From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2005 #255 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 Wednesday, September 7 2005 Volume 2005 : Number 255 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- US govt and N.O. [rsc1@humboldt.edu] Re: blackbird [Bobsart48@aol.com] Melissa [Jerry Notaro ] Re: Melissa [Jamie Zubairi ] digest style [Normajean Garza ] Celebrating Early Joni ["JEFF HANKINS" ] Out Of Joni [Nuriel Tobias ] Re: Celebrating Early Joni [Bob Muller ] "Songs of a Prairie Girl" review, Exclaim magazine [Catherine McKay > The Iraq war is the luxury of a rich/spoiled leadership... not a not a last resort effort. Now we are feeling the cost even greater. > I think.. at least when I last checked...that the U.S. is still the richest country on earth. SO I think we can handle both. You THINK we can handle both. Perhaps... but, while the US may be the richest country on earth, it also carries an enormous debt already (it's called the deficit, remember?). A huge, costly war (with no end in site), coupled with a huge natural disaster may very well strain the governments ability to maintain the illusion that everything is "OK". Gas prices skyrocket, which affects the cost of everything else. How strong IS our economy? We may find out very soon. Suppose we have a terrorist attack next month, or another hurricane sweeps into this already ravaged region? Will we have the money to deal with it all? Look, even Bush himself said that the governments response was terrible. AND, didn't the administration cut funds earmarked for strengthening the levees because the money was needed for the war effort? These bumbling stooges should never have been allowed to continue in office (I love that Cheney continued to stay on vacation while this mess unfolded - shows us all the man's true character, if indeed it was ever in doubt!), and now the 49% of us who didn't vote for them have to live with their arrogance AND their ineptness. > This tragedy of nature is being taken care of...... ...slowly... far too slowly.... > Where is your hope and optimism? It still exists, but it's hard when our country is being run by an imbecile. The American people will survive, but at what cost? Gus ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 09:39:49 EDT From: Bobsart48@aol.com Subject: Re: blackbird Randy replied "Bob, I bet your open-G version sounds cool. McCartney played it in standard tuning, however. Yesterday was played in standard, too, with the guitar tuned down 1 step. So he was playing G but it's in F. The only Beatles song I'm aware of in open tuning is Dear Prudence, played in drop-D (standard but low E dropped to D)." Thanks for the history, Randy. I stand de-hypothesized. The open G version is enhanced by the ability to use the high "D" string as a drone in many spots - which gives it a more open sound than I have been able to generate in standard tuning with Blackbird. Perhaps I need to work on my arrangement and technique. There are on or two chord variations that I play that I like a lot, and am not sure are easily replicated in standard. Hmm. I'll send you my chord shapes off line Best Bobsart ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2005 11:20:45 -0500 From: Jerry Notaro Subject: Melissa > just ain't right. I would say the chances of her ever coming to good ole > Texas are very small. I hope you go. And if you are lucky enough to talk > with her, please tell her that HER number one fan is there in spirit.> Another big Melissa fan here. First time I saw her she was one of Bette Midler's Har-Lettes (and Barry Manilow was her pianist)! Then saw her in concert many times throughout the 70's. Her new cd is pretty good, but I was lucky one night to see a 15 minute special on the making of the cd on television they used as a filler. Great talent. Jerry ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 16:30:35 +0100 (BST) From: Jamie Zubairi Subject: Re: Melissa I wish people wouldn't send me these emails with only girls first names in it... I get so much spam porn I have no where to put my real porn emails.... so I was a little disappointed to find out it wasn't porn but about Melissa Manchester... Also it's an NJC. Can you dig? Sorry to be an obssessive... I'm even on the alljoni list, I'm just looking out for those that aren't! - --- Jerry Notaro wrote: > > > just ain't right. I would say the chances of her > ever coming to good ole > > Texas are very small. I hope you go. And if you > are lucky enough to talk > > with her, please tell her that HER number one fan > is there in spirit.> > > Another big Melissa fan here. First time I saw her > she was one of Bette > Midler's Har-Lettes (and Barry Manilow was her > pianist)! Then saw her in > concert many times throughout the 70's. Her new cd > is pretty good, but I was > lucky one night to see a 15 minute special on the > making of the cd on > television they used as a filler. Great talent. > > Jerry ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 12:19:34 -0700 (PDT) From: Normajean Garza Subject: digest style Dear web host/hostess, Is there any way I can receive my Joni list message E-mails individually? I can't get used to the digest format. I am forty-eight years old and I fell in love with her music and lyrics since I was just a kid when I was on a merry-go-round at the Hemisfair '68 World Fair. Judy Collins was singing Joni's song over the carnival loud speakers and my Dad bought me the 45 record and learned it was Joni Mitchell . By the time "Blue" came around, I was 15 and since then she has