Lori wrote:
>Perhaps it's just Joni's final work under a contract. (As opposed to an
independent release.)
I've been thinking along these lines too. I went to see Eddi Reader in
concert two or three weeks ago. It was a wonderful intimate affair. She
described how her last album was produced independently, and she said that
all artists should work towards this freedom. She said it actually allowed
creativity to reign. Perhaps Joni is bidding farewell to her contract??
Perhaps the next album(s) is her "Swan Song " as an artist tied down to the
giant record company (Isn't there a saying about wishes being horses???)
(When things don't boil down to Joni, they always come back to Patti Smith).
Upon the release of Patti's retrospective, Land 1975-2002, her long standing
contract with Arista was up. In the liner notes to the album it seemed as
if she was saying goodbye:
"Greetings,
We enter a new year facing an emptied sky, for, like the Prince of
Aquitaine, our towers have fallen. Yet in their wake we trace the tails of
comets, the bows of ships and chariots of the
turbaned corps dragging their chandeliers. We navigate the sea of human
history. Of a time before god and a time when men walked with angels. We
tread the earth. We sift through a delirium of debris. We comb the
conscience and tresses shimmer their worth.
When Brian Jones died, doves spiraled above Hyde Park. When we buried
Sadat, a legion of doves flew over Cairo. Whereto shall they now fly?
Shall they shed their pure feathers over the rubble of Kabul, of Liberty
Street? Or shall they light upon the shoulders of Abdul Hamid and coo
peacefully into his young ear.
I leave you with these fleeting thoughts and I leave you this work.
Disc one- you have chosen for me. Disc two- has been chosen for you.
Farewell, friends, I offer my LAND with gratitude."
PATTI SMITH
January 1, 2002
The last track on disc two was a poem she wrote in 1998 called "Notes To The
Future", it takes on some new relevance since september 11th. There is a
hidden track then, a bootlegged, rough sounding version of Patti, not in
best voice, singing "Tomorrow" from Annie. She has written new songs, and
has been touring. It seems that there will be another album. As with Joni,
i'm hoping that she has decided on the independent option.
GARRET
NP- Undertones, Teenage Kicks
