From: les@jmdl.com (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V1 #314 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk onlyJMDL Digest Thursday, December 30 1999 Volume 01 : Number 314 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: *fly on the wall* /STAS ["Eric Taylor" ] Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) [Richa] Re: JMDL Digest V4 #580 [catman ] Re: JMDL Digest V4 #580 [SCJoniGuy@aol.com] Toronto '98 video recap [Dennis.Leong@mcd.com] Frank and Joni ["Russell Bowden" ] Thanks, Vince! And a request to all... [Stacey4882@aol.com] Millennium Countdown #2 [zapuppy2@webtv.net (Penny)] KCSN interview for Europe ["dave foers" ] Re: Millennium Countdown #2 [Don Rowe ] Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) [Richa] Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) [Richa] Re: Millennium Countdown #2 [SCJoniGuy@aol.com] Re: Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) [S] Re: Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) [S] Some CD notes [SCJoniGuy@aol.com] Cockburn and Joni: correction [Deb Messling ] lookalike [catman ] Re: Millennium Countdown #2 [FMYFL@aol.com] [Fwd: Re: Millennium Countdown #2] ["Jennifer L. Nodine" ] Re: Millennium Countdown #2 [SCJoniGuy@aol.com] Plug Of The Week #52 ["Peter Holmstedt" ] Re: A Fenny Trip [catman ] Joni Mitchell Companion [Leslie Mixon ] re: Cockburn and Joni: correction ["Ray & Cathy" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 03:54:19 -0800 From: "Eric Taylor" Subject: Re: *fly on the wall* /STAS Kathleen Kajioka buzzed in: << Hi Everyone. I'm a new participant in the JMDL. I've been watching you all anonymously for about a week--feels very weird to observe so many exchanges like a fly on the wall--the magic of technology. Anyway, I figured it was time for me to transform myself from a fly into a being that can type and join, for the first time ever, the cyber community. So I've noticed--with great delight--that those who have made references to Joni's first album have called it "Song to a Seagull". This, of course, is its proper name, but I was wondering if any of you know when and why the record company got into the inane habit of calling it "Joni Mitchell"? >> Warm welcomes Kathleen! Ah, The Fly (my fav U2 tune).... STAS has been possibly the most ongoing thread since I joined the JMDL 2 years ago. *Song To A Seagull* is unmistakably spelled out in the clouds on the cover. I think the reason it's referred to as simply *Joni Mitchell* is because, in the '60's, that was the tradition for first albums (consider The Beatles & Barbra Streisand). Now the cover of Mingus is a little less unclear..... :~& E.T. NP: PWW&M (for the first time in stereo - *****) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 03:41:26 -0500 From: Richard Rice Subject: Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) Hello Joni fans, I need help. About five thousand dollars should do it. It seems there are are art exhibits all over the place I would give my eye teeth to see. Needless to say, Joni's exhibit in LA would have been just a treat. Just as I managed to swallow the reality of missing THIS show, I come to hear a beautiful Vermeer is on loan to the the National Gallery in Washington, D. C. Oh, cold cruel fates! What have I done to you? Can't you see how this corn feed town is thousands of miles from everything I long to see? ( Meanwhile, the wicked prosper, ignoring the worth of both exhilbits I bet! ) I would feel a bit abused here, except for the fact that I am sixty miles outside of Chicago and had the wonderful opportunity today to pop into the city and see a Titian and Vermeer on loan to the Art Institute. It was the most life affirming joy I have had in a long time. What an amazing pair of paintings. They are so magnificent in technique they defy the imagination. They are so beautiful, only the heart and soul can respond to them. Their surfaces reject inspection of any kind. Technically so perfect, all you can do is look at them and enjoy. I have had painting on the brain the last few weeks. One bedroom here in my home is cluttered with canvases in various stages of beginning. There is the Joni article from California Rock California Sound, which I am about to quote from, siting on my computer tower along with several new tubes of oils purchased today at Pearl's waiting to be opened and played with. Joni's new body of work, unseen as they are, are inspiring me to ignore the clutter, and sanding, and drawing. I am reading from it as well as a wonderful old book by Max Doerner on the Materlals and Techniques of Artists. The muse has me firm in it's clutches. Better have an oreo break. As I last mentioned, I have been just amazed at the connection between Joni's painting and her music. Surprised, given how refined in intellect they are, that she depends so heavily on intuition, emotion, and imagery in their execution. Her canvases and songs are a collage of feelings, experiences, and visual memories translated into color, line, shape or tone. Their creation and evolution are from these stimulii and reason enters the game only to round them into shape and perfect the form. I believe she begins both painting and songwriting by selecting from the 'realist' palette of her life experiences: her moods, a look, a memory and then sets about creating a palette of 'colors' to try and transcribe them. Pehaps, at times she works in reverse, finding a palette of new oils or tunnings and thensearches out experiences for them to illustrate. As Wayne Shorter mentions in regard to her taking his various licks to provide Joan with bird sounds requested for A Bird that Whistles, she then sets upon sculpting the pieces into a form. She keeps the form open ended, allowing inspiration and even luck to enter the process. Canvases are freely reworked. Passages of music are pieced from various sources. She overdubs snippets of music, always with a keen eye to refine the form rather than simply extend it. Once she has layed out enough material to play wiht, she puts that gritty no nonsense ego of hers to work and refines the form. In the end another beautiful thing is ready to enter the marketplace, and we are the luckier for it. That's my take on her process anyway, give or take a few VG8s, Roland Keyboard toys, and a helping hand by a host of really talented musicians, included to oft-too maligned Larry Klein. For those of you who may have missed that Anthony Fawcett piece, here are a few more snippets from it. I hope I am not breaching a copywrite here. Please, don't sue!!! "--Her painting has taken on a new importance in her life these last few years- to the extent that her recent canvasses are intricately interwoven with the music she has been creating. During the period that Joni was writing and recording DJRD, she simultaneously worked on a large painting which depicts in pigment some of the same themes, metaphors and imagery of that album. 