From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2005 #296 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 Tuesday, October 18 2005 Volume 2005 : Number 296 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Night Ride Home question [JasonMaloney71@aol.com] Re: Chris Botti (KKSF) talks about Joni ["Sherelle Smith" ] Re: Joni thingities in the news today [Mike Friedman ] RE: [NortheastJonifest] Joni thingities in the news today ["Jim L'Hommedi] Re: Night Ride Home question... [RoseMJoy@aol.com] RE: Night Ride Home question... ["Richard Flynn" ] Alexi Murdoch [littlebreen@comcast.net] Sounds Like Canada - A Case of You ["Allison Crowe Music Mgmt" Subject: Re: Chris Botti (KKSF) talks about Joni Hi Laura! Yes, this was a very interesting article! I think someone from Chris Botti's website sent it to me a while back because it definitely sounds familiar! Don't you just love how he describes Joni's musical direction? I understand exactly what he's saying about her! I think Joni has to be that way in order to effectively communicate her music the way "she" intended it! I was told in an email by a well know songwriter and producer that when you are in the studio and it's your music, you have to stick to your guns. He said that those who let others take over their music too much usually don't make it. Joni definitely proves that point! Sherelle Laura O wrote: Found this while looking for some information on Chris Botti. It's an older interview, I believe (can't find the date). http://www.kksf.com/theartists4.html Didn't find this in the JMDL library so don't know how many have read this before. Chris answers the question: Who was the most difficult and the most demanding of all those people? I mean in a professional way. Who's the stickler?" CB: You know, one of my favorites, and that would be probably Joni Mitchell. But she is very, very detailed and very, very specific about what she wants, and at the same time it's very open ended. There's so much freedom, but yet there's no freedom. She's an artist and I think that she really sees things like a painter, and she sees music as if it were being painted. And she's right all the time, you know. And I would consider her, probably, to be the most demanding person that I have worked with and one my most gratifying tours. ******************************* Thought someone might find this interesting (and the whole interview) like I did. Enjoy! Laura O. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 11:05:57 -0700 (PDT) From: Brian Gross Subject: Joni thingities in the news today First: http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/forty-years-of-rejection-but-now-hes-top-of-the-pops/2005/10/17/1129401194203.html "Forty years of rejection, but now he's top of the pops October 18, 2005 An obscure album has provided Richard Thompson with mainstream success, writes Bruce Elder. Innovator  Richard Thompson was surprised at his sudden arrival in the top 40. Photo: AP There are really no rules for fame and success in rock and pop. Consider the British folk rock guitarist and singer/songwriter Richard Thompson. For decades he has been lionised by critics and musicians around the world. He has regularly been voted one of rock's top-10 guitar players. His songs have been recorded by vast numbers of discriminating singers and bands - from Aussie band Stellar to Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, REM and Bonnie Raitt. " (article continues) now me: What Richard Thompson song has Joni covered??????? and second: There seems to be a new book about our Joan. But the link to the article seems to not work for me. Anyone on the eastern side of the pond have access to the Guardian? "Lady of the Canyon Guardian Unlimited Mon, 17 Oct 2005 8:48 AM PDT When Joni Mitchell arrived in Los Angeles from Canada in 1968, she landed in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. In an exclusive extract from his new book, Barney Hoskyns tells how. " http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1594195,00.html?gusrc=rss Have a good one, everyone Brian in sunny, cool and dry south jersey I've looked at love from both sides now From give and take, and still somehow It's love's illusions I recall I really don't know love at all --Joan, with the wisdom of the ages __________________________________ Yahoo! Music Unlimited Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:37:13 +0100 From: Garret Subject: The Time Traveller's Wife I have just finished reading The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffennegger ("International Bestseller") and have to thank Catherine McKay for mentioning this. I really