From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #84 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 Sunday, March 28 2010 Volume 2010 : Number 084 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Berkeley 1972 (no Willie content) [Mark-Leon Thorne ] Re: Bang your head to Joni vljc [Catherine McKay ] Re: Bang your head to Joni [Catherine McKay ] RE: joni books! help!! [Laura Stanley ] RE: Bang your head to Joni [Laura Stanley ] Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #83 [StDoherty@aol.com] Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #83 [StDoherty@aol.com] Re: Bang your head to Joni [Bob Muller ] Re: Safaris to the Heart: The Songs of Joni Mitchell [Dave Blackburn ] 'Safaris To The Heart The Songs of Joni Mitchell' [Anita G Subject: Re: Berkeley 1972 (no Willie content) Wow Steve. That was SO cool. You know, it's funny, whenever I think about that hypothetical question, "If you had a time machine, which time would you go back to?", that is the time I always think about. It's funny because I actually was alive at that time, it's just that I was only 8 years old. Southern California in the early '70s... East coast Australia had a similar vibe going on but it's not quite the same. I remember watching my big sister in her band at the time or rehearsing in the garage. "There was one song she played I could really feel". The song was Big Yellow Taxi. I'd say, "Play that one again" and she'd say, "Nah, I've played that enough and it's not one of my favourites anyway". She never did get Joni, opting more for Lead Zeppelin or Deep Purple, possibly some CSN. Consequently, I never found out who that song was by until many years later. The look that my sister had in those days was more of Cher look. She had very long straight dark hair and she wore a long black dress to the ankles with some embroidery around the neck. I have so few memories from that time. I was so young. Of course, Australia had conscription too. Luckily I was too young. Aside from the anti-war protests, the culture here focussed around the beaches and the numerous music festivals that were popping up in various rural areas and pot of course. Joni must have been an influence to the music scene here, if not directly, via other American artists who had been influenced by her. Singers/songwriters like Alison Durbin had the look if nothing else. We had Brian Cadd, Masters Aprentices, The Seekers, Russell Morris, Chain, et al. Joni didn't make it to Australia until the 1980s. Much of the imagery can easily be transposed to the Australian landscape though. The Hissing of Summer Lawns describes the hot Summers in an Australian urban setting. You might not be able to walk the girders of a Manhattan skyline but, looking at photographs from the 1930s of the workmen eating lunch on the skeletons of Sydney's future skyscrapers looks awfully similar. So we take it on board. Skating on frozen rivers is a stretch but they do exist here so, it's not impossible to imagine that Joni could be singing about Australia. My dream would be to go back in time to California in the late 1960s and head cross country to Woodstock. I wasn't even old enough to go to our own legendary music festival, Sunbury. Nimbin, NSW was the centre of the counter culture here but, I missed its hey day too. I never managed to get there but, I hear it's full of entrepreneurs and the drug of choice is heroin these days. It's people like you, Steve, that I cling to for the stories of how it really was. Thanks for that. Thanks for being around. Thanks for sharing. Mark in Sydney NP Marcie - Doug Ashdown ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 04:03:33 -0500 From: Mark Domyancich Subject: Re: Bang your head to Joni Actually one of the best Joni covers I've heard. A hell of a lot better than Judy Collins doing BSN. And no I'm not being sarcastic. - -Mark Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:47:15 -0700 (PDT) > From: Bob Muller > Subject: Bang your head to Joni > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzM4SNq5HBE > > Don't say I didn't warn you...this is Joni's most personal, most tender, > most poignant song as interpreted by Entropy, a scream metal band. > Definitely not for you purists. > > Bob ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 03:10:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Bang your head to Joni vljc That's a good question. I don't know if this is joni-content or not - if so, it's only very little JC. I had absolutely no idea who they are, so I went to their MySpace page. I also found a website for them but, to be honest, wasn't keen on going into the website because it's one of those very "busy" websites and there are too many links. Looks like they're from Vancouver. They also have a song listed called "God eat god." Here are some of the lyrics MY GOD IS BETTER THAN YOUR GOD MY GOD IS BIGGER THAN YOUR GOD the bullet has no eye for beauty it does its duty the bomb has no respect for art it does its part from london to dresden from saigon to tehran MY GOD IS