'I can do songs on a square canvas,' she said later, 'and I can have the same symbolic diary in this medium as in the other.' Conversely, Joni's music, which is always in a state of flux, always moving forward, now incorporates many painterly characteristics, like a Picasoo canvas where everything is paired down to the spaces in between objects, distilling the work into multi-faceted planes and the core of meaning. What is left out is for others to put in. 'You see, the way I write songs now,' Joni explains, 'is around a standard melody that nobody knows, because that way you can get your words to have their organic inflection so that when you emphasize something you go up or you go down. Or if you want to put ten syllables in a line that in the next verse is only going to have three syllables drawn out through those bars, you have that liberty. As a result you can't write one lead-sheet and put the four verses on it, every verse has to be written out individually- it's variation on a theme." "--Joni sits on a rock, looking up at the sky meditatively. 'Lightning storms; how are Californians going to relate to that?' she says. 'They're not an institution in your life like they are for flatlanders, you know." "--The other songs on DJRD, even though they were not written at the same time, combined to make a cohesive, flowing album, the story of a journey. 'The fact is,' explains Joni, 'even though they were written from other years, miraculously they made this trip. It starts of rurally, city lights are in the distance and you're anticipating going to the dance and how wonderful it's going to be -there is a storm brewing. By the time you get down to the dancehall, you get drunk, you come on to somebody, there's no real outcome. Then there's kind of a pledge in the song "Jericho" as to what you will do, what love is -its a pretty realistic thing, it's not cynical, I don't think. Then "Paprika Plains" -the rain's hit now, the storm comes in. You go to the washroom and the girls are powdering, and that strange smell that women's restrooms have, a combination of perfume, sanitation equipment and barf! And then it gets nostalgic and goes back to childhood, and that's the flatland and sky-orientation. And then it returns back to the dance hall.' 'Then the trip is taken to Miami and from Miami, which is the point of departure into the Third World, you jump off into the Third World countries with the drum piece and the jungle sounds- a purely Latin thing. You get on a plane in "Dreamland" and you head back to New York. The last side of the album could be anywhere, geographically. But up to there it's a journey through a dream world and it's a journey through a real world. In the dream world on the album there is a printed dream, which is a dream I had on the Rolling Thunder Tour, about Paprika Plains- it's not sung but this is a real dream.' (The Tenth World) "It had a great deal to do with me,' Joni says, 'I was present and I was catalystic in a way, like an intuitive thing- we were all singing on it in one way or another. I've even got two crows on it, you know, I'm in there. My intention was in a way to go around the world and embrace a lot of different cultures, and distill it all down." "--The music is the score,' she says, 'the voice speaks as the characteers speak- but also sets up the scene- it's also the camera. And the music is background music, also it is shading, framing it, it is also visual in a way. Sometimes it's merely accompaniment, but from time to time it paints too. The last three albums- involuntarily I have seen the hole thing visually: cast, costumed, moving. It's like I've seen it with the clarity of a dream." "--The painting of DJRD has many different strands and layers, as do Joni's songs. It is visionary, allegorical and intensely personal. It was a cathartic work for Joni, evolving, maturing, and developing as it did, over a year's period. The larger-than-life size canvas (it's about six feet by eight feet) has four figures in it; the major force comes from two interlocking life-size figures, one male, the other female, with arms outstretched spanning the width of the canvas. This figure is floating in an intense deep blue star-filled sky with the moon half hidden by clouds. Behind the man/woman is a third mysterious eagle-like figure, head crouched down, arms outstretched, ready to fly off into the distance- a spirit departing. Below this scene is the twinkling euphoric view of the city at night, a mass of tiny multi-colored pointillistic dots. A fourth figure, an Indian head replete with war-paint and headdress, appears out of the exotic foliage on the far right of the canvas. Directly opposite, on the far left a red sun sets behind strange Rousseau-like tropical foliage. The overall color and tone of the painting is blue, the painting style expressionist but intricately detailed. There is a lyrical, dream-like quality to this new work ..." "--It began as a compulsion to create in pigment a very special moment between two people, with a memory of that moment in mind, abstracted to the point of the color of that moment- the blues and that blue/green/yellow of the moon. The content I wasn't really sure of. It was a real moment of spiritual closeness and it was a very high and blue setting. It is a poem; it involves my music, and there is a strong sense of spirituality and friendship. It has a lot to do with the primitive peoples of this continent- the element of the Indian- all bathed in the magic of an electric night. The woman is the spirit of DJRD, and everything refers to moments in time.' 