From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2005 #246 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org 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, August 29 2005 Volume 2005 : Number 246 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- RE: New Library addition: Liz Braun ["Azeem" ] New book on Joni [Deb Messling ] Re: New book on Joni [Moni Kellermann ] Re: New book on Joni [Deb Messling ] Joni Covers Updates [Bob Muller ] Where Have all the Joni's Gone? ["Gerald A. Notaro" ] New Library addition: 'Court and No Spark' [LesIrvin@jmdl.com] Re: Where Have all the Joni's Gone? [Nuriel Tobias ] Joni As A Baby [Nuriel Tobias ] Re: Joni As A Baby [Bob Muller ] Re: Joni As A Baby [Nuriel Tobias ] RE: Joni As A Baby ["Les Irvin" ] RE: Joni As A Baby [Bob Muller ] RE: Joni As A Baby, (and as a lesbian) [Nuriel Tobias ] RE: Joni As A Baby [Em ] RE: Joni As A Baby, (and as a lesbian) [Em ] RE: Joni As A Baby, (and as a lesbian) [Nuriel Tobias ] RE: Joni As A Baby, (and as a lesbian) [Em ] Re: New book on Joni [Randy Remote ] Re: New book on Joni [Catherine McKay ] RE: Neil Young as Joni's archivist ["Jim L'Hommedieu, Lama" ] Drive In Saturday ["Mike and Alice Hicks" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 11:38:33 +0100 From: "Azeem" Subject: RE: New Library addition: Liz Braun Jeez, there are a lot of pissy people out there earning a few bucks for taking pot shots at the rich and famous. Not that the rich and famous should be exempt from criticism, satire, even downright bitching. But when there's such a plain nasty, smug edge to it, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Then there's the fact that she's had to twist the chronology to make her not-really-worth-making point fit; and the ludicrously anachronistic epithets: fey little songbird?? Gimme a break! Azeem in London NP: Scritti Politti - Anomie and Bonhomie (anyone else love this forgotten classic as much as I do?) - -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.16/83 - Release Date: 26/08/2005 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 06:45:57 -0400 From: Deb Messling Subject: New book on Joni Below is a blurb from the NY Daily News about a new Joni biography. Anybody know of the author? I read through a few Amazon reviews of his other books, and they seem sort of Brian Hinton-like. Well, we can hope, I suppose. BTW, I did NOT find the Joni book in Amazon at all. # JONI MITCHELL by Mark Bego (Taylor Trade Publishing, $24.95) Bego, who has penned biographies of musicians including Cher, Madonna and Bette Midler, focuses on the legendary '60s songstress in his latest effort, using new interviews, personal documents and more. Mitchell's debut album was released in 1968, followed up by the immensely popular "Clouds" in 1969 and "Ladies of the Canyon" in 1970. Mitchell returned to the headlines in 1996 when a daughter she had given up for adoption began a public quest to meet her mother. - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Deb Messling -^..^- dlmessling@rcn.com - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 13:29:42 +0200 From: Moni Kellermann Subject: Re: New book on Joni Deb Messling schrieb: > Below is a blurb from the NY Daily News about a new Joni biography. > Anybody know of the author? I read through a few Amazon reviews of his > other books, and they seem sort of Brian Hinton-like. Well, we can > hope, I suppose. Well, erm, no. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061401559.html Court and No Spark By Chrissie Dickinson Wednesday, June 15, 2005; C11 JONI MITCHELL Both Sides Now By Mark Bego Taylor Trade. 366 pp. $24.95 Mark Bego is the reigning king of the cranked-out bio. From Cher to Whitney to Madonna to Michael Jackson, more than 40 celebrities have gotten the Bego treatment (with a few actually cooperating with him). His latest target is Joni Mitchell, who apparently couldn't duck fast enough. "Joni Mitchell: Both Sides Now" is an unauthorized biography. Bego, seemingly armed with a file folder of old press clips and a Google search, has turned the story of one of rock's most complicated icons into a slapdash, surface-rehash, 366-page mash note. Though his unabashed worship of the Canadian singer-songwriter frequently drips off the page, he perversely manages to reduce a vibrant artist to a brittle stick figure. The first red flag comes in the prologue, where Bego recounts his brief, accidental meeting with Mitchell backstage at the 1996 Grammy Awards. Bego, who explains to the reader that he, like Mitchell, is also a painter, describes their 10-minute conversation. Nothing is revealed in Bego's recollection, other than the author's rather stunning immodesty: "I felt like Gauguin having a chat with van Gogh." Bego comes up with little fresh material. Of the 150 quote sources listed, only a handful are credited to new interviews conducted by the author. An avid recycler, Bego largely cuts and pastes quotes from old Mitchell interviews with other writers, cobbling together a bland rendering of the artist's life and career. He covers the basic plot in cursory