From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #121 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, May 3 2010 Volume 2010 : Number 121 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Turbulent Jungle [Mariana Intagliata ] New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane [TheStaff@JoniMitchell.com] Re: New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane [Jimmy Stewart ] Re: New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane [Gerald Notaro ] Re: The Jungle Line [Robin Adler ] Re: The Jungle Line [Catherine McKay ] Re: The Jungle Line ["gene" ] Re: The Jungle Line ["Jim L'Hommedieu" ] Re: The Jungle Line [Mariana Intagliata ] RE: New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane ["Les Irvin" ] THE 2010 JMDL ANNUAL PLEDGE DRIVE/COVERS CD PROJECT [Dave Blackburn ] Re: THE 2010 JMDL ANNUAL PLEDGE DRIVE/COVERS CD PROJECT [Corey Blake Subject: Re: Turbulent Jungle Thank you so much, Mark! Now that you mention the links of 'The Jungle Line' with other songs on 'The Hissing of Summer Lawns' I begin to understand a few things. I have to say I had completely missed the references to drugs. 'Savage progress' is an appropriate name for our times, I guess, late capitalism or any capitalism for that matter... We are proving to be not well adapted at all. I think 'The Jungle Line' is a very up-to-date song, very relevant. That's why I want to understand it thoroughly. You've oriented me and I thank you again for taking the time to reply. Now that I've mentioned capitalism, I want to ask you all if you feel that Joni has an egalitarian view of politics. When I listen to 'Banquet' I'm convinced she does, but what do I know. Mariana 2010/5/2 Mark Scott : > > -------------------------------------------------- > From: "Mariana Intagliata" > Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 2:34 PM > To: > Subject: Turbulent Jungle > >> And talking about lyrics, I usually don't have much trouble >> understanding Joni's, apart from obscure references, of course, and >> the obvious generational-cultural distance, but I really don't >> understand much of 'The Jungle Line', a song I adore in a record I >> enjoy all the way through. I don't know if she's just accumulating >> images and ideas or narrating something, I find it all very opaque, >> except for Rousseau and the lowcut blouse and the beer! What is she >> singing about, can anyone help me? >> >> Thanks in advance, >> Mariana > > Hi Mariana. > > I don't know exactly what 'The Jungle Line' is all about. Over the years I > have formed some theories and impressions. But, thinking over the lyrics > today, it seems the words reveal or suggest something new every time I stop > and really think about them. > > I looked up the painter Rousseau on Wikipedia just now because I only had a > fleeting impression or memory of what he was all about. It turns out he was > never anywhere in the tropics. According to Wikipedia (not the ultimate > source, I know) 'His inspiration came from illustrated books and the > botanical gardens in Paris, as well as tableaux of taxidermied wild > animals.' Another thing about Henri Rousseau that I didn't know is that he > also painted ' a concurrent output of smaller topographical images of the > city and its suburbs.' > > So Rousseau painted the 'jungle', the city, the suburbs and wild animals. I > find that interesting in regard to the themes and images in 'The Jungle > Line'. There are references to both the jungle and the city in the song. I > always thought the lines 'through I-bars and girders through wires and > pipes/the mathematic circuits of the modern nights/through huts, through > Harlem, through jails and gospel pews/through the class on Park and the > trash on Vine/through Europe and the deep, deep heart of Dixie Blue/through > savage progress cuts the jungle line' referred to some kind of underground > network that penetrates almost everywhere. I also see this thread running > through 'Edith and the Kingpin' as 'the wires in the walls' that are humming > 'some mysterious song' that beats 'frantic and snowblind, romantic and > snowblind' as Edith gets hooked on cocaine. The lyrics that appear later in > 'The Jungle Line' about the 'poppy wreath on a soldier's tomb', 'a poppy > snake in the dressing room', 'poppy poison, poppy tourniquet' are direct > references to heroin. So I think the network she's referring to is the > smuggling of heroin, cocaine and/or other illegal drugs. 'Drooling for a > taste of something smuggled in.' She also refers to 'metal skin and ivory > birds' which may suggest the smuggling of ivory. Was ivory trading illegal > back in 1975? Just a thought. > > Just now as I typed it, I thought about the wonderful pairing of the words, > 'savage progress'. Dave Blackburn sent me an email about this song when I > asked him about the instrumentation of Robin and the Mutts' version of it. > Dave talked about Joni's depiction of the city as a jungle and the primitive > tendencies that lurk beneath the surface. Underneath the 'mathematic > circuits of the modern nights' lies something dangerous and threatening. > Progress is savage. The jungle and the city become one. The woman in the > low-cut blouse who brings the beer is another prey for the cannibals of > shuck and jive that inhabit this deceptively civilized world. > > Then there are those figures in loincloths carrying that huge snake across a > grassy lawn with suburban houses and the city behind them on the cover of > 'The Hissing of Summer Lawns'. Also Joni's liner notes that 'This record is > a total work conceived graphically, musically, lyrically and accidentally - > as a whole.' That always led me to believe that there are themes that > 'snake' their way all the way through the entire record. > > Ok, that's way more of the contents of my addled brain than anybody wanted > to read about. So I'll stop now. > > Mark in Seattle ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 06:31:38 -0700 (GMT-07:00) From: TheStaff@JoniMitchell.com Subject: New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane A new video has been added to the Library at JoniMitchell.com: Sisotowbell Lane - Generation Club, New York 1968 View it here: http://jonimitchell.com/library/video.cfm?id=195 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 10:51:56 -0400 From: Jimmy Stewart Subject: Re: New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane Wonderful video Les! I forgot how much I love that song. Jimmy ....gesendet von meinem iPhone On May 2, 2010, at 9:31 AM, TheStaff@JoniMitchell.com wrote: > A new video has been added