From: les@jmdl.com (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2005 #35 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 Friday, February 4 2005 Volume 2005 : Number 035 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- RE: Hejira a blight....and another thing. ["Ross, Les" ] Re: while traveling in some vehicle [Catherine McKay ] RE: Hejira a blight....and another thing. [Catherine McKay ] RE: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! [Bob Muller ] Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! [Bob Muller ] Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! [Bob Muller ] Re: while traveling in some vehicle [mags h ] RE: Roberta Flack/Jen Stills/Ray LaMontagne ["Kate Bennett" ] Re: Joni mentions and news in Hancock article ["Mark or Travis" ] Coyote's diary (a bit of Joni content in this extract) [Brian Gross ] Everything (or at least a frisbee) for nothing [Justalittlebreen@aol.com] RE: Hmmm, this item looks familiar ["Richard Flynn" ] Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! [Catherine McKay ] Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! [Smurf ] Hejira a blight! ["David Henderson" ] The blight, the dance and all that [eaddy sutton ] Shorter ["David Henderson" ] A step back in time... [Doug ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 09:01:41 -0000 From: "Ross, Les" Subject: RE: Hejira a blight....and another thing. re: the harpy judgement. undoubtedly correct. joni was very pi$$ed off and made no effort to disguise it. bear in mind, from ten rows back i was in awe of being there, delighted that she'd made it north of the border and so my expectations of being transported were very high. and god she was awful. really laboured her disaffection. she disguised it, if at all, with beevis and buthead chortles. snakes in her hair? well, no those were all coming out of her mouth and yes the music (noise) was cacophonous. an emotional reaction on my part? certainly but one i stand by. $exist? possibly though i am not by nature $exist so it is not writen informed by that disposition. were the object of my reaction a man, i'd have called him a complete wan(k)er. equally $exist and equally apt. (excuse the dollar signs, this'd never get past our company firewalls without them...) les (london) good morning mike, by the way. we should meet up next time i'm in barca. i go there from time to time as my partner has many friends in the area. - -----Original Message----- From: mike pritchard [mailto:ink08@hotmail.com] Sent: 04 February 2005 07:34 To: list Cc: Ross, Les Subject: RE: Hejira a blight....and another thing. >>So there I was initially glowing in the glory of her presence only to have the guts kicked out of me by this harpy on the stage. Who WAS this woman?<< I've said it many times before but I'll say it again: I consider the Hissing-to-Mingus period joni's best work, with Hejira my personal favourite. Therefore I completely agree with most of what Les Ross says about Hejira. His analysis is spot-on (i.e. exactly the same as mine ;-) ). However, I have to ask him why he chose to refer to Joni as a 'harpy', at best an unfortunate expression. What was it exactly that evoked the 'harpy' image? The Medusa-like curls?, the loud music (loud enough to be 'cruel and violent', normal characteristics of harpies everywhere)? Isn't there a wee bit of $exist language here? mike in barcelona np Laura Nyro - Eli... ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 04:27:43 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! Since I think Covers #61 is so awesome, and Jimmy & I want ALL JMDL'ers to hear the AWESOME Billy C's rendition of BSN (I really, really, really, really don't know love....), I'm gonna fling a free disc to the first person who can answer this question. In case there are multiple right answers, I will give a freebie to each different correct answer, because, y'know, sometimes trivia questions have more than one correct answer! ;~) Q: What TV game show does Joni mention in one of her songs? Bob NP: David Sanborn, "Man From Mars" The all-new My Yahoo!  What will yours do? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 07:46:28 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: while traveling in some vehicle --- mags h wrote: > > depressing, not at all...just a way for me to > express what i've felt for a very long time... > Hejira is a soul journey. I think your brain waves have to be in a certain Greek letter phase - is it beta? I don't remember - the one where you become very receptive to creative thought, somewhere between wake and sleep, but you're also very aware in a quiet sort of way. It's not background music, but neither is it music that you sit to and concentrate on fiercely. You need to let it wash over you and seep into your consciousness. Juste ma deux cennes. ===== Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 12:38:54 -0000 From: "Ross, Les" Subject: RE: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! WHEEL OF FORTUNE! - -----Original Message----- From: Bob Muller [mailto:scjoniguy@yahoo.com] Sent: 04 February 2005 12:28 To: JMDL Subject: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! Since I think Covers #61 is so awesome, and Jimmy & I want ALL JMDL'ers to hear the AWESOME Billy C's rendition of BSN (I really, really, really, really don't know love....), I'm gonna fling a free disc to the first person who can answer this question. In case there are multiple right answers, I will give a freebie to each different correct answer, because, y'know, sometimes trivia questions have more than one correct answer! ;~) Q: What TV game show does Joni mention in one of her songs? Bob NP: David Sanborn, "Man From Mars" The all-new My Yahoo!  What will yours do? ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 07:50:20 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: RE: Hejira a blight....and another thing. --- mike pritchard wrote: > ;-) ). However, I have to > ask him why he chose to refer to Joni as a 'harpy', > at best an unfortunate > expression. What was it exactly that evoked the > 'harpy' image? The Medusa-like > curls?, the loud music (loud enough to be 'cruel and > violent', normal > characteristics of harpies everywhere)? Isn't there > a wee bit of sexist > language here? Female: harpy. Male: Harpo? ===== Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 04:59:35 -0800 (PST) From: Smurf Subject: Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! - --- Bob wrote: > > Q: What TV game show does Joni mention in one of her > songs? > Um, "that damned hockey game?" Hey, it's a game and it's a show! - --Smurf, a frisbee fan since 2000 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do? http://my.