Ken in SF said: <<From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Sex Kills
Geez, I never realized that this song was so disliked! >> Hi, Ken and everybody, I sort of have a theory, and I guess it's time to bounce it off you folks -- I've always preferred Joni's songs that are about personalities, feelings, observations perhaps, but gentle ones -- as opposed to her angry comments on the ills of the world. Somehow, for me, both her tune writing, and the level of her lyric writing seem to, I don't know, slip a bit, or get out of control. Maybe this is why a fair number of jmdlers didn't like most of DED -- but *did* like Beautiful Dreamer and Lucky Girl; Ethiopia had a nice tune, but of course the lyrics are painful to hear -- as was, I guess the intent. Shiny toys might have made a good dance number, without lyrics. All of the "public criticism" songs seem to be less eloquent to me. As for her tune-writing, I sort of agree for the most part with Fred -- she has occasional flashes of brilliance, but she's less likely to take chances like major-to-minor shifts and chromatic progressions. She still uses these things, of course -- in the title song to TtT, the bridge show a nice chromatic slide downwards -- but they seem fewer and farer between. I'm working on Gift(s) of the Magi now, and what a challenge! The key of the song seems to change almost every second -- the tune sounds almost Eastern European! And I never fail to be amazed by the scat part of I Don't Know Where I Stand -- a marvel! Now, she seems more likely to use arpeggios of one kind or another, sometimes to good effect, but what's happeneed to all those delicious black keys and their unexpected occurences?! Who knows what drives her internal music machine? Maybe, as at least one person has suggested, recording the BSN album got her thinking about more adventurous tune-writing, ditto with recording some of her older songs that will appear on "Swan Song", or whatever she actually ends up calling her (please) soon-to-be-released album. Just some thoughts
