From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2011 #226 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Website: http://jmdl.com JMDL Digest Friday, August 5 2011 Volume 2011 : Number 226 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Cold Blue Steel [Michel BYRNE ] Brief Joni mention in Tuesday's LA Times [Steve Dulson ] Re: Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire [Merk54@aol.com] Re: Almost-rhymes ["Jim L'Hommedieu" ] Cash, NJC [LC Stanley ] Re: Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire [Mags ] RE: Cold Blue Steel et al ["Robert Sartorius" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 11:45:38 +0000 From: Michel BYRNE Subject: Cold Blue Steel Not much to add to a great discussion of a great song- thanks all! Just two things found on Youtube: a posted comment saying that in a live recording Joni introduced the song thus: "Cold Blue Steel is the needle and the junkie, Sweet Fire is the drug and the dealer,o;? and Lady Release is madam death herself. It's a morbid little song." More typically, in a concert of Nov 72 she stops herself from explaining anything about the song, not wanting it to become an English class...:) Also here's a link to Tim Curry's version. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6GdeJhxJ0s This has to be one of the best JM covers ever! The deceptive melodic beauty sacrificed to bring out the brutal poetry of the lyrics... Michel ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 10:29:51 -0400 From: Steve Dulson Subject: Brief Joni mention in Tuesday's LA Times In a column called "Personal Playlist" they spoke with Brit singer Josh Stone, who is in a group called SuperHeavy with Mick Jagger (!), Dave Stewart (!) and others. "I'm obsessed with Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' album,"says Stone, ..."I guess I'm late to it, but I listen to it all the time at home." She also likes a London singer named Birdy. *************************************************** Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA FAR-West (Folk Alliance Region - West) tinkersown@ca.rr.com www.far-west.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 16:04:24 +0000 From: betsyblue82@gmail.com Subject: Almost-rhymes >In this line she puts two words together that have similar sounds but they don't rhyme: Joni Mitchell said, >"Pin cushion prick fix this poor bad dreamer"> Jim, I knew there was something familiar about her Conspiracy of Hope rant. "Quit pitching shit....Dig?" Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 12:44:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire Thanks for the kind words about my version, Muller. Jeebus, it has been drawn to my attention that that was probably 2003 at Jonifest! That's eight years ago! Where the hell does the time go? I like that "fever and the scum-brown bowl" line too. Not sure if she means a really dirty sink or a toilet, but it really sums up the sordidness and dinginess of it, and kind of gives me the creepy-crawlies thinking about it, and looking for a Javex bottle ;-) I think, when a person is really "in the zone" as you say, or fiercely concentrating on a powerful image, they can probably write the poem/song/words/whatever in a short time, and it practically writes itself. I'd love to be a fly on the wall to witness Joni's song-writing process in any case. - --- On Wed, 8/3/11, Bob Muller wrote: From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire To: "Michael Paz" , FMYFL@aol.com Cc: sem8@cornell.edu, joni@smoe.org Received: Wednesday, August 3, 2011, 7:54 PM Catherine also did a great version of it at the Full Moon. She did Electricity too, and another one, might have been from FTR or not but I think that it was. I really enjoyed that set of hers and remember it well. And even though it's probably talked out, no one has mentioned one of my favorite Joni "image" lines that comes from this song: "fever in the scum-brown bowl" Very vivid image, that one, and a perfect series of words to describe it. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts on this song, the depth of it is truly incredible. I wonder how long it took her to write it? I'll bet not long, she was just in the zone and it spilled out. Bob NP: Elton John, "Tickin'" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 15:20:55 -0500 From: LC Stanley Subject: Joni Mitchell - This Flight Tonight Joni live. Best I've heard. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRDHuJaCWvE&feature=youtube_gdata_player ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 16:28:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Merk54@aol.com Subject: Re: Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire I always thought of the scum-brown bowl as the "bowl" of the spoon used to heat the heroin. Jack In a message dated 8/4/2011 2:53:42 P.M. Central Daylight Time, anima_rising@yahoo.ca writes: Thanks for the kind words about my version, Muller. Jeebus, it has been drawn to my attention that that was probably 2003 at Jonifest! That's eight years ago! Where the hell does the time go? I like that "fever and the scum-brown bowl" line too. Not sure if she means a really dirty sink or a toilet, but it really sums up the sordidness and dinginess of it, and kind of gives me the