'Now, the figures- the way it evolved is interesting. Boyd helped me carry the canvas outside, and the way we sit it up, the branches of a lemon tree fell across it and they made an interesting pattern, so I sketched around this. Then I sketched two shadows, so one figure in there is definitely Boyd, Boyd's presence, and then he sketched my shadow -which I stylized- so the female figure is interlocked with the male. The figures are nude but they're such vivid colors that they overlap each other as if they're transparent- naked tribalness as opposed to anything else. The last two figures: the floating figure behind is very eagle, primitive, arms spread out- a sad Indian gesture. People have read religion into it but it's natural; if it does have religion in it, it's older than Christ, very earthy. Then, out of the bushes comes a figure of a woman who has bone structure similar to my own. The woman is really kind of DJRD, the spirit of that. There is war paint on the cheek, the headdress melts into the foliage, and if I'm in here, I'm this figure, even though the central female body is borrowed from me and has my attitude and sway back. But this is more of my spirit.' 'In the closing of some television channels, an Indian rides up to the top of a hill and overlooks a freeway: it has that element to it, except instead of it being smoggy and traffic-jammed, it is bathed in the electric night which you can see from any ridge in L.A. Some of the coloration in the painting is involved with psychedelics -mushrooms- the vision as it begins to throw internal lights, even at night. For instance, the cypress trees out on the street here, which at night would be a dark black with bits of blue, grey and green, suddenly had chartreuse and orange undulating in them; their own light content that they withheld from the sun was still present at night. Some of that is felt, especially, as the plants go into a metamorphosis with the headdress.' 'The painting took about a year and went through many, many different changes. I mean, I painted in catalystic objects that I would be focusing on while I was working on the corners of it. There is a lot underneath the finished product that's going on. JThe moment that I initially set out to capture was just this period on the rise of the moon. Originally the moon was much larger and I painted in the countenance of the person I was addressing it to (when you write, generally there's a specific person -they come in and out of a song- someone you're addressing yourself to) which served as a catalyst, a confrontation, as a directional source, and as soon as the painting took off, I painted it out. I ended up putting in the sun, too, so you have a continuance of time, a measure of time. The sun and the moon: That was from the first song on the album, 'Cotton Avenue,' that's the beckoning of the night-life, the twinkle of the city." Well, folks, hopefully this long missive will provide a bit of food for thought regarding DJRD, her painting and her music. Thanks for the listen. - --Anyone care to send me to Washington? Happiest of New Years to all, John. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 10:33:32 +0000 From: catman Subject: Re: JMDL Digest V4 #580 Hi Kathleen and welcome. The Song To A Seagull/Joni Mitchell debate has gone on many times here! And still there are those who call it JM ;-) ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 08:04:32 EST From: SCJoniGuy@aol.com Subject: Re: JMDL Digest V4 #580 In a message dated 12/29/99 9:44:14 PM US Central Standard Time, kathkaj@istar.ca writes: << Hi Everyone. I'm a new participant in the JMDL. I've been watching you all anonymously for about a week--feels very weird to observe so many exchanges like a fly on the wall--the magic of technology. >> Hi Kathleen, and welcome to the discussion! As for Fly songs, I'll take XTC's "Fly on the Wall"... As for the title of Joni's debut, I imagine it makes for cheaper and more effective advertising if a debut record just carries the artist's name. Of course, Joni never likes to do anything typical, does she? Maybe she should have called it (like The Beatles) "Meet Joni Mitchell", and had 4 pictures on the cover, one of a folkie, one of a jazzer, one of a rocker, one of a painter! Bob ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 08:15:15 -0600 From: Dennis.Leong@mcd.com Subject: Toronto '98 video recap Penny wrote: > Hi gang, a question. Searching around tonight I found this: > > < Bob Dylan. It is very close, tripod steady and amazing Hi Fi audio. It > starts on the second song and has a couple of minor obstructions but > otherwise it is truley mint.The picture is crisp and clean with > brilliant color. It will be 1st generation on a high grade tape and runs > about 65 minutes. As a bonus, the tape is filled with a 60 minute > Canadian TV only special also from 1998. This features an intimate > performance to a small studio audience in the round and interviews. Both > shows are mixed with new songs and classics but I do not have the set > lists written down.