From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2012 #1692 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 Friday, November 16 2012 Volume 2012 : Number 1692 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Joni bits [Jussi Pukkila ] Joni bits [Jussi Pukkila ] Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2012 #388 [Stdoherty ] Re: Sweet Bird, 100% JC [Sally ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 03:27:31 +0200 From: Jussi Pukkila Subject: Joni bits 2) Annie Lennox recites... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2012 02:25:46 +0200 From: Jussi Pukkila Subject: Joni bits 1) Tracey Thorn (of Everything But The Girl) covers Joni's "River" on her new xmas album "Tinsel and Lights" 2) Joni Mitchell recites the lyrics of "River" in her latest blog post: 1 New Annie Blog - 11/14/12 Wed Nov 14, 2012 3:29 pm (PST) . Posted by: "rexms2002" rexms2002 https://www.facebook.com/annielennox Two years ago it felt like Christmas every day for me as I was recording The Cornucopia through the first half of 2010. Suddenly it's November 2012 and quite frankly it really doesn't feel like anywhere near Xmas in any shape or form whatsoever. According to some department stores and shopping malls, the run up to Xmas actually started in September. Which I suppose makes some kind of sense if you parallel it with Global warming... Undeniable to some, and absolutely deniable ...to others. In any case, whatever's happening to the weather system and the seasons, we have to admit that something seems to be amiss in the state of Denmark! So ...It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees..They' re putting' up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace ( as the great lady sang) .. Do you wish you had a river that you could skate away on?!! River by Joni Mitchell It's coming on Christmas They're cutting down trees They're putting up reindeer And singing songs of joy and peace Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on But it don't snow here It stays pretty green I'm going to make a lot of money Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on I wish I had a river so long I would teach my feet to fly I wish I had a river I could skate away on I made my baby cry He tried hard to help me You know, he put me at ease And he loved me so naughty Made me weak in the knees Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on I'm so hard to handle I'm selfish and I'm sad Now I've gone and lost the best baby That I ever had I wish I had a river I could skate away on https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/c0.0.843.403/p843x403/579233_10151242534779589_1461482678_n.jpg ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 22:55:43 -0500 (EST) From: Stdoherty Subject: Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2012 #388 Cold Bue Steel and Sweet Fire Rainy Night House Stay In Touch Ethiopia The Hissing of Summer Lawns Furry Sings the Blues That Song About the Midway For Free Underneath the Streetlight Amelia Dog Eat Dog Passion Play (When All th Slaves Are Free) Edith and the Kingpin Don Juan's Reckless Daughter A Case of You ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:33:43 -0500 From: Sally Subject: Re: Sweet Bird, 100% JC Hi all! Just enthusiastically dropping back in on this topic...what I consider Joni's most brilliant work. I was interested in what you said Jim, about the fade in at the beginning of the song. It lends a dream-like quality of timelessness to the thing, right? Like we don't know where we are in the story if in fact there even is a story but it doesn't matter anyway. It's like it's been playing forever and we just got dropped in at some random point. The genius of that is mind-blowing! I think that it winds up in much the same way. When she begins singing, "guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching", she puts the phrasing breaks at a different point each time, and it ends up running together the end of one line, into the beginning of the next...so that we feel rushed in one sense, and slowed down in another sense. It gives us a feeling about the passing of time in an uncertain way I think. It's a freaking brilliant lesson in great writing, great playing, and inspired execution. This seems like a very deeply felt spiritual track...seems like Joni is looking at the passing of time and the futility of our efforts to find truth in the limited time we have to do it. I get this "is there a god?" feeling from it. And we get the answer..."sweet bird of time and change/you must be laughing/up on your feathers laughing". As I said originally, this track even hundreds of plays later is very moving to me. Sometimes it's an out of body thing and rather than hear it, I hear the truth behind it. Even though Hejira is my favorite record, for me this track is the pinnacle of JM's songwriting and musicianship...it's Joni hitting the apex and finding the center of what is... Beautiful! Sent from Confunction Junction on my iPhone On Nov 15, 2012, at 10:49 PM, Dave Blackburn wrote: > I find the guitar/piano break fascinating; the way it speeds up the tempo and skips a beat, like a heart palpitation. And the lagoon of disembodied voices that swirl. It is inspired record making. > > On Nov 15, 2012, at 6:47 PM, "Mark" wrote: > >> Count me among the admirers of 'Sweet Bird'. Some of you may remember a piece I wrote for a JMDL writing contest many years ago that used the song as its jumping off point. >> >> 'Out on some borderline >> Some mark of in-between >> I lay down golden in time >> And woke up vanishing' >> >> There was something about this song that appealed to me way back in my 20s. Now that I'm 58, it resonates more than ever. The passage of time seems to have been unbelievably swift and I often feel like I went to sleep somewhere along the way and 'woke up vanishing'. >> >> My favorite lines, however, are these: >> >> 'Give me some time >> I feel like I'm losing mine >> Out here on this horizon line >> With the earth spinning and the sky forever rushing...' >> >> That image of being 'out here on this horizon line with the earth spinning and the sky forever rushing' can still bring on stirrings of the heart and mind that make me emotionally and mentally dizzy. The Circle Game played out at such a speed and to a place it was impossible for me to imagine back there behind from where I came when I first heard 'Sweet Bird'. It is nothing less than another deeply felt, exquisitely expressed mediation on the passage of time from a woman who is a genius in her art. >> >> Jim, you described the music and the feeling of the song so beautifully. It is beyond words. >> >> Mark in Seattle >> >> -----Original Message----- From: jlhommedieu@insight.rr.com >> Sent: Thursday, November 15, 2012 2:18 PM >> To: scd8556@aol.com> >> Cc: JMDL >> Subject: Sweet Bird, 100% JC >> >> Me too. Even the beginning of the song, the way it fades IN rather than fading >> out sounds strange, as if it is playing backwards. The piano meanders around, >> as if it was recorded backwards. >> >> When Joni starts singing >>>> out on some borderline >> >> she does that strange drop on "line" that seems other worldly. Then she >> starts talking about youth as if she was beyond life and death. It is as if >> she in the great beyond, remembering what Life was like. For me, it is eerie >> but also comforting. That track is beyond words. >> >> Jim L >> >>> Sally said, in part, >> Taken as a whole, for me that track is almost like an out of body experience. >> I find that sometimes when I listen to it, it's as if I don't actually hear >> it...rather I understand the complete truth in it. It's very moving for >> me...even hundreds of plays later. ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2012 #1692 ****************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------