BETTER THAN YOUR GOD from the vatican to jerusalem from the taliban to the pentagon MY GOD IS BIGGER THAN YOUR GOD this ain't about who's right or wrong so figure out whose side you're on this ain't about who's wrong or right just pick a side and join the FIGHT! MIGHT is RIGHT if you don't agree with me you must be the enemy if you don't see what i see you must be the enemy GOD EAT GOD But...here's a blurb about them (from their website): DOG eat DOGMAhas been hard at work since 1991.Writing, recording, releasing, and road-tripping. Refusing to be pigeonholed, their music defies description. They are outrageous and outspoken, but **talking about music is like dancing about architecture,** so we recommend you listen to DOG eat DOGMAand form your own opinion. That "talking about music is like dancing about architecture" quote has been variously attributed to Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello and... Joni Mitchell. ________________________________ From: Mark To: Catherine McKay ; Bob Muller ; Corey Blake ; Michael Flaherty Cc: JMDL Sent: Fri, March 26, 2010 9:39:19 PM Subject: Re: Bang your head to Joni - -------------------------------------------------- From: "Catherine McKay" > You want scream/death metal, this is my nephew's old band, Doggy No No. He's > the drummer, known as "Pignuts." > > Do not go to their Myspace page if you're > easily offended: > Here's their myspace > page - plenty of blasphemy here - don't say I didn't warn ya (Catholic > schoolboys, eh.) > http://www.myspace.com/doggynonoph Is the 'dog eat dogma' thing a Joni reference? Mark in Seattle __________________________________________________________________ Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr! http://www.flickr.com/gift/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:57:02 -0700 (PDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Bang your head to Joni It's interesting to come across a completely different take on the song, and I wonder how people choose which songs to cover. That's not normally a song you'd expect to hear covered by a metal-type band, but it kinda works. Maybe it's one of those things where someone was just riffing on some chords and thought it sounded kind of like a certain Joni Mitchell song, and it just went from there. And I'm not sure I want to hear ANY more covers of BSN, no matter who it may be. ________________________________ From: Mark Domyancich To: joni@smoe.org Sent: Sat, March 27, 2010 5:03:33 AM Subject: Re: Bang your head to Joni Actually one of the best Joni covers I've heard. A hell of a lot better than Judy Collins doing BSN. And no I'm not being sarcastic. - -Mark Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:47:15 -0700 (PDT) > From: Bob Muller > Subject: Bang your head to Joni > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzM4SNq5HBE > > Don't say I didn't warn you...this is Joni's most personal, most tender, > most poignant song as interpreted by Entropy, a scream metal band. > Definitely not for you purists. > > Bob __________________________________________________________________ Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail. Click on Options in Mail and switch to New Mail today or register for free at http://mail.yahoo.ca ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 06:54:58 -0700 (PDT) From: Laura Stanley Subject: RE: joni books! help!! Gina wrote: hi everyone! im planning on buying some books on joni and guessed you could help me out.. i have none yet and im pariticularly interested in the biographical or commentary ones. Hi Gina, Shadows and Light by Karen O'Brien is pretty good. However, I'm waiting for an autobiography myself before I'll be satisfied. Joni has said she's writing her memoirs. Do you have any Joni DVD's? This would be a good way start at a DVD collection: http://www.amazon.com/Joni-Mitchell-Collectors/dp/B0006SSNIC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1269697923&sr=8-3 Love, Laura S. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:04:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Laura Stanley Subject: RE: Bang your head to Joni Hell wrote: And here's their version of another classic Joni: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H68rhQau1BA Disturbing is the word that springs to mind! Hell, The only thing "Blue" about this was the color. I couldn't understand what they were singing. Love, Laura S. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:42:56 EDT From: StDoherty@aol.com Subject: Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #83 In a message dated 3/27/2010 3:12:47 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org writes: Don't say I didn't warn you...this is Joni's most personal, most tender, most poignant song as interpreted by Entropy, a scream metal band. Definitely not for you purists. Bob This is great arrangement ... I actually think it works. Well, maybe I was influenced by our finches - hhey loved it. Nice video too. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:50:50 EDT From: StDoherty@aol.com Subject: Re: onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #83 In a message dated 3/27/2010 3:12:47 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org writes: Don't say I didn't warn you...this is Joni's most personal, most tender, > most poignant song as interpreted by Entropy, a scream metal band. > Definitely not for you purists. > Gotta say - I liked their Blue too. Maybe it's because after listening to Joni's arrangement for almost 40 years I was ready for a change. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:48:22 -0700 (PDT) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: Bang your head to Joni The notes on the video state that they intend to cover the entire Blue album. Should be interesting. Bob NP: Choir Of Young Believers, "Action/Reaction" ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:19:51 -0700 From: Dave Blackburn Subject: Re: Safaris to the Heart: The Songs of Joni Mitchell Err, thanks for the plug Victor...........I think thanks, Dave On Mar 26, 2010, at 1:08 PM, wrote: > Three questions for your Bobness: > > 1) Have you ever loved any music more than Robin Adler and the Mutts? > > 2)You say you believe in Safaris to the Heart so why do you forsake > them? > > 3) Since your failed attempt to purchase Safaris to the Heart, > what's stopping you now? ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 08:58:14 -0700 (PDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: Bang your head to Joni Yeah, it says "River" is coming next. I'm interested to hear that. On the other hand, I would never have recognized "Blue" if I hadn't been told that's what it was. I think for me a big complaint about that kind of music is that I can never understand the lyrics. There's this shop on Yonge Street near the Eaton Centre here in Toronto - I think it's a tattoo parlor in fact - that always plays screamo music which you can hear as you go by. At the risk of sounding like an old person, it always sounds the same - but maybe they are always playing the same song. ________________________________ From: Bob Muller To: Catherine McKay ; Mark Domyancich ; joni@smoe.org Sent: Sat, March 27, 2010 10:48:22 AM Subject: Re: Bang your head to Joni The notes on the video state that they intend to cover the entire Blue album. Should be interesting. Bob NP: Choir Of Young Believers, "Action/Reaction" __________________________________________________________________ Looking for the perfect gift? Give the gift of Flickr! http://www.flickr.com/gift/ ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 17:26:22 +0000 From: Anita G Subject: 'Safaris To The Heart The Songs of Joni Mitchell' The first time I heard Big Yellow Taxi I was about 20 rows back at the Royal Festival Hall. It was January 1970. The first time I heard The Magdalene Laundries I was at the Edmonton Folk Festival in very front row in August 1993. Yup, I can say I WAS THERE before the record! So theres a lot of envy going on in me because I WASNT THERE. Yes, folks I wasnt there when Robin Adler and the Mutts of the Planet recorded most of the tracks on Safaris to the Heart at Idyllwild. And some of you lucky ones were there. My heart is being eaten out. Its a bright Saturday morning here in the UK and I am having a party. I invited Tom Scott to bring the LA Express to meet up with Weather Report. When I asked Larry Carlton if he can pop in and play some of his most ethereal swirly licks, he agreeed. I asked Anita O Day, Norah Jones, Diana Krall and Joni at her Jazzy Mingus best if they could pop in and sing a few tracks. There, in a nut shell, is the feel. I am now ready for my Mutts of the Planet Party. Safaris to the Heart, The Songs of Joni Mitchell booms out of my sound system for the third time today. The party is underway. The album kicks off with my current favourite track, a very cool arrangement of Rainy Night House. Maybe because its so far removed from the original or maybe because it hints at what Tom Scott might have done the track if hed been around with Joni some years before, this arrangement has a really interesting rhythm change, a brilliant flugelhorn break and a really expressive vocal. Even the sopranos in the upstairs choir (Britt Doehring and Robin) are really neat. Dave Larry Carlton Blackburn pops in layers of swirling guitars on top of a rhythmic acoustic, for a restrained and quite beautiful Cherokee Louise. Robin manages to make every word count and again the backing vocals, whilst having some of Jonis originals, have a little more added in. It works beautifully, with some really restrained and super drums and percussion courtesy of Jeff Olson. This is followed by the albums epic track, a monumental, huge arrangement of Woodstock. It starts with Robins voice soaring above a minimal orchestration of harmonics, a Riders on the Storm keyboard and more swirling guitars which work well. The drums kick in and the sound is a wee bit laboured before kicking into a monstrous rock ending in which a Pinball Wizard and Robins rocky voice are unleashed. Quite unlike