enjoyed it (and the Joni and [particularly pleasing] patti Smith references... see the Joni In Fiction section on jmdl.com). So, if you're wondering what to read, pick up this one (or Marge Piercy's Woman On The Edge Of Time which does not have a Joni reference) GARRET (just back from Rome) NP- The Simpson's. Marge: "When Virginia Woolf wrote that every woman needs a room of her own, she must have been talking about the kitchen" - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 11:58:22 -0700 From: Mike Friedman Subject: Re: Joni thingities in the news today On the TNT special the in 2003 he covered "Woodstock." He's always left me cold. Bored to tears. On Oct 17, 2005, at 11:05 AM, Brian Gross wrote: > First: > > http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/forty-years-of-rejection-but-now- > hes-top-of-the-pops/2005/10/17/1129401194203.html > > "Forty years of rejection, but now he's top of the pops > October 18, 2005 > > An obscure album has provided Richard Thompson with mainstream > success, writes > Bruce Elder. > Innovator  Richard Thompson was surprised at his sudden arrival in > the top 40. > Photo: AP > > There are really no rules for fame and success in rock and pop. > Consider the > British folk rock guitarist and singer/songwriter Richard Thompson. > For decades > he has been lionised by critics and musicians around the world. He has > regularly been voted one of rock's top-10 guitar players. His songs > have been > recorded by vast numbers of discriminating singers and bands - from > Aussie band > Stellar to Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, REM and Bonnie Raitt. > " (article > continues) > > now me: > What Richard Thompson song has Joni covered??????? > > > and second: > There seems to be a new book about our Joan. > But the link to the article seems to not work for me. > Anyone on the eastern side of the pond have access to the Guardian? > > "Lady of the Canyon > Guardian Unlimited Mon, 17 Oct 2005 8:48 AM PDT > When Joni Mitchell arrived in Los Angeles from Canada in 1968, she > landed in > exactly the right place at exactly the right time. In an exclusive > extract from > his new book, Barney Hoskyns tells how. " > > http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/ > 0,11710,1594195,00.html?gusrc=rss > > Have a good one, everyone > > Brian in sunny, cool and dry south jersey > > > > I've looked at love from both sides now > From give and take, and still somehow > It's love's illusions I recall > I really don't know love at all > > --Joan, with the wisdom of the ages > > > > __________________________________ > Yahoo! Music Unlimited > Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. > http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/ ========================================= "Heart and humor, and humility, he said, will lighten up your heavy load." - --Joni Mitchell, 'Refuge of the Roads,' from "Hejira", 1976 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 14:51:24 -0400 From: "Richard Flynn" Subject: RE: Joni thingities in the news today Try the printer-friendly version: http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5307442-110428,00.html - -----Original Message----- From: owner-joni@smoe.org [mailto:owner-joni@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Brian Gross Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 2:06 PM To: Joni@smoe.org; northeastjonifest@yahoogroups.com Subject: Joni thingities in the news today First: http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/forty-years-of-rejection-but-now-hes-top-of - -the-pops/2005/10/17/1129401194203.html "Forty years of rejection, but now he's top of the pops October 18, 2005 An obscure album has provided Richard Thompson with mainstream success, writes Bruce Elder. Innovator  Richard Thompson was surprised at his sudden arrival in the top 40. Photo: AP There are really no rules for fame and success in rock and pop. Consider the British folk rock guitarist and singer/songwriter Richard Thompson. For decades he has been lionised by critics and musicians around the world. He has regularly been voted one of rock's top-10 guitar players. His songs have been recorded by vast numbers of discriminating singers and bands - from Aussie band Stellar to Joni Mitchell, Elvis Costello, REM and Bonnie Raitt. " (article continues) now me: What Richard Thompson song has Joni covered??????? and second: There seems to be a new book about our Joan. But the link to the article seems to not work for me. Anyone on the eastern side of the pond have access to the Guardian? "Lady of the Canyon Guardian Unlimited Mon, 17 Oct 2005 8:48 AM