From: les@jmdl.com (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2000 #377 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: les@jmdl.com Errors-To: les@jmdl.com Precedence: bulk Archives: http://www.smoe.org/lists/onlyjoni Websites: http://www.jmdl.com http://www.jonimitchell.com Unsubscribe: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe onlyJMDL Digest Monday, September 25 2000 Volume 2000 : Number 377 The 'Official' Joni Mitchell Homepage, created by Wally Breese, can be found at http://www.jonimitchell.com. It contains the latest news, a detailed bio, Original Interviews, essays, lyrics and much much more. --- The JMDL website can be found at http://www.jmdl.com and contains interviews, articles, the member gallery, archives, and much more. --- Ashara has set up a "Wally Breese Memorial Fund" with all donations going directly towards the upkeep of the website. Wally kept the website going with his own funds. it is now up to US to help Jim continue. If you would like to donate to this fund, please make all checks payable to: Jim Johanson and send them to: Ashara Stansfield P.O. Box 215 Topsfield, MA. 01983 USA ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Joni Book - Herb Ritts photo ["Kakki" ] Tom Rush's discovery? [CarltonCT@aol.com] RE: memories of Wally ["Wally Kairuz" ] joni- digest [ZUMABM@aol.com] Re: Tom Rush's discovery? [IVPAUL42@aol.com] Hi everyone [TanyerSCO@aol.com] Great songwriters and geniuses (or is it genii?) (VLJC) [AzeemAK@aol.com] Re: Great songwriters and geniuses (or is it genii?) (VLJC) [RoseMJoy@aol] Song For Sharon [SCJoniGuy@aol.com] Foni Mitchell - Set List [Fonimitchell@aol.com] More "voices"? and Kids' Classics - SJC [Michael Paz ] JMDL Is Everywhere ["Jim L'Hommedieu" ] Bad Lyric ["Jim L'Hommedieu" ] Re: Great songwriters and geniuses (or is it genii?) (VLJC) [Joseph Palis] RE: Bad Lyric ["Eric Wilcox" ] Clamoring For A Tape Tree! ["Jim L'Hommedieu" ] Uh Oh... (long) [JRMCo1@aol.com] What song, please? [JRMCo1@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 00:22:55 -0700 From: "Kakki" Subject: Re: Joni Book - Herb Ritts photo Tonight I dug out the June 1997 Vanity Fair with the fantastic Joni article titled "Lady of the Canyon". There are two more sepia-toned Ritts photos of Joni from the same shoot as the photo on the cover of the lyrics book. In one Joni has her arm up and is leaning against some sort of Moorish-style turret and in the other she is again in front of the tree with the ferns smoking a cigarette. The caption reads "She's sung the blues, lived through Turbulent Indigo, hissed at summer lawns and turned us on like a radio. Now Joni Mitchell - pictured at her Spanish-style compound in Bel Air - is finally getting her due as a genuine artist." I don't like to keep old magazines laying around but this one is a real keeper. Kakki ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 03:59:02 EDT From: CarltonCT@aol.com Subject: Tom Rush's discovery? Hey y'all - I just got my flyer from McHabe's guitar store here in Los Angeles where they also have concerts. Apparently Joni has bought some guitars at McHabe's, and judging from the pictures of her around the place, she has performed there as well. The flyer announces that Tom Rush will be giving a concert there in October, and that he is "famous for singing the Circle Game" and "for discovering Joni Mitchell! " I'm wondering what the historians here think of that claim. I do hope to go and see Tom when he's here. As for Etheridge and Julie Cypher, I just want to mention how hard it for celebrities of any kind to stay together. There is tremendous volatility in the lives of actors/musicians etc. and many relationships end over the long and frequent separations and the pressures of remaining successful year after year. It's always rough on a marriage when one star continues to shine and the other is fading -- such is the case with Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. I believe California still has the highest divorce rate in the nation, and much of that has to do with the stress and instability of show business. I don't know many stars, but I have a lot of friends whose own marriages/relationships suffer because they are apart for months at a time or they find themselves unemployed for long periods. I know a few screen writers who had some initial success then never sold anything again and ended up losing everything, including their lover/spouse. And as for Anne and Ellen, did anybody think that was going to last? - - bliss to everyone, Clark NP: Scritti Politti, Improvisation ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 06:16:58 -0300 From: "Wally Kairuz" Subject: RE: memories of Wally two of my