creepy-crawlies thinking about it, and looking for a Javex bottle ;-) I think, when a person is really "in the zone" as you say, or fiercely concentrating on a powerful image, they can probably write the poem/song/words/whatever in a short time, and it practically writes itself. I'd love to be a fly on the wall to witness Joni's song-writing process in any case. - --- On Wed, 8/3/11, Bob Muller wrote: From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire To: "Michael Paz" , FMYFL@aol.com Cc: sem8@cornell.edu, joni@smoe.org Received: Wednesday, August 3, 2011, 7:54 PM Catherine also did a great version of it at the Full Moon. She did Electricity too, and another one, might have been from FTR or not but I think that it was. I really enjoyed that set of hers and remember it well. And even though it's probably talked out, no one has mentioned one of my favorite Joni "image" lines that comes from this song: "fever in the scum-brown bowl" Very vivid image, that one, and a perfect series of words to describe it. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts on this song, the depth of it is truly incredible. I wonder how long it took her to write it? I'll bet not long, she was just in the zone and it spilled out. Bob NP: Elton John, "Tickin'" ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:36:54 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: Re: Almost-rhymes Right. And don't forget >Concrete concentration camp> betsyblue82@gmail.com wrote: >Jim, I knew there was something familiar about her Conspiracy of Hope rant. "Quit pitching shit....Dig?"> Jim said, >>In this line she puts two words together that have similar sounds but they don't rhyme>> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 22:11:22 -0500 From: LC Stanley Subject: Cash, NJC At the Johnny Cash Music Festival right now. Roesanne is singing Get Rhythm with her ex-husband and their daughter. It is AWESOME!!!! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 21:21:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Mags Subject: Re: Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire ________________________________ Humble as always Catherine wrote: Thanks for the kind words about my version, Muller. Jeebus, it has been drawn to my attention that that was probably 2003 at Jonifest! That's eight years ago! Where the hell does the time go? and now me: Catherine, I have always loved your version of Cold Blue Steel...it is yours and that's all there is to it ;P You nailed it baby! As well, I wanted to chime in and say that for me, Edith is Bob Muller's song. ditto on the kudos bro. I can still hear both of you singing these songs and it's an awesome memory, time and time again. I am enjoying all the posts about Edith and Cold Blue Steel. Fwiw, I think that the cold blue steel is that nasty needle. With that said, i do like gene's interpretation that it refers to a gun. The scum brown bowl..well the image that came to mind for me was in Trainspotting....nasty toilet bowl. Haha re: the Javex bottle ! I don't have a whole lot more to contribute to what has already been said. Enjoying the dissections very much indeedy! Hmm Catherine, it seems like only a couple of weeks ago that we were standing on the corner looking for some cafe in Trawna. ha...how time flies, yea. As for time passages, life just keeps getting better and better. I still need to relate that great Joni story .. one of these old days...;-) Mags~ ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 5 Aug 2011 01:07:11 -0400 From: "Robert Sartorius" Subject: RE: Cold Blue Steel et al Bob M wrote "I wonder how long it took her to write it? I'll bet not long, she was just in the zone and it spilled out." I think that Bob M and I have expressed our different views on this before. I find Joni's work (and especially her earlier work) to be so meticulous as to defy that type of process. I do not see her (or most) genius in quite that light. My view is more Edisonian (i.e., 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration - I can see 20-80, but not 80-20). I recall Graham Nash's comments to the effect of "Joni would channel for hours. She'd be right there, physically, but mentally she was gone. And it was a wonderful thing to see." Another good example is the lyric to I Had A King, which Whitesell dissected for all of its recurrent internal rhyme schemes. And you know there were many more. On the song at issue, I have always seen Cold Blue Steel (Blue Steel, informally) to be the junkie. Sweet Fire is symbolic of the drug, and Lady Release is both the addiction itself and the state of escape into which the addict (and his seductive but superficial lover, the drug) fall, upon consummating their relationship once again with each episode. I think the quotes "Come with me, I know the way" are those of Lady Release. As a work of art, this song is in my top 5 all-around Joni masterpieces. For The Roses is quite a record - perhaps her most underrated album, considering its stature in the popular culture relative to Blue and Court and Spark, which bookended it chronologically. Bobsart ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2011 #226 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, send to joni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------