PDT When Joni Mitchell arrived in Los Angeles from Canada in 1968, she landed in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. In an exclusive extract from his new book, Barney Hoskyns tells how. " http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1594195,00.html?gusrc= rss Have a good one, everyone Brian in sunny, cool and dry south jersey I've looked at love from both sides now From give and take, and still somehow It's love's illusions I recall I really don't know love at all --Joan, with the wisdom of the ages __________________________________ Yahoo! Music Unlimited Access over 1 million songs. Try it free. http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/ ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 15:28:50 -0400 From: "bluejr@adelphia.net" Subject: Re: Joni thingities in the news today Original Message: - ----------------- From: Mike Friedman mike@pinataperspective.com Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 11:58:22 -0700 To: Joni@smoe.org, northeastjonifest@yahoogroups.com, briangross@rocketmail.com Subject: Re: Joni thingities in the news today >On the TNT special the in 2003 he covered "Woodstock." He also did a great version of Black Crow. I must admit, I've also been on the outside looking in on those who can relate to his music/voice. JR - -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 21:58:27 +0200 From: "ron" Subject: Re: First Post, Greetings, "Triple Threats" challenge, lots of Joni content-very long hi >>>>bruce wrote >............................... I was made aware of this list by a mention >from ron (?) on the Emmylou Harris listserv (Thanks, Ron). I love Emmylou >as well.<<<<<<<<<<< hey bruce - glad to see you made it over here!!!! loved the post/s - you obviously are truly passionate about music - always love reading posts about great concerts & trying to picture myself being there. you guys have absolutely no idea how fortunate you are to be over there with all these great artists & great music. well - actually - maybe you do............ but lets see - my "triple threats" ( but maybe not quite so eloquently: ) ani difranco happy rhodes - beautiful voice, great songwriting - deserves far more recognition than she gets janis ian jimi joni laura nyro leonard cohen mark heard - im so glad to see that buddy miller is apparently a fan & managed to get one of marks songs recognised as song of the year (or some other such award) at the americana awards - only, what 16 years after mark died :-( pity tho about some of the truly dreadful engineering on some of his albums) mary chapin carpenter - still one of the most soothing voices ever. a real talent for capturing personal & individual emotions ......... mary gauthier - one for the future if she keeps up the momentum of her first albums michael & margo timmins (his songwriting & arrangements - her singing - sublime) neil young paul simon phil keaggy - another somewhat underappreciated artist due to concentrating on christian music. a wonderful guitarist who has become somewhat more adventurous lately, yet still hasnt lost the melodicism. i was glad to see one of the guitar magazines (guitar player??) rating him as one of the top 100 guitarists. just take a listen to "acoustic sketches" & be blown away..... richard thompson sonny landreth steve earl tom waits van morrison sory - couldnt keep it down to 10 ........... ron np - phil keaggy - metmorphosis ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 13:18:07 -0700 From: "Kate Bennett" Subject: First Post, Greetings, "Triple Threats" challenge, lots of Joni content-very long Wow what a great post Bruce! Welcome. Count me as another huge Emmylou fan. There are a few more not mentioned who are on my triple threat list: Shawn Colvin, Patti Griffin, Rickie Lee Jones, Jackson Browne, John Gorka... all amazing songwriters, players & singers Kate, who once played a gig somewhere on the East Fork of the Salmon River outside Stanley (seems like all Idahoians (?) speak of where they are in relationship to a river) & got to see the Salmon spawning on the way back... PS what kind of horses do you raise? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 16:21:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Joni thingities in the news today and Richard Thompson vljc - --- "bluejr@adelphia.net" wrote: > Original Message: > ----------------- > From: Mike Friedman mike@pinataperspective.com > Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 11:58:22 -0700 > To: Joni@smoe.org, > northeastjonifest@yahoogroups.com, > briangross@rocketmail.com > Subject: Re: Joni thingities in the news today > > > >On the TNT special the in 2003 he covered > "Woodstock." > > He also did a great version of Black Crow. I must > admit, I've also been on > the outside looking in on those who can relate to > his music/voice. > JR > > - ----------------------------------------------------- The article seemed to be suggesting that Joni had covered an RT song, but I think they meant that he had covered a number of her songs. Was he in Fairport when they did Eastern Rain and Chelsea Morning? He was one of the earliest members. I never really got into RT until a few years ago, and largely because of mention by a number of Joni listers. I do think he has an odd sort of a voice, but it works very well for so much of his material - and the man is one mean guitar player who can play in a bunch of different styles, so I count myself as a late-to-the-party fan. Catherine Toronto - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- __________________________________________________________ Find your next car at http://autos.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 16:14:06 -0400 From: "bluejr@adelphia.net" Subject: Re: First Post, Greetings, Triple Threats challenge, lots ofJoni content-very long Original Message: - ----------------- From: ron flopit@telkomsa.net Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 21:58:27 +0200 joni@smoe.org but lets see - my "triple threats" ( but maybe not quite so eloquently: ) ani difranco happy rhodes - beautiful voice, great songwriting - deserves far more recognition than she gets janis ian jimi joni laura nyro leonard cohen mark heard - im so glad to see that buddy miller is apparently a fan & managed to get one of marks songs recognised as song of the year (or some other such award) at the americana awards - only, what 16 years after mark died :-( pity tho about some of the truly dreadful engineering on some of his albums) mary chapin carpenter - still one of the most soothing voices ever. a real talent for capturing personal & individual emotions ......... mary gauthier - one for the future if she keeps up the momentum of her first albums michael & margo timmins (his songwriting & arrangements - her singing - sublime) neil young paul simon phil keaggy - another somewhat underappreciated artist due to concentrating on christian music. a wonderful guitarist who has become somewhat more adventurous lately, yet still hasnt lost the melodicism. i was glad to see one of the guitar magazines (guitar player??) rating him as one of the top 100 guitarists. just take a listen to "acoustic sketches" & be blown away..... richard thompson sonny landreth steve earl tom waits van morrison sory - couldnt keep it down to 10 ........... ron Nice list, Ron! I would have to add Aimee Mann, however....the diva of love's despair and dysfunction! JR np: Al DiMeola, Flight Over Rio, from 1977's Elegant Gypsy - -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:26:38 +0100 From: Garret Subject: Re: [NortheastJonifest] Joni thingities in the news today Here's that article copied from the website Brian: Lady of the Canyon When Joni Mitchell arrived in Los Angeles from Canada in 1968, she landed in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. In an exclusive extract from his new book, Barney Hoskyns tells how the hipsters who all hung out together in Laurel Canyon fell both for Mitchell and her music - and turned Sixties rock on its head Sunday October 16, 2005 The Observer Joni Mitchell was a stranger in a strange land - twice removed from her native Canada, new to California from America's East Coast. She was strange-looking, too, willowy but hip, a Scandinavian squaw with flaxen hair and big teeth and Cubist cheekbones. Men instinctively knew Joni as a peer. They also sensed a prickliness and a perfectionism. In tow with Mitchell was Elliot Roberts, nie Rabinowitz, a rock'n'roll Woody Allen with a hooked nose and an endearing devotion to his single cause - Joni Mitchell. 'Elliot pitched being my manager,' she recalled of him. 'I said, "I don't need a manager, I'm doing quite nicely". But he was a funny man. I enjoyed his humour.' Article continues This odd couple had come out to Los Angeles from New York, where the Greenwich Village folk scene was petering out before their very eyes. Roberts, an agent for the Chartoff-Winkler management company, had previously worked in the mailroom of the William Morris talent agency with the even more ambitious David Geffen. Elliot decided to jack in the world of agenting after Buffy Sainte-Marie, a client, dragged him to see Joni perform in late October 1967. Joni had already crammed a lot into her short life. She'd been married to a fellow Canadian singer, Chuck Mitchell, and given up a daughter for adoption - an abandonment that ate at her like a wound. Songwriting served as therapy for her pain. 