memories of wally breese. one is about the time i first joined the list. i got a message from wally saying that since there had already been some confusion about a couple of guys with the same name [i can't remember which ones] and since he KIND OF RAN the thing [his words], why didn't i change my name. i was a little pissed off at this suggestion. i replied that i had been a wally all my life. so he said that i must be a waldo or a wallace or a walter so why not sign that way. well, i answered that i was a wallyburger. so that's why -- you old-timers must remember -- i signed my first posts ''wallyburger'' before i changed to wallyk, wally le k, etc.. the other memory is about the time wally suggested i changed the correction in my eyeglasses because i had openly flirted with him on the list and i had confessed that i found him irresistibly attractive. [i had just seen PWWAM where wally appears repeatedly.] this time i took it as a friendly overture on his part, especially since he made some nice comments on my rendition of coyote on a tape of you. i was flattered that he could still remember my coyote because the tape was already old then. the third memory is about late january this year. i wanted to visit wally and say goodbye to him. but kenny talked to someone [jim or leslie] and they said that wally was pretty much gone and there was no point. a few days later, i ws checking my mail at the copy center at hudson and christopher and for some inexplicable reason i decided to enter the page. and there it was: wally's face and the dates. i started to cry then and there to the point that a couple of people came and asked me if i was all right [YES, they were new yorkers!]. i felt i owed wally something much better than tears. so applied myself and went to boots and saddles where i picked up a gorgeous man and PIP'd outrageously in wally's honor. wally breese will live forever in our souls. every time we make a new friend on the list, every time we hear a new cd tree, every time we sing for one another at a fest, it will be thanks to wally and his vision. a true aquarius, wally could see the past and the future at the same time. he truly accomplished his mission on earth: he showed us the way to a community of hearts and minds. wally, i still think you're beautiful. if i go to heaven, i'll date you. wallyK [née burger] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 07:49:21 EDT From: ZUMABM@aol.com Subject: joni- digest joni-digest 3fd468d-a06d4a3 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 08:47:06 EDT From: IVPAUL42@aol.com Subject: Re: Tom Rush's discovery? In a message dated 9/24/00 4:02:47 AM Eastern Daylight Time, CarltonCT@aol.com writes: << The flyer announces that Tom Rush will be giving a concert there in October, and that he is "famous for singing the Circle Game" and "for discovering Joni Mitchell! " I'm wondering what the historians here think of that claim. >> I think his covers of Tin Angel, Urge for Going and Circle Game (which is the album title) predates others and vouches for the accuracy of that claim, though I am not a historian. Furthermore, Rush also covers James Taylor on the same LP and probably could claim to have discovered him as well. Also, Tom has announced on his mail list that he is having a big bash in St. Thomas (pun intended) in February to celebrate the fact he is turning fifty-nine and twelve months. Wish I could go. Paul I ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 11:16:31 EDT From: TanyerSCO@aol.com Subject: Hi everyone Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that I have returned from my three months away at summer stock! For those of you who don't know, I was away in New Hampshire all summer and had an amazing time. If you visited the New London Barn Playhouse, you probably saw me on stage! I'm so glad to be back and I hope you all had a blast at Joni Fest. I wish I could have been there. Does anyone know who Song for Sharon is for? I just fell in love with Hejira this summer, being away and all. : ) Tanya np - birds in NYC? ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 12:03:17 EDT From: AzeemAK@aol.com Subject: Great songwriters and geniuses (or is it genii?) (VLJC) Obviously I must add my vote to the Richard Thompson campaign. I'm also not aware of seeing too many mentions of Van Morrison, who is certainly up there, although I think he's gone off the boil. Joan Armatrading also deserves a mention, and of modern exponents Shawn Colvin and Aimee Mann are right up there. At the risk of drawing fire, I don't rate Carol King as a solo songwriter. Her place in pop history is not in doubt, as one half of one of the greatest songwriting duos ever; but solo, her songs rarely rise to true greatness. I have quite a few of her 70s albums, and while they're all listenable (and Music is very good), something's missing. One personal observation I have is about "genius". There's something intangible about this quality to me. While I consider Joni and Dylan to be the greatest songwriters of the rock era, I would more readily use the "g" word about Laura Nyro, Kate Bush and Richard Thompson. Hejira is to me the greatest album ever made, so why don't I describe Joni as a genius? She'll have to content herself with being the greatest, a consummate artist, etc etc :-) Genius seems to capture something a bit extra and unique, a manifestation of the otherwise unimaginable, something that seems to come from another place. I can't imagine where Christmas & The Beads of Sweat, Hounds of Love or The Woods of Darney come from. FWIW, if faced with the words "music" and "genius", the names that come to my mind, apart from those I've already mentioned, are Stevie Wonder, Steve Winwood, Jane Siberry, Marvin Gaye, Neil Finn, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix. Even someone like Mary Margaret O'Hara seems to have been touched with it. Azeem In London NP: Pooka - Spinning - having just seen them in concert, I found another copy of this fab and long deleted album in a second hand shop, and bought it, as I always do - this is my fourth copy!! The second and third went to good homes, one of them on this list (hi Julian!). This album is also touched with genius... ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 14:23:42 EDT From: RoseMJoy@aol.com Subject: Re: Great songwriters and geniuses (or is it genii?) (VLJC) Another gifted songwriter/singer/musician that has always inspired me is the legendary Barry White. Between 1973-1975 he produced and wrote music for a total of 11 albums. The man has a distinctive velvety baritone voice you just gotta love. My favorite, "Can't get Enough of Your Love, Babe" It's always been about love for me. Another elite female performer I'd like to mention is Toni Braxton. I just love her album "Secrets." Rose in NJ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 18:05:43 EDT From: SCJoniGuy@aol.com Subject: Song For Sharon << Does anyone know who Song for Sharon is for? I just fell in love with Hejira this summer, being away and all. >> Welcome back, Tanya! Song For Sharon is about Joni's childhood friend from Maidstone, Sharon Bell. When I saw her in Atlanta in '98, she introduced it as "Song For Sharon Bell". When they were kids, Joni talked of being a farmer's wife and Sharon talked of being a singer. As life would have it, it worked out the other way. One of the highlights of Jonifest was looking at Ashara's video she took in Maidstone. They have a little "Joni Mitchell Museum" with some early photos of Joni & her playmates, even the church where Joni went to "every wedding in that little town". It was really neat to see those pictures. And of course, Joni was always in the center of the shot and had her mouth open in most! :~) Sharon's wish to become a singer did not go totally unfulfilled. She made a record which included among other things, a rendition of a song written by her childhood playmate, "Both Sides Now". Song For Sharon is a brilliant song; even though it's incredibly long and wordy (while performing it in New Orleans in 1995, she say's 'This song has a LOT of words!'), each verse transitions to the next with such brilliant segue. Bob NP: "Big Yellow Taxi" ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 19:18:58 EDT From: Fonimitchell@aol.com Subject: Foni Mitchell - Set List Hi everybody. Greetings from England. We are extremely flattered and grateful for the many messages of welcome and encouragement for our project. Quite a number of you have enquired about our current set-list, and I have promised to post it - so here it is. In no particular order (and not all played every time), but from: I Had a King Carey This Flight Tonight Free Man in Paris Little Green Woodstock Night in the City Big Yellow Taxi River Help Me Chelsea Morning California Same Situation Case of You All I Want Both Sides Now * Michael From Mountains Cactus Tree Circle Game You Turn Me On I'm A Radio He Played Real Good For Free Raised On Robbery Morning Morgantown ** Rainy Night House ** * = Jo solo, ** = Jo & Ella only Very best wishes to you all. Please keep in touch. Foni Mitchell. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 19:44:36 -0500 From: Michael Paz Subject: More "voices"? and Kids' Classics - SJC Lindsay- As a parent I feel like you should just play whatever YOU like and they will make their own choices for their own reasons. My number one (who is 10 now) was drawn to alot of the music I was listening to and has charted his own course ever since. His early interests were Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Tom Petty. We took him to see Tom Petty as his first official concert. He passed out shortly after "Last Dance With Mary Jane", you know it had the line about UNDERWEAR. He is now firmly planted in the rhythm and blues genre with preferences in the current boy group thing BSB and N'Sync etc. Although we went to a show in the park yesterday and caught the subdudes reunion set (rootsy, soulful, rock with great harmonies check them out if you haven't already) and Cheap Trick. He really liked them alot and he thought Cheap Trick was ok. He also has been digging in my collection lately and just checks things out on his own. He sings along with me on alot of the stuff that I play especially Joni Mitchell and Beatles. My number two son is a huge Dave Matthews Band fan + he also is in the BSB camp, but he is showing more natural music ability as well as a wide taste in different types of music. He sings a very nice version of Big Yellow Taxi and is an expert in making grown women burst into tears. I say keep the flipping TV off as much as possible and let the music play... Good luck, Michael NP-OOPS> The Flipping TV in the other room. Just spun-Taxman-Beatles Alternate Revolver Lindsay wrote: "Also, I have two kids, 4 and 6, and am thinking about music they should be exposed to. I so often hear on this list and in general people who say they remember music from their childhoods, or their parents playing this or that (i.e., the recent thread on music we grew up with or that made an early impression on us.) Of course I've done my best with the Joni and my husband's done his best with Ozzy Osbourne. Stevie Wonder is another thought; I think any kid would love his great tunes and it's pretty easily obtainable on perhaps a Greatest Hits of. I'd love to expose them to some classical but am so ignorant of it myself I wouldn't know where to start. The CDs I find that are made for kids seem a bit repetitive with "Peter and the Wolf," and some other common things. Would any of you have any suggestions for me on where to start or what you remember listening to from your youths -- uh, not to say any of you are old or anything. I did try to play them Debussy's "Nuages" from the recent "BSN" tour. It got mixed reviews from them (while I had tears streaming down my face) but I think it stuck somewhere in their tiny little spirits. One of my favorites is Beethoven's 7th and 8th, which a friend who studied at Oberlin laughed and said, he wrote that for his father's funeral! Ha! I guess it just shows I love melancholy music (of course another reason I love Joni -- feeds right into that vein.) Thank you in advance for any direction you can lead me. I'll let you know the results." ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 22:50:39 EDT From: SBardMusic@aol.com Subject: Re: Welcome to joni-digest i am so happy to be among you. i love the art of joni mitchell. thank you. especially fond of FTR and THOSL. all are wonderful, of course. very much love "Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody" and the new Both Sides Now album is very moving to me. she seems to have discovered a whole new voice and direction. i feel blessed to experience her art. thank you. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 22:13:02 +0100 From: Nancy Subject: Re: Chicago Concert Hi Phyllis, I can't help but wonder if my sister-in-law and I were two of the women you heard talking after the concert! LOL! ––Nancy/IA > I was at the Chicago concert too! Although I didn't see Amy Grant, on the way out > of the Hall I did overhear a few women discussing how they had seen her. So, I > guess she must have been there. > ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 23:32:57 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: JMDL Is Everywhere This past weekend, I drove 10 hours to see my brother get married in another part of the US (Rochester, New York). While there, I stopped in at a CD store and struck up a conversation. I asked the clerk why they didn't have any concert photos of Joni on their photo wall. "I LOVE Joni Mitchell," he exclaimed. "We should have one!" I told him I'd send him one. And by the way, how 'bout some so-called 'audience recordings' of Joni? "Well, I don't usually talk about that with customers..... but, well, I already have lots of Joni tapes. I got 'em about 5 years ago......... from this guy in San Francisco." Naw, I thought. It couldn't be, but I had to ask anyway: "Was his name Wally Breese?" "How'd you know?" :) All the best, Jim L'Hommedieu Big grin! We miss you Wally! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2000 23:44:48 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: Bad Lyric "There's a restaurant down the street Where hungry people like to eat." 'Pinch Me' by Barenaked Ladies All the best, Jim L'Hommedieu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 12:21:40 +0800 (PHT) From: Joseph Palis Subject: Re: Great songwriters and geniuses (or is it genii?) (VLJC) > Even someone like Mary Margaret O'Hara seems to have been touched with it. ... and for that matter, Laurie Anderson... joseph in an unbearably bright morning in Manila ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 00:19:35 -0500 From: "Eric Wilcox" Subject: RE: Bad Lyric I remember listening to the Joni interview with Morrisey in which he asked her if there were any words that Joni didn't like to use in her songs. She said someting about Freud, and how that the psychological vocabulary has taken the place of a whole set of other words that may better describe the situation (I believe "egotistical" was an example she used). When I read the lyrics by the "femmes nues" (as the French are wont to say)-- all I could think about was that interview. Of all the words... they chose those. How... hmm... simple? I mean-- just imagine how many times those lines could be rewritten with a different vocabulary and still retain the same (or even gain a more precise) meaning. Such wisdom, Joni. eric - --- eric wilcox edwilcox@students.wisc.edu "It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious." -Oscar Wilde - --- - -----Original Message----- From: owner-joni@jmdl.com [mailto:owner-joni@jmdl.com]On Behalf Of Jim L'Hommedieu Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2000 10:45 PM To: _JMDL - June 98 Subject: Bad Lyric "There's a restaurant down the street Where hungry people like to eat." 'Pinch Me' by Barenaked Ladies All the best, Jim L'Hommedieu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 01:58:42 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: Clamoring For A Tape Tree! * Yes, yes! What Michael Paz said! Let's get a tree going right away- before the Holidays!! * I also want to say that I was also saddened by the Heche/DeGenerges split. I identified with Anne wandering around, dazed and confused. ANYWAY..... I am sorry when anyone breaks up. (although Meg Ryan is available again...... Hmmmmmmm.) All the best, Jim L'Hommedieu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 02:16:36 EDT From: JRMCo1@aol.com Subject: Uh Oh... (long) The JC is near the end. Sorry for the length, but I didn't want to paraphrase this one. - -Julius ___ 'I'm lucky to be alive - I deserved to die' 09/25/2000 The Express Copyright (C) 2000 The Express; Source: World Reporter (TM) The man who 20 years ago pumped three bullets into the heart of John Lennon, murdering the Beatle in front of his wife Yoko Ono and the world's media, has spoken for the first time in eight years in a world exclusive interview for the Daily Express. Timed ahead of his parole-board hearing next week, the killer sensationally explains for the first time why he killed John Lennon and why he now believes he deserves his freedom. The words mark a complete change of heart for assassin Mark Chapman, 45, who up until now has always believed he would die in prison. However, inspired by hope that he may be released following his parole hearing, Chapman's talk is now of preparing for life beyond Attica prison in New York state, where he has spent the past 20 years for the killing which numbed the world. With the date of the hearing, October 3, circled on a calendar on his cell wall, Chapman opens his heart and mind in a frank and forthright account of his crime, his punishment and his changed expectations. A burly six footer, Chapman has become grossly overweight since his last media appearance and, self-conscious of his size he now refuses to be photographed. Under New York state law he automatically comes up for parole having served 20 years, and has the right to indicate before the board whether he wants to be freed. In a move that to some will seem grotesque, Chapman not only wants his freedom but has prepared a case to present to his parole board next week. The self-absorbed, immature nobody who came out of the shadows on December 8, 1980, wanting desperately to be a somebody, killed Lennon, he freely admits, as his passport to fame. Chapman was sentenced to life in prison but admits that even so he revelled in the notoriety, the TV interviews, newspaper articles and magazine profiles which followed from murdering one of the most famous men in the world. "Sure, I don't think gloat is the word. But my identity was such, so low that I had to kill