I've been thinking of posting all week. Busy with one thing or another,
I failed to share my thoughts even though I've been sparked to think
about Joni, having been courted by some great post-ers.
Someone mentioned "Song For Sharon" being their favorite Joni song. And
it's my second favorite, which out of all these stacks and stacks of
words that rhyme, that's pretty coincidental that someone else here has
that as one of their two favorite songs. (My favorite Joni Mitchell
song, by the way, is "Moon At The Window.")
Then somebody posted about a "cold, lonely, sad Wisconsin night" and it
brought back a flood of memories for me, as I lived in Wisconsin in 1991
and there was A LOT of cold, lonely, and sad there. And "Come In From
The Cold" was my favorite song in 1991 - and I realized that in order to
come in from the cold, I had to leave Wisconsin. Of course, like a
fool, I ended up here in New Hampshire - where it's not a heck of a lot
warmer.
Then all the Travelogue talk. I've been listening to it progressively
more each day since the 19th of November. I haven't gone a whole day
without playing it and perhaps as a result, it's seeping into my soul
with equal gusto to every other Joni release I ever anticipated. I am
thrilled by this cd and although I fully admit that if I'm not in the
mood, I do hit the "FF" button when it comes to "The Sire of Sorrow,"
"Slouching Towards Bethlehem," and "Borderline." Those are the only 3 -
and it has everything to do with the songs and not the vocals or the
musicianship. They're just my 3 least favorite songs on the two cd set.
If I had been asked, here's how I would have handled the song selection:
REMOVE: The Sire Of Sorrow / Slouching Towards Bethlehem / Borderline /
Chinese Cafe / Otis and Marlena
REPLACE: Moon At The Window / Song For Sharon / Rainy Night House /
Jericho / The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines / Two Grey Rooms
I love "Sex Kills" on Travelogue...I think it's 'just o.k.' on
"Turbulent Indigo." I think it's exciting and bombastic and wild with
angry traces. Such wonderful phrasing on these swingers. My favorites
from Travelogue: You Dream Flat Tires (absolute favorite) / The
Dawntreader / Refuge Of The Roads / Love / Cherokee Louise.
Which songs on Travelogue I like BETTER than the original versions: You
Dream Flat Tires / Woodstock / God Must Be A Boogie Man / Sex Kills /
The Dawntreader.
I think "Ethiopa" is perhaps the most unlistenable Joni song ever (to my
ears.) And "Dog Eat Dog" the least satisfying album to me. I do like
"Lucky Girl" "Impossible Dreamer" and "Good Friends" - but those three
shouldn't be the three strongest cuts on an album. Placed on just about
any other album, they wouldn't be deemed 'the best.'
I, too, don't think that Joni's days of creativity are a thing of the
past. What if the muse visits her and she wakes up with a lyric in her
head or a melody in her mind? I'll bet she'll commit to the paper and
the guitar strings. She won't be able to not create, that's my guess.
One night this week - after reading one of the reviews, I went to bed
and had a dream. I dreamt that Joni was putting out a new album called
"Cesspool" and that the first side was called "I Came To The Cesspool"
and side 2 (vinyl, in my dreams) was entitled "Out Of The Cesspool And
Down To The Seaside." I remember the lead-off single from this project
was a song called, "Screwed From The Beginning" which I'm fairly certain
is a quote from one of her recent interviews. Or else I imagined it
like so much in dreamspace.
Then there was all this talk of "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" and I was
shocked that someone immediately liked "The Jungle Line" but nothing
else! My first impulse was, "no way." But music taste is like that I
suppose. For me, I immediately took to "In France They Kiss On Main
Street" and "Harry's House / Centerpiece"...everything else crept
s-l-o-w-l-y into my subconscious. And "The Jungle Line" was the very
last one to endear itself to my psyche. That album is a masterpiece, to
be sure. My favorite moment of the entire album though is when Joni
speaks, "get down off of that sofa...nothin's any good...nothin's any
good..."
I've enjoyed the epiphany posts too. Mine began when I was 13 or 14.
My sister (named Joni, as a matter of fact) made a mixed tape with her
favorite Joni songs on it. I immediately took to "The Last Time I Saw
Richard" "Morning Morgantown" "Carey" "The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines"
and "People's Parties." I played that mixed cassette for months before
I finally bought a cassette. I got "Court & Spark" of course. And I
had an instant connection with Joni. Or she with me. And then I
remember thinking (this was 1984) how strange that she hadn't released
an album in two years. Years seemed longer back then. Between 1984 and
1985 I had bought ALL of albums (or cassettes) and then when my first
"new" Joni album arrived, I was initially thrilled by the single "Good
Friends." The artwork was cool and I had such hopes. But it was harder
for me to like "Dog Eat Dog" than all but "Mingus" (which my 15 year old
ears couldn't quite embrace.) I never warmed up to "Ethiopia." I was
so relieved when "Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm" arrived because I fell in
love with many of those cuts, most notably "Tea Leaf Prophecy," "Number
One," "Cool Water," and "My Secret Place." So the exact epiphany moment
would have been in the summer of 1984 when I heard the live version of
"Rainy Night House" and got chills. It was so moody and
atmospheric...it was the last song on my sister's mixed tape and it
became my favorite for a long time. Until I fell in love in 1989 and
"Moon At The Window" was the soundtrack to my passion at that time. I
still have a charcoal drawing of a moon at the window that he sketched
for me. But that's a story for another time and place. It's after 2
a.m. now and I should hit send.
NP: "Waiting For Conrad" by Shooglenifty