'It was almost like she wanted to erase herself and just let the songs speak for her,' reflected her novelist friend Malka Marom. Joni's unusual open guitar tunings also set her songs apart from the folk balladry of the day. 'I was really a folk singer up until 1965, but once I crossed the border I began to write,' Mitchell says. 'My songs began to be, like, playlets or soliloquies. My voice even changed - I no longer was imitative of the folk style, really. I was just a girl with a guitar that made it look that way.' 'Elliot became wildly excited about Joni, and he introduced me to her and I became her agent,' recalled David Geffen. 'And it was the beginning of her career - it was the beginning of our careers. Everything was very small time.' Established stars queued up to cover songs from the Mitchell songbook. 'When she first came out,' said Roberts, 'she had a backlog of 20, 25 songs that most people would dream that they would do in their entire career ... it was stunning.' In America and in England, people sat up and noticed the blonde with the piercing prairie soprano, the idiosyncratic guitar tunings, and the wise-beyond-her-years lyrics. When Roberts and Mitchell went to Florida to play the folk circuit, guitarist and singer David Crosby came to see her at the Gaslight South. 'Right away I thought I'd been hit by a hand grenade,' he reported later. There was something about the way Mitchell combined naked purity with artful sophistication that shocked Crosby - the sense of a young woman who had seen too much too soon. He set Joni in his sights, bedding her that week. The affair was never likely to last. 'These were two very wilful people,' says photographer Joel Bernstein. 'Neither was going to cave in. I remember being at Joni's old apartment in Chelsea in New York and I heard this commotion on the street. And it was Crosby and Joni screaming at each other on the corner. It gave me a real sense of the volatility of their relationship.' The volatility did not obscure David's deep admiration for Joni's talent, nor his awareness of the obstacles she and Elliot were encountering. 'Everything about Joni was unique and original, but we couldn't get a deal,' says Roberts, who took tapes to Columbia, RCA and other majors. 'The folk period had died, so she was totally against the grain. Everyone wanted a copy of the tape for, like, their wives, but no one would sign her.' Roberts arrived in Los Angeles in late 1967, knowing few people in the city but using Crosby's endorsement as a calling card. Joni followed close behind. Immediately she was received with open arms. Epitomising the hospitality was B Mitchel Reed, the disc jockey whose KPPC-FM radio show was the pipeline of all cool sounds in LA. Reed put Roberts and Mitchell up in his rented house above the Sunset Strip on Sunset Plaza Drive. Joni wasn't sure about Los Angeles. She was used to crowded sidewalks, teeming urban life - the bustle and commotion of Toronto and Manhattan. She didn't like it that people went everywhere in their big gas-guzzling cars. But once she and Elliot got into Laurel Canyon, up among the cypresses and eucalyptus trees that lined the bumpy, snaking roads, she started to see the City of the Angels as the 'new golden land' that had seduced so many outsiders: the land of David Hockney's painting A Bigger Splash, of exotic palms and dry desert air and the omnipresent vault of blue sky. 'Driving around up in the canyons there were no sidewalks and no regimented lines like the way I was used to cities being laid out,' Mitchell recalls. 'And then, having lived in New York, there was the ruralness of it, with trees in the yard and ducks floating around on my neighbours' pond. And the friendliness of it: no one locked their doors.' As for Elliot Roberts, he'd grown up in the Bronx: how bad could this paved paradise be? 'Elliot would sleep on my couch at 8333 Lookout Mountain,' says manager Ron Stone, then owner of a boutique in West Hollywood. 'At the same time, Crosby had been tossed out of the Byrds and was mooching off me. We'd smoke a joint and play chess. He was my entrie to all of this.' When Roberts officially left Chartoff-Winkler he asked Ron Stone to work for him. To Stone it looked more exciting than selling used leather jackets to the socialites of Beverly Hills. 'Right away it was like Elliot and Ron could take a New York entrepreneurial viewpoint on the whole thing,' says Joel Bernstein, who would soon be taking photographs of Joni. 