her voice in a supportive way. She's still the greatest there's been. Azeem in London NP: Natasha Lea Jones - Naked Flame - -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.7.3 - Release Date: 15/03/2005 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 17:26:45 +0100 From: "Laurent Olszer" Subject: Corbieres Jonifest weather report Hi All Spring is back over here, and it almost feels like summer. We have 20+ participants already for the french Jonifest and surely there will be 5-10 more by summer. So it's definitely happening folks. For those of you who cannot attend all 3 days, it's no problem. Just figure 55 euros a day. Laurent ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 08:28:28 -0800 (PST) From: Smurf Subject: Re: DJRD at my funeral David sez: > It's probably a sign of some sort of mental illness > to plan the > entertainment at your funeral . . . hmmm. ;) > Yes, David, it probably *is* a sign of mental illness, so of course it has been done here many times before. I think Muller chose "My Way," but I may be mistaken. As for me, I would like to choose a Joni song she hasn't even written yet -- one that she'll write and record many years from now. Some song about how wonderful it is to live healthy and long would be nice, but I just hope she doesn't mention her theory on the Four Races of Man (sic). Don't want to be buried, though, and I don't like the thought of cremation, so I guess I'd like to just be sort of left out of the sidewalk to scare schoolchildren and create a public health menace. Then I could rest in peace. - --Smurf __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Read only the mail you want - Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 17:29:20 +0100 From: "Laurent Olszer" Subject: Jonifest Oops, forgot to mention that all details are on: http://www.jmdl.com/jonifest Laurent ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 11:37:54 -0500 From: vince Subject: njc baseball/hockey stuff Not many baseball fans here I know so nonbaseball fans can skip this I have a white sox website that is taking shape (http://southsiders.net) and last night we worked with our friends at SoxandRoll (great name, huh?) to get their first net broadcast up and out last night - did the first show from about 12:30 am until about 4 am - lots of fun! Always cool when things work! Before that I was at the local hockey game especially because they had, on tour, Lord Stanley's Cup! It was neat to actually see it, got within a foot of it, and forgot to bring my phone so I could snap a picture :-( anyway, still on a high from the broadcast being so successful - I can't sing and do musical theatre and how I envy those who can (I have Muller envy), but I can do this... and what fun it was! Vince np: some jazz show on NPR ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 11:43:21 -0500 From: vince Subject: Re: DJRD at my funeral Having done many a funeral, it is really helpful to have the deceased's notes of what they want so we can do the right thing - it is not weird to plan your own funeral, it is a great service to those who will do it - - it is your last show on earth so might as well be what you want! We are all going to die - so might as well go out as we want! The best funerals are pre-planned like this and turn out to be celebrations of life that was shared together rather than dirges of pain and meaningless crap that had nothing to do with the deceased. Vince Smurf wrote: >David sez: > > > >>It's probably a sign of some sort of mental illness >>to plan the >>entertainment at your funeral . . . hmmm. ;) >> >> >> > >Yes, David, it probably *is* a sign of mental illness, >so of course it has been done here many times before. > > > >Don't want to be buried, though, and I don't like the >thought of cremation, so I guess I'd like to just be >sort of left out of the sidewalk to scare >schoolchildren and create a public health menace. Then >I could rest in peace. > > > My ashes are supposed to be scattered at the White Sox ball park - they have a program for that, part of the grounds keeping program - damn, a piece of my crispy fried DNA will be on that field forever!!!!!! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 08:51:26 -0800 (PST) From: Smurf Subject: Re: DJRD / first post - --- Catherine wrote: > I do like the idea of the universe being made up of > tiny vibrating strings. It sounds so musical. > Ommmmmm-en to that, sister! I just got back from doing my laundry at a place I call the Magdelena Laundry, even though no one in my non-virtual life understands that, and I was listening to the new (for me, anyway) Patty Griffin "Impossible Dream" and I was thinking as the music transported me from the steaming stains of the Magdelena Laundries, how magic music is. Thanks very much to the JMDLers who have sung Patty's praises here for so long. She is magnificent. This CD reminds me lyrically of "Hejira" on my first few listens. (The lyric sheet, however, appears to be written in various fuzzy typefaces that people with compromised eyesight need a special decoder attachment to their eyeglasses to be able to read.) But the music, oh my. - --Smurf __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:15:18 -0800 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: Re: Prairie Girl Track List? Bob Muller wrote: And if the > compilations are successful, it's merely a tribute to the legions of > Joni's fans who will keep buying anything she releases, even if they > already have it many times over - for what? A new photo? New > thumb-size prints of paintings? A random liner note? Alright, Joni, take that gun away from Muller's head! He doesn't *want* to buy 'Songs of a Prairie Girl'! But if you're very nice to him, he might buy 'Dreamland' because it has his favorite song 'Dancin' Clown' on it. Seriously though, Bob, I really can see your point. But I guess I'm the sucker who buys the dang things for the photo, the paintings and the liner notes. I would add curiousity as well. I like to see how she fits the songs from the various albums together. 