From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2014 #864 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 Monday, June 23 2014 Volume 2014 : Number 864 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: The Later/Better side of Joni ["Mark" ] Re: jmdl and joni [Bob Muller ] Late Joan ["johncalimee@frontier.com" ] betsy blue [Ingrid Lochrenberg ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 10:49:46 -0700 From: "Mark" Subject: Re: The Later/Better side of Joni At the risk of violating list etiquette, I have to say this post is beautifully and eloquently stated. Thank you, John. Perhaps you are a minority of at least three? Mark in Seattle - -----Original Message----- From: johncalimee@frontier.com Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2014 8:36 PM To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: The Later/Better side of Joni A minority of at least two perhaps. I came in with Blue/Court and Spark. And most definitely I find her later work far more listenable and rewarding to my ears. As brilliant as Blue is, Ive listened to Chalk Mark 50 times more often than I've listened to Blue. Dancing Clown 100 times more often than River, as there are days I pull out Chalk Mark JUST to take in DC. There is no part of her journey I have not delighted in. And the later part of her journey is as rich and rewarding as the middle or beginning. At least to my ears. When the chapter is closed on my book, I will have listened to her voice, more than any other single human voice in the entirety of my life. Somewhere I lost track of 'albums' or records or CDs and it just became Joni, the voice in my life. Be it Joni in recording. Joni 'live.' Joni in conversation. -It's not like I pick up product and listen to it. And as an artist I most appreciate the journey of that voice and her music. Chalk Mark was described recently on the list as choral music. In some ways I like to think of it as some of her collage pieces. As she's said, she likes to take snippets of this take, snippets of that take and shape them together. It has the illusion of free form, but its not. It's an aural painting. Getting back to the praises of Dancing Clown..... On the one hand there's the serious, somber Joni. The one she lamented that came with the fame of Blue. She takes up the subject of love and lays some serious shit about what she sees in one person's obsession with another person. Which is legit. Like watching a scene from life and there's Jose Feliciano (sp?) having some serious dynamic going on with a woman. But it is just as likely one walks out into night life on the trendy side of town, taking in some random actors playing out an almost laughable game of cat and mouse -between some hottie who knows they are hot, being followed and swooned over by a string of 'damaged' hopefuls. In a certain light it is more comical than it is fodder for writing the next Hejira. -And that's what she did. Kept it light. If I want serious, I can listen to Blue. If I want happy, I can listen to Wild Things. If I'm thinking, "sometimes, Life, you just have to laugh at it, it can be so silly" -I pull out Dancing Clown. I can see Jesse, thinking with his little head, ( -and his large head not much brighter) going, "OooooohhhH Yeaaaaaahhhhhhhh." to some babe he wishes -or thinks- he has the charm to win over. It makes me laugh. And I delight in the word play of 'swoosh of jungle blades and the crackle of northern ice". It. is. fun. Because she did such a good job of painting a Starry Night does not mean I want her to paint it again for the next 30 years. Much as I am touched by Blue. If she'd never written Blue, I might long for something more from her cannon. But she did. Her cannon is so complete, so fascinating to me that all the eras have space to just be what they are. And if by luck or grace 'This Rain' becomes part of a new body of work, I will look at as a most familiar and beloved friend coming to my door for a visit. Living in the now. As much as delighting in the past. It's more fun that way. But then, I'm 'in the minority.' -And loving the hell out of it. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 05:18:42 -0700 From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: jmdl and joni Thanks for the shout out, Ingrid - there have of course been MANY gatherings of the tribe, starting with Julie Z's house many years ago with vrious stops in Europe and the USA along the way. While Joni appreciates us, I'm sure she would not want to attend. Historically, the better approach has been for JMDLer's to attend functions that Joni has arranged. Then again, one never knows, Joni can be unpredictable. I'm still tossing around the idea of having a Jonifest here in Greenville - not going to work out for this year but maybe 2015. Would love to show off my little town and the talent therein. Bob ________________________________ From: Ingrid Lochrenberg To: "joni@smoe.org" Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2014 4:09 PM Subject: jmdl and joni I was wondering about jmdl trying to persuade Joni to come to a gathering organized by Bob ( a suggestion, since you seem the most dedicated jmdl'er) . Or do you think we would count as the fans that she is thoroughly bored with? Why can't we organize a get -together months ahead (since some of us would need to travel from afar, and everyone has to plan and get organized), with the assurance of Joni that she will attend. Then of course it might be impossible to get hold of her....no wonder it is the destiny of these stars get lonely if they end up having to take recourse to complete isolation from the public in order to have manageable lives. So, IF someone can get hold of her, why don't we consider this as a possibility? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 23:17:42 -0700 From: "johncalimee@frontier.com" Subject: Late Joan Hi again, I think there's a strong connection between the visual art Joni was creating during the period before Chalk Mark and the music that resulted from the same period. A lot of the images are very abstracted and layered in a collage like manner. These new photo images bear the influence of Larry Klein. She's not shooting alone but shooting a lot of imagery with him and then creating new forms by layering his photography into hers. The same could be said for most of the music during their time together. Chalk Mark is just that, carrying the collage from the its functional dimension in studio arrangement (stacking guitar strums to give body to the sound as an example) to becoming the whole force of the arrangements to begin with. It begins with the collage of My Secret Place and ends with the collage (brilliant as anything in her body of work) Corrina. If one were to make a YouTube video of CM songs with her mid 80's artwork, it would be clear how seamless the two are. As a painter who loves nearly every era of painting (save the Baroque and the frilly, French Aristocracy nonsense), it is easy on my eyes and ears to take in collage work. How wonderful is it? That's a matter of personal taste. I for one thrill to both the opening track of CM and the closing track of CM. Even my not very Joni loving partner sets aside his doubts about her music when he hears the fluttering aria Joni pieced together from Wayne Shorter's takes. I imagine things get dodgy for most folks in the middle. Just how interesting a piece of writing Lakota is can be seen from the live take she did in Italy. It's a very rich and haunting song, almost a lament. Perhaps the studio version would have fared better taken down a notch in tempo and with a wider, lower register. As it stands it like a song zipping along on Red Bull instead of Red Bull. If you catch my drift. Still, I enjoy it so much for the complex rhythms in the piece. I imagine the drum tracks are a mix of takes spliced together. But they are place together so perfectly it sounds like a single take. And the complexity of it. I try tapping to the beat and I can't keep up. It is always alive and fresh when I listen to the song. But getting back to the original subject that drew me in.... Imagine how Passion Play would be more likely revered if it were released during the era of FTR??? God Must be a Boogie Man if it replaced Centerpiece on Hissing? If we got 'Stay in Touch' on Blue instead of Little Green? Can you imagine the weeping, tears and reverence Stay in Touch would have received following River, Blue, The Last Night? She stoked so much innovation in those early years, the later stuff can seem stagnant by comparison. The logical progression of the thing demands that one part be the way it is, and the other part logically grows out of it. so the music couldn't be in any order other than what it is. But place some of the later efforts against the former, I think they hold up. It's only my opinion. But I'm absolutely certain Joni shares it. She may not have written releases that move people here the way the middle period greats moved people. But the individual pieces shine brightly in my eyes. Thinking forward, I'd like to see her stoke even more ground. If the voice is gone, why not speak it? I for one would love to see something Aaron Copland-esque come out of her. Where the music takes that flat land feel of hers and really tests it's mettle. She could weave pockets of poetry into it, spoken word and song. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 08:21:12 +0200 From: Ingrid Lochrenberg Subject: betsy blue Thanks Betsy for bringing that song by Joni up. But don't worry, I am laughing along with these guys. And my pal who will side with me even if there are just 2 of us,...thanks for your warning. ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2014 #864 ***************************** ------- To post messages to the list,sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------