>> > > Do we already have this on one of our video trees? >Sort of. The second video he refers to, though mistakenly as 1998, is the >Much Music Special, also known as Just Ice from 1994. Before the official >Video Trees, we had this video in distribution. I think I made about 25 of >them for the "old timers." There is an audio boot out there also of this >show. My master is not the best quality, so the copies aren't the greatest, >but it is our Joni looking radiant and sounding spectacular. Have never >seen the first which he mentions. Must have been an audience shoot. But be >skeptical. Bob's guard dogs were very alert during the tour. >Jerry I own this tape and it does contain an audience shoot from the balcony with a zoom lens. Audio portion is about C+. Video varies from D- to B- because of random audience obstruction and distance. I would recommend this tape only to the Joni completist. As for the Much Music Special half, the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corp) chopped it up and presented only a portion of the original with commercials. np: Newport Jazz festival '99 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 09:15:55 PST From: "Russell Bowden" Subject: Frank and Joni I BELIEVE that Frank Sinatra was a (the?) founder of Reprise Records. A Frank-o-phile friend of mine has told me this on several occasions. For the first time ever, I now have all the studio recordings of La Mitchell, plus HOSL demo, (thanks again, Kakki) Gershwins World, Chieftans/Tears of Stone demo CD and Hits (Urge for Going, you know) Picked up 'Mingus' last night at Border's. Had owned the LP years ago. Very content and LOVING Mingus....all of it! Happy New Year, everyone. Love, Russ ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 12:30:22 EST From: Stacey4882@aol.com Subject: Thanks, Vince! And a request to all... Your very kind words about The Joni Mitchell Companion have made my day. I'm so glad you're enjoying the book! A request to you and all other Companion readers: Do let me know any typos or other mistakes you happen to find. I was allowed to see the manuscript only early on in the production process, and when I saw that they misspelled MY NAME on the cover, I figure there's a good chance they made other mistakes. (I'm Stacey with an "e.") If there's a second printing of the book, we can fix errors then. I'm escaping Manhattan for the next few days of millennium madness...so I'll take this chance to say Happy New Year to you and to everyone on the JMDL list! - - Stacey ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 10:21:42 -0800 (PST) From: zapuppy2@webtv.net (Penny) Subject: Millennium Countdown #2 #2 Elvis Presley PS Thanks for the input on the Toronto Video, Dennis and Steve. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Grace dies when it becomes us verses them......Philip Yancey ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 19:19:38 +0000 From: "dave foers" Subject: KCSN interview for Europe Hello, just letting people know that Kakki is kindly sending me a copy of the taped interview and I would like to offer to copy it for anyone in Europe and beyond. Please email me privately to exchange details. Dave, Stoke-on-Trent, UK ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 11:28:29 -0800 (PST) From: Don Rowe Subject: Re: Millennium Countdown #2 - --- Penny wrote: > #2 Elvis Presley > > Tom Petty in his childhood, met Elvis Presley while The King was filming a movie in Hawaii -- and later appears with Joni Mitchell on "Dancin' Clown" -- SCJoniGuy's REALLY gonna hate me now -- why is it that all these cool six degrees come down to that song??? Tee-hee ===== "I would not bet against the development of a time machine. My opponent may have already built one ... and know the future." -- Stephen Hawking __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Talk to your friends online with Yahoo! Messenger. http://messenger.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 14:15:33 -0500 From: Richard Rice Subject: Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) Hello Joni fans, I need help. About five thousand dollars should do it. It seems there are are art exhibits all over the place I would give my eye teeth to see. Needless to say, Joni's exhibit in LA would have been just a treat. Just as I managed to swallow the reality of missing THIS show, I come to hear a beautiful Vermeer is on loan to the the National Gallery in Washington, D. C. Oh, cold cruel fates! What have I done to you? Can't you see how this corn feed town is thousands of miles from everything I long to see? ( Meanwhile, the wicked prosper, ignoring the worth of both exhilbits I bet! ) I would feel a bit abused here, except for the fact that I am sixty miles outside of Chicago and had the wonderful opportunity today to pop into the city and see a Titian and Vermeer on loan to the Art Institute. It was the most life affirming joy I have had in a long time. What an amazing pair of paintings. They are so magnificent in technique they defy the imagination. They are so beautiful, only the heart and soul can respond to them. Their surfaces reject inspection of any kind. Technically so perfect, all you can do is look at them and enjoy. I have had painting on the brain the last few weeks. One bedroom here in my home is cluttered with canvases in various stages of beginning. There is the Joni article from California Rock California Sound, which I am about to quote from, siting on my computer tower along with several new tubes of oils purchased today at Pearl's waiting to be opened and played with. Joni's new body of work, unseen as they are, are inspiring me to ignore the clutter, and sanding, and drawing. I am reading from it as well as a wonderful old book by Max Doerner on the Materlals and Techniques of Artists. The muse has me firm in it's clutches. Better have an oreo break. As I last mentioned, I have been just amazed at the connection between Joni's painting and her music. Surprised, given how refined in intellect they are, that she depends so heavily on intuition, emotion, and imagery in their execution. Her canvases and songs are a collage of feelings, experiences, and visual memories translated into color, line, shape or tone. Their creation and evolution are from these stimulii and reason enters the game only to round them into shape and perfect the form. I believe she begins both painting and songwriting by selecting from the 'realist' palette of her life experiences: her moods, a look, a memory and then sets about creating a palette of 'colors' to try and transcribe them. Pehaps, at times she works in reverse, finding a palette of new oils or tunnings and thensearches out