to the Library at JoniMitchell.com: > > Sisotowbell Lane - Generation Club, New York 1968 > > View it here: http://jonimitchell.com/library/video.cfm?id=195 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 11:32:24 -0400 From: Gerald Notaro Subject: Re: New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane And how great to see and hear Joni sing so sweetly and purely about love and life. Such a contrast to her latter day bitterness and disdain. Jerry On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 10:51 AM, Jimmy Stewart wrote: > Wonderful video Les! I forgot how much I love that song. > > Jimmy > > > ....gesendet von meinem iPhone > > On May 2, 2010, at 9:31 AM, TheStaff@JoniMitchell.com wrote: > > A new video has been added to the Library at JoniMitchell.com: >> >> Sisotowbell Lane - Generation Club, New York 1968 >> >> View it here: http://jonimitchell.com/library/video.cfm?id=195 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 May 2010 14:10:52 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: The Jungle Line Mariana Intagliata said in part, >I really don't understand much of 'The Jungle Line', a song I adore in a record I enjoy all the way through. I don't know if she's just accumulating images and ideas or narrating something, I find it all very opaque, except for Rousseau and the lowcut blouse and the beer! What is she singing about, can anyone help me?> Sure thing. Here's a revision of a post I wrote in 2005, or so. Jim L'Hommedieu To understand "The Jungle Line", you have to understand the album as a whole. You have to be open to the idea that a CD can be as great as a book. Just like any great piece of literature, each element, each chapter defines part of the whole. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a masterwork. There is no "fat" on this album. Everything is there on purpose and serves to support the whole. Joni built a detailed, multimedia work that begins with the fold open cover. So, the themes on the cover are the themes of the album. Open up the double-square cover and look at it as the rectangle that she intended. On the left, you see a wealthy person's home in some hills, complete with a "blue pool" in the backyard. It's quite far from everything else. Some of characters on this album are modern and wealthy and very much in their own world. There's a Christian church that is separate from all else. It's separate from the home with a pool, separate from the modern world, separate from the jungle figures. The church is a concept unto itself. Lastly, we get to the heart of the matter. Two things- juxtaposed vertically. In the foreground is a group of primitive people, fresh from a kill. These folks are the only people in the picture, as if we are all African no matter where we live. They have slain a snake, a symbol of evil to Christians. Uh-oh, the themes are interacting already. They are familiar with death. In the background is the ordered modern world, both suburban and urban. We are observing the primitive and the modern simultaneously. Joni used blue in only two places on the whole cover. It's in the wealthy person's home on the left and the small war-era building on the right. To me, these represent Joni's current home and her childhood home in Maidstone, Saskatchewan. (See the JMDL Video Tree #2 (tape #1) at 1 hour, 57 minutes. ) Anyway, this graphic sets the themes. The first track, "In France They Kiss On Main Street" is classic Joni. It's sort of about young people partying. Every thing's primary colors. There are "Kisses like bright flags hung on holidays". It could be a track from Court and Spark, the preceding studio album. The listener has something familiar to enter with. It's a throwback. It's an introduction to the album. It's about kids raised in "middle-class circumstance" who have gone to the City to become young adults. It's about youthful exuberance and the lack of experience that makes partying seem harmless when you're in your twenties. These are partiers who haven't seen a friend die of drunk driving.... There are no dead junkies on this track. If this album was a book, the next chapter would be "The Jungle Line". The second chapter begins abruptly. The suburban kids are gone and we listeners are alone, confronting something ancient, primal, and as we will see, deadly. We are in the African jungle listening to.... war drums. There is no narrator. Nothing familiar to the westerner, just the frenetic beat of a big gang of hand-made drums, calling for war. The drums are in the foreground. We are thrown into a strange land wondering what the hell is next. About the drum track, Joni said that she owns an album of the Burundi 'warrior' drummers and liked to dance to it. As I recall, she said that she hears a Bo Diddley figure in there, but she may have been talking about the later "The Tenth World". (See Tape Tree #5, complied by Simon, "My Top 12" - from BBC Radio 1, London, England - broadcast May 29, 1983.) In fact, at the time, she included the Burundi drummers as one of her top 12 tracks of biggest influences! So I guess she started with the rhythm track and built it up from there. If there is a single key to liking this track, maybe it is picturing the author dancing to the drums in her kitchen with her cats. As the camera pulls back, out the kitchen window and up, you can see an aerial view of the Spanish compound on the cover. Imagine that she's dancing to the African drums, thinking about the primal pleasure of live music in a nightclub, the dangers of the drug culture, and in contrast, the simplicity of a distant church. All of the rest of the stories on the album flow out of these images. Together they form a classic Joni duality- the jungle within the city. She's been writing about these things from the first album, observing first the country, then the city. Anyway, when HOSL was released, drums had never been so prominent on one of her studio albums. Here's a new color on Joni's palette. The drums reflect the African influence on the cover and the song's title. She used layers of ominous sounds from a pioneering electronic instrument called a Moog synthesizer. This was a huge departure too. "The Jungle Line" signals that this album is not "Court and Spark 2, The Sequel". So, here she is, a folk singer no more. A pop singer no more. She's not only playing a Moog, she's _layering_ it on top of a African rhythm track. She's composing with layers; she's now become a record producer. But not a _folk_ producer. She's not putting dulcimers on top of nylon strung acoustic guitars. She's not putting strings on top of jazz-pop songs (as John Lennon suggested) like on Court and Spark. This is something new yet again. She's juxtaposing African rhythms with synthesizer! The ancient/primitive with the modern/electronic. Amazing in itself. All the more amazing when you realize that she did it in 1975! You gotta realize this was before Paul Simon was lauded for inventing "World Music". Before Sting was celebrated for hiring Branford Marsalis. Anyway, like the cover, the primitive is in the foreground and the urban is being observed from a distance. The words on The Hissing of Summer Lawns. Oh, the words! If there was any doubt before, it is now clear that Joni is a deep thinker. On "The Jungle Line", the words borrow the ambiguity of "Sweet Bird" (also on this album). It's more of a scene than a story. Joni, (the narrator and a painter herself), is looking over the shoulder of another painter. This time out it's Rousseau. Rousseau is painting an urban scene, a nightclub. There's lots of excitement in the air, (live music, a low-cut blouse, beer) and more than a hint of danger. The narrator enters the painting and never leaves. The rest of "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" is all about this one painting. Its people. About the primitive world in the city. About danger. She never goes back to the innocent, youthful partiers. As Springsteen observed, "there's a darkness on the edge of town." She never calls for a return "to some semblance of a garden". The narrator notices that the waitress is working among "cannibals" who might "eat a working girl like her alive". Then the danger theme is duplicated in an image of a poppy wreath on a soldier's tomb- a drug death. She works these images into a tangled vine near the end, intertwining poison (the jungle's danger) and mouthpiece spit (the vulnerable, primitive musicians), and the nightclub (the urban scene). Then the "camera" pulls back, still inside the Rousseau painting, and we go "steaming up to Brooklyn Bridge", as if to say "There are a million stories in the Naked City." We go traveling, traveling, traveling in New York City, to look for the next chapter in this book about dangers and compromises and paradoxes of the twin worlds. We witness Edith and the Kingpin locked in their awful yet perfect embrace where meeting your mate is also meeting your match. A new adult world in which every blessing is a curse. Where benefactors kindly offer perils yet parasites carry blessings. A world where hostages are forced to do the unthinkable.... to smile for the camera. All of the themes from the cover except the church are right there in "The Jungle Line". This is not a minor work. This album is the work of a multi-dimensional Master at the top of all of her games simultaneously. A masterwork. All the best, Lama ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 11:58:20 -0700 From: Robin Adler Subject: Re: The Jungle Line Wow Jim! What a fantastic explanation. I've been listening to Hissing recently and just love it and agree with you. Well done. Robin On May 2, 2010, at 11:10 AM, Jim L'Hommedieu wrote: > Mariana Intagliata said in part, > >> I really don't understand much of 'The Jungle Line', a song I adore >> in a > record I > > enjoy all the way through. I don't know if she's just accumulating > images and ideas or narrating something, I find it all very opaque, > except for Rousseau and the lowcut blouse and the beer! What is she > singing about, can anyone help me?> > > Sure thing. Here's a revision of a post I wrote in 2005, or so. > > Jim L'Hommedieu > > To understand "The Jungle Line", you have to understand the album as a > whole. You have to be open to the idea that a CD can be as great as a > book. Just like any great piece of literature, each element, each > chapter > defines part of the whole. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a > masterwork. > There is no "fat" on this album. Everything is there on purpose and > serves to support the whole. > > Joni built a detailed, multimedia work that begins with the fold open > cover. So, the themes on the cover are the themes of the album. Open > up > the double-square cover and look at it as the rectangle that she > intended. On the left, you see a wealthy person's home in some hills, > complete with a "blue pool" in the backyard. It's quite far from > everything else. Some of characters on this album are modern and > wealthy > and very much in their own world. > > There's a Christian church that is separate from all else. It's > separate > from the home with a pool, separate from the modern world, separate > from > the jungle figures. The church is a concept unto itself. > > Lastly, we get to the heart of the matter. Two things- juxtaposed > vertically. In the foreground is a group of primitive people, fresh > from > a kill. These folks are the only people in the picture, as if we are > all > African no matter where we live. They have slain a snake, a symbol of > evil to Christians. Uh-oh, the themes are interacting already. They > are > familiar with death. In the background is the ordered modern world, > both > suburban and urban. We are observing the primitive and the modern > simultaneously. > > Joni used blue in only two places on the whole cover. It's in the > wealthy > person's home on the left and the small war-era building on the right. > To me, these represent Joni's current home and her childhood home in > Maidstone, Saskatchewan. (See the JMDL Video Tree #2 (tape #1) at 1 > hour, 57 minutes. ) Anyway, this graphic sets the themes. > > The first track, "In France They Kiss On Main Street" is classic Joni. > It's sort of about young people partying. Every thing's primary > colors. > There are "Kisses like bright flags hung on holidays". It could be a > track from Court and Spark, the preceding studio album. The listener > has > something familiar to enter with. It's a throwback. It's an > introduction > to the album. It's about kids raised in "middle-class circumstance" > who > have gone to the City to become young adults. It's about youthful > exuberance and the lack of experience that makes partying seem > harmless > when you're in your twenties. These are partiers who haven't seen a > friend die of drunk driving.... There are no dead junkies on this > track. > If this album was a book, the next chapter would be "The Jungle Line". > The second chapter begins abruptly. The suburban kids are gone and we > listeners are alone, confronting something ancient, primal, and as we > will see, deadly. We are in the African jungle listening to.... war > drums. There is no narrator. Nothing familiar to the westerner, just > the > frenetic beat of a big gang of hand-made drums, calling for war. The > drums are in the foreground. We are thrown into a strange land > wondering > what the hell is next. > > About the drum track, Joni said that she owns an album of the Burundi > 'warrior' drummers and liked to dance to it. As I recall, she said > that > she hears a Bo Diddley figure in there, but she may have been talking > about the later "The Tenth World". (See Tape Tree #5, complied by > Simon, > "My Top 12" - from BBC Radio 1, London, England - broadcast May 29, > 1983.) In fact, at the time, she included the Burundi drummers as > one of > her top 12 tracks of biggest influences! So I guess she started with > the > rhythm track and built it up from there. If there is a single key to > liking this track, maybe it is picturing the author dancing to the > drums > in her kitchen with her cats. As the camera pulls back, out the > kitchen > window and up, you can see an aerial view of the Spanish compound on > the > cover. Imagine that she's dancing to the African drums, thinking > about > the primal pleasure of live music in a nightclub, the dangers of the > drug > culture, and in contrast, the simplicity of a distant church. All of > the > rest of the stories on the album flow out of these images. > > Together they form a classic Joni duality- the jungle within the city. > She's been writing about these things from the first album, observing > first the country, then the city. Anyway, when HOSL was released, > drums > had never been so prominent on one of her studio albums. Here's a new > color on Joni's palette. The drums reflect the African influence on > the > cover and the song's title. She used layers of ominous sounds from a > pioneering electronic instrument called a Moog synthesizer. This was a > huge departure too. > > "The Jungle Line" signals that this album is not "Court and Spark 2, > The > Sequel". So, here she is, a folk singer no more. A pop singer no more. > She's not only playing a Moog, she's _layering_ it on top of a African > rhythm track. She's composing with layers; she's now become a record > producer. But not a _folk_ producer. She's not putting dulcimers on > top > of nylon strung acoustic guitars. She's not putting strings on top of > jazz-pop songs (as John Lennon suggested) like on Court and Spark. > This > is something new yet again. She's juxtaposing African rhythms with > synthesizer! The ancient/primitive with the modern/electronic. > Amazing in > itself. All the more amazing when you realize that she did it in 1975! > You gotta realize this was before Paul Simon was lauded for inventing > "World Music". Before Sting was celebrated for hiring Branford > Marsalis. > > Anyway, like the cover, the primitive is in the foreground and the > urban > is being observed from a distance. The words on The Hissing of Summer > Lawns. Oh, the words! If there was any doubt before, it is now clear > that > Joni is a deep thinker. On "The Jungle Line", the words borrow the > ambiguity of "Sweet Bird" (also on this album). It's more of a scene > than > a story. Joni, (the narrator and a painter herself), is looking over > the > shoulder of another painter. This time out it's Rousseau. Rousseau is > painting an urban scene, a nightclub. There's lots of excitement in > the > air, (live music, a low-cut blouse, beer) and more than a hint of > danger. > The narrator enters the painting and never leaves. The rest of "The > Hissing Of Summer Lawns" is all about this one painting. Its people. > About the primitive world in the city. About danger. She never goes > back > to the innocent, youthful partiers. As Springsteen observed, > "there's a > darkness on the edge of town." She never calls for a return "to some > semblance of a garden". The narrator notices that the waitress is > working > among "cannibals" who might "eat a working girl like her alive". > Then the > danger theme is duplicated in an image of a poppy wreath on a > soldier's > tomb- a drug death. She works these images into a tangled vine near > the > end, intertwining poison (the jungle's danger) and mouthpiece spit > (the > vulnerable, primitive musicians), and the nightclub (the urban scene). > > Then the "camera" pulls back, still inside the Rousseau painting, > and we > go "steaming up to Brooklyn Bridge", as if to say "There are a million > stories in the Naked City." We go traveling, traveling, traveling in > New > York City, to look for the next chapter in this book about dangers and > compromises and paradoxes of the twin worlds. We witness Edith and the > Kingpin locked in their awful yet perfect embrace where meeting your > mate > is also meeting your match. A new adult world in which every > blessing is > a curse. Where benefactors kindly offer perils yet parasites carry > blessings. A world where hostages are forced to do the > unthinkable.... to > smile for the camera. All of the themes from the cover except the > church > are right there in "The Jungle Line". This is not a minor work. This > album is the work of a multi-dimensional Master at the top of all of > her > games simultaneously. A masterwork. > > > > All the best, Lama ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 12:26:21 -0700 (PDT) From: Catherine McKay Subject: Re: The Jungle Line Niiiiccccce!!! ________________________________ From: Jim L'Hommedieu To: joni@smoe.org; intagma@gmail.com Sent: Sun, May 2, 2010 2:10:52 PM Subject: The Jungle Line .... To understand "The Jungle Line", you have to understand the album as a whole. You have to be open to the idea that a CD can be as great as a book. Just like any great piece of literature, each element, each chapter defines part of the whole. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a masterwork. There is no "fat" on this album. Everything is there on purpose and serves to support the whole. J ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 12:53:43 -0700 From: "gene" Subject: Re: The Jungle Line Lama, You are a most interesting person. thanks, gene - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" To: ; Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2010 11:10 AM Subject: The Jungle Line > Mariana Intagliata said in part, > >>I really don't understand much of 'The Jungle Line', a song I adore in a > record I > > enjoy all the way through. I don't know if she's just accumulating > images and ideas or narrating something, I find it all very opaque, > except for Rousseau and the lowcut blouse and the beer! What is she > singing about, can anyone help me?