somebody. So, naturally, I'm going to, you know, proclaim some of that and try to feel good about myself." Now, however, Chapman dreams of being "Mr Nobody" again. "I don't know how easy that would be but I'd try just to lead an ordinary life again. Stay out of the papers. There's not many places to go once you've killed someone like John Lennon." Keen to paint himself as a changed, adjusted, deeply religious and remorseful man, a "liberal" who recognises what he did as "an awesome thing", Chapman believes he can now spread the word of Christianity if he were allowed his freedom. He plans to tell the parole board that he would dedicate himself to touring as a Christian revivalist. "I could have an impact, a positive impact," he insists. "I could travel to different places and tell people what happened and how their answer, as well as mine, is in Jesus." There are even friends, he claims, who would look after him. "There's people here who like me," he says. Incredibly, Chapman also believes that John Lennon would forgive him and support his request for parole. "I think he would be liberal, I think he would care. I think he would probably want to see me released. That's my opinion." Chapman today prefers not to revel in the infamy he once so desperately craved for his dreadful crime. "I don't like to be reminded of it at all." Struggling to explain the senselessness of his attack, Chapman told the Daily Express that he never saw his victim as human. Lennon was just "a picture on an album cover", as far as Chapman was concerned at the time. "When I met him and when I shot him, when I saw him on the album cover, it just wasn't real." Chapman remembers clearly the morning he knew he was going to kill Lennon. He put on a black felt cap and scarf, collected his copy of The Catcher In The Rye, JD Salinger's famous novel about alienated adolescence, and walked from a nearby YMCA to the Dakota building on the west side of Central Park. He joined the throng of Lennon groupies who lived in almost perpetual encampment, hoping for a glimpse of their idol and his autograph. Lennon often obliged and that brisk, winter morning he stared into the eyes of his killer. "I had a piece of cardboard and I used it to camouflage the shape of the gun in my pocket," Chapman recalled. "I had the album with me, too, the John Lennon album. I brought that with me as a reason for standing out there. It was a ruse. I didn't want his signature, I wanted his life. And I ended up getting both." Lennon had just finished recording Double Fantasy and it was being well received by critics. Life, by a tragic irony, was better than it had ever been since the heady days of the Beatles. And Lennon was loving New York, telling the Radio One DJ Andy Peebles in what turned out to be his last interview, that: "People come up and ask me for autographs or say 'hi', but they won't bug you." Chapman had been there so often, playing the role of besotted fan, that Lennon felt comfortable walking over earlier in the day he was to die. Chapman recalls their conversation. "I said: 'John, would you sign my album?' He said: 'Sure' and wrote his name and he handed it back to me. "He looked at me and said: 'Is that all you want?' Just like that. And I said 'Yeah, thanks John.' And he again said: 'Is that all you want?' And there was Yoko, she was already in the car, the door was open, it was running. And he asked me twice and I said: 'Yeah, thanks, that's all,' or something like that and then he got into the car to drive away." All the time, Chapman says, his hand held the gun in his pocket, wet with sweat. Lennon sensed something was up, repeatedly asking him if he wanted anything else, but this time Chapman held back. The murder came later. Chapman spent the day milling around the Dakota building, pleading with inner demons. "Help me devil, give me the power and the strength to do this," was the mantra he muttered. His head, he said, was torn between "the phoney adult" and the "evil child" within. Eventually, at around 11pm, the limousine carrying the Lennons appeared outside the block. Yoko came out first. Chapman recalled a "dead silence in his brain" as he nodded to Lennon, who was clutching cassettes. "A voice in my head said: 'Do it, do it, do it, do it.' I aimed at his back and pulled the trigger five times and all hell broke loose in my mind." Chapman made no attempt to leave the scene as the ecstasy of recognition began. Lennon sang of imagining a world with no religion, something which Chapman's warped mind clung to as justification for the killing. Chapman is now and was then immersed in a world filled with nothing but religion, a zealous Bible reader weaving a selective path through memorised passages of