i've been paying more attention to travelogue and my opinion hasn't changed. it's 80% boring in a ''why bother, joni?'' kinda way, 10% embarrassing (the men's chorus -- horrid!) and 10% nice and/or ok. my main peeve is that except for maybe be cool and stuff like that, the lyrics are too GOOD for the orchestration. it's like a beautiful child of ten wearing mascara and blood-red lipstick: you spoil the freshness. for that kind of orchestration you need a cole porter lyric -- cool, urban, perfectly built for THAT purpose -- or an opera aria, for god's sake. the way i see it, it seems as if joni were bleeding all over the harps. when you write something like amelia or otis and marlena, you write it for a totally different kind of instrumental environment. what's subtle yet profoundly affecting to a guitar or piano accompaniment may be wasted on a full orchestra. why would anyone want to say ''amelia, it was just a false alarm'' backed up by a trillion violins. these are things that you say in private, that you speak in a barely furnished room. the great lyricists of the past chose and organized the words with a view to orchestration. nelson riddle did a great job not only because he was so good at it but also because the words lent themselves to many sorts of musical arrangements. joni's lyrics are too discursive, they are, so to speak, semiotically wrong in a GRAND acoustic environment. i also found that there was no effort at deconstructing on the part of joni before submitting her lyrics to this treatment. it's like, ''ok, take the guitar away and put in a billion instruments''. it's not that easy. you can't just sing a joni song regardless of the kind of accompaniment you have. you must re-interpret, re-write the song. of course it's joni and i would like it even if it were 70 minutes of joni burping to a microphone. but *objectively* it's: ''humph!'' (i didn't buy the cd. i guiltlessly, cheerfully and illegally downloaded it from the internet. $40 is one fifth of my rent after the peso devaluation. i have my hands full with IMF. let joni donate her royalties to my cause.)
somebody was writing about laura nyro. well, i'll never forget the time i heard eli for the first time. i was BLOWN. laura nyro was/is a force of nature. NY tendaberry is a masterpiece. every single note and vowel and consonant on that album is the result of genius. in fact, i'm going to go and play it right now to give myself a treat. i have half a bottle of champagne left from yesterday. i'll treat myself to that too. anyone want to join me despite my ruthless use of the internet? wallyK