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 05:25:40 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: RE: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! Wow Les...you're quicker than Deb Messling - amazing, and CORRECT. (At least, that's the one *I* was thinking of). Please send me your mailing address and I'll let the freak frisbee fly! Bob NP: Laura Cantrell, "Sam Stone" PS: Vanna White is from South Carolina - my wife used to work with a Management consulting firm in town, and one of the owners was obsessed with Vanna. I guess because he did time/motion studies, he would watch Wheel of Fortune each night and COUNT the number of STEPS that she took onscreen. WTF? Anyway, he even kept a logbook with the data. And I thought MY hobby was weird. Oops, now this PS babbled on too long and I've got another NP... NP: Doobie Brothers, "Daughters Of The Sea" "Ross, Les" wrote: WHEEL OF FORTUNE! - -----Original Message----- From: Bob Muller [mailto:scjoniguy@yahoo.com] Sent: 04 February 2005 12:28 To: JMDL Subject: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! Since I think Covers #61 is so awesome, and Jimmy & I want ALL JMDL'ers to hear the AWESOME Billy C's rendition of BSN (I really, really, really, really don't know love....), I'm gonna fling a free disc to the first person who can answer this question. In case there are multiple right answers, I will give a freebie to each different correct answer, because, y'know, sometimes trivia questions have more than one correct answer! ;~) Q: What TV game show does Joni mention in one of her songs? Bob NP: David Sanborn, "Man From Mars" The all-new My Yahoo!  What will yours do? Yahoo! Mail - 250MB free storage. Do more. Manage less. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 05:30:27 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! See, there you go...wasn't thinking about that, but you make an excellent case, I've conferred with the judges and they said **DING** - you're a winner! Bob, waiting on the plumber... NP: The Bully Boys, "Long Time Gone/Suite Judy Blue Eyes/Woodstock medley" Smurf wrote: Um, "that damned hockey game?" Hey, it's a game and it's a show! Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 05:37:56 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! Sorry Catherine...after a review of the play, the lead referee has stated that the "Johnny Carson Show" does not qualify as a GAME show. TO TELL THE TRUTH, this response has placed you in JEOPARDY for lack of CONCENTRATION. Still, all of here at SCJoniguy Inc. thank you for playing and we have some great consolation prizes for you including the home version of the Joni Covers trivia game - so at least you don't go away empty-handed and have to face your kids with your head hung in shame. Bob NP: Tom Waits, "Warm Beer & Cold Women" Catherine McKay wrote: The Johnny Carson Show!!! (in one of your personal favourites.) Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 05:47:35 -0800 (PST) From: mags h Subject: Re: while traveling in some vehicle I agree with your thoughts Catherine...makes sense to me. I just woke up thinking, hey, Ive written this to the list before ... I encourage anyone to read Hejira out loud , take it in as prose poetry, story, herstory, yourstory...see what happens then, in the absence of the guitar and her voice. Let your voice soar, let your heart feel........ In my lyrics book, Ive got little notes beside most of the songs from jmdler...this has become a precious 'project' as it were, like a high school year book but better..... among other things, Patrick Leader writes that his favourite Joni quatrain is the following, and again, I agree with all my heart...this very thing "sets up a trembling in my bones" White flags of winter chimneys Waving-truce against the moon In the mirrors of a modern bank From the window of a hotel room oh there are so many fragments of this song...so many powerful moments.... do try my little experiment though, and read it out loud, to yourself, and let me know what happens. Does it enter into you in a different way? What does your heart say? Mags. Catherine McKay wrote: - --- mags h wrote: > > depressing, not at all...just a way for me to > express what i've felt for a very long time... > Hejira is a soul journey. I think your brain waves have to be in a certain Greek letter phase - is it beta? I don't remember - the one where you become very receptive to creative thought, somewhere between wake and sleep, but you're also very aware in a quiet sort of way. It's not background music, but neither is it music that you sit to and concentrate on fiercely. You need to let it wash over you and seep into your consciousness. Juste ma deux cennes. ===== Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 07:37:45 -0800 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: RE: Roberta Flack/Jen Stills/Ray LaMontagne That is a cool story julius! Here is jen's website for anyone interested. she had a demo out a few years ago & she gave me a copy but it looks like she's working on something more. http://www.geocities.com/jenniferstillsmusic/ Jrm >>Funny you should mention Jen Stills vis a vis Roberta Flack, Kate. I have been thinking about her on the basis of her collaboration with Ray LaMontagne on his debut CD "Trouble." It is my understanding that Jennifer Stills appeared with Ray LaMontagne on January 19, 2005 at The Bowery Ballroom in NYC, too. Here's a bit I found on the relationship from a Wisconsin online newspaper: << ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 12:17:02 -0500 From: Jerry Notaro Subject: Re: LOTC review in latest (Jan/Feb) issue of Magnet > Randy Remote wrote: > > > Ain't THAT the truth. Like Mark said earlier, this writer just didn't > understand, and I think that shows by labeling her first two releases as > misfires. That is to say that if they were regarded as "folk" records they > were a bit off-center. The melodies and compositional structure are much more > complex than