'Dreamland' has a great sequence in following the title track up with 'The Jungle Line'. The last of the drums on 'Dreamland' is followed immediately but the pounding of the Burundi Warriors on 'The Jungle Line' and it's a nice little dramatic touch. Mark E. in Seattle ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 09:35:29 -0800 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: Re: Sacrilege Deb Messling wrote: > I was indifferent to Willie until I heard the Dick Cavett tape. In > spite of the fact that Joni has always defended the album form, with > songs in context, I find I can discover a song in a new way when > it's > OUT of context, all by its beautiful self. I agree, Deb. I felt the same way about her performance of 'The Fiddle and the Drum' on that show. There was something about her standing at the mic with the bottom of the guitar resting on the stage and the solemn look on her face that made me listen to the song in a new way. I could see her sincerity and something about it really made me realise that this was a Canadian singing the song to the country that had become her second home. Very powerful. One thing I'm finding interesting in listening to her compilation cds is the difference in her voice from one song to the next. I think the most dramatic change in Joni's voice was from 'Blue' to 'For the Roses'. The article in Word made the interesting remark that Joni held something back emotionally on every release after 'Blue'. I don't know that I necessarily agree with that but I do think her singing became much more controlled after 'Blue'. I think this probably fits in with Julius's comments about 'Blue' and 'Court and Spark'. It was more than just the aging process or the effects of smoking or even the addition of more instruments. There was an emotional shift with 'For the Roses'. It's her coming of age album. The hint of something fragile that you could hear in her voice and that sounded like she was actually breaking for all the world to hear on 'Blue' was replaced by a new strength and resolution. The survivor had emerged. Something was lost but something was definitely gained. Mark E. in Seattle ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:00:37 -0800 From: Randy Remote Subject: Re: Prairie Girl Track List? Catherine McKay wrote: > I'm sure we've had this discussion before but, is Joni under any contractual agreement to put out x-number of albums by a certain date? The way these things are coming at us, almost as fast as covers frisbees, makes me wonder whether she's doing a "Kiss my ass" to the record companies (?) I'm sure the details of whatever deal she may have are top secret, but I would guess that she can do whatever she wants. In the standard deal where you must deliver x amount of albums, greatest hits don't count. I imagine that the deal was her terms or none.... so where's the smoking gun: the contract where she agrees to put out two compilations every year between now and the year 2525 (if man is still alive, if woman can survive)? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:02:34 -0800 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: Re: DJRD on CD Michael O'Malley wrote: > Like yourself, in my early twenties this album sounded a little too > experimental, dark and dissonant for my tastes. Today however it > feels very comfortable, like home. I loved this post! And I couldn't agree with you more, Michael! I bought DJRD when it was released. By that time I think I had figured out that Joni was never going to do exactly the same thing twice but I really wasn't sure what to make of DJRD. I did like it and played it a lot but I wouldn't have said it was one of my favorites. But listening to the cd in my car on my commutes a few years ago after being on the JMDL for awhile, I started to hear all this new beauty in it and now I would put it somewhere near the top if I were to make a list of my favorites. The end of the 70s was a time when popular music was teetering on the brink of becoming top-heavy and pretentious. The term 'over produced' was getting tossed around a lot by critics. Disco had also come into being at this point in time and I saw that as a dumbing down, especially in the realm of song lyrics. I *hated* it. A lot of the top bands at the time were going into the recording studios and piling more and more stuff onto their music and the results were often mixed and sometimes downright embarassing. At the time I think I kinda figured Joni was doing the same thing; the orchestra on 'Paprika Plains', all the percussion on 'The Tenth World'. I was too much of a fan to ever say it was pretentious, though, and DJRD was just too different from everything else to see it as Joni following the trend. There were other artists that I probably did feel that way about at the time. But now I really do think that DJRD was one of her bravest and richest records. It has such depth and a such a beautiful spectrum of musical colors. Then along came punk and new wave as a reaction to disco and all of those 'dinosaur' bands of the 70s! But that's a whole 'nother story. Mark E. in Seattle ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:08:45 -0800 From: Randy Remote Subject: Re: DJRD / first post Paul Bishop wrote: > Hi All, > > my first post here (if i'm doing this right), and i'll > start by saying that listening to a second-hand double > LP DJRD was what made me sign up for this list. It > seems as if every single Joni article skips over this > album, lumping it in with her turn to less sturctured > songs, more free-form songs, but i feel it is one of > her richest albums. No argument here, Paul, DJRD is on my desert island list. I think it's a masterpiece, and unjustly overlooked- it should have been album of the year. > Have any of you read about Super String > Theory? The idea that the Universe is fundamentally > constructed of tiny vibrating strings? I haven't heard of this-but would love it to be true- take that, horn players! I must investigate... > The repeated use of "dream" imagery throughout the > album Good point-"In my dweems we fwy" , I never noticed, but you're right, the dream theme runs through the reams of schemes.... Great first post, welcome to the jmdl (jungle?). RR ps oh, to be a Hejira virgin! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:04:31 -0800 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: Re: What's missing from "Artist's Choice"? Lama, Jim L'Hommedieu wrote: > I noticed there's no Annie Ross on the Starbucks' disc "Joni > Mitchell- > Artist's Choice". I was surprised by this too. I thought there would surely be at least one LR&H song on the cd. Mark E. in Seattle ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2005 10:09:01 -0800 (PST) From: Smurf Subject: Sleeping With the Guitar Player --njc An old -- as in high-school-old! -- friend sent this to me today. It reminded me of so many people on the list, I wanted to share it. (It's also got Warren Zevon content, for those who like that.) I think it's a very good article. - --Smurf, needing to get away from this damn computer because it's THE FIRST DAMN DAY OF SPRING AND I AM WASTING IT INSIDE! Sleeping With the Guitar Player By JEAN HANFF KORELITZ Published: March 13, 2005, The New York Times In the Ages of Man, there are the classics - infancy, childhood, adulthood. We have the Midlife Crisis, of course, so dear to therapists and second wives everywhere. There is adolescence, which in some men seems to last, oh, well, when does it end? But in the last few years I've experienced, via my husband, another masculine stage, one I'd been blissfully unaware of. This is the time of a man's life that I must now and forever think of as the Guitar-in-the-Basement phase. Six years ago, when my husband, Paul Muldoon, a poet who teaches at Princeton, brought home an electric guitar, carried it down to the basement of our house in New Jersey and plugged it in, I was laughing too hard to absorb the enormity of what was happening. I knew he loved music. Growing up in Ireland during the 1960's, he was present at the birth of British rock, and he knew far more about American blues and its influence on both sides of the Atlantic than I had ever cared to learn. He leaped into action when the U2 tickets went on sale and had dragged me, over the years, to many, many concerts I despised. (I once fell asleep listening to Bob Dylan at the Beacon Theater.) Still, I failed to realize that the very loud sounds coming from beneath the living room floor portended great changes for our family. I was pregnant with our second child at the time, and to be honest, I wasn't focusing very well. When Paul played his guitar in the basement, the whole building vibrated, and I would sit there, one story up, swaying with nausea. When I couldn't stand it any longer, I went to the top of the basement stairs and flicked the light to get his attention. "Please. Stop." He stopped. But not for long. This was not, I would soon discover, a mere matter of purchasing a single musical instrument. We were on an acquisition conveyor belt of more guitars and related equipment, the charms of each soon negated by the undulations of the next. After that first guitar, a Cort, and its sidekick amplifier, Paul ordered up a Fender Stratocaster, a Gibson Les Paul, a Marshall amp, a reissue of a 1952 Telecaster ("like the guitar Keith plays"), an Ibanez acoustic/electric and a Fender Acoustasonic amp. It was a new and unwelcome side of a man I thought I'd known pretty well, a man who never shopped, who wore a watch with a cracked plastic band, and who drove an old unlovely car, knocked askew by a deer a decade ago. Now he was making special trips to Sam Ash in New York City (I imagined the salesmen nudging one another, "Here comes another Guitar-in-the-Basement dude, dude."). It was getting crowded down there under the floorboards. Gradually, I began to understand that it wasn't just him. There were hoards of men out there, roughly his age, frolicking in guitar wonderlands and shoring up amp arsenals in their own basements. In the weeks after Sept. 11, when I began each sad day with the Portraits of Grief in The New York Times, I read again and again of men commuting home from their working lives, descending their basement stairs, and rocking their Jersey or Westchester or Long Island houses to the rafters. Once, at a friend's dinner party, Paul was seated next to a terribly dull financial manager I'd been shackled with during cocktails. To my surprise, they quickly began an avid conversation, which lasted all through the meal. I kept my eye on them, at a loss to imagine what they might possibly have found to talk about, let alone with such animation. "He has a Stratocaster in his basement," Paul said happily as we drove home. "He just got a wah-wah pedal." Inevitably, Paul started to play with some of these men. There was a lawyer who possessed an entire recording studio in his apartment, then a professor of Renaissance poetry with a vast collection of guitars. Initially, heading out after dinner with the guitar packed into the back seat was a grand occasion, a thrilling adventure for him, if not for me, but soon it became a more routine outing. "You don't mind if I rehearse tonight, do you?" he'd ask. Rehearse? I'd think, baffled. He was still learning basic chords on the instrument. Rehearse? It took a long time for me to figure out what I