lurking and lurking. new to the jmdl since this new year, i decided it was
time to launch out of lurkdom. joni is a genius, and i'm delighted to find a
connection to others who have a similar opinion. my most memorable joni
concert was august 8th, 1974. the venue was known as 'pine knob music
theatre', about 25 miles north of detroit. this was a very historic evening
in america. after much anticipation, joni came on stage to a roaring crowd
and sat down to her piano. i think my seats were about tenth row, center,
front. the very first thing she said was this: "richard nixon has just
resigned." i will never forget it. all of us sensed the 'moment in time',
especially joni. she maintained a very celebratory mood the entire
performance. she seemed to be having a real good time, almost as if she were
hosting a rather large party. the venue being detroit, of course she sang
'the last time i saw richard'. the interesting thing here; her approach to
that song was totally playful and comical. the line that begins with
..........richard, you haven't really changed..............well, she started
that with "richard...............oh, richard..............i said richard".
it was obvious she was not in a mood to be that serious and her tone was
close to making fun of her own drama. also, she sang the barmaid's line
exactly as she does on travelogue, in that nagging whine, "drink up now, it's
gettin' on time to close". quite different than the way it's recorded on
blue. that's my story. i hope one or two of you enjoyed it. i've been a
joni devotee for 32 years now. many of you are not even that old, but that's
fine.
last item here. thanks to those of you who dissected rockwell's review.
what a subjective bunch of garbage. it seems through the years, many of
joni's reviews have been written by people who just don't "get" it.
self-indulgent, self-aggrandising,and the like,are merely repetitive tags
placed by those who fail to comprehend the originality of her work. sorry
for the lengthy debut. love's the greatest beauty. ( jm )
janet