that. True, but were regarded as folk, nonetheless. Jerry ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 13:24:49 -0500 From: BRYAN8847@aol.com Subject: Joni mentions and news in Hancock article Some Joni content here, toward the end it mentions Joni participating in another Hancock project, though it's vague http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002169570_herbie04.html Catching up with pianist Herbie Hancock and his all-star band By Paul de Barros Seattle Times jazz critic Concert Preview "My wife called three times," a somewhat groggy Herbie Hancock said on the phone from his office in Los Angeles a few Sunday afternoons ago. The charismatic pianist had been up all night. At Joni Mitchell's. After driving her home from a party at Prince's. Plenty glam. Don't call the scandal rags yet. The two stars are just friends. (Collaborators, too. Mitchell sang on Hancock's "Gershwin's World" and he reciprocated on her "Both Sides Now.") "The idea was to stay [at the party] 10 or 20 minutes, just to talk to Prince about some things," said the former Miles Davis sideman. "Then when I dropped Joni off, we continued to talk. She was playing ball outside in her yard with her dog." Hancock b sans Mitchell b appears with trumpeter Roy Hargrove and saxophonist Michael Brecker in the all-star band Directions in Music at 8 tonight at the Paramount Theatre. Of the handful of jazz artists who can fill a large theater, Hancock, 64, continues to be one of the most creative and alluring. Directions in Music, with Herbie Hancock, Roy Hargrove and Michael Brecker, 8 tonight, Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle ($25-$45; 206-628-0888 or www.ticketmaster.com). He's a pianist whose harmonic approach is bedrock for modern players. The nine-time Grammy winner (and current nominee for best jazz instrumental solo on "Speak Like a Child" on Harvey Mason's album, "With All My Heart") and one-time Oscar winner (for the film score of " 'Round Midnight") is well known in both pop and jazz. Though fans of his 1983 synthesizer hit and MTV video, "Rockit," may not be acquainted with lovers of his jazz classics, such as "Speak Like a Child" and "Dolphin Dance," they'll probably be in the same hall tonight, radiating the same adoration. Directions in Music, which debuted in 2001 at Toronto's Massey Hall as a nod to John Coltrane and Miles Davis and won two Grammys in 2002, could have been just another yawner tribute band. But in fact, it is a taut, scintillating ensemble in the white-heat modal style of the late '60s. In concert, especially, it brings out the best in Hargrove. "We try to challenge each other," said Hancock. "Not to make it difficult, but to open up some other doorways." For this tour, hard-hitting Terri Lynne Carrington, who played on Hancock's Future2Future tour, replaces the subtle Brian Blade on drums. The wonderfully smart and sensitive Scott Colley plays bass. Hancock says the band hasn't decided yet on a musical theme (it's not Coltrane and Miles), but, in a way, it hardly matters. The object of the game for these guys is where they take the material, not where they start. Hancock, especially, is likely to take any "direction" that suits him. One afternoon a few years ago in San Sebastian, Spain, he astonished the crowd by cutting loose with a flying tumble of atonal free improv. At the North Sea Jazz Festival last summer, he huddled into tense, cerebral musical discussions with Wayne Shorter and Dave Holland that were almost abstruse. There was a time b during his groundbreaking funk/fusion period in the '70s, with the Headhunters band b when fans thought they'd lost the golden touch, haunting harmonies and fleet runs of Hancock's acoustic piano forever. But in the late '70s, he returned, with V.S.O.P., eventually ushering Wynton Marsalis onto the scene. In truth, Hancock always has unabashedly loved both jazz and pop, acoustic and electric music. Even as he prepares to tour with Directions, the indefatigable pianist is enthusiastically planning a mega-project with Mitchell, Prince, Sting and a gallery of other stars. "Most of the external forces in the business are constantly encouraging artists to fit into a particular pigeonhole," he said. "I sensed there is more to many artists than that and they'd be dying to do something that allows them to expand." So far, the album project also includes Shorter, John Mayer, Trey Anastasio, Annie Lennox, Damien Rice, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Alicia Keys, Carlos Santana, the Roots, Jill Scott and Yo-Yo Ma. Hancock became especially animated talking about an up-and-coming guitarist from Benin, Lionel Loueke, one of the resident artists in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Institute program at the University of Southern California. Hancock became chairman of the Monk Institute eight months ago. "I asked him if he'd be interested in making an arrangement for 'Sister Moon,' Sting's tune," said Hancock. "I'd heard him put an African spice on things." Always on the cutting edge of technology, Hancock is filming the project in HDTV, which, as the owner of a set, he knows needs content, desperately. Hancock's cellphone rang in the background during our interview, and he politely excused himself for a moment. The call reminded him again of the night before. "Joni told me the phones in her area are out," he said. "She bought a cellphone, but she doesn't know how to use it. She's amazing. She's so brilliant and articulate. She has a lot of power." ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 19:11:23 +0000 From: "Patti Parlette" Subject: O Canada! Dear Ones: My list of reasons for wanting to move to Canada (aside from the obvious political ones, and wanting to be near Catherine and Mags and Michael of Quebec) just grows and grows! Now Mags tells us that, even if you are sick waiting in a doctor's office, you get to see photographs of our Joan in magazines. Quelle Joni joie! Now THAT'S good medicine! Two other new little reasons I just learned/observed: 1. A friend went to Quebec City recently and brought me back a few little freebies (newspapers, tour guides, etc.) because she knows I love French, and Canada. I was doing one of the crossword puzzles in the one of the newspapers, and there were TWO Joni clues! How cool is THAT? I could not believe it! I don't think I've ever seen Joni in an American crossword puzzle. One clue was: a Joni Mitchell song (_ _ E _ _ _ _ _ N _ _ _ _ _) (I'll give you two letters) The other was: a Joni Mitchell album/CD (_ A _ _ _ _ _ H _ _ _ _ E _) (Here I"ll give you three letters) 2. We just hired a new adjunct professor of Classics here, and when I found out he was from Canada, of course the first question I asked him was: "Do you know Joni Mitchell's work?" (with my colleagues rolling their eyes behind me, of course, thinking "There she goes again with that Joni Mitchell stuff!" -- but hey, I don't care what they think!). Anyway, Myles replied that they used to sing Joni Mitchell songs in grade school! Wow! When pressed, though, he could not remember the names of the songs. (BTW, he is from Alberta.) I saw him again a few days later and continued to press for more information (I am a woman on a Joni mission, after all!): "Do you remember what songs you sang? Was one of them "Circle Game"?" Poor guy really couldn't remember, but he knew he had to come up with SOMETHING to get me off his back, so he offered this: "I don't really remember. I just know that we sang some Joni Mitchell songs because we had some hippy language arts teacher" and "Oh, my mom really loves Joni Mitchell." I told him to tell her about the JMDL, but he said she doesn't "do computers". Oh well, those are my big exciting Joni moments of late....whatever gets ya through the night, right? Love and peace, Patti P.S. Bon sante, chere Mags! ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 12:38:14 -0800 From: "Mark or Travis" Subject: Re: Joni mentions and news in Hancock article BRYAN8847@aol.com wrote: > Some Joni content here, toward the end it mentions Joni participating > in another Hancock project, though it's vague > > > http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2002169570_herbie04.html > > "Joni told me the phones in her area are out," he said. "She bought a > cellphone, but she doesn't know how to use it. She's amazing. She's > so brilliant and articulate. She has a lot of power." This is too funny! I have a cell phone but I barely no how to use it. Sometimes I think they are the curse of the 21st century like locusts or something. It just seems so typical that Joni doesn't know how to use hers. Mark E. in Seattle ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 12:45:07 -0800 (PST) From: mags h Subject: Re: O Canada! Patti Parlette wrote: My list of reasons for wanting to move to Canada (aside from the obvious political ones, and wanting to be near Catherine and Mags and Michael of Quebec) just grows and grows! now moi: Patti..I think that you should move to Winnipeg, where I live, because Joni's home is only a day's drive away! Alas, I think there is a lot to be said for Trawnna, where Ms Cat lives as well as Quebec....well my most romantic heart leans toward Quebec and a promised tour of the land as it were, so we shall see what happens about that. Yea, we're all flattered that you want to move to Canada....be careful what you wish for darlin' ! just being silli here, but I didnt get sick waiting...although, that said, it was a long wait and I did end up leaning/nearly sleeping against the wall.. ;-) NIce image, n'est-ce pas !!?? Getting better though, thanks. Catching up on my beauty sleep and all, lol! I'm not answering the cross word puzzles, because, living on the great Canadian prairie and all, and especially only a day's drive away from Joni land in Saskatoon, (the border to Saskatchewan is only two hours from me)...we have Joni cross words / Joni cross word reference books etc in our every day, so I will let someone else do you the favour of answering those dear one ;-)) The Circle Game was no doubt the song, as it is now sung in place of the National Anthem hehe and if you believe that, Ive got some wonderful property down in Fort Myers , Florida..... ;-/ Hiya Jimmy and Edvard.... love, Mags. Now Mags tells us that, even if you are sick waiting in a doctor's office, you get to see photographs of our Joan in magazines. Quelle Joni joie! Now THAT'S good medicine! Two other new little reasons I just learned/observed: 1. A friend went to Quebec City recently and brought me back a few little freebies (newspapers, tour guides, etc.) because she knows I love French, and Canada. I was doing one of the crossword puzzles in the one of the newspapers, and there were TWO Joni clues! How cool is THAT? I could not believe it! I don't think I've ever seen Joni in an American crossword puzzle. One clue was: a Joni Mitchell song (_ _ E _ _ _ _ _ N _ _ _ _ _) (I'll give you two letters) The other was: a Joni Mitchell album/CD (_ A _ _ _ _ _ H _ _ _ _ E _) (Here I"ll give you three letters) 2. We just hired a new adjunct professor of Classics here, and when I found out he was from Canada, of course the first question I asked him was: "Do you know Joni Mitchell's work?" (with my colleagues rolling their eyes behind me, of course, thinking "There she goes again with that Joni Mitchell stuff!" -- but hey, I don't care what they think!). Anyway, Myles replied that they used to sing Joni Mitchell songs in grade school! Wow! When pressed, though, he could not remember the names of the songs. (BTW, he is from Alberta.) I saw him again a few days later and continued to press for more information (I am a woman on a Joni mission, after all!): "Do you remember what songs you sang? Was one of them "Circle Game"?" Poor guy really couldn't remember, but he knew he had to come up with SOMETHING to get me off his back, so he offered this: "I don't really remember. I just know that we sang some Joni Mitchell songs because we had some hippy language arts teacher" and "Oh, my mom really loves Joni Mitchell." I told him to tell her about the JMDL, but he said she doesn't "do computers". Oh well, those are my big exciting Joni moments of late....whatever gets ya through the night, right? Love and peace, Patti P.S. Bon sante, chere Mags! Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 14:00:14 -0800 (PST) From: Brian Gross Subject: Coyote's diary (a bit of Joni content in this extract) http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/music/story.jsp?story=607633 On the road with Dylan Thirty years ago, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Sam Shepard travelled with Bob Dylan and friends across America on the Rolling Thunder Revue. Here are exclusive extracts from his road diary. 