been my inspiration, especially when I felt/feel hopeless and desperate or ecstatic with wonderment in nature, living life in the moment, just as when I was just a little child looking out my window or catching grasshoppers on the lush green grass in my backyard. Joni has been the vehicle to much of my healing and happiness. From there instead of curling into a fetal position of despair, her music moves me turn to God when either dark or creamy white clouds are in the skies and in my soul, because as Leon Russell sings it out get-down style that I am also one of those who lives life on this shattered planet as a "stranger in a strange land," while these short sighted criminal politicians and legal charlatans keep paving and destroying sacred land and lives. I can't stand it anymore and these are times I need Joni the most and then I go pray to Jesus to ask Our Father to fill and flood the world with the Holy Spirit so that Joni and I can see and feel the healing and the changing of the greedy guards. I have so very much in me to share about my love, and respect and even a little heartbreaks I have for Joni in my life's experiences. I just can't get accustomed to this format style. Pax et Bonum, Normajean Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 20:37:54 +0100 From: "JEFF HANKINS" Subject: Celebrating Early Joni Hello jmdl: for many years, I've been dipping in to these archives every few weeks to see what's the latest buzz. I'm really too lazy to sustain anything like a regular correspondence, so I'm full of admiration for all of you who discuss with such cheerful diligence the body of work of this wonderful artist we find so inspiring. Still, recently I've felt a need to add my small voice to thoughts which do occasionally surface, particularly regarding Joni's 'early period'. Like many of you, I suspect, I'm quietly obsessed - and tantalized - by those unreleased songs, and a couple of things come to mind which I'll itemize: 1.. As far back as July 1991 (see 'JM Comes in from the Cold' CD Review Interview in The Library) Joni was talking about a box set which might include e.g. alternative Mingus takes never used on disc; trad. folk songs (like some of the things on the 'Lets Sing out' tapes, one presumes ) and outtakes like 'Jeremy' (how we long to hear that one at last!). This is, after all what we've all been waiting for. My question is this. Could not a healthy fan base bring an influence to bear that this apparently shelved project should now see the light of day? Somehow. After all, JM herself appealed for that same fanbase's support when she was promoting 'The Beginnings of Survival'. Doesn't it work the other way? That somehow we can say to her: look, thanks for all the compilations, but please, no more: this is what we want, what we really really want, the 'box set' of rarities - Jeremy and Poor Sad Baby and Cara's Castle et al. How do we make that voice heard? 2.. I believe it's fairly well documented that Joel Bernstein is the real archivist of the coffee-house tapes of those early years. I've often dreamt of raiding his home in my British robber outfit (striped shirt, Lone Ranger eyemask, 'swag' bag on my back) to bring home the prized loot - only joking, Joel, if you're reading: I don't think that would be at all ethical. Still, if anyone has inroads into Mr Bernstein's confidence, and into his ear, heart and mind, perhaps they can exert an influence for the release of these recordings, before we get too old to enjoy them. (I believe Wally B got to know him, and heard some of those recording there which we have yet to hear. He well deserved that privilege, I don't begrudge it!) 3.. .Why aren't those early songs more celebrated? Why don't we fly them high - OK sure they don't have the loose warmth of Blue, or the sophistication of Summer Lawns, or the probing maturity of Turbulent Indigo, but we all appreciate, I'm sure, that there's a lot more to them than naove juvenilia. Though romance-based more often than not, there's more substance to the lyric of pre-1968 songs than most of Wild Things.., and such engaging intricacy to many of the melodic, chordal and lyrical structures. So. doesn't it seem daft that only one cover has ever been recorded of the exquisite 'Eastern Rain'? That 'A Melody in your Name' remains unknown to most of the tune-humming world? If jmdl ever records another tribute tape, why doesn't it tackle only unreleased songs? Here's a confession: I bought 'The Music of Joni Mitchell' songbook early in 1971, and started going out with a girl who could play the piano - partly at least because she could perhaps work out the music for ' Moon in the Mirror' , ' Strawflower Me' etc - all that excitingly unfamiliar stuff from that book. (she found the musical notation in the book unworkable - and thankfully the relationship found other things to sustain it). Meanwhile, I' d try and pick through 'Who has seen the Wind?' on the guitar, using the standard-tuning chords the book suggests. The fact was: those songs intrigued - and still do. It's just bonkers that all of Dylan's output from cradle onwards is (more or less) freely available, record producers eventually realizing the sense of releasing the 'official bootleg' versions etc - when, relatively, so little of Joni's early live canon is available! Frustrating or wot? Finally, I think someone was talking about demo-tapes recently. How's this for tantalizing?: in my effort to turn every stone, I struck up a brief correspondence a coupla years back with one half of the Foggy Dew-O, an English folkie duo (geddit?) who, you'll remember, recorded (still the only cover of it, as I told him - he didn't know this) 'Born to Take the Highway' . He recounted hearing the song on a demo tape of about a dozen songs, distributed by Essex Music here in the UK, around the time, I suspect, Joni did that brief tour supporting the Incredible String Band for Joe Boyd. Anyway - 'I think I might still have that tape' he said.' I'll send it ' (Huge excitement) . After months of searching, no, it could not be found. Huge sadness. Enough from me now, till a few years more? But I'd be interested to see some responses to these thoughts! Jeff Hankins Wales ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 13:17:18 -0700 (PDT) From: Nuriel Tobias Subject: Out Of Joni Joni, you gave me the breath of hope And despair. Takes a good while of sinking, But you're always there. The moon has not shown it's face. No stars are about to colide. The hope and despair are against you, so your Joni is always denied. And you're nearly that age when you're sinking, And it's just about your bitter end, And the least you could do is say "Joni". But you fight, you're too busy, escape. It's your root that is always demanding, Send, you've sent a thousand posts a day. In her lane she's still hanging her shirts off, And sinking, by the way, oh by the way. And you wonder how she ever got that dirty, And you want to wash her face and make her feel better. With the moon hunting the clocks, You sit down and write a letter. "Dear Joni, whoever you are..." But then your pen falls to the floor like flock of stars. Joni won't help you out this time, old man. Joni is busy reflecting again. Go and buy the new album, Be the new one what may, For your way out of Joni Is the hell far away! Nuriel - --------------------------------- Click here to donate to the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 18:26:30 -0700 (PDT) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Celebrating Early Joni Good question, Jeff - and unfortunately one lacking a good answer. In later interviews Joni talks about Hits & Misses as her boxset, so I don't think she understands what we are jonesing for. By the same token, even if we were to put together some petition of JMDLer's, it would be a pitifully small number and certainly not one to have any influence. I've tried to influence such a project - I sent Henning Olsen (the Danish guitarist who was half on the long-defunct "Big Yellow Taxi" Joni Tribute group) a copy of the unrecorded/unreleased songs, and he was so excited about them he was going to record them with a new singer, but that never materialized. Another fellow in the USA was going to do the same thing, using that Music of Joni Mitchell songbook and getting lead sheets from the ASCAP library. Nothing's come of that but maybe someday it will. After months of searching, no, it could not be found. Huge sadness.> Aarggghhh - don't you hate that? Well, at least we have THEIR cover of Born To Take the Highway: http://s49.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0C93V2Z2QANOU0XFAYJ3ATGJBJ And hey, if you want the original vinyl, you can go get it: http://cgi.ebay.com/FOGGY-DEW-O-Born-To-Take-The-Highway-rock-pop_W0QQitemZ4728444594QQcategoryZ306QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Like you & lots of others here, I'm nutty about these early songs. Hopefully one day we'll be as lucky as all the Dylan fans who are now getting tons of great stuff! Bob NP: Neil Young, "Hangin' On A Limb" Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Sep 2005 23:08:31 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: "Songs of a Prairie Girl" review, Exclaim magazine The September issue of Exclaim magazine (online version at www.exclaim.ca) has a mini-review of "Songs of a Prairie Girl", which reads thusly: - ------------------------------------------------ Joni Mitchell - Songs of a Prairie Girl Review in Exclaim, September 2005 by Eric Thom I admit to a lifelong lusting for Joni Mitchell, so this third in a series of thematic compilations is honey to the bee. Created as her personal contribution to Saskatchewan's Centennial celebrations, Saskatoon's most famous daughter has always written from a rich perspective of place and time, wearing her love for her native land on her sleeve, and Songs of a Prairie Girl revolves around the innocence of childhood and the awkwardness of adolescence, all drawn from one of history's richest back catalogues. At the same time, Joni's control of space and imagery delivers a strong sense of winter on Canada's snowy plains. From "Ray's Dad's Cadillac" to a symphonic version of "Cherokee Louise," Joni chronicles the laughs and the tears, the pleasure and the pain. Remixed versions of "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" and "Paprika Plains" highlight her abilities as a gifted composer, while her knack for surrounding herself with the complementary artistry of Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Larry Klein, Max Bennett and John Guerin guarantee her patented lush sound. At the same time, Blue's "River" remains the epitome of her solo craft, which is carried through to the cover art. It's so nice that this artful trailblazer not only hails from Canada but continues to celebrate it. (Asylum/Reprise/Nonesuch/Rhino) Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________________________________________________ Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2005 #255 ********************************* ------- 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)