From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2012 #699 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 Wednesday, May 9 2012 Volume 2012 : Number 699 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: What does "mutts of the planet" mean? ["Mark" Subject: Re: What does "mutts of the planet" mean? I think there are a lot of Joni's lyrics that I never stopped to think about what they might really mean. They left impressions in my head but I never bothered to analyze them too closely. Perhaps this is inane but for a long time I thought 'mutts of the planet' was a reference to the expression 'raining cats and dogs'. I never thought about the exclusion of the cats. In view of Joni's love of cats, it would seem odd that she would leave them out, eh? I just always figured that staring out through the rain at the boats in the harbor had gotten Charles to thinking about his life and doing some soul searching. I still think that is what Joni was expressing in the song. But now the possibility of a specific connection between 'the rain slammed hard as bars' and the line 'and shook me down for alibis' has intrigued me. Bars slammed implies being locked up in a jail cell in my mind and when I think about it in that context and put it with 'shook me down for alibis', what I come up with is an interrogation. In this case, a self interrogation. I was just looking at 'Beneath the Underdog' on the Amazon website, and the book begins as a question and answer session between Mingus and a psychologist. As someone else pointed out, Joni distilled some of this exchange (interrogation?) into the lyrics of 'God Must Be a Boogie Man'. Mingus is held to that chair, looking through 'bars' of rain that give an impression of imprisonment. He's locked up inside his own body (maybe like mutts in a dog pound kennel? - too much of a stretch probably) and interrogating himself about his past motives and actions. The next line of the song is 'I'm waiting for the keeper to release me' and it goes on from there. Held to that chair in the sky, staring through bars of rain at Manhattan and boats in the harbor, hearing Charlie Parker either on his phonograph or in his head, he is unable to do anything but reflect on his life while he waits for the end of it. I know there must be something more to 'mutts of the planet' but if it's in Charles Mingus' autobiography, Amazon hasn't made enough of it electronically accessible for me to find it. Searching for the word 'mutt' didn't bring up anything. Maybe somebody else knows? Mark in Seattle - -----Original Message----- From: Dave Blackburn Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2012 7:39 AM To: Bill Branyon ; joni@smoe.org LIST Subject: What does "mutts of the planet" mean? Bill, I'll offer 2c worth on this, it being the name I chose for my Joni Mitchell tribute band. Grammatically, it seems that the raindrops are the mutts of the planet, which could make sense in the way they fall on everything and mingle and merge like mutts. But, as I believe has been discussed before here, Joni may have felt a kinship with Mingus at this time as she was dating Don Alias, and Mingus was married to a white woman. Possibly the mixed race relationships they both had produced the idea of mutts too. How that ties with shaking down for alibis has me head scratching though. If you Google Mutts of the Planet, there is no other reference but this lyric so it is not an expression that Joni borrowed; definitely it's her own creation. Bird is definitely Charlie Parker. When Joni met Mingus he was wheelchair bound in a New York apartment, hence "Manhattan holds me to a chair in the sky, with the Bird in my ears and boats in my eyes." He subsequently went down to spend his last days in Mexico, as the line in Goodbye Porkpie Hat says "Now Charlie's down in Mexico with the healers." Dave (whose Mutts band is now in its seventh year :-) On May 9, 2012, at 6:44 AM, Bill Branyon wrote: > Does anyone know what this phrase means from the Mingus album and the > song, > the Chair in the Sky: > The rain fell hard as bars > It took my by surprise > MUTTS > OF THE PLANET > and shook me down for alibis. > > What does "mutts of the planet" ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2012 #699 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, send tojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------