04 February 2005 Hundreds of over-the-top Jewish ladies are firmly entrenched in the Seacrest hotel in Falmouth, Massachusetts before we arrive. They are hell-bent on a strange (to a "Mick") Chinese form of dominoes called Mah-Jongg. In fact, it's something comparable to the World Championship Playoffs with money at stake. The fact that superstars are sharing the turf with them is only a side titillation to the ladies. They are obsessed by the game. So imagine their surprise when, late one evening, in the midst of tournament fever, the manager of the hotel announces that there is to be a special poetry reading by "one of America's foremost poets, Mr Allen Ginsberg!" A warm round of fatty applause. He too is of the same faith after all. Allen approaches the podium, brown suit, papers in hand, looking for all the world like a latter-day Whitman with black trimmings instead of gray. He mounts a tall stool and hunches into the microphone. The ladies smile charitably and Allen begins his piece. His long, terrifying, painful prayer to his mother. These are mothers too, but the needle's too close to the vein. The mothers go from patient acquiescence to giggled embarrassment to downright disgust as Allen keeps rolling away at them. His low rumbling sustained vowel sounds becoming more and more dirgelike and persistent. Dylan sits in the background, back against the wall, hat down over his eyes, listening stilly. Since I was raised a Protestant, there's something in the air here that I can't quite touch, but it feels close to being volcanic. Something of generations, of mothers, of being Jewish, of being raised Jewish, of Kaddish, of prayer, of America even, of poets and language, and least of all Dylan, who created in himself a character somehow outside the religion he was born into. Who made a vagabond minstrel in his own skin and now sits facing his very own beginnings. His heritage. And Ginsberg embracing those beginnings so far as to go right through and out the other side into a strange mixture of Eastern mysticism, Hell's Angel meditation, acid, politics, and the music of words. The ladies sit through it. Captured in their own seaside resort. A place they've all come to escape to, and there they are, caught. Allen pounds on. The cameras are weaving in and out of the aisles, creeping up to tables, peering into the matronly faces. Dave Myers, the lead cameraman, is getting a little queasy and turned off by the atmosphere. It's not his style to have the emotional content of a scene so obviously contrived. The women wince as the "cancer" stanzas of the epic grind their way toward the finale. Then it ends and there's a surprising burst of applause. Allen thanks them, steps down, and trots off. Joan Baez is introduced and gets a relieved welcome. She does an a cappella "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" that drives the women wild. Dave Mansfield, the genius kid, steps up with his fiddle, looking like Little Lord Fauntleroy, and impresses everyone with his classical violin technique. His expression never changes. Even when he plays his incomparable slide-guitar riffs with the band, his expression is the same. It's an expression of listening. Intent listening to the inner content of his music. He's an ace musician, for sure. Then comes the blockbuster. Dylan moves up on the platform to the rickety old upright piano used for years for the sole purpose of producing middle-class pablum Big Band sounds of the 30s and 40s. He sits, stabs his bony fingers into the ivory, and begins a pounding version of "Simple Twist of Fate". Here is where it's at. The Master Arsonist. The place is smoking within five minutes. The ladies are jumping and twitching deep within their corsets. The whole piano is shaking and seems on the verge of jumping right off the wooden platforms. Dylan's cowboy heel is driving a hole through the floor. Roger McGuinn appears with guitar, Neuwirth, the whole band joins into it until every molecule of air in the place is bursting. This is Dylan's true magic. Leave aside his lyrical genius and just watch this transformation of energy he carries. A few minutes ago the place was thick with tension and embarrassment, and now he's blown the top right off it, infused the room with a high feeling of life-giving excitement. It's not the energy that drives people off the deep end but the kind that brings courage and hope and above all life pounding into the foreground. If he can do it here, in the dead of Winter, at an off-season resort full of menopause, it's no wonder he can rock the nation. - ------------- The band's working through a lazy, back-country tune. You couldn't call it rehearsal, because they're all having too much fun at it. Dylan sits in an old armchair chewing on a liverwurst sandwich and watching them from a distance. He nods his head to the chord changes. Some others are sitting around chewing on food and playing the Pong machine for high stakes. Gary is collecting a bundle and growing in expertise and finger technique, using two hands and spinning ricochet mind-benders off the forecourt, defying even the laws of computers. Suddenly Dylan leaps to his feet, throws down the liverwurst, and sprints straight toward the vacated slide guitar. He straddles the seat, running his tongue over his teeth, picks up the heavy chrome bar, and starts trying to find the right notes and scales to fit the tune. A few heads turn but no one seems to be expecting much. Hawaiian guitar isn't exactly his forte. The band keeps on as Dylan keeps the volume down so as not to destroy the entire progression that the band has going. He bends lower and lower over steel strings as though trying to see right down inside the thing, between the gaps somewhere, like a mechanic about to lift the entire block out of a small foreign car. He keeps at it diligently for about ten minutes; each moment seems to verge on the possibility of him suddenly finding the whole thing in a flash of inspired genius. Instead, he makes a loud exhale, rears backward, turns up the volume, and unleashes a series of random John Cage noises. The band never shows a ripple and moves right into it. Dylan's hand is stroking up and down the length of the strings, the other hand picking at it as though it were a distant bowl of cold chop