'I think it was really eye-opening to these guys that you could come out here and live up in Laurel Canyon in little wooden houses where you didn't even need heating or air-conditioning... and you could still do business.' With Stone as his new aide-de-camp, Roberts trotted off to Reprise Records. A Mitchell demo session was green-lighted on condition that David Crosby produce it. 'David was very enthusiastic about the music,' Joni says. 'He was twinkly about it. His instincts were correct: he was going to protect the music and pretend to produce me.' The sessions that eventually became Joni Mitchell could not have been more auspicious. Recording at Sunset Sound, Mitchell and Crosby kept things stripped and simple: in the main just Joni, her guitar, and such well-worked songs as 'Marcie' and 'I Had a King'. The two had now officially split up. 'They each described to me crying at the other through the glass in the studio,' says Bernstein. Sitting in on occasional guitar and bass was Stephen Stills, who was across the hall with his group Buffalo Springfield. His bandmate, the dark and brooding Neil Young, was known to Mitchell from her apprenticeship on the Canadian folk circuit. Sharing a uniquely dry Canuck humour, Young and Mitchell had an easy rapport. 'You gotta meet Neil,' she told Elliot. 'He's the only guy who's funnier than you are.' Roberts wandered down the hall to meet Joni's compatriate. Stories about Young's moodiness made him wary, but Elliot was pleasantly surprised when the singer turned out to be approachable and affable. Joni and Neil compared notes on their respective musical journeys. If Joni's tastes didn't stretch to the febrile rock the Springfield played, she could sense the electricity in the air - the vibrancy of the scene and the exploding of talent on and off the Sunset Strip. Mitchell divided her debut album into two loosely autobiographical sections - a conceit easier to bring off in the days of vinyl LPs. The first side ('I Came To the City') commenced with 'I Had a King', a song detailing - with more than a trace of self-protective bitterness - the break-up of Joni's marriage. Part Two ('Out of the City and Down To the Seaside') found our heroine in the country, by the sea, settled in rustic southern California. 'Song to a Seagull' summarised the theme of the album, with Joni recapping on her urban adventures and subsequent departure for the sea. The song played perfectly on the image of Mitchell as a kind of a fairy maiden striving to float free of human need. The final song, 'Cactus Tree', pointed forward to deeper themes in the singer's subsequent work: themes of romantic love, of female autonomy, of commitment versus creative freedom. Describing three lovers - the first almost certainly Crosby - Joni 'thinks she loves them all' but fears giving herself completely to any of them. These were important issues for young, liberated women in the 1960s, rejecting a society where women had tended to live somewhat vicariously as caretakers to men. A self-proclaimed 'serial monogamist', Mitchell would struggle for years with the conflicts between her desire for love and her need for independence. Although the album now sounds earnest and worthy, the power of Joni's swooping, pellucid vibrato and idiosyncratic, questioning chords is right there. 'Joni invented everything about her music, including how to tune the guitar,' said James Taylor, one of her many later boyfriends. 'From the beginning of the process of writing she's building the canvas as well as putting paint on it.' In March, with the album about to be released, Crosby presented his protigie to his peers. His favourite gambit was to host impromptu acoustic performances by Joni, usually at the Laurel Canyon homes of his friends. 'David says, "I want you to meet somebody",' recalls screenwriter Carl Gottlieb. 'And he goes upstairs and comes back down with this ethereal blonde. And this is the first time that everybody heard 'Michael from Mountains' and 'Both Sides Now' and 'Chelsea Morning'. And then she goes back upstairs, and we all sit around and look at each other and say, "What was that? Did we hallucinate it?"' Eric Clapton sat spellbound on the lawn of Laurel Canyon neighbour 'Mama' Cass Elliot as Joni cooed 'Urge For Going', a song inspired by the death of the folk movement. Crosby was at her side, a joint in his mouth and a Cheshire-cat smile of satisfaction on his face. 'Cass had organised a little backyard barbecue,' says photographer Henry Diltz. 