fashion. Before she found fame, Mitchell survived a number of hard knocks: several childhood bouts with serious illness, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that led to her putting the child up for adoption, and an ill-fated early marriage to the aspiring folk singer Chuck Mitchell. By the time of her first recording in 1968, the ethereal blonde bore the look of countless other hippie ingenues. But beneath the surface was a restless contrarian. From the start, she was far more than just another trilling folkie wannabe. She'd already penned several preternaturally mature classics, including "Both Sides Now" and "The Circle Game," songs that still resonate in the culture nearly 40 years on. Mitchell attracted an adoring audience with her early, confessional albums, but she soon morphed into a challenging and sometimes difficult musical innovator. Her astringent folk arrangements eventually gave way to progressive experimentations in jazz-rock fusion, techno and orchestral music. Now enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- an institution she openly detests -- Mitchell, at 61, has amassed a legacy worthy of a serious recounting. Unfortunately, this book isn't it. When Mitchell's quotes touch on fascinating but limited information, Bego largely fails to do the necessary additional research that would give these stories contextual and historical heft. For instance, Mitchell was stricken with polio at the age of 9. Recounting that time, she recalls that, "Neil [Young] and I both got polio in the same Canadian epidemic." Most thorough biographers would have spent at least a paragraph or two amplifying that period with some hard facts. How wide-ranging was the epidemic? How long did it last? How many adults and children were affected? And how did it affect Young, Mitchell's contemporary? Don't ask Bego. After a few perfunctory lines about her year-long rehabilitation, he's already moved on to the next highlight of Mitchell's life. His segues are often fawning ("Joni was never one to follow the rules, and being told she could not do something only made her want to do it more") and frequently sophomoric ("What is the one thing that will make a recording artist return to writing and recording love songs? Well, falling in love, of course!"). And so it relentlessly goes with the Bego formula -- pile on mostly previously published quotes from Mitchell or another source, then stitch them together with weak connective tissue. The Frankenstein's monster that emerges is a graceless, lumbering beast. Even a potentially spicy rundown of Mitchell's early romantic liaisons -- a veritable who's who of early-'70s SoCal hipsters that included David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and Warren Beatty -- turns dull in Bego's telling. Throughout he pads his book with numbing song-by-song synopses of each of Mitchell's albums. The occasional zinger thus hits with the force of a bucket of cold water. "Joni Mitchell is about as modest as Mussolini," Crosby told Rolling Stone in an early interview. Bego lets that biting remark dangle in the air with no authorial follow-up, squandering another opportunity for deeper analysis of his subject. As the book drones to a close, Bego recalls that in the early '90s he learned that Mitchell had signed a deal to pen her autobiography. At the time, he offered his services as a ghostwriter to the publishing house but was told Mitchell planned to write the book herself. "Ten years later, her autobiography has yet to be written," the author notes. Even if Mitchell never gets around to telling her own tale, Bego does the rock legend no favors with this superficial biography. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 09:27:55 -0400 From: Deb Messling Subject: Re: New book on Joni OMG, he sounds like Son of Brian Hinton! Thanks for the warning, Moni. At 07:29 AM 8/28/2005, you wrote: >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061401559.html > >Mark Bego is the reigning king of the cranked-out bio. From Cher to >Whitney to Madonna to Michael Jackson, more than 40 celebrities have >gotten the Bego treatment (with a few actually cooperating with him). His >latest target is Joni Mitchell, who apparently couldn't duck fast enough. Deb Messling -^..^- dlmessling@rcn.com - ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 06:30:16 -0700 (PDT) From: Bob Muller Subject: Joni Covers Updates Tori Amos played a full version of "Both Sides Now" during the 'Piano Bar' segment of her concert last night. Hopefully this will be included on one of her official bootlegs. She had previously played a snippet of BSN as an intro to "Cloud On My Tongue" live. Joni Covers, Volume 68 is right around the corner - here's a little toe-tappin' bluegrass version of BSN by Eddie Shelton (with a young Vince Gill on dobro) to warm you up for it: http://s42.