From: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org (onlyJMDL Digest) To: onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Subject: onlyJMDL Digest V2012 #255 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-onlyjoni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Website:http://www.jonimitchell.com Unsubscribe:mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe onlyJMDL Digest Saturday, August 18 2012 Volume 2012 : Number 255 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- RE: NRH vs TI, and JOTMAS (the gift went on) ["Robert Sartorius" Subject: RE: NRH vs TI, and JOTMAS (the gift went on) On Aug 16, Sue Mc wrote (within a longer post): "I was in complete rapture when she started talking about the guitar. From the point where she was talking about her harmonic style...............and also her discussion of how Court and Spark set up Hissing for failure, which taught her that if you have success the next project should be full of experimentation because no one is going to like it anyway. So I believe that Night Ride Home gave her permission to complete the resurgence of her master craft on guitar which was realized so triumphantly on Turbulent Indigo. (more sighing) So Shari, yesterday you asked what is the one question I would ask Joni and I said, please show me how to play your shuffle strum. Well, how could I have possibly guessed that within the same day, Joni would answer my question? This video shows a great shot of this technique when she is playing the beginning of Cherokee Louise." I had stopped listening to Joni's newer albums for many years, and picked them up again in the late 90s. NRH and TI were new to me. I really liked NRH - - to me, it was a return to form. And I felt pretty strongly that the Grammy Joni won for TI was in no small measure the industry's "thank you" for NRH as well. However, rewarded as usual with repeated listenings, I later came to view TI as the stronger artistic achievement. In some ways, I viewed this pair of albums as a more mature rendition/reincarnation of Joni's earlier "acoustic period" of the early 70's. But I bury the lead, as usual. If Joni's success with NRH gave her permission to complete her resurgence with TI, then why did TI get the Grammy instead of the boot? Perhaps the answer lies in my theory - that she hadn't gotten the praise for the first record, so she was able to do the second without being hammered - au contrere ! (Didn't she write a song about that ?) I was fiddling with the piano the other day - all I can do is fiddle - and I started playing Judgment of the Moon and Stars (special emphasis on the introduction). I think it is incredible that Joni could pay homage to the great master in the form of a song wherein the opening bars - so Beethoven like - could arguably outdo even the master in their majesty. What a gift ! (Please note that I am not comparing Joni's musical skill set to Beethoven's - - her art is in a different realm, broader and shallower in dimensions, I would say - and not subject to that type of comparison). Anyway, over the years, I have had the rather odd habit of occasionally editing Joni's lyrics while playing her songs for myself. I may be looking in some cases for improvement, or for additional poetic density - but usually, I'm just trying to reduce the number of words I need to sing to some manageable sequence. (Song for Sharon was one such song). However, the closing lines of JOTMAS have always left me feeling uncomfortable. Why? Because I can change the last word of the song to its literal opposite, and still feel it would have poetic (and perhaps ironic) meaning. "Condemned to wires and hammers Strike every chord that you feel That broken trees And elephant ivories conceal" But what if the last word had instead been "reveal" ? So, if I had a question for her, I would ask her how she feels even today about that song. For I really believe that Joni is one of those rarest of the rare - like Beethoven - whose work deserves the long legs of public recognition as great classical art. And while she somehow felt the initial connection to Ludwig von that inspired her to write that song, I wonder if she harbors even stronger connective feelings now - in the wake of her career, still budding then, having reached fruition. Bobsart ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2012 14:42:45 -0600 (MDT) From: TheStaff@JoniMitchell.com Subject: New Library item: Newport Port of Call for All Music Title: Newport Port of Call for All Music Publication: Billboard Date: 1967.07.29 http://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2516 ------------------------------ End of onlyJMDL Digest V2012 #255 ********************************* ------- Post messages to the list by clicking here:mailto:joni@smoe.org Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:onlyjoni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe