From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2012 #1509 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://jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Tuesday, October 2 2012 Volume 2012 : Number 1509 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: JMDL Digest V2012 #1499 Joni songs that we hate, or don't quite like [Bob.Muller@Fluor.c] Re: quintessential Joni [Anita G ] quintessential Joni [Paul Ivice ] Re: quintessential Joni [Bob.Muller@Fluor.com] RE: Ruby Lake Photos [Susan Tierney McNamara ] Re: JMDL Digest V2012 #1499 Joni songs that we hate, or don't quite like [Dave Blackburn I loved it the first time I heard it. It sounded like a jazz standard then and is becoming one over time. A totally singable melody, witty and original lyrics, the whole package. And I'm glad Joni went with Chuck Domanico's stand-up bass over Jaco's, though I would be interested in what his creative mind might have done with it. Bob - ------------------------------------------------------------ The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. - ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 11:22:55 +0100 From: Anita G Subject: Re: quintessential Joni Paul, what a great question! And what a hard one. I have always been stunned and amazed by the lyric and feel of Hejira. The granite markers, those tributes to finality and eternity; And I simply love the lines: " In the church they light the candles And the wax rolls down like tears, There is the hope and hopelessness I've witnessed all these years" I can't believe she wrote that in her thirties. Extraordinary. However, watching 'Painting With Words and Music', I was struck by Joni's rendition of 'The Magdalene Laundries'. Playing this song to my friend who had never heard Joni, it would capture Joni's ability to find words for others in the most difficult situations. This finding words where others can't find any is a real key, for me, to Joni's music. Joni also sings it with such a haunting cry that I get chilled to the bone. Her description of the survivors of such abuse as 'lame bulbs' that will never bloom is so profound and works on so many levels. The guitar part is also interesting and the stark arrangement works brilliantly. I have shared on JMDL before that I have worked with Irish survivors of abuse by the Christian Brothers in Ireland and it is a song that they have found invaluable. I also saw Joni 'The Magdalene Laundries' it for the first time at the Edmonton Folk Festival in 1994, prior to the release of 'Turbulent Indigo' (when I got to meet her for the second time) so it has great memories of a time and place and of great joy in my life,too. That's what I would choose as my quintessentially Joni song today. But tomorrow it may be different! Anita > > Here's a question for all. I understand that much of Joni's magic comes > from > how she grew as a musician through a progression of genres, from folk to > rock > to jazz, > But if you had a friend who'd never heard of Joni and had to choose only > one > song of Joni's to play for your friend, what song would you choose that > would > give your friend the best sense of who Joni is? > In other words, what song do you think is quintessential Joni and why? > > > Paul Ivice ;>) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 05:17:44 -0400 (EDT) From: Paul Ivice Subject: quintessential Joni Catherine McKay wrote: I don't dislike "Big Yellow Taxi" and agree that it makes its point in a way that has stood the test of time, so I'm not disagreeing that it's a good song. Here's a question for all. I understand that much of Joni's magic comes from how she grew as a musician through a progression of genres, from folk to rock to jazz, But if you had a friend who'd never heard of Joni and had to choose only one song of Joni's to play for your friend, what song would you choose that would give your friend the best sense of who Joni is? In other words, what song do you think is quintessential Joni and why? Paul Ivice ;>) ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 08:24:01 -0400 From: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Subject: Re: quintessential Joni Back in the day, I made mix tapes for people (which morphed into CD's), typically consisting of music that I didn't think they had but would like based on what I knew about them. The early Pandora genome, if you will. Sometimes I hit a bullseye ("Animal Day" by Wall of Voodoo became one of my younger sister's favorite songs) and sometimes I missed the mark (my older sister - don't make me listen to ANOTHER Elvis Costello song ever!") I say this as a semi-answer to the question; for me it would depend on WHO I was sharing with. I wouldn't hesitate to use "Hejira" for me Dad who is a word guy but wouldn't throw that one at too many others. If my friend was more comfortable with country music they would probably get "You Turn Me On" as an intro. If it was someone I was trying to ditch and never hear from again it would be "Dancing Clown"....and so on. I'm not sure there is such a thing as a quintessential Joni song - the word almost forces a sense of limitation, of pigeonholing that's not fair to Joni or to the listener. It would be a better exercise to play a 5-6 song set to showcase Joni's versatility. Bob - ------------------------------------------------------------ The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain proprietary, business-confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this message you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction or any action taken in reliance upon this message is prohibited. If you received this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of the company. - ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2012 12:39:54 +0000 From: Susan Tierney McNamara Subject: RE: Ruby Lake Photos Wow, I'm so happy for all of you! What a wonderful opportunity to be with Joni! I'm still waiting to hear snippets from your conversations. I love how she reacted to the recycled purse that you gave her, Cassy. She obviously loved it! I would have loved to have been there with you, my dear friends. :-) Love, Sue Susan McNamara email: sem8@cornell.edu Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2012 4:24 PM To: JMDL Subject: Ruby Lake Photos For those of you who are not on Facebook, here is a link to my photographs from our Ruby Lake hejira: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4676301994710.185216.1508525181&typ e=3 Ib?d love to be able to articulate the weekend but Ib?m still processing it all. love, Cassy ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2012 07:14:47 -0700 From: Dave Blackburn Subject: Re: JMDL Digest V2012 #1499 Joni songs that we hate, or don't quite like On Oct 2, 2012, at 5:13 AM, Bob.Muller@Fluor.com wrote: > I quite like "Blue Motel Room". I think it's jazzy, bluesy and humourous > as well. It doesn't come off as affected to me at all.> I wrote this piece about Blue Motel Room in a post in 2007. In case anyone would like to read it (or re-read it) here it is again: Much has been said (and no doubt remains to be said) about the philosophical depth of certain songs on Hejira (Hejira, Refuge of the Roads, Amelia) as well as about others which offer rich Shakespearean character portraits (Old Furry, Coyote, A Strange Boy, possibly even the absent Sharon by inference). Blue Motel Room appears, on the surface, to contain neither; It has an easy swing groove from another era (the romantic Bing Crosby era that Joni grew up in and loved--as she describes in the WOHAM DVD). Some feel that its torch ballad vibe is out of place stylistically on the album, and that the sentiments are relative fluff compared to the penetrating insights and poetic craft so evident on the Hejira album as a whole. I offer these thoughts: Blue Motel Room reveals a side of Joni seldom shown before or after: namely, sweetness. Vulnerability is all over Blue of course, and self reflection is everywhere in her career, but there's a particular sweetness in her plain language here: "will you still love me when I get back to L.A town" or "I hope you'll be thinking of me, because I'll be thinking of you, when I'm traveling home alone." Perhaps "See you Sometime" shows a similar side of Joni but I can't think of many other examples from her work of such unguarded softness. As such, I think the song offers an almost unique angle of this most complex woman. Here she is the opposite of the tough worldly rock star, the later political ranter or the sardonic commentator on humanity's baseness. Joni the girl is still visible here. Dare I say it, but it's sexy... Then thematically, on a road album, what could be more apt than home sickness in a drab motel room in the pouring rain in the opposite corner of the continent from where you live? Road adventures when alone usually contain more of that feeling than exciting liaisons or spiritual awakenings, even though she manages all three on this legendary trip (that we all wish we were a fly on the wall for). As Joni often does, she word associates heavily in this song: on the word "Blue", not for the first or last time. Blue bedspread, blue motel room, the blues inside and outside my head (no doubt suggesting the relaxed blues feel of the music to her). For a painter, what could come more naturally than seeing the connections between and connotations of colors. The poet is still crafting language threads even with her "high falutin'" switch turned off. I also love the cold war metaphor, anachronistic as it became. She probably saw some TV news in her blue motel room with some Soviet/US developments about peace talks and instantly wove that beautifully into the song. Blue Motel Room is a lovely piece of colored cloth that fits into Hejira's rag rug in a gentle and most sensuous way. I love it... Dave ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2012 #1509 ****************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------