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2ABD00BO2RKZ70NCOJO1E2AFOL Bob NP: Elvis Costello, "New Amsterdam" Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 09:48:04 -0400 (EDT) From: "Gerald A. Notaro" Subject: Where Have all the Joni's Gone? I often post about my favorite show, CBS Sunday Morning. They just aired a segment asking Where are all the great singer-songwriters, naming Joni as the best. The segment focused on the greatr talents that never get radio play, such as Joseph Arthur, Ben Weaver, and the oft mentioned here and one of my favorites, Mary Gauthier. I hope some of you got to see it. Jerry ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 12:17:22 -0400 From: LesIrvin@jmdl.com Subject: New Library addition: 'Court and No Spark' The following has been recently added to the JMDL Library: Title: Court and No Spark Publication: Washington Post Date: 2005-6-15 Type: Review - Book Find it here under "Most recent additions...": http://jmdl.com/library ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 09:29:13 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: Re: Where Have all the Joni's Gone? There are lots of songwriters out there, they just don't get signed to labels. Nuri "Gerald A. Notaro" wrote: I often post about my favorite show, CBS Sunday Morning. They just aired a segment asking Where are all the great singer-songwriters, naming Joni as the best. The segment focused on the greatr talents that never get radio play, such as Joseph Arthur, Ben Weaver, and the oft mentioned here and one of my favorites, Mary Gauthier. I hope some of you got to see it. Jerry - --------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 09:32:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: Joni As A Baby Could anyone kind direct me to a photo of Joni as a baby, if something like that exsists. Thank you, Nuri p.s. I wonder what kind of baby was Joan. Do you think she was crying a lot during the night?:) Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 09:52:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Joni As A Baby http://www.jonimitchell.com/ChildhoodDays.html Not really a baby picture, but as a young child. Bob NP: Cowboy Junkies, "One" Nuriel Tobias wrote: Could anyone kind direct me to a photo of Joni as a baby, if something like that exsists. Thank you, Nuri p.s. I wonder what kind of baby was Joan. Do you think she was crying a lot during the night?:) Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 10:32:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: Re: Joni As A Baby Thanks for this charming link, Bob. Gee. She looks so naive. Who wouldv'e thought. Nuri Bob Muller wrote: http://www.jonimitchell.com/ChildhoodDays.html Not really a baby picture, but as a young child. Bob NP: Cowboy Junkies, "One" Nuriel Tobias wrote: Could anyone kind direct me to a photo of Joni as a baby, if something like that exsists. Thank you, Nuri p.s. I wonder what kind of baby was Joan. Do you think she was crying a lot during the night?:) Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com - --------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 11:45:19 -0600 From: "Les Irvin" Subject: RE: Joni As A Baby > Not really a baby picture, but as a young child. Here's another: http://www.jmdl.com/library/view.cfm?id=49 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 11:04:46 -0700 (PDT) From: Bob Muller Subject: RE: Joni As A Baby Great photos in that article, Les - I love the second one, probably as close to a "baby picture" as we'll see. I just want to pinch those lil' chubby cheeks. Bob NP: Joni, "Cold Blue Steel & Sweet Fire" (MOA version) Les Irvin wrote: > Not really a baby picture, but as a young child. Here's another: http://www.jmdl.com/library/view.cfm?id=49 - --------------------------------- Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 11:07:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: RE: Joni As A Baby, (and as a lesbian) How Joni did not turn up to be a lesbian is beyond me:) Nuri Les Irvin wrote: > Not really a baby picture, but as a young child. Here's another: http://www.jmdl.com/library/view.cfm?id=49 Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 11:30:19 -0700 (PDT) From: Em Subject: RE: Joni As A Baby this article brought tears to my eyes. A good one, right? (the article) Maybe its because of the thought of what this hurricane is going to do - - spanking that area into submission; just got me emotional...but I think actually its just because its just a really REALLY good article about the really REALLY good Joni Mitchell, who is such a "mensch". Em - --- Les Irvin wrote: > > Not really a baby picture, but as a young child. > > Here's another: > http://www.jmdl.com/library/view.cfm?id=49 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 11:48:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Em Subject: RE: Joni As A Baby, (and as a lesbian) LOL! Nuri, how do you figure that? from everything I've seen and read, she's totally "boy crazy"! :) Em - --- Nuriel Tobias wrote: > How Joni did not turn up to be a lesbian is beyond me:) > > Nuri > > Les Irvin wrote: > > Not really a baby picture, but as a young child. > > Here's another: > http://www.jmdl.com/library/view.cfm?id=49 > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 12:05:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: