Greetings from Toronto, where it is unbelievably cold. I think I have some sort of peculiar flu. I just feel...WEIRD.
I haven't posted for awhile, but have been avidly reading all the digests. What an interesting group of people here. Always entertaining and thought-provoking. Some thought of my own. T'LOG must have been very expensive (the players, the orchestra, the packaging). If Joni indeed doesn't sell (TI, TTT and BSN were particularly disappointing, given Joni's '90s return to favour), why did Reprise green-light the project in the first place? T'LOG has gotten some respectable reviews, we must remember that. Would it have gotten more if had been a single CD? Is it bloated? How do people feel about the song selection? I think all of us would have welcomed a few more uptempo pieces, yes? By and large, I really love T'LOG, and find it grows on me with every listen. But I have to admit that I skip a number of songs: SLOUCHING (can't abide those "Head of a man"s! ouch!), LUDWIG (the worst performance of Joni's career; and too bad, because I love the orchestration), TRAIN (too damn busy by half); SEX KILLS (am I the only one who's fairly sick of that song?); and BORDERLINE (never one of my favourites; and not deserving of full orchestration). In my "imaginary" T'LOG, these are replaced by HELP ME, EDITH, SCARLETT, COTTON AVENUE, LOVE PUTS ON A NEW FACE. What is missing for YOU? This Sunday NY Times will no doubt include letters about the Rockwell review (they always appear two Sundays after the review was published). It'll be interesting to see what kind of responses it generated. I imagine he'll be taken to task on a number of levels. Do people here really dislike BSN? I think it's an amazing record myself. Remember when THOSL and HEJIRA first arrived? Wasn't it a thrill opening the package for the first time? CD design is cool, yes, but nothing can beat that large-format art: Joni in the pool; Joni on the sleeve of H as the crow flying, looking for something shiny; the covers of both albums when opened up; the way the words look against the H landscape, with "crow" Joni, with skates in place of claws, about to take flight. Magical! Speaking of HEJIRA, and of T'LOG, I think the new H is the best thing on T'LOG. Among its many pleasures, I really love the sound of Benny Goodman as it is captured here. In closing, La Joni may have lost a lot of power vocally, but -- as Rockwell noted -- there's a new "commucativeness" in her singing. And, as ever, patented Joni "thrills." For me: "Beautiful foolish arms" -- AMELIA "Through a glass darkly" -- LOVE "Oh, where is hope?" -- JOB "You gotta change / And that's not easy" -- TROUBLE CHILD "Not a lot of HELP" -- GMBABM That "oh oh oh" in HEJIRA "Grown up so fast" -- CHINESE CAFE The second, drawn-out "In the Broadwayyyyyyy bridge" in CHEROKEE LOUISE "And the dream of a baby" -- DAWNTREADER "And I fly-y-y away" -- RICHARD "Inside a jar" -- CIRCLE GAME Ah, Joni, I love ya! MICHAEL