suey. The Pong game keeps on to the deafening roar of New England jazz-jambalaya-rock'n'roll'n. - ------------- Maine is the perfect environment for Rolling Thunder. Everything seems to fit the intentions of the tour except for the lame hotels we get kenneled into. Once outside though, the real feel of land creeps through and even people who live here come into the picture. A blind guy sits at one end of a bar with Dylan at the other, chugging on brandies. They're introduced very slowly and a truly amazing thing takes place. Here's someone who's not out to penetrate Dylan, who's never even seen a picture of him but only heard his music. He stands there looking slightly sidewise over Dylan's shoulder, white eyes with smiling creases at the corners. He's a musician. Dylan's gaze goes into him all the way. They talk about trading cowboy shirts. They talk about seeing and hearing. There's no show of bravado going on because there's one pair of eyes missing. The next night Dylan, from up on stage, dedicates a song to the guy. The audiences in Maine are strictly country. Big kids who've rushed to the concert from dairy farms, just finished milking, cow shit on their boots. These are the first towns where the feeling of Dylan's presence being a rare gift is felt for sure. The concert in Augusta taps some special energy field I haven't seen so far. The band is flying. Dylan playing the instrumentals with his back to the audience in a circle with the other guitars, like an Arapaho rain dance. From high above, in the side bleachers, his mother is watching with the kids. Mrs Baez is up there too. This is really happening. A family event in the heart of the sticks with the world's original superstar tap-dancing to an audience of farmers' kids. Dylan comes off dripping sweat like a rainstorm. Barry Imhoff is waiting faithfully just off stage with an armload of fresh towels. Dylan kisses his mother on the cheek, grabs a towel, and trots off toward the dressing room, guitar neck pointing to the ground. The place is supercharged. Even the Hurricane benefit at the Garden had nothing on these small halls in the depths of a state the government terms a "depressed area". That is, they got no money. - ------------- Roger McGuinn explains that it wasn't until the past year or so that he's managed to get over a profound fear of being assassinated on stage. He says he usually felt it coming strongest from the lighting booth in every hall he played in. He'd be singing with The Byrds and all through the song he'd be imagining the hands of the gunman as they polished the barrel with a chamois skin and then the black barrel of the rifle sweeping the width of the stage trying to find the correct angle. Pistols were also within his field of fantasy. One pistol with a silver handle suddenly piercing through the mass of faceless bodies and finding its mark. Sometimes the bullet would find him and he'd go right down, but the crowd would only think he'd fainted, since they couldn't hear the shot. Or the bullet would glance off the guitar and strike some other member of the band. Or sometimes the bullet would miss him altogether. In any case, he's still alive and kicking. - ------------- Stuck away in a corner of this neuterized hellhole [the Hospitality Inn] is a small room with a sign on the door saying GAMES ROOM. Everyone has migrated to it like a refuge. Joni Mitchell is cross-legged on the floor, barefoot, writing something in a notebook. She bites her lip and looks over to Rick Danko, who's smashing the shit out of a pinball machine with both kneecaps, then pounding on the sides with both fists. Insane games of air hockey, pucks flying across the room and landing on somebody's pool table. The high spirit of competition has seized us all. We keep getting stuck in motels that are miles from anywhere. Totally isolated with no wheels and not even a drugstore within walking distance. The reasons for this seem to be mostly security, but after a while the "cutoffness" of it starts to take its toll. The concert is given in some kind of a city. The audience gets ripped with energy and bursts into the night streets with it. Then we sneak off in unmarked vehicles, secret-agent style, wind our way through narrow back roads, and find ourselves in another prefabricated wonder resort sometimes sixty miles away from the site of the concert. This constant "strike and retreat" style really starts to work on your psyche after a while. The "world out there" takes on a strange unreality, as though it's all being played in a different ballpark, in another league. You either feel above it or below it or way off to the side of it, but never a part of it. Headlines in the paper seem like messages delivered from outside the walls. Even headlines that feature the people on the tour. There's nothing that reveals the total myth of newspaper journalism more than being inside the world of the subject being written about. This feeling of separateness weasels its way into everything. Even ordering food in a restaurant takes on a different tone from usual, because you're in the company of something that's so public that even the waiters know about it. You find yourself expanding to the smell or arrogant power of deflating to total depression. You begin wishing you could just go back into the kitchen with the waiter and wash a few dishes or even go back home with him and watch color TV with his grandmother. Anything just to get the taste back of "normal everyday life". The Games Room is going off at the deep end. Twenty-dollar bills are being fluttered across the pool tables. Ping-Pong balls crushed into the walls. Bodyguards are pitted against superstars in grim pinball battles. Side bets are being collected. Stud poker is evolving in one corner. Then everything filters away to the elevators. To music. To another marathon night to the break of day. - ------------- 'The Rolling Thunder Logbook' by Sam Shepard will be published by Sanctuary on 14 March at #13.99 (www.sanctuarypublishing.com) Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 14:03:46 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Hmmm, this item looks familiar The 2004 Jonifest DVD Giveaway: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4072950166&fromMakeTrack=true Bob NP: Neil, "After The Gold Rush" Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 