From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2012 #777 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 Thursday, May 24 2012 Volume 2012 : Number 777 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- RE: People's Parties / Same Situation [Susan Tierney McNamara Subject: RE: People's Parties / Same Situation I love Court and Spark. It was the first album I owned, although I heard snippets of Blue and For The Roses on fm.radio. There was something about the flow of the album that almost played like a movie for me. Same Situation was one of those "written in blood" songs for me because when I was a teenager, the aspects of love and spirituality where so confused in my mind (maybe it was the chemicals I was injesting) but I think Joni's poetry was perfect for this feeling ... "with heaven full of astronauts and the Lord on death row ..." It also reminds me of that line in Lesson in Survival where she says " guru books, the Bible, only a reminder that you're just not good enough ..." Coincidentally, another segue song ... I also want to say that although Lava Rock (my now defunct band) couldn't hold the hem of the Mutts garment, we really worked hard on "Help Me" and I have to agree with Robin that there was something about the time signatures and the phrasing of the voice that really messed us up. In the end, our wonderful drummer, Vanessa, held the thing together with her ear for the rhythm and we ended up performing pretty good versions. I would always breathe a huge sigh of relief when we ended together ... Playing Joni live is not for wussies!!!! :-) Susan Tierney McNamara email: sem8@cornell.edu - -----Original Message----- From: owner-joni@smoe.org [mailto:owner-joni@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Robin Adler Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 2:37 PM To: Bob.Muller@Fluor.com Cc: Dave Blackburn; joni@smoe.org LIST Subject: Re: People's Parties / Same Situation > Well, not being a theoretically musical person, I would not have known > about the time change segue - is that trickier for a singer or for a > musician, or equally as tricky? As far as the theoretical aspect of the segue between PP and SS goes, I think it might be a bit trickier for a singer because if you are not counting correctly and you come in with the lyric at the wrong place you can cause a train wreck with the other musicians, especially when changing time signatures. The musicians and the singer are then left scrambling to get back in the groove so to speak. Because Joni accompanied herself on piano and guitar it offered her more freedom and spontaneity to move wherever and whenever she wanted regardless of form. In conversations with Max Bennett he said that her music was really different than anything he had ever played. She had everything clearly mapped out in her head and on cassette tape but then the musicians would have to write out their own charts to make sense of it. > hint)> > > Bob I understand that not having a theoretical musical background and talking about time signatures etc. may be foreign to some, but, they are a big part of the performance. Joni not only had her own internal genius but had an uncanny ability for observation and absorbing what she saw and heard from others. That segue between PP and SS may have been her noodling in 5/4 before going into a time signature that fit her lyrics better. When trying to recreate her music and follow her arrangements closely it takes some technical ability (i.e. memorization, having the words groove with the music etc.) I like to move through that phase as quickly as possible to what appears to be the effortless phase. That's when you can get into the story and the emotion. So when all that technical stuff is under my belt I can actually be at that party feeling insecure or isolated all of those things we can collectively relate too. Everything Bob described so well. ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2012 #777 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, send tojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------