experiences for them to illustrate. As Wayne Shorter mentions in regard to her taking his various licks to provide Joan with bird sounds requested for A Bird that Whistles, she then sets upon sculpting the pieces into a form. She keeps the form open ended, allowing inspiration and even luck to enter the process. Canvases are freely reworked. Passages of music are pieced from various sources. She overdubs snippets of music, always with a keen eye to refine the form rather than simply extend it. Once she has layed out enough material to play wiht, she puts that gritty no nonsense ego of hers to work and refines the form. In the end another beautiful thing is ready to enter the marketplace, and we are the luckier for it. That's my take on her process anyway, give or take a few VG8s, Roland Keyboard toys, and a helping hand by a host of really talented musicians, included to oft-too maligned Larry Klein. For those of you who may have missed that Anthony Fawcett piece, here are a few more snippets from it. I hope I am not breaching a copywrite here. Please, don't sue!!! "--Her painting has taken on a new importance in her life these last few years- to the extent that her recent canvasses are intricately interwoven with the music she has been creating. During the period that Joni was writing and recording DJRD, she simultaneously worked on a large painting which depicts in pigment some of the same themes, metaphors and imagery of that album. 'I can do songs on a square canvas,' she said later, 'and I can have the same symbolic diary in this medium as in the other.' Conversely, Joni's music, which is always in a state of flux, always moving forward, now incorporates many painterly characteristics, like a Picasoo canvas where everything is paired down to the spaces in between objects, distilling the work into multi-faceted planes and the core of meaning. What is left out is for others to put in. 'You see, the way I write songs now,' Joni explains, 'is around a standard melody that nobody knows, because that way you can get your words to have their organic inflection so that when you emphasize something you go up or you go down. Or if you want to put ten syllables in a line that in the next verse is only going to have three syllables drawn out through those bars, you have that liberty. As a result you can't write one lead-sheet and put the four verses on it, every verse has to be written out individually- it's variation on a theme." "--Joni sits on a rock, looking up at the sky meditatively. 'Lightning storms; how are Californians going to relate to that?' she says. 'They're not an institution in your life like they are for flatlanders, you know." "--The other songs on DJRD, even though they were not written at the same time, combined to make a cohesive, flowing album, the story of a journey. 'The fact is,' explains Joni, 'even though they were written from other years, miraculously they made this trip. It starts of rurally, city lights are in the distance and you're anticipating going to the dance and how wonderful it's going to be -there is a storm brewing. By the time you get down to the dancehall, you get drunk, you come on to somebody, there's no real outcome. Then there's kind of a pledge in the song "Jericho" as to what you will do, what love is -its a pretty realistic thing, it's not cynical, I don't think. Then "Paprika Plains" -the rain's hit now, the storm comes in. You go to the washroom and the girls are powdering, and that strange smell that women's restrooms have, a combination of perfume, sanitation equipment and barf! And then it gets nostalgic and goes back to childhood, and that's the flatland and sky-orientation. And then it returns back to the dance hall.' 'Then the trip is taken to Miami and from Miami, which is the point of departure into the Third World, you jump off into the Third World countries with the drum piece and the jungle sounds- a purely Latin thing. You get on a plane in "Dreamland" and you head back to New York. The last side of the album could be anywhere, geographically. But up to there it's a journey through a dream world and it's a journey through a real world. In the dream world on the album there is a printed dream, which is a dream I had on the Rolling Thunder Tour, about Paprika Plains- it's not sung but this is a real dream.' (The Tenth World) "It had a great deal to do with me,' Joni says, 'I was present and I was catalystic in a way, like an intuitive thing- we were all singing on it in one way or another. I've even got two crows on it, you know, I'm in there. My intention was in a way to go around the world and embrace a lot of different cultures, and distill it all down." "--The music is the score,' she says, 'the voice speaks as the characteers speak- but also sets up the scene- it's also the camera. And the music is background music, also it is shading, framing it, it is also visual in a way. Sometimes it's merely accompaniment, but from time to time it paints too. The last three albums- involuntarily I have seen the hole thing visually: cast, costumed, moving. It's like I've seen it with the clarity of a dream." "--The painting of DJRD has many different strands and layers, as do Joni's songs. It is visionary, allegorical and intensely personal. It was a cathartic work for Joni, evolving, maturing, and developing as it did, over a year's period. The larger-than-life size canvas (it's about six feet by eight feet) has four figures in it; the major force comes from two interlocking life-size figures, one male, the other female, with arms outstretched spanning the width of the canvas. This figure is floating in an intense deep blue star-filled sky with the moon half hidden by clouds. Behind the man/woman is a third mysterious eagle-like figure, head crouched down, arms outstretched, ready to fly off into the distance- a spirit departing. Below this scene is the twinkling euphoric view of the city at night, a mass of tiny multi-colored pointillistic dots. A fourth figure, an Indian head replete with war-paint and headdress, appears out of the exotic foliage on the far right of the canvas. Directly opposite, on the far left a red sun sets behind strange Rousseau-like tropical foliage. The overall color and tone of the painting is blue, the painting style expressionist but intricately detailed. There is a lyrical, dream-like quality to this new work..." End of Part 1. Oooops. Sorry Les. The first time I sent this it was too long and was bounced back. (ouch!) So here it is in broken form. Hang in there, gang... the juicy stuff is in part 2. Thanks Les for this great, great site! See all in a few. john. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 14:34:02 -0500 From: Richard Rice Subject: Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) Hi gang. Here's part 2 of the Fawcett interview... "--It began as a compulsion to create in pigment a very special moment between two people, with a memory of that moment in mind, abstracted to the point of the color of that moment- the blues and that blue/green/yellow of the moon. The content I wasn't really sure of. It was a real moment of spiritual closeness and it was a very high and blue setting. It is a poem; it involves my music, and there is a strong sense of spirituality and friendship. It has a lot to do with the primitive peoples of this continent- the element of the Indian- all bathed in the magic of an electric night. The woman is the spirit of DJRD, and everything refers to moments in time.' 'Now, the figures- the way it evolved is interesting. Boyd helped me carry the canvas outside, and the way we sit it up, the branches of a lemon tree fell across it and they made an interesting pattern, so I sketched around this. Then I sketched two shadows, so one figure in there is definitely Boyd, Boyd's presence, and then he sketched my shadow -which I stylized- so the female figure is interlocked with the male. The figures are nude but they're such vivid colors that they overlap each other as if they're transparent- naked tribalness as opposed to anything else. The last two figures: the floating figure behind is very eagle, primitive, arms spread out- a sad Indian gesture. People have read religion into it but it's natural; if it does have religion in it, it's older than Christ, very earthy. Then, out of the bushes comes a figure of a woman who has bone structure similar to my own. The woman is really kind of DJRD, the spirit of that. There is war paint on the cheek, the headdress melts into the foliage, and if I'm in here, I'm this figure, even though the central female body is borrowed from me and has my attitude and sway back. But this is more of my spirit.' 'In the closing of some television channels, an Indian rides up to the top of a hill and overlooks a freeway: it has that element to it, except instead of it being smoggy and traffic-jammed, it is bathed in the electric night which you can see from any ridge in L.A. Some of the coloration in the painting is involved with psychedelics -mushrooms- the vision as it begins to throw internal lights, even at night. For instance, the cypress trees out on the street here, which at night would be a dark black with bits of blue, grey and green, suddenly had chartreuse and orange undulating in them; their own light content that they withheld from the sun was still present at night. Some of that is felt, especially, as the plants go into a metamorphosis with the headdress.' 'The painting took about a year and went through many, many different changes. I mean, I painted in catalystic objects that I would be focusing on while I was working on the corners of it. There is a lot underneath the finished product that's going on. JThe moment that I initially set out to capture was just this period on the rise of the moon. Originally the moon was much larger and I painted in the countenance of the person I was addressing it to (when you write, generally there's a specific person -they come in and out of a song- someone you're addressing yourself to) which served as a catalyst, a confrontation, as a directional source, and as soon as the painting took off, I painted it out. I ended up putting in the sun, too, so you have a continuance of time, a measure of time. The sun and the moon: That was from the first song on the album, 'Cotton Avenue,' that's the beckoning of the night-life, the twinkle of the city." Well, folks, hopefully this long missive will provide a bit of food for thought regarding DJRD, her painting and her music. Thanks for the listen. - --Anyone care to send me to Washington? Happiest of New Years to all, John. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 15:40:08 EST From: SCJoniGuy@aol.com Subject: Re: Millennium Countdown #2 In a message dated 12/30/99 1:30:34 PM US Central Standard Time, dgrowe227@yahoo.com writes: << SCJoniGuy's REALLY gonna hate me now -- why is it that all these cool six degrees come down to that song??? Tee-hee >> No, Don, SCJoniGuy has little room for hate and certainly none for any of you guys. BUT once again you have come up with a loser of a six-degrees contender! :~) But it does prove that "Dancin' Clown" is good for something... What would have been much more astute would have been to note that both Elvis & Joni released singles of "You're So Square (I Don't Care)"... So, who's #1 gonna be? Zamfir? Boxcar Willie? Slim Whitman? Richard Clayderman? (They all sold more records than Elvis, ya' know!) :~) Bob ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 15:49:54 EST From: SCJoniGuy@aol.com Subject: Re: Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) John shared: << You see, the way I write songs now,' Joni explains, 'is around a standard melody that nobody knows, because that way you can get your words to have their organic inflection so that when you emphasize something you go up or you go down. Or if you want to put ten syllables in a line that in the next verse is only going to have three syllables drawn out through those bars, you have that liberty. As a result you can't write one lead-sheet and put the four verses on it, every verse has to be written out individually- it's variation on a theme.">> Thanks for all the material here John! There's so much to digest here it has to be saved and read a couple of times...a lot of insight into DJRD to be sure. The above description reminds me of Miles Davis' "Nefertiti" composition style which was a big influence on Joni. << Then there's kind of a pledge in the song "Jericho" as to what you will do, what love is -its a pretty realistic thing, it's not cynical, I don't think.