> > > Sure thing. Here's a revision of a post I wrote in 2005, or so. > > Jim L'Hommedieu > > To understand "The Jungle Line", you have to understand the album as a > whole. You have to be open to the idea that a CD can be as great as a > book. Just like any great piece of literature, each element, each chapter > defines part of the whole. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a masterwork. > There is no "fat" on this album. Everything is there on purpose and > serves to support the whole. > > Joni built a detailed, multimedia work that begins with the fold open > cover. So, the themes on the cover are the themes of the album. Open up > the double-square cover and look at it as the rectangle that she > intended. On the left, you see a wealthy person's home in some hills, > complete with a "blue pool" in the backyard. It's quite far from > everything else. Some of characters on this album are modern and wealthy > and very much in their own world. > > There's a Christian church that is separate from all else. It's separate > from the home with a pool, separate from the modern world, separate from > the jungle figures. The church is a concept unto itself. > > Lastly, we get to the heart of the matter. Two things- juxtaposed > vertically. In the foreground is a group of primitive people, fresh from > a kill. These folks are the only people in the picture, as if we are all > African no matter where we live. They have slain a snake, a symbol of > evil to Christians. Uh-oh, the themes are interacting already. They are > familiar with death. In the background is the ordered modern world, both > suburban and urban. We are observing the primitive and the modern > simultaneously. > > Joni used blue in only two places on the whole cover. It's in the wealthy > person's home on the left and the small war-era building on the right. > To me, these represent Joni's current home and her childhood home in > Maidstone, Saskatchewan. (See the JMDL Video Tree #2 (tape #1) at 1 > hour, 57 minutes. ) Anyway, this graphic sets the themes. > > The first track, "In France They Kiss On Main Street" is classic Joni. > It's sort of about young people partying. Every thing's primary colors. > There are "Kisses like bright flags hung on holidays". It could be a > track from Court and Spark, the preceding studio album. The listener has > something familiar to enter with. It's a throwback. It's an introduction > to the album. It's about kids raised in "middle-class circumstance" who > have gone to the City to become young adults. It's about youthful > exuberance and the lack of experience that makes partying seem harmless > when you're in your twenties. These are partiers who haven't seen a > friend die of drunk driving.... There are no dead junkies on this track. > If this album was a book, the next chapter would be "The Jungle Line". > The second chapter begins abruptly. The suburban kids are gone and we > listeners are alone, confronting something ancient, primal, and as we > will see, deadly. We are in the African jungle listening to.... war > drums. There is no narrator. Nothing familiar to the westerner, just the > frenetic beat of a big gang of hand-made drums, calling for war. The > drums are in the foreground. We are thrown into a strange land wondering > what the hell is next. > > About the drum track, Joni said that she owns an album of the Burundi > 'warrior' drummers and liked to dance to it. As I recall, she said that > she hears a Bo Diddley figure in there, but she may have been talking > about the later "The Tenth World". (See Tape Tree #5, complied by Simon, > "My Top 12" - from BBC Radio 1, London, England - broadcast May 29, > 1983.) In fact, at the time, she included the Burundi drummers as one of > her top 12 tracks of biggest influences! So I guess she started with the > rhythm track and built it up from there. If there is a single key to > liking this track, maybe it is picturing the author dancing to the drums > in her kitchen with her cats. As the camera pulls back, out the kitchen > window and up, you can see an aerial view of the Spanish compound on the > cover. Imagine that she's dancing to the African drums, thinking about > the primal pleasure of live music in a nightclub, the dangers of the drug > culture, and in contrast, the simplicity of a distant church. All of the > rest of the stories on the album flow out of these images. > > Together they form a classic Joni duality- the jungle within the city. > She's been writing about these things from the first album, observing > first the country, then the city. Anyway, when HOSL was released, drums > had never been so prominent on one of her studio albums. Here's a new > color on Joni's palette. The drums reflect the African influence on the > cover and the song's title. She used layers of ominous sounds from a > pioneering electronic instrument called a Moog synthesizer. This was a > huge departure too. > > "The Jungle Line" signals that this album is not "Court and Spark 2, The > Sequel". So, here she is, a folk singer no more. A pop singer no more. > She's not only playing a Moog, she's _layering_ it on top of a African > rhythm track. She's composing with layers; she's now become a record > producer. But not a _folk_ producer. She's not putting dulcimers on top > of nylon strung acoustic guitars. She's not putting strings on top of > jazz-pop songs (as John Lennon suggested) like on Court and Spark. This > is something new yet again. She's juxtaposing African rhythms with > synthesizer! The ancient/primitive with the modern/electronic. Amazing in > itself. All the more amazing when you realize that she did it in 1975! > You gotta realize this was before Paul Simon was lauded for inventing > "World Music". Before Sting was celebrated for hiring Branford Marsalis. > > Anyway, like the cover, the primitive is in the foreground and the urban > is being observed from a distance. The words on The Hissing of Summer > Lawns. Oh, the words! If there was any doubt before, it is now clear that > Joni is a deep thinker. On "The Jungle Line", the words borrow the > ambiguity of "Sweet Bird" (also on this album). It's more of a scene than > a story. Joni, (the narrator and a painter herself), is looking over the > shoulder of another painter. This time out it's Rousseau. Rousseau is > painting an urban scene, a nightclub. There's lots of excitement in the > air, (live music, a low-cut blouse, beer) and more than a hint of danger. > The narrator enters the painting and never leaves. The rest of "The > Hissing Of Summer Lawns" is all about this one painting. Its people. > About the primitive world in the city. About danger. She