From: les@jmdl.com (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V1 #120 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk onlyJMDL Digest Thursday, July 15 1999 Volume 01 : Number 120 The Laborday JoniFest is happening this fall! For information: send a message to Join the mailing list at: ------- The Official Joni Mitchell Homepage is maintained by Wally Breese at http://www.jonimitchell.com and contains the latest news, a detailed bio, original interviews and essays, lyrics, and much more. ------- The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: dog eat dog, larry (jc) ["Seawind" ] VG-8 Tuning [Michael Paz ] Never as Good as the First Time (apologies to Sade) [Joseph Palis ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 01:19:14 -0400 From: "Seawind" Subject: Re: dog eat dog, larry (jc) I believe DED is an almost flawless work. I loved it at the time of its release and I still do and I could never understand the cold reception it received. For me, it's the 1980s in a nutshell. TTT, on the other hand, left me cold. I think it and "Wild Things" are among La Mitchell's weakest efforts -- but even within these albums are great moments, such as "Chinese Cafe" and "Harlem In Havana." - -----Original Message----- From: Mark or Travis To: patrick leader ; Bob.Muller@fluordaniel.com Cc: joni@smoe.org Date: Thursday, July 15, 1999 12:47 AM Subject: Re: dog eat dog, larry (jc) >> i just think most of the album is misconceived. the production >sounds >> trite, at a time when many artists were using the same sounds and >tools to >> make music that sounded so much better. someone countered me to say >that >> the harshness was appropriate, given the political material, but >where does >> that leave 'good friends'? > >Well 'someone' replies that maybe she could have slipped a dulcimer or >piano in for that track but where would that leave the rest of the >record? With its aural and artistic integrity cracked right up the >middle. > > that song looks good on paper and just sounds >> terrible on the album. > >We each have our own opinions. I like 'Good Friends' and think it >works as well as any song on DED and better than quite a few of them. >It manages to be upbeat in an album that is mostly pretty grim and yet >she makes it work with the whole. > >Joni has said that DED was her looking out at what was happening in >the world at the time because nobody else was. Isn't it appropriate >that she would choose an '80s' sound for a record that is a social >comment on the 80s? Thomas Dolby, Larry Klein or Joni - whoever was >responsible I still think the record has a unique sound and that is >primarily because of Joni's material and musical sense. > > >> that's called collaboration, and it's a critical component of an >artistic >> life. i wish she had collaborated with someone on taming the tiger, >it's a >> much more boring album than chalkmark, though the material is >probably >> stronger (it's really hard to tell). > >Well again we disagree (but that's fine, isn't it?) I think TTT is a >beautiful record and hangs together much better that CMIARS. >Chalkmark is uneven and disjointed to me although I agree that > > lakota, the tea-leaf prophecy and snakes and >> ladders > >are among her finest creations. I would also include 'Beat of Black >Wings' > >Mark in Seattle > > ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 00:33:01 -0500 From: Michael Paz Subject: VG-8 Tuning Hi Heather- The guitar that she plays is a Parker guitar made especially for her (and according to their artist relations manager who I spoke to today about getting one for me, its called a Concert series) is plugged into the VG-8 where the "tunings" are stored as "patches". The guitar itself is tuned in standard 440 tuning. You can get some amazing sounds out of them. I will be demonstrating the Vg-8 with my NEW Roland ready strat on Labor Day weekend in New England. I will also be offering free rides. Hope this cleared up your question. Cheers, Michael ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 14:22:39 +0800 (CST) From: Joseph Palis Subject: Never as Good as the First Time (apologies to Sade) I can relate to people's claim that DED spoke to them in a way other Joni albums did not or cannot. Unlike many of the Listers who must have followed Joni's career since the 70s, I only got a handle of Joni the year NIGHT RIDE HOME came out (early 90s) as I was into jazz of the 40s to 60s in a big way. My friend from Cyprus cornered me one night and drunkenly told me about this great singer Joni Mitchell and the undeniable talent, the perspicacity, the way with words, the way she touches people and the way she writes about that particularly nuanced feeling on just about anything. The next album was DED for me. I remembered liking "Ethiopia" right away and by this time I was already forming an opinion about "Joni music". When I started collecting her earlier albums, I was surprised that she did not sound like what I thought she would considering that she was quite miles away from her later outputs. I likened her to Ella Fitzgerald where a different setting is sure to bring out an aspect of her we haven't known yet. She belongs to the exalted level of musicians/artists where I don't quite care what her next album's she's like as I am sure that anything about her is always worth listening, just like how I told friends when they asked why I bought Kazuo Ishiguro's widely-lambasted novel "The Unconsoled" to friends: "Any bad Ishiguro is infinitely better than no Ishiguro". Joseph (whose favorite Joni album is HOSL) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 08:40:27 +0200 From: M.Russell@iaea.org Subject: Re: dog eat dog, and '80s joni again I must have missed this one written by someone named Shawn(?): << get a life joni dosent want to be worshiped you people who << think she can do no wrong well she like any artist has put out << her share of stink bombs. To me its so personal how can you << guys just talk and talk - take it for what it is or means to you. << Dont worship the ground she walks on, strive to be a light as << bright as her. Remember every picture has its shadows.>> but, except for the "get a life" part, I can easily imagine Herself as having written it. Marian ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 23:32:36 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: Re: dog eat dog, and '80s joni again Marian wrote: > I must have missed this one written by someone named Shawn(?): > > << get a life joni dosent want to be worshiped you people who > << think she can do no wrong well she like any artist has put out > << her share of stink bombs. To me its so personal how can you > << guys just talk and talk - take it for what it is or means to you. > << Dont worship the ground she walks on, strive to be a light as > << bright as her. Remember every picture has its shadows.>> > > but, except for the "get a life" part, I can easily imagine Herself as > having written it. I don't know, Marian - after I re-read it a few times, I cannot imagine Joni ever admitting to any "stinkbombs", plus the "talk, talk" thing - if She were posting to the list, we'd have veritable reams of Her great chatter and stories pushing out 20 digests a day ;-) Kakki ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V1 #120 ****************************** The Song and Album Voting Booths are open! Cast your votes by clicking the links at http://www.jmdl.com/gallery username: jimdle password: siquomb ------- Don't forget about these ongoing projects: Glossary project: Send a blank message to for all the details. FAQ Project: Help compile the JMDL FAQ. Do you have mailing list-related questions? -send them to Trivia Project: Send your Joni trivia questions and/or answers to Today in History Project: Know of a date-specific Joni fact? - -send it to ------- Post messages to the list at Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe onlyjoni-digest" to ------- Siquomb, isn't she?