From: les@jmdl.com (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2003 #21 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, January 20 2003 Volume 2003 : Number 021 Sign up now for JoniFest 2003! http://www.jonifest.com ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Betty Ford and Joni Mitchell [Aerchak@aol.com] Re: Need help identifying JONI show [SCJoniGuy@aol.com] Re: JMDL Digest V2003 #38 -- CD sales [SCJoniGuy@aol.com] Joni blurb ["chuty001" ] hello newbie looking for some joni shows [ZUMABM@aol.com] Re: Joni blurb ["Arlene T." ] ISO JONI MITCHELL artwork for BBC-TV October 1970 (NOT with James Taylor) [CDTraderJohn@aol.c] epiphanies ["courtandspark@earthlink.net" ] Re: JMDL Digest V2003 #38 -- CD sales [BRYAN8847@aol.com] Today's Library Links: January 20 [ljirvin@jmdl.com] Dirges, Paprika colors and other tidbits. [johnirving Can anyone help me identify this Joni show I recently received. Hi John- What you have is the audio taken from a BBC-TV broadcast. The Title of the show was "Joni Mitchell Sings Joni Mitchell". Date: October 9, 1970 Location: BBC2; London England The correct setlist is: 1. Chelsea Morning 2. Hunter 3. The Gallery 4. Cactus Tree 5. My Old Man 6. For Free 7. Woodstock 8. All I Want 9. California 10. Big Yellow Taxi 11. Both Sides Now Some trivia: - - This is also available on video and is known as the "Pink Dress Concert" - - Hunter was a song she wrote for Blue but to this date has never released - - My Old Man & All I Want were works in progress at the time of this performance and feature some alternate lyrics. Bob ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 09:07:52 EST From: SCJoniGuy@aol.com Subject: Re: JMDL Digest V2003 #38 -- CD sales In a message dated 1/19/2003 2:59:10 AM Eastern Standard Time, BRYAN8847@aol.com writes: > No matter how > controversial or odd, T'log would be selling well, if it were only on the > radio. > Well, I don't totally buy this. On the one hand there have been some great stories about unplayed & unheralded records that posted monumental sales without radio's help. "O Brother Where Art Thou" soundtrack was STILL one of the top 20 sellers THIS YEAR, and radio (especially country stations) pretty much turned their back on it. Like I've said here before, I don't see that T'log has a very big market anyway. And I don't think radio did much for Norah Jones either (initially)- the quality of the CD, and the word of mouth caused it's rapid rise in sales. Radio & the media were late to the game. I agree that radio is a HUGE problem. Clear Communications & narrow-casting has eliminated any kind of varieties in radio programming. Hopefully with the disastrous year 2002 was in the music business for the majors, there'll be some changes made, other than just firing people and trading CEO's. Bob ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 10:15:23 -0500 From: "chuty001" Subject: Joni blurb http://www.geocities.com/thatstrangesite/JoniMojo.jpg Joni blurb in the new Mojo. Chuck ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 11:20:01 EST From: ZUMABM@aol.com Subject: hello newbie looking for some joni shows hello and good morning am trying to get a few joni shows on cd? awhile back on the tape tree #7 i have this on cass and now i would love to have it on cd. plus a few other shows . any help would be great. thanks -you brian ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 14:21:29 -0500 From: "Arlene T." Subject: Re: Joni blurb The full content of the article that the blurb was lifted from was, I thought, printed somewhere on the JM site, but now I can't find it. - ----- Original Message ----- From: "chuty001" To: Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 10:15 AM Subject: Joni blurb : http://www.geocities.com/thatstrangesite/JoniMojo.jpg : : Joni blurb in the new Mojo. : : Chuck ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 15:32:42 EST From: CDTraderJohn@aol.com Subject: ISO JONI MITCHELL artwork for BBC-TV October 1970 (NOT with James Taylor) With thanks to Bob, I've been able to identify the following Joni Mitchell show and wanted to share this information with others, as I was unable to locate it elsewhere. I am, however, still searching for ARTWORK. If anyone has it and would be kind enough to share it with me, I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks, John in Massachusetts Here's Bob's response below: Hi John- What you have is the audio taken from a BBC-TV broadcast. The Title of the show was "Joni Mitchell Sings Joni Mitchell". Date: October 9, 1970 Location: BBC2; London England The correct setlist is: 1. Chelsea Morning 2. Hunter 3. The Gallery 4. Cactus Tree 5. My Old Man 6. For Free 7. Woodstock 8. All I Want 9. California 10. Big Yellow Taxi 11. Both Sides Now Some trivia: - - This is also available on video and is known as the "Pink Dress Concert" - - Hunter was a song she wrote for Blue but to this date has never released - - My Old Man & All I Want were works in progress at the time of this performance and feature some alternate lyrics. Bob In a message dated 1/18/03 3:14:54 PM Eastern Standard Time, CDTraderJohn@aol.com writes: > Can anyone please help me identify this Joni show I recently received. It > runs about 48:45 and was identified only as BBC (sounds like 1969-1970 or > 71). Also, if anyone has a corrected setlist, venue and/or ARTWORK (!), > I'd > sure appreciate it. It's a great set, whatever it is. > > Thanks, > John in Massachusetts > > 1) Chelsea Morning (begins abruptly) > 2) The Good Samaritan > 3) The Gallery > 4) Being Free (?) > 5) My Old Man > 6) For Free > 7) Woodstock > 8) All I Really Want (?) > 9) California > 10) Big Yellow Taxi > 11) Both Sides Now > > > Thanks! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 19:37:57 -0500 From: "courtandspark@earthlink.net" Subject: epiphanies First of all, let me write that I am now in a new place. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, etc. Places I should write. My computer is lost somewhere in that postal world. Remember-I want my MTV. Well, I want my Outlook Express. Epiphanies--With Joni I suppose one could have one of these often, each different. With the words and music of the albums I have been taken many places, introspective treks throughout the realms of my mind and soul. Yet, at those times I was awakened to things that I had already known, in some way or another, she made some of them clearer, solidified others. DED, as I wrote at the time, was the album that opened my mind to avenues, thoughts that I had not traveled, known before. It was then, as my eyes welled up, that I realized that I was no better than anyone else and that my ideas of my own superiority were not only dangerous but pitiful and made me even less than those that I had labeled as of a defective nature, standing, importance than my own. It was 'Good Friends' that will forevermore, in my mind, be a tune that reminds me of that incomparable one from Ohio. It was there that I realized that I not only did not have all the answers, I didn't have most of them. It was there that I knew that I had not worked hard enough for others, had not done enough to make the world a better place. It was there that I finally knew that Joni Mitchell is a genius, in more ways than this mind can explain in words. It was there that it came to me that I had not been generous, not forgiving enough, not a man that I was proud to be. Despite what is said about this album, I found it to be one that told me to try harder, to examine further, and to give others more than the benefit of the doubt. mack - -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 20:46:27 EST From: BRYAN8847@aol.com Subject: Re: JMDL Digest V2003 #38 -- CD sales Yes....a CD can sell without radio play. But my point was if T'log were on the radio it would be selling, even though it's so "different." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 02:15:15 -0500 From: ljirvin@jmdl.com Subject: Today's Library Links: January 20 On January 20 the following items were published: 1974: "Court and Spark" - Melody Maker (Review - Album) http://www.jmdl.com/articles/view.cfm?id=182 2000: "At guitar-maker's shop, the sweet sound of success" - AP Worldstream (Mention) http://www.jmdl.com/articles/view.cfm?id=884 2002: "Joni gives me a warm glow in this chilly land" - Daily Mail (Opinion) http://www.jmdl.com/articles/view.cfm?id=974 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 11:55:20 -0600 From: johnirving Subject: Dirges, Paprika colors and other tidbits. Back for more in the 'respectfully we agree to disagree" catagory... I find it a tad humorous and ironic that long standing Joni fans would criticize Tlog for being a dirge. As it's been perceptively mentioned recently, that's been the public's complaint for 30 plus years running. Where we hear beauty, most americans hear that depressing woman shlogging along with weary voice overwhelming their ears with words. -I would have expected this crowd would be immune to the idea Joni as a slug... being so familiar with her tempo. I wonder how you guys can listen to the old stuff not wishing she'd pick up a little... I don't recall my snapping fingers to Song to a Seagull. For the vast majority of America, Joni selecting 22 songs from her catalogue and coming up with something dirgeful is like shooting ducks in a barrel. She could close her eyes and 19 of the 22 wouldn't 'swing.' Hell, she never 'swung' anyway. The woman is too quirky to rock in the manner of others. When she has... let's see, hmmmmmm... Lead Balloon, Ray Dad's Cadillac, and the much, much loved Dancing Clown. -Joni, swing? As a matter of fact, where the pace has picked up in the last few years, it's largely out of collaboration with other musicians to give the thing some tempo, or it's been a cover. If anything Tlog is a triumph of Joni finally getting it right and actually learning to. Every jazz number here pops and sparkles as her internal rhythms and voice instrument have finally made the complete journey into the realm of Jazz. Imagine what we would have in our hands if Charlie Mingus handed those six melodies to her last year as opposed