Ciao joniphiles,
A joniphile wrote: "I remember the first time I heard For the Roses. I
didn't like it. It was a friend's copy and I didn't even buy my own copy
until many years later. Now
it's my second favorite CD by Joni. (Hejira being first.)"
I bought "The Hissing of Summer Lawns around Xmas time 1975 and was
turned off by it, like many Joni fans who could not handle Joni's "growth".
It was not until around 1988 or so that I came back to it and began to
appreciate it. In fact, I sought of gave up on any new Joni past FTR until
fall of 1980, when one night I heard "Refuge of the Roads" on the radio in
Hawaii and got pulled back in again. But even that album, Hejira, did not
"come together" for me until around 1990 or so, although I thought "Refuge"
was brilliant from the start. And it is only within the past 6 months that I
have begun to listen to "STAS" seriously for the first time - prodded on by
all the Joni chatter on the digest. I still refuse to go out and buy CDs of
"DJRD" or "Mingus" though - God I hated those albums (except for "Jericho"
from DJRD). And since Shadows and Light is mostly stuff from that era, I
don't own that either. I came late also to WTRF and DED, but like them both
now, and CMIARS, which has flashes of brilliance equal to anything Joni has
done (Beat of Black Wings, Number One). Of course, I came late in life to
lobster, crab, clams and mussels too! Ciao, dave.
