Man, this was a beauty of a post Mary...and it sums up why Joni means what she does to so many of us. Her work is born anew every day. I mean, I still enjoy going back and listening to Little Feat & The Doobie Brothers, but they don't continually reveal life's realities & mysteries to me.
As for Joni's songs being about certain people, I think Joni, like so many other great artists, writes about what she knows, people, places, and times. How could she not invest her work with the myriad images and events that she has experienced? It would be silly to think that she hasn't. And the more we learn about the things she's been through (as Mary so poignantly describes), the more the songs reveal even more depth. And as they reveal more about her, they reveal more about us as we experience the same emotions and experiences. I think the only inherent danger in the "who's it about" game is that it can tend to close you off to looking for further depth in her work. But it's certainly always a fun and interesting exercise, and certainly a natural one given the overly confessional nature of some of her stuff. Bob NP: Steve Miller, "I Love You"