RE: Joni As A Baby, (and as a lesbian) Em, come on, from being a cowboy to wishing she was a black man, i mean, i know she likes men a bit (lol), but realy... Nuri Em wrote: LOL! Nuri, how do you figure that? from everything I've seen and read, she's totally "boy crazy"! :) Em - --- Nuriel Tobias wrote: > How Joni did not turn up to be a lesbian is beyond me:) > > Nuri > > Les Irvin wrote: > > Not really a baby picture, but as a young child. > > Here's another: > http://www.jmdl.com/library/view.cfm?id=49 > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 13:19:56 -0700 (PDT) From: Em Subject: RE: Joni As A Baby, (and as a lesbian) well, I guess a woman who sees guitar strings in the sky can imagine any old other thing she fancies too...maybe she'd want to be a gay cowboy or gay black man..that way she could still have her "cake" and eat it too! That article Les linked to earlier - reading that made me think again, how very breakable yet how very tough humans can be. And how through all the injustices, I remain thankful that, to an extent, the big fish aren't "allowed" to eat the little weaker sickly fish..so they can flourish and grow too (maybe). ha, I know I strayed there from the original conversation.. Em - --- Nuriel Tobias wrote: > Em, come on, from being a cowboy to wishing she was a black man, i > mean, i know she likes men a bit (lol), but realy... > Nuri ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 14:27:19 -0700 From: Randy Remote Subject: Re: New book on Joni Deb Messling wrote: > BTW, I did NOT find the Joni book in Amazon at all. > > # JONI MITCHELL by Mark Bego (Taylor Trade Publishing, $24.95) Bego, who > has penned biographies of musicians including Cher, Madonna and Bette > Midler, focuses on the legendary '60s songstress in his latest effort, > using new interviews, personal documents and more. Mitchell's debut album > was released in 1968, followed up by the immensely popular "Clouds" in 1969 Was Clouds immensely popular? Moni Kellermann wrote: > Throughout he pads his book with numbing song-by-song synopses > of each of Mitchell's albums. Ugh! That's the worst! ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 17:36:37 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: New book on Joni - --- Randy Remote wrote: > > Moni Kellermann wrote: > > > Throughout he pads his book with numbing > song-by-song synopses > > of each of Mitchell's albums. > > Ugh! That's the worst! > It fills up pages real quick though, doesn't it? Arrgh! Some people get MONEY to write dreck like that. And some people like to read it. Hell in a handbasket! Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 20:59:43 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu, Lama" Subject: RE: Neil Young as Joni's archivist Hmm. Neil Young has a new album, to be released next month called "Prairie Wind". The first song is called "Painter". I don't have the lyrics (and you all KNOW how bad my memory is) but... The painter is a woman and Neil says something like "she picks her colors from the air." She sounds very familiar, eh gang? Lama > -----Original Message----- > Bad news: > 1 Mr. Young is still writing. > 2 Mr. Young is still recording. > 3 Mr. Young tours occasionally. > 4 Mr. Young was sidelined last year. > 5 So, in his SPARE TIME, he can work on his own rarities. > 6 As mentioned, Joni's project is in queue behind Neil's. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 21:24:10 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu, Lama" Subject: sjc, a Joni mention on this flight tonight Nobody can quote Joni like you do, Patti. Thanks for the update on your trip. You were very descriptive (in your unique style). Did you notice the blue lights out on Airport Rd? Jim Patti said, >Soon enough, up go the flaps and down go the wheels, heatwaves on the runway as the wheels set down, and I'm taking my baggage off the carousel, and it's home again, home again, jiggedy jig, to shower off the dust and sleep on the strange pillows of my wanderlust> Jim Covington, KY ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 19:49:59 -0500 From: "mack watson-bush" Subject: joan When frought with thought, troubles brewing, indecision simmering, where does one turn? To a friend, the family, inside, or do nothing but disavow the existence of such and leave it all in the wind? Surely all these routes are taken, with regularity and with success. Me? Tonight, I once again turn to my friend Joan. And she soothes, a balm without a label or a commercial. Stronger each day does the once little boy become and I, again, send out thanks to you, Joni Mitchell. With all my love, mack ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2005 22:29:29 -0400 From: "Mike and Alice Hicks" Subject: Drive In Saturday Hey Bob, Glad you have such good taste in music. That David Bowie Aladdin Sane is great. Been a big fan since college. Panic In Detroit is a great rock and roll song. Mike ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2005 #246 ********************************* ------- 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)