to handing them to the youthful, experimenting singer back when. With the present musicianship, and her refined skills.... WOOOOOW. Can you imagine pork pie hat in present voice? Or the delicious play of rhythmic pause and melodic drops she'd throw into Dry Cleaners now? As to the hits and misses on Tlog, we're certainly into personal tastes here. Some of you love the present Hejira. The best I can bring myself to is 'it's ok.' One thing I wanted the songs to do was have enough difference in arrangement from the originals that the songs take on new colors, new meanings and different emotional, visual spins. That's what is so compelling about Case of You and BSN on the last cd. There's enough coloration and difference of approach that the songs come alive in a whole new context. The maturity of the woman colors the song and Mendoza's arrangements allow that to happen. Perhaps I should underline that last part... By comparison to those two, on Tlog Hejira simply rolls in as a cover. None of her post Hejira Hejira covers shine anywhere near the sparkle of the original recording. Those that come close are when she delivers it as straight to the original as possible. There's an insular sound to the original recording. It's that rolling figure she's strumming with the chord changes that is the heart of it. Snowflakes falling in a surreal landscape of self reflection and movement. -All the salsa dressings and other add ons since then work against the heart of this lanquid melody. It defies all catagory of music and is nothing BUT Joni. The new recording offers nothing new to the emotional perspective of the original. It's simply a cover. And where many of you went gaga over Hejira and I didn't, many of you dislike Just Like this Train and I did like it. I love it, in fact. I don't find the emotional colors are any different from the original. Just heightened. In the original, the song is of a woman weary from the ordeal of relationships who manages to 'let her hair down' and enjoy a moment of simple pleasures found on a long train ride. (Home? Up to Canada for retreat?) The 'ease' of the moment is conveyed more by the freely dispersed chords of the song than it is by Joni's voice. This song was definitely a favorite for , "Ooooohh, listen to the way those chords come in!!! -So relaxed and easy. On CandS, Joni is too busy setting up the story to let her hair down vocally. On tlog, not only has the music found it's ease, but Joni has as well. The new slur of the melodic line upwards on "just like this train" says, "Look folks, I'm enjoying myself here." And Brian Blade and company, especially Brian Blade gives it just the right polish of upbeat, easy listening ease. This song is like a french apperitif. I don't think it's fussy at all. It is Joni's version of champagne ease, all gilded and plush and with lightness of heart. That's what I hear anyway. As for Sex Kills, I tepidly like the original. I always found it lacking for a more personal context to convey the kind of emotional statement the song was trying for. To put the song into the context of someone being "angry", the words are too impersonal for the character of the singer to be upfront. I mean geez, the most important health threat to mankind in a thousand years and it's reduced to a brief "and sex kills?" I've watched too many friends die horrible deaths to see the subject come up only on the clip end of a line. In the new setting on Tlog, I enjoy the song more because it ISN'T an individual angry, upfront and defiant. The lumbering bombast of the new version has the feeling of an old Cecil B. Demille (sp.) film. I get the feeling and image that behind the particulars of the voice that is all complaints, there is the backdrop of a wave of 'illness' in many forms sweeping across the plains of the nation like a marching army decending on the peoples of western civillization. Like the fall of Rome. And when she ends with the long "Sex Keeeeeeeeeeeilllls" that panorama converges forward and meets with her voice in an extended wail for all the suffering that is. It conveys a more respectful feeling of hurt, and sense loss for the fate of Wally and so many, many good people. The sex kills part is no longer a glib clip to my ears. -so I have to respectfully diagree with you on this one Bobbo. (And that's not easy for me, as you are lord god among the masses.) I think this effort, as startlingly clunky as using Demille might be, lends itself to a more effective deliverance of the song. Many of the songs on the second disk fail in comparison to the first because they aren't removed enough from their original context. -Not because they are slow. You want slow, go back and listen to Fiddle and the Drum. That's slow. Btw, on the Don Juan's cover, didn't we read somewhere that Joni's Art Director on that album picked the colors and not her? I will answer that with a yes. ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2003 #21 ******************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe ------- Siquomb, isn't she? (http://www.siquomb.com/siquomb.cfm)