I had to travel today, and took along several Joni cds that I have not listened to for a long, long time. And it was halfway through Beat of Black Wings that I released that this was the "Johnny Angel" song that everyone was talking about.
I am probably so used to sampling in rap that it seemed natural to me that Johnny Angel was running as an undercurrent in this song. My friend Jerry Notaro wrote: > My take is that Joni brilliantly juxtaposes the horror and realities of war > that her > generation faced with ... golden innocence But I am going to differ on his next sentiment ... I think it is innocence itself that is being contrasted by the brilliant juxtaposition (I wish I had posted those two words first) of Killer Kyle's reality and the dream of Johnny Angel. It is not, to me, what a girl of that generation would imagine vs reality, it is innocence itself that is contrasted with reality. The overwhelming comparison to me is in (and you know I'd come up with this analogy) Eminem's "Stan" with the sweetness of the Dido sample floating against the brutal reality of Stan's madness. But even more - this means that in 1988, while sampling was already being done, Joni was one of the earlier samplers, and at that point, perhaps the most mainstream artist of those experimenting with sampling. And now I wish she had done more in that regards. Vince