'Because she'd met Cream she invited Clapton, who was very quiet and almost painfully shy. And Joni was there and doing her famous tunings, and Eric sat and stared at her hands to try and figure out what she was doing.' The following day Joni performed on Reed's KPPC show in Pasadena and answered questions that whetted LA's appetite for the new neo-folk star. So much did Reed talk her up that her first live dates in town were all sell-outs at the Troubadour. 'Like Neil, Joni was quiet,' says Diltz, who photographed her soon after her move to LA. 'A lot of these people were quiet, which was why they became songwriters. It was the only way they could express themselves. It was very different from the Tin Pan Alley tradition, where guys would try to write a hit song and turn out these teen-romance songs about other people.' Joni found a perfect place of retreat in Laurel Canyon. In April 1968, with money from her modest Reprise advance, she made a down-payment on a quaint cottage built into the side of the hill on Lookout Mountain Avenue. Soon she had filled it with antiques and carvings and stained Tiffany windows - not to mention a nine-year-old tomcat named Hunter. Within a year her songs were setting the pace for the new introspection of the singer-songwriter school. On 5 July, 1968, Robert Shelton wrote a New York Times piece about Mitchell entitled 'Singer-Songwriters are Making a Comeback'. In it he noted that, while the return of solo acoustic performers had at least something to do with economics, 'the high-frequency rock'n'roar may have reached its zenith.' Nine months later, folk singer and Sing Out! editor Happy Traum came to a similar conclusion in Rolling Stone. 'As if an aural backlash to psychedelic acid rock and to the all-hell-has-broken-loose styles of Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin,' Traum wrote, 'the music is gentle, sensitive, and graceful. Nowadays it's the personal and the poetic, rather than a message, that dominates.' It was time to turn inwards, and Joni Mitchell was leading the way. California connections Joni Mitchell Now semi-retired after falling bitterly out of love with the music business. Elliot Roberts Manager. Still with Neil Young, and has managed Spiritualized. David Geffen Mogul. Launched Asylum in 1971 and became the Croesus of LA rock. In talks to sell his DreamWorks empire. David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash Rock'n'roll survivors. All wrote about their relationship with Joni. Crosby survived cocaine abuse, guns, jail and a liver transplant; Stills has just made his best album in years; Nash was named Amateur Photographer of the Year in 2003. Neil Young Rock'n'roll enigma. The greatest male singer-songwriter of the Seventies still treads his own wayward path. Frank Zappa Freak-out supremo Once threw Mick Jagger out of his Laurel Canyon home for being drunk. Died from cancer in 1993. James Taylor Singer. Joni and James were on each other's records all the time in the Seventies. Taylor still records and tours. Cass Elliot Singer. Introduced Nash to the Canyon scene at Joni's house. Died in 1974. 7 'Hotel California: Singer-Songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the LA Canyons 1967-1976' is published by Fourth Estate on 7 November, priced #14.99. To order a copy for the special price of #13.99, call the Observer Books Service on 0870 836 0885 - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 18:23:19 -0500 From: Michael Paz Subject: Re: Night Ride Home question... I have a promo cd with a string tie thingy and some fotos that were included. Now in which bog plastic box that is in is another question. I have moved my entire Joni library to iTunes. Best Paz > Joniphiles - > > Does anyone have any promotional ads from the Night Ride Home era? As I > remember it, already when this disc came out, the ad campaign was billing > Joni a "classic." Can anyone confirm this? > > Thanks, > Les ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 19:49:45 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu, Lama" Subject: RE: [NortheastJonifest] Joni thingities in the news today Gees, that looks familiar. Oh yeah. On June 02, 2002, I posted >Unable to raise the dues, and unable to work, there was only one solution for her; she gave up Kelly/Kilauren for adoption. She must have been in severe anguish. She coped exactly as she did when she was nine. Joni meditated on singing, lyrics, and painting to offset her pain. Carrying an unbearable secret compelled Joni to become the exact opposite of a secret-keeper. She became the epitome of, the very embodiment of, the overtly open poet.> Frequently plagiarized but never attributed, Jim L'Hommedieu - -----Original Message----- Here's that article copied from the website Brian: >She'd been married to a fellow Canadian singer, Chuck Mitchell, and given up a daughter for adoption - an abandonment that ate at her like a wound. Songwriting served as therapy for her pain. 'It was almost like she wanted to erase herself and just let the songs speak for her,' reflected her novelist friend Malka Marom. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 20:02:47 EDT From: RoseMJoy@aol.com Subject: Re: Night Ride Home question... In a message dated 10/17/2005 7:31:32 PM Eastern Daylight Time, michael@thepazgroup.com writes: I have a promo cd with a string tie thingy and some fotos that were included. Now in which bog plastic box that is in is another question. I have moved my entire Joni library to iTunes. I have the same promo Cd Michael, and I've already looked, no classic remarks there. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 20:09:23 -0400 From: "Richard Flynn" Subject: RE: Night Ride Home question... I have the same promo package that I got for 9 bucks at Nashville's "Great Escape" well worth a visit if you happen to visit Nashville. - -----Original Message----- From: owner-joni@smoe.org [mailto:owner-joni@smoe.org] On Behalf Of Michael Paz Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 7:23 PM To: Les Irvin; Joni Digest Subject: Re: Night Ride Home question... I have a promo cd with a string tie thingy and some fotos that were included. Now in which bog plastic box that is in is another question. I have moved my entire Joni library to iTunes. Best Paz > Joniphiles - > > Does anyone have any promotional ads from the Night Ride Home era? As I > remember it, already when this disc came out, the ad campaign was billing > Joni a "classic." Can anyone confirm this? > > Thanks, > Les ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Oct 2005 02:35:04 +0000 From: littlebreen@comcast.net Subject: Alexi Murdoch Hey, Mags, nice catch -- He (Alexi Murdoch) is sweet but dark, as his blurb at cdbaby suggests. I liked the first and last songs better than the apparent most popular one (Orange Drream, or whatever it's called). I was trying to think whom to compare him to, and finally Belle and Sebastian came to mind, with a soupson of John Gorka. Anyhoo, I liked him, and look forward to his recording more. Hugs, Mags and hi to all, Walt-- Let the walls go tumbling down Falling on the ground And all the dogs go running free The wild and gentle dogs Kenneled in me ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 20:02:56 -0700 From: "Allison Crowe Music Mgmt" Subject: Sounds Like Canada - A Case of You On the subject of A Case of You, here's an anecdote from my day. As folks may or may not know, here in Canada, the public broadcasters at CBC Radio had been locked out for a long stretch, and are just now getting back to work, connecting our land via the airwaves. Shelagh Rogers, a veteran broadcaster and host of a very popular program called Sounds Like Canada was back on air today for the first time since the Summer. And, she invited Allison Crowe, the artist with whom I work, to join her on this welcome-back-broadcast. Allison had the song she was going to perform ready. But, serendipitously, yesterday, she taught herself A Case of You on guitar, and in the minutes prior to the radio show going live across the country this a.m., Allison plunked a few notes of Joni's song on her keyboard to see what it sounded like... Shelagh got excited, and asked if that was the song to be played. Allison said, it wasn't, but it could be... Shelagh explained that, during the CBC lockout, when she and two of her producers had driven across the whole of Canada in a van, they'd repeatedly played A Case of You - cranking the volume on the car stereo at the lines "I drew a map of Canada, oh Canada". So, naturally, when the show mics were turned on today, this is the song that was heard: http://www.allisoncrowe.com/SLCACaseofYouAllisonCrowe.mp3 This is the very first time Allison has performed it, but, I expect, one day, a higher-fidelity version will land on a record of hers. Keeping with a thread of a few months back, it can be said that Allison is one of a new generation of singer-songwriters enriched by Joni's music and example. (Alley's cover of "River" has been very kindly included by Bob on Joni Covers Volume 67 http://www.allisoncrowe.com/River.mp3 ) And, here's a song the SLC national audience didn't hear, which can be described as a Joni-inspired original ~ http://www.allisoncrowe.com/Effortlesssomebgs.mp3 Slainte Mhath! Adrian ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2005 #296 ********************************* ------- 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)