thanks for telling some hard to accept truths about 'our' Joni. I felt the way you write when the Both Sides Now CD first came out, esp after Taming the Tiger which seemed so not up to her usual standard. But I really got into Both Sides Now eventually and the concerts were transcendant, esp Hejira, and Judgement, and Case of You and Both Sides.
I'm feeling the way you write about the links to the new CD. I wonder if I will convert to loving them after a few more listenings. Right now tho, it sure sounds like, as someone wrote, Joni-lite. As to her cranky pronouncements, I have always accepted them as another expression of Joni's melancholy world view. I think we all love her music as much for its sadness and the comfort of the words of a kindred spirit always doomed to imperfection. Someone who could write "I guess I never really loved" is going to find a lot to hate about the world we live in. But then I do too. Maybe it's not Madonna, but I could certainly come up with a list.