17:44:04 EST From: Justalittlebreen@aol.com Subject: Everything (or at least a frisbee) for nothing In a message dated 2/4/05 2:03:11 PM, SCJoniBob asked > Q: What TV game show does Joni mention in one of her songs? > Hey Bob, From The Windfall: In the land of lkitigation The courts are like gameshows Take what's behind the curtain The jury cries... That seems to imply to me the game of Let's Make a Deal, although The Price Is Right is certainly in the same ballpark. Do i get a frisbee, or am i too late, Oh Great Cubrador? best, walt (let me know if I did win something -- i have a new mailing address) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 18:01:28 -0500 From: "Richard Flynn" Subject: RE: Hmmm, this item looks familiar I just reported this to Ebay as a bootleg recording, which they do not allow. The operative word is "Giveaway" - -----Original Message----- From: owner-joni@jmdl.com [mailto:owner-joni@jmdl.com] On Behalf Of Bob Muller Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 5:04 PM To: JMDL Subject: Hmmm, this item looks familiar The 2004 Jonifest DVD Giveaway: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4072950166&fromMakeTrack= true Bob NP: Neil, "After The Gold Rush" Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 15:26:09 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Fwd: Re: Everything (or at least a frisbee) for nothing Note: forwarded message attached. The all-new My Yahoo!  What will yours do? Received: from [68.189.171.195] by web61202.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 04 Feb 2005 15:24:22 PST Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 15:24:22 -0800 (PST) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Everything (or at least a frisbee) for nothing To: Justalittlebreen@aol.com In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 704 X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative by demime 0.97c-p1 X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain Justalittlebreen@aol.com wrote: Subject: Fwd: on getting Dylan.... very little JC Bah, resending because I meant this for the list too. Note: forwarded message attached. Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' Received: from [24.77.17.37] by web53703.mail.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 04 Feb 2005 16:04:15 PST Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 16:04:15 -0800 (PST) From: mags h Subject: on getting Dylan.... very little JC To: notaro@stpt.usf.edu, Ashara , Catherine McKay MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Length: 1055 X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: from multipart/alternative by demime 0.97c-p1 X-Converted-To-Plain-Text: Alternative section used was text/plain Doing the clip art thing, here since I'm on digest / consequently missed out on Muller's freebie ..boohooo... oh well...alas I digresss....... sweet southern belle Jerry wrote: You really need to see Dylan live in order to "get" him. As we have previously discussed about Baez, it's just a whole nuther thang. > Catherine wrote: > > < it, because it's a waste of breath.>> > > > :-D > > Hugs, > Ashara, no further words necessary. (hee hee) and then my girlzz Cat and Ashes wrote the above....to which I feel compelled to add: hey Jerry............ back in 98, remember... Joni toured Canada with Dylan...WITH Dylan??? Well...um... I was there at the Maple Leaf Gardens to see Joni herself...and I DID see Dylan...and um errr..well.. ..yea, like Ashara said. ;-) okay I will add this....one of the years we were at the Full Moon Joni Fest....Roger behind the desk, had a CD on that was gorgeous, acoustic, mellow, sweet and the shock of shocks was that it WAS Dylan! Anyone know what CD that could be?? Mags. Yahoo! Search presents - Jib Jab's 'Second Term' ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 19:39:02 -0500 (EST) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! --- Bob Muller wrote: > Sorry Catherine...after a review of the play, the > lead referee has stated that the "Johnny Carson > Show" does not qualify as a GAME show. TO TELL THE > TRUTH, this response has placed you in JEOPARDY for > lack of CONCENTRATION. > aaaaa, what the hey. I didn't even notice the word "game". GOOONNNGGGG!!! ===== Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 17:14:39 -0800 (PST) From: Smurf Subject: Re: Time for a Freebie Frisbee! Muller wrote: > > Sorry Catherine...after a review of the play, the > > lead referee has stated that the "Johnny Carson > > Show" does not qualify as a GAME show. TO TELL THE > > TRUTH, this response has placed you in JEOPARDY >> for lack of CONCENTRATION. > > I've got you covered, Catherine. I won one of these sparkly flyers today, and once I get my copy from Muller I'll be offering copies for sale on eBay. You're invited to stop by and bid big! XO, - --Smurf __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! - Try it today! http://my.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 21:01:15 -0500 From: "David Henderson" Subject: Hejira a blight! LES SAID: >It's usually a sign that someone's argument is faltering when they take >recourse in dictionary definitions. In the one I have in front of me here >for 'blight' there are a number of references to plant decay though, >significantly, without rotting taking place. But other definitions refer to >the prevention of growth and also to frustrate or disappoint. Perhaps the >latter is closer to what is being proposed. But I don't support that either. You are so right, my man. I cannot believe all of this talk about Hejira being a blight! Do any of you know what the word BLASPHEMY means? My dictionary says (1) A comtemptuous or profane act, utterance, or writing concerning Joni Mitchell or another sacred entity. (2) The act of claiming for oneself the attributes and rights of Joni Mitchell. And (3) an irreverent or impious act, attitude or utterance in regard to something considered inviolable or sacrosanct like Joni Mitchell. I hope you feel ashamed, and you know who you are. ;)) David ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 21:13:07 -0500 From: eaddy sutton Subject: The blight, the dance and all that This is good, very good . . . all of the thoughtful responses are working on me, the originator of the 'Hejira a blight" appeal for enlightenment. Like a spot on an apple, I've always