>> That's my exact take on Jericho, it's a painfully honest love song, optimistic I think as opposed to cynical. Of course it's peppered with a couple of biblical references, Jericho and Judas, and Joni's succinct lyrical beauty and truth: "(I need) the gift of your extra time, in turn I'll give you mine" "Everyone will tell you just how hard it is to make and keep a friend" Thanks again Johnny boy...looking forward to the next installment! Bob Then "Paprika Plains" -the rain's hit now, the storm comes in. You go to the washroom and the girls are powdering, and that strange smell that women's restrooms have, a combination of perfume, sanitation equipment and barf! And then it gets nostalgic and goes back to childhood, and that's the flatland and sky-orientation. And then it returns back to the dance hall.' 'Then the trip is taken to Miami and from Miami, which is the point of departure into the Third World, you jump off into the Third World countries with the drum piece and the jungle sounds- a purely Latin thing. You get on a plane in "Dreamland" and you head back to New York. The last side of the album could be anywhere, geographically. But up to there it's a journey through a dream world and it's a journey through a real world. In the dream world on the album there is a printed dream, which is a dream I had on the Rolling Thunder Tour, about Paprika Plains- it's not sung but this is a real dream.' >> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 15:53:14 EST From: SCJoniGuy@aol.com Subject: Re: Still de grain yellow and guitar strings: joni's painting. (Long.) In a message dated 12/30/99 2:37:35 PM US Central Standard Time, f40rmr1@corn.cso.niu.edu writes: << Anyone care to send me to Washington? >> I'll vote for you John, but you'll have to run the country for 4 years! :~) Bob ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 16:03:55 EST From: SCJoniGuy@aol.com Subject: Some CD notes Firstly, David Foley, please tell me what you want on the CD you sent. I forgot between the time we e-mailed and the time I received your disc. Secondly, to those who have sent me CD's to record on or to those who are about to: (Putting on my "Grumpy Old Man" hat here) BE SURE the discs say "Music" or "Audio" on them...the last 3 packages I've gotten were discs I couldn't record on and have to replace with CD's out of my own stash. I love to share the Joni with y'all, but at 3.50 a pop it's getting expensive...also, I've got about 30 discs that I'll be glad to sell to Les or Catgirl or whoever has a Professional CD-writer...let's talk! I already have lots of coasters and that's all these are to me... To review: "Music" or "Audio" = GOOD If ALL it says is "Recordable" = BAD Thanks for your cooperation - I thought about labeling this NJC but wanted everyone to see it... Friar Bob ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 17:01:57 -0500 From: Deb Messling Subject: Cockburn and Joni: correction Okay, here's the more likely version, from another member of the Cockburn list: I remember him telling that story, but I thought he said something about a guitar-shop owner friend who got Joni Mitchell tunings from the Internet. I didn't think he had any personal contact with Joni, in the way I heard the story. Hey, come to think of it, wouldn't they make a great couple? Deb Messling messling@enter.net http://www.enter.net/~messling/ ~there are only three kinds of people: those who can count, and those who can't. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 22:56:32 +0000 From: catman Subject: lookalike Saw a part of a moevie this afternoon(Loving Couples with Shirley Maclaine, James Coburn and Susan Sarandon circa 1980). Anyhow, Sally Kellerman was also in it and I think she looks like Joni. - -- those who believe in the inerrancy of the bible actually believe in the inerrancy of their own judgement and interpretations. "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 18:04:53 EST From: FMYFL@aol.com Subject: Re: Millennium Countdown #2 Bob wrote: << So, who's #1 gonna be? >> I'll place my money on Britney Spears :~) Jimmy ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 18:28:52 -0500 From: "Jennifer L. Nodine" Subject: [Fwd: Re: Millennium Countdown #2] Message-ID: <386BEA7F.3E39@snet.net> Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 18:27:59 -0500 From: "Jennifer L. Nodine" Reply-To: jlhall01@snet.net Organization: The Mortgage Finance Corp. X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01C-SNET (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: FMYFL@aol.com Subject: Re: Millennium Countdown #2 References: <0.c37f81e9.259d3f15@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Has Janet Jackson been tackled yet? Although maybe much too simple for #1 Jenny FMYFL@aol.com wrote: > > Bob wrote: > > << So, who's #1 gonna be? >> > > I'll place my money on Britney Spears :~) > > Jimmy ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 19:27:14 EST From: Siresorrow@aol.com Subject: Re: Millennium Countdown #2 In a message dated 12/30/99 6:08:24 PM Eastern Standard Time, FMYFL@aol.com writes: << << So, who's #1 gonna be? >> >> the baeaeaetlllllls ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 11:28:57 +1100 From: john low Subject: RE: A Fenny Trip That was one heck of a scary story, catman. I'm certainly not going to bother spending money on "The Blair Witch Project" now. Tonight I think I'll slip a Joni CD into the player and turn all the lights off. What a way to see in the New Year!! John (in Sydney). __________________________________________________________________ Get your free Australian email