From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2011 #381 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 381 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Court and Spark [Bob Muller ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:53:00 -0700 (PDT) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Court and Spark Bob, As always I enjoy what you have to say - I agree that much of the melancholy of these songs is diguised in lighter, airy jazz-like arrangements. A perfect example is "Help Me" - I mean the pace and melody and arrangement is fun and catchy and makes you want to sing along, but the overlying message is HELP ME - I'M IN TROUBLE. Certainly not a happy carefree fun message. You can say that the message is tongue-in-cheek, or just an inner voice speaking, but in the end the singer realizes that she is falling in love alone and both parties desire their freedom more than anything. And like you say, in contrast, Blue is described as a dark album of glum depression but has many songs that aren't nearly as dark as the images and concepts of C&S, it just SOUNDS that way because of the stark instrumentation. Which isn't to say that Blue is a happy album (it isn't) or that Court and Spark is a better album (it isn't). Both are masterpieces in their own right of course. This thread has had me singing C&S songs in my head all week, and sometimes out loud walking the Beijing streets. I mean, the Chinese are going to look at me anyway, they might as well have a reason. Besides, I'm hoping that one will wander up to me and say "Oh I just ADORE Joni". :-) I also think Kakki hit the nail square on the head regarding the lack of C&S songs on MOA. I'm sure she wanted to re-introduce some of her earlier material to new fans who only knew of her from C&S, both in terms of moving units of those earlier albums as well as the pleasure of taking some of those songs (Carey, Rainy Night House, Woodstock) and re-inventing them not just for the audience but for herself. Bob NP: Fleet Foxes, "Bedouin Dress" ________________________________ From: Robert Sartorius To: joni@smoe.org; onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Cc: scjoniguy@yahoo.com Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2011 1:28 AM 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 #381 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, send to joni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------