From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2013 #457 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, April 9 2013 Volume 2013 : Number 457 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Review of Ladies of the Canyon, as reissued on LP by Reprise ["Jim L'Homm] Re: Joni in her kitchen [LC Stanley ] Re: Joni in her kitchen [Jim ] Discovering Robin Adler / Rejoining the JMDL - Ange in Oz (SJC) [Ange T <] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2013 13:48:58 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: Review of Ladies of the Canyon, as reissued on LP by Reprise I was reading reviews of the LP re-issues of some of Joni's Reprise records when I found this review. He talks at length about the songs themselves before he gets around to reviewing the quality of the reissue. On a scale of 10, he rates the music as a 10 and the technical quality of the sound as 10 also. http://www.analogplanet.com/content/joni-mitchell%E2%80%99s-laurel-canyon-rediscovered Reprise/Rhino R1 6376 180g LP Produced by: Joni Mitchell and Henry Lewy Engineered by: Henry Lewy Mixed by: Henry Lewy Mastered by: Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering - -------------------- "Joni Mitchells Laurel Canyon Rediscovered" Posted By Randy Wells on June 28, 2012 Joni Mitchells decision to stay in New York City instead of traveling 300 miles north to attend a three-day rock festival in August of 1969 was probably a good idea. If she had actually seen Woodstock for herself, she may not have created such an intense and idealized song by the same name. David Crosby of the group Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (CSNY), which made Mitchells Woodstock a big hit in 1970, said that she captured the feeling and importance of the Woodstock festival better than anyone who had been there. Her songs about Los Angeles Laurel Canyon community written around the same time received similar attention to detail. The resulting album, Ladies Of The Canyon, revealed a more confident singer-songwriter. Still restless and introspective, her music showed more lyrical maturity and rhythmic drive compared to her previous release, the 1969 Grammy award winning Clouds. Her delicate vocals seemed to have gained another octave as she reached deeper to convey her feelings about life, love and its complexities. In 1969, the Aquarian themes of Woodstock (peace, love and music) were being played out on a smaller scale in the secluded Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon, which is defined by a road that links Hollywood Blvd. to Mulholland Drive. Two years earlier Mitchell had purchased a wooden cottage surrounded by cypress trees that had been built by a jazz musician into the side of a hill on Lookout Mountain Avenue. Living in Laurel Canyon also meant that friends surrounded her, including Crosby, Stephen Stills, John Sebastian, Linda Ronstadt, Carol King, and Cass Elliot. Several of the songs Mitchell wrote at the time, including the title track, were a direct result of her embracing that slice of bohemian counter-culture while maintaining a sense of domesticity. They also reflected her close ties to the members of CSNY, who helped sing back up harmony on the albums The Circle Game  a song that was inspired by fellow Canadian Neil Youngs Sugar Mountain. Mitchells blossoming relationship with her boyfriend Graham Nash was also significant. They had fallen in love the previous year and were living together in Mitchells home (with two cats in the yard). Willy was Nashs nickname and the song Mitchell composed about him. It was written during a trip they made together to shoot the inside gatefold photograph for CSNs debut album. That song laid out their relationship bare for all to see. Nash would respond with Our House on Dij` Vu and later with Simple Man on Songs For Beginners  when they broke up after Ladies Of The Canyon was released. Everything about Ladies... had been honed to a fine edge, but that polishing also meant more work. Drawings by Mitchell were featured on the soft matte cover, and her handwritten lyrics graced the inside gatefold (with a line missing from Woodstock). At the time she observed, The drawings, the music and the words are very much tied together. (Its) the kind of material I want to write  I want to be brighter, to get people up, to grab people. So Im stifling my feelings of solitude. Mitchell would return to those feelings of solitude on her next album, embarking on a confessional journey that would produce her dark masterpiece, Blue. But that record of painful beauty was a year away. Ladies, while just as sparse in its arrangements, remained mostly innocent and was far less self-questioning. The songs were performed on piano and guitar in a style that was changing from the acoustic folk of her first two albums to something like the pop sound she would later achieve on her best selling record, Court and Spark. Like