From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2014 #685 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 Sunday, May 11 2014 Volume 2014 : Number 685 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- comparison of a case of you and tear in your hand ["patrick leader" Subject: comparison of a case of you and tear in your hand hello all - over the years there have been a number of discussions comparing tori amos to joni. i've been looking for years for this post about them, written 16 years ago. found it this morning! slightly edited, as is my prerogative... ============= to simon's near-to-joni lists i add (not for the first time) - a song not written about joni - a song that doesn't mention joni - but - a verse from a song that pays subtle homage to a verse from a joni song. - ---- all the world just stopped now so you say you don't wanna stay together, anymore let me take a deep breath, babe if you need me, me and neil'll be hangin' out with the dream king (tori amos, tear in your hand, 1993) - ---- just before our love got lost, you said "i am as constant as a northern star" and i said, "constantly in the darkness,where's that at? if you want me i'll be in the bar" (joni mitchell, a case of you, 1974) joni is not asking where a northern star is. she's thinking 'he's promising to be some distant light in the sky while i'm down here in the dark; what's this shit about?'. 'where's that at' in this context is just idiom, communicating the same message as rolling one's eyes. nor has tori suddenly become asthmatic; she's obviously known this was coming. she takes a breath and metaphorically rolls her eyes. and for a verse she and joni find an identical coolness: the emotional content of these initial verses is so similiar... joni's verse 1: 1) ironic line suggesting why singer is distanced from... 2) pompous proclamation by soon-to-be-ex 3) more distance 4) if you want me, i'll be in the bar tori's verse 1: 1) ironic line suggesting that singer is distanced from... 2) pompous proclamation by soon-to-be-ex 3) more distance 4) if you want me, i'll be in the bar (with your friend) but neither of them is able to maintain this distance for a song. both songs painfully fail the irony of the first verses, by design they fail. after being told, "be prepared to bleed" joni is able to gasp out 'you are in my blood like holy wine', and tori cannot deny that 'all the world is dangling dangling dangling for you darling'. they are caught, as deeply as each of us is caught, once or twice in a life, and they make something beautiful of it, allowing us to accept. look at the last line of the chorus lyrics in each of these songs, similar acknowledgements of the inescapable influence of the heartbreaker/assholes in question: joni) i could drink a case of you, and still be on my feet tori) you don't know the power you have, with that tear in your hand no more to say. patrick np - donnacha dennehy, that the night come (dawn upshaw, soprano) - this is the most spectacular piece of new music i've acquired in a while!! ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2014 #685 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list,sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------