account at http://www.start.com.au/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 19:41:40 EST From: SCJoniGuy@aol.com Subject: Re: Millennium Countdown #2 In a message dated 12/30/99 5:04:53 PM US Central Standard Time, FMY FL writes: << I'll place my money on Britney Spears :~) >> Well, I must admit that I've waved dollars at a lot worse! :~) And Britney WAS #1 in the Rolling Stone Reader's Poll, just got it today... And not ONE MeShell mention anywhere...damn! However it DID say that Steely Dan's new one is in the stores Feb. 29. So, new Joni & new Steely Dan in the same month - life is good! Bob NP: Tom Petty, "Time to Move On" (Recorded after he heard the final cut of Dancin' Clown) :~D ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 01:53:35 +0100 From: "Peter Holmstedt" Subject: Plug Of The Week #52 Hi there, I'd like to close out the year (...and the decade...and the millennium...) with an album I got in my hands only a couple of weeks ago, and it's already become my favorite album of the year (...and quite possibly the decade!) : Blaze Foley - Live At The Austin Outhouse ( Lost Art Records ) Blaze Foley has long been celebrated by the Austin music community as a master songwriter. With the release of the Austin Outhouse album, his songs are now available for the first time nationally. This release comes ten years after his death at age 39. Originally issued as a cassette in 1989, the new CD captures some of the best of Foley's songs. It includes "If I Could Only Fly", which Merle Haggard called "the best country song I've heard in 15 years". Haggard and Willie Nelson recorded the song in 1987, and Haggard still includes it in his performances. At the time of his death, Foley was little known outside of Austin's renegade songwriter circles. But recent events have sparked widespread interest in the Foley songbook. In 1999, 2 tribute CD's of Foley's songs were released, with a 3rd tribute in the works. Further, Lucinda Williams' "Drunken Angel" and Townes Van Zandt's "Blaze's Blues", personal tributes to Foley, are adding to a legacy that was once nearly forgotten. Born in Arkansas in 1949, Foley grew up in West Texas, performing at an early age in a family gospel act called the Fuller Family. He led a colorful and storied life. Even in Austin, a city of non-conformists, Blaze stood out. He slept on friends couches or on the pool tables in clubs. Periodically banned by many Austin clubs, he made the Austin Outhouse his surrogate home. Above all, Foley is remembered for the stark honesty of his songs. They tapped emotions so deep, they sometimes reduced his lumbering frame to tears while performing. From aching love songs to provocative political commentary, Foley's songs reflected his uncompromising artistic vision. Intensely devoted to his craft, Foley never held a "day" job. He wrote hundreds of songs and made several recordings. Unfortunately, most of the master tapes have been lost or stolen. For these sessions, Foley played a borrowed guitar, and he is supported by some of Austin's finest musicians. Initially a four-track recording, the tape has been digitally remixed and edited, to fully capture the intimacy of those December nights in 1988. Four weeks after making these recordings - while trying to protect an elderly man he had befriended - Foley was shot and killed. "Our hope in releasing the CD is that Blaze and his songs will be exposed to a wider audience, so he can achieve the recognition he rightfully deserves as one of Texas' finest songwriters", says John Casner, Foley's friend and partner in the Outhouse project. Copies of this amazing album are available from : Lost Art Records 609 W. 18th St. Suite E Austin Texas 78701 U.S.A. Phone: 1 - 800 - Buy - MyCD Email: blazecd@aol.com Website: http://www.BlazeFoley.com "Let's go out in a ŽBlazeŽ of glory!" Take care, Peter ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 01:26:08 +0000 From: catman Subject: Re: A Fenny Trip > Tonight I > think I'll slip a Joni CD into the player and turn all the lights off. > What a way to see in the New Year! well, make the most of it. We might have less than 24hrs left to hear any Joni. I can almost that ticking as i write this.....(of course it might be much less for you as you reach midnight 31st dec before we do! > John (in Sydney). > > __________________________________________________________________ > Get your free Australian email account at http://www.start.com.au/ - -- those who believe in the inerrancy of the bible actually believe in the inerrancy of their own judgement and interpretations. "It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 18:08:04 -0800 From: Leslie Mixon Subject: Joni Mitchell Companion I received the Joni Mitchell Companion today. At first glance, I was happy to see acknowledgements made to Wally and Les and the jmdl discussion group. One question, on page 169 is a picture of Bonnie Raitt and "Joni Mitchell" performing in Illinois in 1985 - I'll eat my hat if "Joni" isn't actually Rickie Lee Jones. Leslie Mixon ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Dec 1999 18:16:01 -0800 From: "Ray & Cathy" Subject: re: Cockburn and Joni: correction Deb Messling writes: contact with Joni, in the way I heard the story> I breezed through the article someone mentioned in (I think) Guitar Player Magazine where Bruce relates the story behind "Deep Lake". He said he went into a music/guitar shop in Los Angeles and there was a guitar in *that* tuning. He said he was just blown away by it, and the shopkeeper said it was a Joni Mitchell tuning. He then went directly up to a friend's house in Lake Tahoe where he played in that tuning for a week, composing Deep Lake there. The article printed the tuning as CGDGBD, which when I tried it myself, discovered its the tuning for "Electricity" and "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire". Have a great New Years Eve everyone! Cathy in Oregon ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V1 #314 ****************************** 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?