never goes back > to the innocent, youthful partiers. As Springsteen observed, "there's a > darkness on the edge of town." She never calls for a return "to some > semblance of a garden". The narrator notices that the waitress is working > among "cannibals" who might "eat a working girl like her alive". Then the > danger theme is duplicated in an image of a poppy wreath on a soldier's > tomb- a drug death. She works these images into a tangled vine near the > end, intertwining poison (the jungle's danger) and mouthpiece spit (the > vulnerable, primitive musicians), and the nightclub (the urban scene). > > Then the "camera" pulls back, still inside the Rousseau painting, and we > go "steaming up to Brooklyn Bridge", as if to say "There are a million > stories in the Naked City." We go traveling, traveling, traveling in New > York City, to look for the next chapter in this book about dangers and > compromises and paradoxes of the twin worlds. We witness Edith and the > Kingpin locked in their awful yet perfect embrace where meeting your mate > is also meeting your match. A new adult world in which every blessing is > a curse. Where benefactors kindly offer perils yet parasites carry > blessings. A world where hostages are forced to do the unthinkable.... to > smile for the camera. All of the themes from the cover except the church > are right there in "The Jungle Line". This is not a minor work. This > album is the work of a multi-dimensional Master at the top of all of her > games simultaneously. A masterwork. > > > > All the best, Lama ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 May 2010 18:09:19 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: Re: The Jungle Line The French artist Henri Rousseau put innocence in the middle of a jungle theme in this painting, just like Joni did in The Jungle Line... http://tinyurl.com/2c98v2w Jim L'Hommedieu ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 00:47:19 +0200 From: Mariana Intagliata Subject: Re: The Jungle Line Fantastic analysis, Jim! Thanks for posting that again. I'm beginning to put the pieces together: to me, the contrast between 'In France...' and 'The Jungle Line' was just too big to reconcile them, but now I see that's the whole point. It surely helps to see things globally -as Joni herself recommends, of course. Mariana 2010/5/2 Jim L'Hommedieu : > Mariana Intagliata said in part, > >>I really don't understand much of 'The Jungle Line', a song I adore in a >> record I > > enjoy all the way through. I don't know if she's just accumulating > images and ideas or narrating something, I find it all very opaque, > except for Rousseau and the lowcut blouse and the beer! What is she > singing about, can anyone help me?> > Sure thing. Here's a revision of a post I wrote in 2005, or so. > Jim L'Hommedieu > > To understand "The Jungle Line", you have to understand the album as a > whole. You have to be open to the idea that a CD can be as great as a book. > Just like any great piece of literature, each element, each chapter defines > part of the whole. The Hissing of Summer Lawns is a masterwork. There is no > "fat" on this album. Everything is there on purpose and serves to support > the whole. > > Joni built a detailed, multimedia work that begins with the fold open cover. > So, the themes on the cover are the themes of the album. Open up the > double-square cover and look at it as the rectangle that she intended. On > the left, you see a wealthy person's home in some hills, complete with a > "blue pool" in the backyard. It's quite far from everything else. Some of > characters on this album are modern and wealthy and very much in their own > world. > > There's a Christian church that is separate from all else. It's separate > from the home with a pool, separate from the modern world, separate from the > jungle figures. The church is a concept unto itself. > > Lastly, we get to the heart of the matter. Two things- juxtaposed > vertically. In the foreground is a group of primitive people, fresh from a > kill. These folks are the only people in the picture, as if we are all > African no matter where we live. They have slain a snake, a symbol of evil > to Christians. Uh-oh, the themes are interacting already. They are familiar > with death. In the background is the ordered modern world, both suburban and > urban. We are observing the primitive and the modern simultaneously. > > Joni used blue in only two places on the whole cover. It's in the wealthy > person's home on the left and the small war-era building on the right. To > me, these represent Joni's current home and her childhood home in Maidstone, > Saskatchewan. (See the JMDL Video Tree #2 (tape #1) at 1 hour, 57 minutes. > ) Anyway, this graphic sets the themes. > > The first track, "In France They Kiss On Main Street" is classic Joni. It's > sort of about young people partying. Every thing's primary colors. There are > "Kisses like bright flags hung on holidays". It could be a track from Court > and Spark, the preceding studio album. The listener has something familiar > to enter with. It's a throwback. It's an introduction to the album. It's > about kids raised in "middle-class circumstance" who have gone to the City > to become young adults. It's about youthful exuberance and the lack of > experience that makes partying seem harmless when you're in your twenties. > These are partiers who haven't seen a friend die of drunk driving.... There > are no dead junkies on this track. If this album was a book, the next > chapter would be "The Jungle Line". The second chapter begins abruptly. The > suburban kids are gone and we listeners are alone, confronting something > ancient, primal, and as we will see, deadly. We are in the African jungle > listening to.... war drums. There is no narrator. Nothing familiar to the > westerner, just the frenetic beat of a big gang of hand-made drums, calling > for war. The drums are in the foreground. We are thrown into a strange land > wondering what the hell is next. > > About the drum track, Joni said that she owns an album of the Burundi > 'warrior' drummers and liked to dance to it. As I recall, she said that she > hears a Bo Diddley figure in there, but she may have been talking about the > later "The Tenth World". (See Tape Tree #5, complied by Simon, "My Top 12" - > from BBC Radio 1, London, England - broadcast May 29, 1983.) In fact, at the > time, she included the Burundi drummers as one of her top 12 tracks of > biggest influences! So I guess she started with the rhythm track and built > it up from there. If there is a single key to liking this track, maybe