avoided this song - -- my depression came not from its lyrics, but from its monotonous presence on a prefect jewel. It saddened me that I had such antipathy for the song -- specifically the music. Jaco overload. The album is pure love for me, but for this. bum da da da, bum da da da, bling, bum da da da. . . . The comment about the white lines and the poles pulsing past -- this helps. General statements about the awesomeness of it all do not really key me in. Love the quote about coming and going unknown, and the suggestion to read -- aloud is best-- as pure poetry. I am getting there, I am loosening up a bit. Please extend the helping hand again-- forceps and the stone? All I can think of is kidney stone surgery, so I must be missing something pretty obvious. Lets see -- difficult labor extraction forceps and the tombstone? This would be an unfortunate image indeed. But please, keep spinning out the poetry, if you will -- heck, do a line by line and really suss it out. Is this song the essence or the blight? Yo, SMURF, hi-five on the goat dance! I just knew it -- Sure they rutted, but that rouge did dance. The good news is that the photo could indicate a resemblance to the version we currently enjoying doing here around the house, minus the bells and skins. Mirth and merriment, everyone should try kicking out the Goat Dance. Now again, any idea where Joni actually took her "Refuge" on the west coast of Fla? In the northern part of the state, there is a small town that spells Hejiria with a G, I think. I've combed through the song for clues, but she coulda been anywhere from Tarpon Springs to Naples. This is fun! Eaddy ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2005 21:11:20 -0500 From: "David Henderson" Subject: Shorter I'm glad someone agrees with me. I have never understood what Joni likes about Wayne Shorter . . . I think he's a total snooze. I wish she would hook-up with someone a little more expressive. Yeah Bob, Brecker is wicked fantastic on Shadows and Light. David NP Green Day, Boulevard of Broken Dreams ................. Whoa - I'm not going there, but I'll repeat the fact that I'm nutty for Michael Brecker's work on Shadows & Light - I'm in awe every time I hear it. Bob ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 20:51:35 -0500 From: Doug Subject: A step back in time... Spent a few hours at the Ottawa Public Library today, copied this from the newspaper archives. This refers to Joni's appearance at Le Hibou in Ottawa March 1968. Doug From The Ottawa Journal April 5 1968: Singer Shares Her World By Jim Bellshaw She strums the first chord and a wispy strand of blond hair peeks over her shoulder and nestles on her arm. Now, it's head back and the misty voice of Joni Mitchell drifts cleanly into the audience like the fragrance of a newly opened flower in spring sunshine. Then the same voice comes ringing down and gives out all the qualities of soft fertile earth - - a strong warm-coloured sound that catches you in rapture and transports you with this slim girl to her own unique land of song. When she sings "icicle" the word is cold and round in her mouth, and when she sings "sun" it comes shining forth, tender, caressing, and full of joy. Mellow sounds, sad sounds, happy sounds, high an low sounds, they're all part of Joni's world and she shares them with you freely and confidently - that's the way she is. And when you meet her in person, the feeling that you've known her before is stronger, like the sudden happiness of seeing something familiar in a new light. In her dressing room, Joni sits in what looks like a big old chair. When she gets up you see it's a pretty average size chair. She seems smaller here than on stage. "I'm not a folksinger," she says "I'm afraid of the word." When she talks her hands move quickly, moulding, shaping and weaving some invisible material. "I've tried to interpret all the songs and their presentation and state them with one guitar and one voice. I'm a female tributary to that brand of music." Joni stops weaving for a minute and fingers the long chained pendant she wears. "At first my goals were modest. I kept them within easy sight, but I'm glad success didn't come too soon. My financial success will come this year. She's mearly stating a fact. Long blond hair gets her attention now. She chooses a strand and coils it around her finger. "Lots of people in the business are financialy comfortable but artisically unfulfilled, like The Monkees." Her chin lifts slightly. "I'm going to be successful on my own terms," she says. and the way she says it tells you she's thought it out and it's no empty decision. She pours soft drinks and changes tack. "A lot of my songs are character sketches - little slices of life. they should leave you with a feeling and a philosophy. And I'm not a protester. I call myself a poet-singer and my songs are simply human relations." She writes the songs herself; so far 40 of them, and they portray the same honesty and sincerity that makes Joni Mitchell master of her music. Free-flowing songs stamped indelibly with the soul of an artist, and sent winging on the voice of a girl who says "Music is hungry for the individual." She winds another strand of hair onto her finger. "Usually I write my songs late at night - that's my quiet time - between midnight and five in the morning." Joni's late night composing vigil can be heard on her new album "Song To A Seagull" and people like Harry Belafonte, Ian and Sylvia, Buffy Saint Marie, and Judy Collins are also singing her songs. And this singer who likes "to do things for myself in my own way" even created the cover for her own album. "I would like to learn the sitar," she smiles, "but right now I'm re-teaching myself piano. I played piano when I was about six or seven and hated it. Never got gold stars or anything." She shakes her head in mock disapproval and it's time for the next set. Stepping onto the stage she seems bigger again. Her voice reaches out and captues the audience. "I awoke today to find the frost perched on the town, It hovered in a frozen sky then gobbled summer down... I get the urge for goin'.. but I never seem to go." The audience closes its eyes and prays hard she won't. ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2005 #35 ******************************** ------- 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)