I've been loving reading the many many opinions and comments since T'LOG's
release and I agree with Jenny's post when she said..."I get such a kick out
of the fact that Travelogue is
generating such passionate, diverse, and often
diametrically opposed opinions on the list. It may
not be as perfect or sublime as many of us would have
liked, but it sure packs a punch". Someone recently brought up Sondheim and
I remember seeing a pre-opening Broadway performance of his musical, PASSION.
Most of the audience literally hissed and derided the material AND the
performers...I have never seen anything like it. I loved the show and was
swept away until the rudeness of the people in front of me jolted me near the
end of the performance. The show went on to win several Tony Awards
including Best Musical of the Year, but I know many people who love it and
many who loathe it...one man said it was the worst show he'd seen in 50 years
of going to the theater! ...but it packed a punch! I have said
before that I think Joni's closest peer artistically is Stephen Sondheim and
one of those reasons is that very duality of opinion that people have about
their work. Plus they both are lyrical geniuses...they play with words in
magical ways...they'll use a word or phrase that has a couple of different
meanings and place it in a line of a song in such a way that people will
discuss its meaning decades after it was written! Anyway, enough of that.
TRAVELOGUE has done for me what I like to imagine would please
Joni very much. Songs I didn't previously care for or ignored (in a way)
before they were re-imagined for this project, are the ones I like the best.
FLAT TIRES is a lot of fun ...so is BE COOL ...OTIS AND MARLENE is a
revelation to me now and isn't it SUCH a great choice as the opening
number?...DAWNTREADER (sigh)...CHEROKEE LOUISE breaks my heart. I prefer the
original FOR THE ROSES and I swear she did it differently on the BSN Tour. I
think I'm kind of burned out on WOODSTOCK as a song, but I don't mind this
one. The "big" orchestrations on SLOUCHING and JOB'S SAD SONG are majestic,
thrilling, very grandly theatrical and yet, cinematic, too. I really wish
she could have included SILKY VEILS OF ARDOR or PEOPLE'S PARTIES and a
COMPLETE version of UNCHAINED MELODY as a hidden track or something. But I'm
just pleased and happy its as great as it is...what a treasure she is.
Harry