scripture to find what he calls peace. The former security guard has developed a trick of dividing himself into two, barely related individuals. "There really is no Mark Chapman," he says. "That's the person that killed John Lennon and that's in the newspaper. I don't live that life." The first Chapman, he believes, ought to have received the death penalty. "I should have been executed, you know. Well, if you commit murder, maybe that's what's due?" he said. "I'm lucky to be alive. You know, I deserve to die." Chapman claims that the image of Lennon remained in his mind as just that - just an image on an album cover - until three years ago when he claims Lennon suddenly became mortal to him, a father and husband of flesh and blood. "It all became real three years ago, where this isn't an image I blew away. This was a beating heart. I guess it was just the right time for me to be able to see that kind of thing - hiding from my responsibilities. I don't think most murderers realise what they've done. But I did. He became real for me, he stepped from the album cover." As for remorse, it appears to be grudging: "When I think about it I get very serious and sometimes I have to tell people. I say: 'I did this crime and this was a real person and if you call that remorse, fine.'" Prison psychiatrists have been evaluating Chapman's sanity in preparation for the parole hearing. "I'm talking now with a fellow from mental health, just on a friendly basis. I don't receive any kind of treatment ! and I'm not on any medication. I've been mentally well for 12, 13 years. No problems. I'm on their highest grade of mental wellness." The cell he inhabits these days has views to distant hills, a special privilege that reflects his years of good behaviour. Chapman's bed is on the right and there are sparse furnishings, all prison issue: a locker, desk and set of drawers. The only photograph is of his dead grandmother. There are pictures of Jesus. Lots of them. He is a voracious reader and has more than the permitted 25 books in his cell, including several Bibles. "Underneath my table, I have a box of media interview requests that I've never answered, hundreds. And on top of that is another box of personal correspondence. Letters are hard for me. I hardly ever write." Chapman now speaks to only one person, a local newspaper reporter called Jack Jones, who is also the author of the biography Let Me Take You Down: Inside The Mind of Mark Chapman, The Man Who Killed John Lennon. The recent Jones interviews, more than three hours long, took place in July. They are for a Court TV documentary to be broadcast next week, Death Of A Beatle. Jones believes that the seeds of the killing were sown in Chapman as a 10-year-old playing nothing but Beatles music, emerging as a Jesus-obsessed adolescent with a precarious grip on reality. He sees Chapman regularly, and is clear about one thing. "This is a person who just made a choice to do evil at a great level. Then John Lennon, his hero, talks of being bigger than Jesus and imagining no heaven. Chapman simply wanted to hurt as many people as possible and by killing John Lennon he knew he could cause the maximum pain to a world he hated." Music was at the rotten core of Mark Chapman as he grew up a troubled loner and he has now reassessed the music of the man he killed. "He truly cared about people. he was a human being. He wasn't perfect, just like all of us," says Chapman. "I don't think he thought of himself as a Messiah. But here was a man who had power and money and I think he, you know, kind of blew all that off there, especially towards the end, and said: 'It's about people.' His songs, they're not phoney." Chapman also plays guitar. "I'm working on some Joni Mitchell stuff," he says. I like what you call folk rock now: Joni Mitchell, America, Don McLean. I've mellowed. The music soothes me." Music is still the way he tries to understand what he did. "I often sit, particularly lately, I think: 'Gee, I'm here, 45 years old, and I'm a living human being. I'm in jail for murder, who knows when I'll get out. But I'm alive, you know. Where's this other fellow at? He's not here any more, he's gone. That bothers me a great deal."And the Beatles? "I don't have any Beatles tapes," he says. And the new Mark Chapman who will sit before the parole board has no problems when he hears their songs on the radio. "Doesn't bother me at all. I mean, it's good music." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000 02:28:36 EDT From: JRMCo1@aol.com Subject: What song, please? - -Julius ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2000 #377 ********************************* ------- Post messages to the list at ------- Siquomb, isn't she?