was dealing with. But I'm a woman, which means that, in my heart of hearts, I have long understood that certain things are never going to happen in my life. I won't, by way of example, be modeling swimsuits for Sports Illustrated, representing my country as an Olympic gymnast or dancing Coppilia for the New York City Ballet. I have dealt with these disappointments and, in the idiom of our age, moved on. But my husband - my wonderful, endearing husband, who is extremely successful at writing and teaching poetry - believed, at the age of 53, that it was utterly possible for him to become a rock guitarist. On a stage. In front of an audience. Our 12-year-old daughter dubbed the new band Freaks With Guitars, but the actual name encompassed a more subtle humor. They were called Rackett, and by now the three older men had been joined by three cute young guys, just out of college. They started writing songs: the Renaissance poetry professor on music, my husband on lyrics. A couple of those cute young guys could really sing. The Renaissance poetry professor was a superb guitar player, actually. Within months, the recordings made in the lawyer's studio were sounding not all that different from the music my 12 year old was blasting in her room. The keyboardist, who runs his own breath-mint company, began to talk about producing the eventual CD's. I no longer bothered to try to talk some sense into my husband. What sense, after all? My notion of reality had departed the day I came home to find Paul playing, over and over, a recorded phone message from one of the few rock stars we both revered, Warren Zevon. Mr. Zevon had read some of his poetry. When Paul hit "play" on the answering machine, I heard the author of "Werewolves of London" and "Excitable Boy" pronounce my husband "The best damn poet on the planet." In due course they would meet, become friends, and write two songs together, including "My Ride's Here," the title track of Mr. Zevon's penultimate album. Books about the music business began to accumulate in our bathroom. Paul formed a publishing company to register his lyrics, and became a member of Ascap. Copies of Spin and Guitar World began to arrive monthly, along with an inexhaustible supply of Sam Ash catalogs. Rackett was offered its first gig, in a Greenwich Village club. The band's catalog of original songs stretched to 30, then 50. Bruce Springsteen produced a live recording of "My Ride's Here" for Warren Zevon's posthumous tribute album. I refuse to conclude from all this that I have been unknowingly married to a rock star for nigh on 18 years. I simply could not have been that unobservant, failing to notice the spandex in the closet, the tour bus in the garage, the groupies at the mailbox. Nor is this a story about years of hard work, prodigious innate musical talent and patient honing of "craft" reaching their inevitable, just conclusion. It occurs to me that much of his success in this odd endeavor derives from the fact that he just didn't know the whole thing was impossible, that his dearth of musicality, advanced age and lack of Rock Star lips meant that it was flatly impossible for him to become the thing he had decided he wanted to become. Then again, some of that obtuseness might have derived from being male in the first place. Unlike women, for whom menopause serves as an unignorable transition, a line dividing one part of life from another, men have no midlife marker to brake before, or even to steer around, in the hinterland from their youth to their age; there is only a great, elastic middle. Is it any wonder they lose track of where they are, and think they can do anything? And evidence being what it is, I'm forced to concur. Should Paul waltz in tomorrow and announce that he has decided to become an engineer, a painter or a matinee idol, I'm afraid I will be forced to give him the benefit of the doubt. On stage, he looks like a middle-aged Irish poet, bespectacled, dressed in the same rumpled suit he teaches in. He is not a great musician and still can play only seven chords (which is four more than you need, he points out). But to succeed at anything is just so unlikely in the first place. Why should the fact that he's 53 and a musical neophyte make watching his band rock out on stage any more bizarre for me? Why should I be so surprised by the possibility of being surprised? Then again, one of the great pleasures of being shocked by some amazing thing a loved one does is being aftershocked by something in ourselves. I'll admit that I have now done things I never thought I'd do, like bounce up and down in the dark basement of a rock club with a host of 20-somethings, an activity that might have recalled my lost youth had I ever done it when I myself was a 20-something. I have seen things I never thought I'd see, like a group of college students raising a sign with Paul's name on it in the audience at a Rackett performance. And I have said something I never thought I'd say, at the stage door of a New York club, as I attempted to carry his guitar - one of his guitars! - downstairs to the dressing room. The bouncer, after giving me a very dubious look, wondering, perhaps, if I hadn't just wandered in off a New Jersey soccer field (which was precisely where I'd been a few hours earlier), asked if he could help me. "That's all right," I told him, hoisting the guitar. "I'm with the band." Jean Hanff Korelitz lives near Princeton, N.J., with her husband and two children. She is the author of three novels, including "The White Rose" (Miramax Books). __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. http://info.mail.yahoo.com/mail_250 ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2005 #124 ***************************** ------- 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? (http://www.siquomb.com/siquomb.cfm)