any arrangement Ive heard of this song before, its a massive undertaking which, for me, works better in some parts than others. However, I can picture myself shaking my heavy metal head if I had been there at the live performance, which comes just before the Mutts (it transpires) were going to take a break. You then realise that this actually is a live take and Daves production values put this album in a genuinely top class. The achievement becomes even more astounding. Amelia follows, sounding uncluttered, clean, simple and airy, before the final track of Side 1, a version of The Jungle Line. Robin kicks this off with a perfect duet with Mitch Mankers trumpet before breaking into the Burundi style rhythm of the original. The heavy, distorted guitar, delayed vocal, thumb piano and crazy trumpet evoke brilliantly a drug crazed jazz club. I loved it. Barnaby Finchs instrumental arrangement of Both Sides Now comes as light relief after the frenetic darkness of the Jungle Line. The instrumentation of BSN sounds very much like it could be followed by Weather Report playing Birdland and its really super. Not nearly so dense as Herbie Hancocks arrangement on River  the Joni Letters, it does great justice to Jonis original melody whilst providing a vehicle for Paul Carmans highly polished jazz sax playing. I love Don Reeds electric steel sound on the laid back, gentle version of Night Ride Home which follows. Robins vocal has a bouncy quality to it which gives the song a lighter feel than Jonis original and in Help Me, which is perhaps the song on the album which sounds closest to the original arrangement, Robin again finds the odd line or phrase which makes it her own. Our friend from Holycombe Joni Fest, Barry Cahill, augments the sound with saxes and flutes and its so proficient, Tom Scott would be proud. Passion Play was a song I never really liked much until I saw Thierry sing it at the French Joni Fest some years ago. He and I sat singing it looking over the French hills one lunch time and, from there, I was hooked. Whats impressive about the Mutts version of Passion Play is Robins connection with the complex lyric of this song. Not only does she sing it beautifully, but she brings the words to life so that they make sense. So its strangely disconcerting after such a fine performance to hear, as the applause rings in from the audience, Robin say, Thats a cool tune. An understatement, methinks. The final track Dreamland pays an initial tribute to the original before popping off into a jazz funk groove that Im sure Joni herself would be proud to shake her thang to. Its a real show piece for the astonishingly good musicians Dave Blackburn has assembled for this tribute to Joni. They all take a turn to show us (if we didnt know by then) that they know a sharp from a flat, and play over the tight rhythm pinned down by drummer Jeff Olsen and bassist Dave Curtis. The album finishes on a whoop of joy and applause from those who were blessed to be at Idyllwild JoniFest last September. The sleeve notes say that the album is dedicated to Joni and thanks her for being an inspiration and for enriching lives with her poetry and music. It describes JMDL as a vibrant online community and thanks all who have come out to the concerts. Dave, Robin and the Mutts, its us who should be thanking you. You have for produced an album that is deeply respectful to Jonis music, bringing both new arrangements and interpretations. The standard of musicianship on the album demonstrates appreciation of the complexities of Jonis music, whilst having genuine feel. Finally, you have a singer in Robin Adler that gets Joni from the bottom to the top whilst being her own woman and her own singer. Herbie Hancock should have heard Robin sing before making the final choice for his Grammy award winning tribute to Joni. Herbies loss is the Mutts gain. I think Joni would be so impressed by this album. She could not failed to be moved by Dave Blackburns tribute to her music. I reckon Joni would love Safaris to the Heart. You will too. Lots of love Anita x ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2010 10:50:35 -0700 (PDT) From: Bob Muller Subject: Re: 'Safaris To The Heart The Songs of Joni Mitchell' Wow, that was a wonderful read Anita and of course I'm enjoying Safari's while I read it. I wish you could have been there, and am so happy that I was! It's an amazing combination of great songs, outstanding musicians and inspired performances, but above all that, Dave's production is just magical. Thankfully the phrase "that's good enough" isn't in Dave's vocabulary, he's a perfectionist as we know and he has refined the sonic qualities to a sparkly platinum gloss. And so far I've only heard it on my computer speakers - can't wait to test drive it on my much higher-tech stereo system. I'm going to be listening to this one for a long time. Bob NP: The Mutts, "Both Sides Now" ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #84 ******************************** ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe