From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2011 #378 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, October 21 2011 Volume 2011 : Number 378 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- RE: Court and Spark [Susan Tierney McNamara ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:44:34 +0000 From: Susan Tierney McNamara Subject: RE: Court and Spark GREAT discussion ... but I have to disagree on several points ... there are very strong emotional dilemmas in a couple of the songs ... sometimes in portraiture (down to you and trouble child) and sometimes in first person (peoples parties, same situation, car on a hill) but I disagree that the album has a stream of mental health (or I guess you should say mental disease). From everything I've read about Joni and her struggles with depression they seem to be situational to not only her relationships but also what she feels are barriers to her artistic freedom and expression. The music business became a rat race to escape, plus her relationships brought about ego battles with men who were clearly engaged in the same strata of success that she was dealing with. I don't think a woman at this time with Joni's level of success could be described as having a mental disease. She actually dealt with sorrow and disappointment better than most (the supposed suicide attempt aside)... by creating some of the most beautiful expressions of the human dilemma that I've ever heard. This is not a crazy emotional woman wasting her life on bad relationships ... this is an artist of the highest caliber. Plus can I add that there are a number of other songs on Court & Spark that are not submerged in angst ... Court and Spark (an amazing love song), Free Man in Paris, Just Like this Train, and Raised on Robbery. Bob, I do like your comparison of Blue and C&S though ... both have those bare moments of emotion despite the difference of solo performance with full band. Nice point! Yeah, I love this list. Take care, Sue - -----Original Message----- From: owner-joni@smoe.org [mailto:owner-joni@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Robert Sartorius Sent: Friday, October 21, 2011 1:29 PM To: joni@smoe.org; onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Cc: scjoniguy@yahoo.com Subject: RE: Court and Spark Bob wrote: "The whole of C&S is multi-thematic I think, and one of the streams of theme running through it is mental health. People's Parties - I told you when I met you I was CRAZY Help Me - When I get this CRAZY feeling.... Just Like This Train - Jealous lovin' will make you CRAZY And then the bookends that conclude the album - Trouble Child and Twisted; one very heavy dealing with mental health issues and one very playful. As much as Hejira is my musical touchstone on any given day I'll call C&S my favorite Joni." Whoa - there you go again, Bob, coming for "conversation". Amid the stretch of six original recordings from Blue through Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, I bet a majority of us could say the same about our favorite and our next favorite on any given day, but there would be a pretty wide distribution of answers for the favorite and next favorite. Heck, you could even throw in LOTC and make it seven. At one time or another, I think I have loved all of them the most. The mental health theme in Court and Spark rings true to me - I think the songs reveal a vulnerability akin to her "Blue" recording period, which cannot really be masked by the shift from solo performances to having a band and a gang for support. Some additional bits of evidence (beyond those cited by Bob above): Court and Spark - "He saw how I worried sometimes, I worry sometimes" People's Parties (more) - "I'm just living on nerves and feelings....fumbling deaf dumb and blind...I wish I had more sense of humor, keeping the sadness at bay, throwing the lightness on these things, laughing it all away...." The Same Situation - "You've had lots of lovely women, now you turn your gaze to me, weighing the beauty and the imperfection to see if I'm worthy, Like the church like a cop like a mother, you want me to be truthful Sometimes you turn it one me like a weapon though and I need your approval". This song has been speculated as her Warren Beatty song, but it could well be Jackson Browne, in the context of Car on a Hill - especially the lines "like a mother" and "weapon though, and I need your approval." Car on a Hill - "I watch for judgment anxiously" "I've been sitting up waiting for my sugar to show......He said he'd be over three hours ago..... now where in the city can that boy be?" And, if the "Girls Like Us" account is accurate, these concerns bothered Joni more than a lot. Down to You - "Everything comes and goes, pleasure moves on too early and trouble leaves too slow, just when you're thinking you've finally got it made, bad news comes knocking at your garden gate". Just Like This Train (more) - "I went looking for a cause, or a strong cat without claws, or any reason to resume......what are you gonna do now, you've no one to give your love to". Another main theme - the search for love vs the struggle for higher position - - runs through through several of the songs (continuing, as it were, where she left off in For the Roses). In terms of inspiration, this album seems more and more to me to have been influenced by her Jackson Browne period, much as her earlier records were inspired by her Cohen, Nash and Taylor periods. I can picture that relationship (and its end and aftermath) as the inspiration for Help Me, The Same Situation, Car on a Hill, Down To You, Just Like This Train and Trouble Child. Those tensions and themes - mental health, search for love vs art, the arc of a specific relationship - fueled Joni's art. The more intense the moments, the stronger the art, or so it seems to me. She was going through a lot at that time - and a lot came out of her through it. One thing that has always raised my eyebrows - Miles of Aisles was recorded and released after Court and Spark, and recorded during her "Court and Spark Tour", yet Joni included only one C&S song on MOA. Does anybody know why? Bobsart ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2011 #378 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, send to joni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------