it is > picturing the author dancing to the drums in her kitchen with her cats. As > the camera pulls back, out the kitchen window and up, you can see an aerial > view of the Spanish compound on the cover. Imagine that she's dancing to > the African drums, thinking about the primal pleasure of live music in a > nightclub, the dangers of the drug culture, and in contrast, the simplicity > of a distant church. All of the rest of the stories on the album flow out of > these images. > > Together they form a classic Joni duality- the jungle within the city. She's > been writing about these things from the first album, observing first the > country, then the city. Anyway, when HOSL was released, drums had never been > so prominent on one of her studio albums. Here's a new color on Joni's > palette. The drums reflect the African influence on the cover and the song's > title. She used layers of ominous sounds from a pioneering electronic > instrument called a Moog synthesizer. This was a huge departure too. > > "The Jungle Line" signals that this album is not "Court and Spark 2, The > Sequel". So, here she is, a folk singer no more. A pop singer no more. She's > not only playing a Moog, she's _layering_ it on top of a African rhythm > track. She's composing with layers; she's now become a record producer. But > not a _folk_ producer. She's not putting dulcimers on top of nylon strung > acoustic guitars. She's not putting strings on top of jazz-pop songs (as > John Lennon suggested) like on Court and Spark. This is something new yet > again. She's juxtaposing African rhythms with synthesizer! The > ancient/primitive with the modern/electronic. Amazing in itself. All the > more amazing when you realize that she did it in 1975! You gotta realize > this was before Paul Simon was lauded for inventing "World Music". Before > Sting was celebrated for hiring Branford Marsalis. > > Anyway, like the cover, the primitive is in the foreground and the urban is > being observed from a distance. The words on The Hissing of Summer Lawns. > Oh, the words! If there was any doubt before, it is now clear that Joni is a > deep thinker. On "The Jungle Line", the words borrow the ambiguity of "Sweet > Bird" (also on this album). It's more of a scene than a story. Joni, (the > narrator and a painter herself), is looking over the shoulder of another > painter. This time out it's Rousseau. Rousseau is painting an urban scene, a > nightclub. There's lots of excitement in the air, (live music, a low-cut > blouse, beer) and more than a hint of danger. The narrator enters the > painting and never leaves. The rest of "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" is all > about this one painting. Its people. About the primitive world in the city. > About danger. She never goes back to the innocent, youthful partiers. As > Springsteen observed, "there's a darkness on the edge of town." She never > calls for a return "to some semblance of a garden". The narrator notices > that the waitress is working among "cannibals" who might "eat a working girl > like her alive". Then the danger theme is duplicated in an image of a poppy > wreath on a soldier's tomb- a drug death. She works these images into a > tangled vine near the end, intertwining poison (the jungle's danger) and > mouthpiece spit (the vulnerable, primitive musicians), and the nightclub > (the urban scene). > > Then the "camera" pulls back, still inside the Rousseau painting, and we go > "steaming up to Brooklyn Bridge", as if to say "There are a million stories > in the Naked City." We go traveling, traveling, traveling in New York City, > to look for the next chapter in this book about dangers and compromises and > paradoxes of the twin worlds. We witness Edith and the Kingpin locked in > their awful yet perfect embrace where meeting your mate is also meeting your > match. A new adult world in which every blessing is a curse. Where > benefactors kindly offer perils yet parasites carry blessings. A world where > hostages are forced to do the unthinkable.... to smile for the camera. All > of the themes from the cover except the church are right there in "The > Jungle Line". This is not a minor work. This album is the work of a > multi-dimensional Master at the top of all of her games simultaneously. A > masterwork. > > > > All the best, Lama ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 18:12:39 -0600 From: "Les Irvin" Subject: RE: New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane Laura O. deserves the thanks for finding this one! - -----Original Message----- Wonderful video Les! I forgot how much I love that song. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 17:39:23 -0700 (GMT-07:00) From: TheStaff@JoniMitchell.com Subject: New article: Morgellon's Disease Sufferers Include Folk Legend Joni Mitchell A new article has been added to the Library at JoniMitchell.com: Title: Morgellon's Disease Sufferers Include Folk Legend Joni Mitchell Publication: AlterNet Date: 2010.5.2 Read it here: http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2244 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 20:43:48 -0400 From: Jimmy Stewart Subject: Re: New video in Library: Sisotowbell Lane Well thanks to Laura, the coupon queen who has always been such a great JMDL member and friend. Jimmy ....gesendet von meinem iPhone On May 2, 2010, at 8:12 PM, "Les Irvin" wrote: > Laura O. deserves the thanks for finding this one! > > -----Original Message----- > Wonderful video Les! I forgot how much I love that song. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 19:41:14 -0700 From: Dave Blackburn Subject: THE 2010 JMDL ANNUAL PLEDGE DRIVE/COVERS CD PROJECT Dear Joni list friends, As Robin floated last week, about an idea to help Les cover his costs for the great JoniMitchell.com website we all love, here is what we've come up with for a fundraiser. THE PLEDGE Les needs $1000 by August 1st 2010 to keep the website afloat this year. There are over 1000 JMDL members. You do the math. We are, with his blessing, proposing a pledge-based fundraiser to get him to his goal this year, and each year subsequently I hope. As times are tight for many, the pledged amount can be anything you can afford (but let's say US $5 minimum). There is a PayPal button here: http://jonimitchell.com/donate.cfm with a mailing address as well for US checks if you are not a Paypal user. Each person who makes their pledge will receive, as a premium, the link to download an "album" of Joni Mitchell covers created by JMDL members for JMDL members. All proceeds will go directly to JoniMitchell.com. Note: we