that release, Ladies... was recorded in nearby Hollywood at A&M Records Studio - because the piano at A&M is the best in the whole world, said Mitchell. Henry Lewy handled engineering duties and provided guidance in producing the additional cello, clarinet, saxophone, flute, and percussion. Released as RS 6376 on Reprise Records in the spring of 1970 when Mitchell was 26 years old, the LP sold quickly and became her first gold record. It confirmed Mitchells ability to convey complicated emotions in a simple way. Take for example the charming Morning Morgantown. This lead off tune echoes the sunny Chelsea Morning from her previous album, but adds a poignant tone to her soaring vocals, making it much more introspective. For Free could have been written about todays abundance of struggling artists. It portrays a street musician who keeps playing even though he isnt really getting paid. Mitchell questions her own good fortune of becoming successful while wondering what freedoms she may have given up in the process (this struggle between art and commerce would be revisited). Conversation is her first soft rocker that churns away on the back of strumming guitars and bop vocals by The Saskatunes (in actuality a multi-tracked Mitchell). The environmental anthem Big Yellow Taxi with its unforgettable line they paved paradise and put up a parking lot may be her best-known track on the album. The lyrics were inspired by a view Mitchell saw from her Honolulu hotel room. Amazingly, she effectively connects the betrayal of the land to a taxi that takes her lover away. Who else could diffuse an ecological protest song by wrapping it up in romanticism and finishing it off with a laugh? And then theres The Circle Game which remains one of her most magical songs if simply for the reason its the archetype of a vision that is both achingly personal and universally thematic without becoming too sentimental. In retrospect, Joni Mitchell was blossoming as an artist on Ladies Of The Canyon. It provided a personal platform on which she could paint her ever-evolving canvas. Conflicted between her desire for love and a need for independence, Mitchell expressed a variety of emotions based on her experiences, including those in Laurel Canyon. Like her earlier work, its optimistic - but its also significantly more mature in outlook. The hopes and dreams of a generation of California baby boomers may be gone, but we still have this album to listen to. Essential. - -------------------- All the best, Jim L'Hommedieu Columbus, Ohio ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2013 10:43:12 -0700 (PDT) From: LC Stanley Subject: Re: Joni in her kitchen I think it is hard not to grieve as life goes on because there is so much loss over a life time. "Everything comes and goes..." Everything. ________________________________ From: Shari Eaton To: Corey Blake Cc: Raffaele Malanga ; "joni@smoe.org" Sent: Monday, April 8, 2013 11:23 AM Subject: Re: Joni in her kitchen I said it *looks* like she could be grieving. As you've all said she looks incredibly vulnerable. I posed the question - would you appreciate ppl sharing this kind of photo of you? No one has responded to that question. I sure wouldn't. Until we know she's cool sharing such a moment with anyone and everyone I would strongly suggest not linking it any further. On Apr 8, 2013, at 9:09 AM, Corey Blake wrote: > I think we're making some big assumptions about the context of the picture (how did we get to someone having died?), and also what kind of permission was granted. She looks sad or possibly tired to me but still a really good picture. And what's so bad about being vulnerable, anyway? > > > On Apr 8, 2013, at 9:02 AM, Shari Eaton wrote: > >> And you should like to have a photo taken of you with this level of vulnerability and placed on Instagram and shared across the web? It's a touch disrespectful. >> >> >> On Apr 8, 2013, at 8:59 AM, Raffaele Malanga wrote: >> >>> Yes. Perhaps that's why I found it moving. Almost as if we should not be there, looking at her. She looks so vulnerable >>> >>> On 8 Apr 2013, at 16:51, "Shari Eaton" wrote: >>> >>>> Seems a little too personal for public eyes. She could be grieving the loss of someone close. >>>> >>>> >>>> On Apr 8, 2013, at 7:54 AM, Raffaele Malanga wrote: >>>> >>>>> http://instagram.com/p/X1T1_ek80m/ >>>>> >>>>> I find this photo extremely touching >>>>> >>>>> Raf. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2013 19:54:09 -0700 (PDT) From: Jim Subject: Re: Joni in her kitchen I personally don't care for any photos of myself since I was in my 40's. But even though I don't care for more recent pics of myself, it doesn't bother me when others post them even though its a big reality check (darn I'm getting to be an old fart). Fortunately, I'm able to laugh along with Father Time. It's a great Pic Raf and thanks for sharing even though reality doesn't always paint the same pretty picture we all have painted in our minds. ________________________________ From: shadows and light To: Jack Merkel Cc: Shari Eaton ; Raffaele Malanga ; "joni@smoe.org" Sent: Monday, April 8, 2013 1:02 PM Subject: Re: Joni in her kitchen i am old school and am always surprised when someone takes, tags and uploads MY picture. I like to be asked. So speculation aside as to Joni's mood, it is a picture in her own home and that raises some questions. Personally i think she looks beautiful. Being a celebrity is a devil's bargain. The last time i saw Natalie Merchant was at the Yost Theater in Santa Ana. She stopped singing and confiscated iphones and cameras from the audience members. No electronic devices she implored. Wistfully, she said: "Can't I have control of my image? Don't you think I should?" Yet, at the end of the night she gave everything back and posed for about 10 minutes. But by the time I got home that night, her show was all over you tube. And I of course, watched and re-watched the show. Joni is probably resigned to her image circulating around. On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 9:54 AM, Jack Merkel wrote: > I somewhat agree, but then again, Joni has always been willing to share > her vulnerable side. She has never been shy about opening up her heart and > soul for the whole world to see. I guess the difference here is that in her > music, she controlled what was shared. Hopefully who ever took this > picture is close enough to Joni to know whether she would approve of this > being shared. I'm assuming anyone in the position to take this photo would > be close enough to her to know how she would feel about this. Personally I > think it's a beautiful portrait and one that captures Joni's emotional > depth that we all know and admire. > > Jack > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Apr 8, 2013, at 11:02 AM, Shari Eaton wrote: > > > And you should like to have a photo taken of you with this level of > vulnerability and placed on Instagram and shared across the web? It's a > touch disrespectful. > > > > > > On Apr 8, 2013, at 8:59 AM, Raffaele Malanga > wrote: > > > >> Yes. Perhaps that's why I found it moving. Almost as if we should not > be there, looking at her. She looks so vulnerable > >> > >> On 8 Apr 2013, at 16:51, "Shari Eaton" wrote: > >> > >>> Seems a little too personal for public eyes. She could be grieving the > loss of someone close. > >>> > >>> > >>> On Apr 8, 2013, at 7:54 AM, Raffaele Malanga > wrote: > >>> > >>>> http://instagram.com/p/X1T1_ek80m/ > >>>> > >>>> I find this photo extremely touching > >>>> > >>>> Raf. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 16:52:18 +1000 From: Ange T Subject: Discovering Robin Adler / Rejoining the JMDL - Ange in Oz (SJC) Hello Listers, It has been many years since I have been part of this amazing network of Joni-lovers and it feels good to be back. My name is Ange Takats and I live in Australia and originally joined the list back in the late 90s - when I learnt a hell of a lot about Joni and received some beautiful gifts / insights from JMDLers in the USA. I even met a JMDLer who came down to Oz. Her name was Ashara - not sure if she's still around? Since then I've done a lot of things... like moved to Thailand to work a foreign correspondent ('I'm a wild seed again, Let the wind carry me') ... moved to Ontario to follow love ('He's my sunshine in the morning, He's my fireworks at the end of the day') ... moved to Barcelona to nurse a broken heart ('Things that you held high, And told yourself were true, Lost or changing as the days come down to you') ... and, as you can sense, Joni's songs have been with me every step of the way. I do recognise some of the names on the digest emails that I've been receiving over the past two weeks which blows me away. To think that so many of you have been part of this list for so long and no doubt grown close to each other and shared moments of life - through this list.... that's pretty amazing. Have there ever been articles published or documentaries made about the longevity and strength of the JMDL? It seems like a great topic to explore! So far the highlight of rejoining the list for me has been discovering the beautiful voice and soul of Robin Adler - WOW! I'm so fussy - as I imagine most of you are - about Joni covers... but after reading about Robin's recent gig in San Diego I started googling her name and found a whole bunch of awesome videos on youtube ('A Case of You' was my favourite of the lot... exceptional performance). What a find! Thank you Lindsay for posting info about Robin's gig - and thank you Robin for being so inspiring! I also want to thank Bob for answering a random email I sent him a few months ago - which has led me back to this very special community. Ange in Oz www.angetakats.com.au ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2013 #457 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------