In a message dated 1/2/03 8:03:08 AM Eastern Standard Time, SCJoniGuy writes:
> That would be an interesting question to ask her, Bob...my own thinking is > that she is brilliant enough to compose the lyric as it is sung and > printed, although most of us aren't at the level to always hear it as such. > We're much more comfortable rearranging the words so that the rhymes come > at the end of the lines, just as you have done. > I agree that I would like to ask her about this. However, I am afraid that I see her work in these early songs as being much more "craftsman-like" in their structure than "ingenious". Yes, they are clever, and I am content with "brilliant". But "genius" is a tough one to really grasp for me as a non-genius. How much if what passes for genius is innate, and how much is the product of perspiration (like 'invention')? Here, I am not just talking about the rhymes, I am talking about the structure. For example, look at the third line (two words) of each of the following stanzas. Also, each line uses two measures of music (give or take what I would call "grace notes"). No, the structure of the song is as I wrote it. Joni was learning her craft while adding her artistic touches IMO. I need to go now. Perhaps more, later. (Like on couting syllables( :-) I had a king in a tenement castle Lately he's taken to painting the pastel Walls brown He's taken the curtains down. I had a king dressed in drip-dry and paisley Lately he's taken to saying I'm crazy And blind He lives in another time. I had a king in a salt-rusted carriage Who carried me off to his country for marriage Too soon Beware of the power of moons. Bob S.
