Hi Maureen. I really enjoyed reading your post and I want to quote some stuff you said and react to it.
Maureen said, in part: >>>>>>>> I think her voice around the years of LOTC and Blue was shrill at times. I remember even thinking that at the time. I loved her albums but thought some of the very high notes were harsh. I loved her voice when it was clearer and lower esp in the mid 70's. >>>>>>>>>>> Now Lama again. I 'found' Joni at "Court and Spark". I really don't care for the helium songs very much at all. To me it sounds like an affectation, as if she's putting on Ian and Sylvia. While I'm all for exploring new directions, that particular direction, the helium songs, didn't carry me away either. You also said, in part: >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> I have also read reviews for 30 years and ,yes, critics have been harsh on her and then down the road praise the work. When she started out I think she was seen as a pretty, hippie girl and when the forceful, talented woman came through-well- I do think it's a male dominated field and women have never been accepted the same way. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Now Lama again. Yeah, but there's more to it than meets the eye. Since I wasn't "there" until Court and Spark, I had not seen the print ads (commericals) for the early albums. They were cheezy. They spun Joni's appearance into a sex come-on, big time. Then I saw that Joni was very complex from the beginning. In an early appearance on the Dick Cavett show, a few days after she wrote "Woodstock", she was very feminine to the point of being girlish. Cavett introduced her as a "true artist" which was amazing that he "got" it way back then. Then Joni, the trojan horse, apologized for being apolitical in a political time. She almost apologized for being from Canada. Then she sang a strongly anti-war song called "The Fiddle and the Drum". Even then, she was not the cheesecake that some people saw. She is very, very pretty and electrifyingly charismatic but she was never a creampuff. Her label packaged her as a creampuff but the public got the Trojan Joni when they read the lyrics. That's what I call the solar plexus effect. Lama PS, That Joni is a pretty woman who's not a creampuff is like Jewel. It hurts me that she doesn't give Jewel and Alanis the props they deserve. Just because Joni did sensitive lyrics before they did, does not mean that no other woman is ever allowed to write an emotional lyric. Is Joni prohibited from doing swing-influenced arrangements like TRAVELOGUE's "You Dream Flat Tires" because Annie Ross and Ella Fitzgerald did it before Joni did? Of course not.