could run into potential licensing hot water if this turns into a "release" to the general public, so it needs to remain a private in-house "tape swap" thing. THE CD Dave Blackburn will act as producer/mastering engineer for a download- only collection of Joni covers, exclusively by JMDL members and made available only within the JMDL. SUBMITTING A SONG Please submit ONE song (it would be great if you recorded a new cover for this year's pledge CD project that has not already been heard by the group, but existing recordings are certainly cool too.) If you do record a new cover song and if you'd like to have Dave mix or master it, please contact him at beatntrack@sbcglobal.net. The idea here is to put together a fun collection of covers to share the talent of this group around, AND support JM.com into the bargain. Submissions should be sent to Dave Blackburn electronically, to beatntrack@sbcglobal.net , in any digital audio format, (AIFF or WAV is ideal, mp3s are fine but I can't master them without losing a lot of resolution.) Yousendit.com is a great way to email large digital files. Hard media (DATs, memory sticks or CDs, even cassettes-remember those?) can be mailed to him at Dave Blackburn 1008 S. Live Oak Park Rd, Fallbrook, CA 92028 USA. Perhaps a graphics expert on the list might like to make a piece of cover artwork to go along with the project too. The deadline for submissions will be JULY 1st 2010. If a huge number of submissions are received we may hold over some to use on next year's project but I think we can accommodate 15-20 songs each year. Thanks for your participation in such a good cause. Let's take a load off Les' mind and keep OUR website up and running. Dave Blackburn ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 02 May 2010 23:22:05 -0400 From: "Jim L'Hommedieu" Subject: THE 2010 JMDL ANNUAL PLEDGE DRIVE/COVERS CD PROJECT I'm in. To help, go to: http://jonimitchell.com/donate.cfm Robin and Dave said in part, >Les needs $1000 by August 1st 2010 to keep the website afloat >this year. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 22:38:00 -0700 From: Robin Adler Subject: Joni or Gershwin So, Dave and I are listening to Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (I'm not into the brevity thing) tonight. At the end I'm shaking my head thinking she is so jaw dropping good how can I ever think of doing another Joni cover. So Dave says "Well, you can go back to Gershwin then". Hmmmm........Joni -Gershwin, Gershwin-Joni. He's got a point. No contest...... Goodnight or goodmorning where-ever you are. Rockn' R ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 23:08:10 -0700 From: Corey Blake Subject: Re: THE 2010 JMDL ANNUAL PLEDGE DRIVE/COVERS CD PROJECT OK, so I must be bonkers, but I'm actually thinking of doing a Joni cover. I'm thinking of doing "Smokin' (Empty, Try Another)". No seriously, I really am. I've just always really enjoyed it. If I can actually muster the courage (and time) to really do it, I think it will be a good way to experiment with some of the programs I have, and just play with sounds and music. So here's the thing: I'd like to update the sound FX used in the song, since cigarette vending machines are pretty much extinct at this point. If anyone has any ideas on what sounds I can use for the 2010 version, send it my way either on-list or email coreyblake@gmail.com. I'm going to do some brainstorming myself, but I thought it would be fun to get input from the list since this whole thing is about calling on the creativity and resources of our Joni community. - -Corey On May 2, 2010, at 7:41 PM, Dave Blackburn wrote: > Dear Joni list friends, > > As Robin floated last week, about an idea to help Les cover his costs > for the great JoniMitchell.com website we all love, here is what we've > come up with for a fundraiser. > > THE PLEDGE > > Les needs $1000 by August 1st 2010 to keep the website afloat this > year. There are over 1000 JMDL members. You do the math. We are, with > his blessing, proposing a pledge-based fundraiser to get him to his > goal this year, and each year subsequently I hope. > > As times are tight for many, the pledged amount can be anything you > can afford (but let's say US $5 minimum). There is a PayPal button > here: http://jonimitchell.com/donate.cfm with a mailing address as > well for US checks if you are not a Paypal user. > > Each person who makes their pledge will receive, as a premium, the > link to download an "album" of Joni Mitchell covers created by JMDL > members for JMDL members. All proceeds will go directly to > JoniMitchell.com. Note: we could run into potential licensing hot > water if this turns into a "release" to the general public, so it > needs to remain a private in-house "tape swap" thing. > > THE CD > > Dave Blackburn will act as producer/mastering engineer for a download- > only collection of Joni covers, exclusively by JMDL members and made > available only within the JMDL. > > SUBMITTING A SONG > > Please submit ONE song (it would be great if you recorded a new cover > for this year's pledge CD project that has not already been heard by > the group, > but existing recordings are certainly cool too.) If you do record a > new cover song and if you'd like to have Dave mix or master it, please > contact him at beatntrack@sbcglobal.net. The idea here is to put > together a fun collection of covers to share the talent of this group > around, AND support JM.com into the bargain. > > Submissions should be sent to Dave Blackburn electronically, to beatntrack@sbcglobal.net > , in any digital audio format, (AIFF or WAV is ideal, mp3s are fine > but I can't master them without losing a lot of resolution.) > Yousendit.com is a great way to email large digital files. Hard media > (DATs, memory sticks or CDs, even cassettes-remember those?) can be > mailed to him at > > Dave Blackburn > 1008 S. Live Oak Park Rd, > Fallbrook, CA 92028 USA. > > Perhaps a graphics expert on the list might like to make a piece of > cover > artwork to go along with the project too. > > The deadline for submissions will be JULY 1st 2010. If a huge number > of submissions are received we may hold over some to use on next > year's > project but I think we can accommodate 15-20 songs each year. > > Thanks for your participation in such a good cause. Let's take a load > off Les' mind and keep OUR website up and running. > > > Dave Blackburn ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2010 #121 ********************************* ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here: mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe