Well Hello all I have listened to Travelogue about 4 times now and I have to say I like it a lot. I have to think of it as an exhibition of paintings and when I put the CD in my computer to store it on to Realplayer that was what I got!!!! An amazing slide show of her pictures!!!!, loved that and didn't know it was there......so I feel she somehow connected with me on that score.
Some of you may say, "Oh come on Luce" but I am someone who does not pore over sleeve notes, does not read endless biographies or know the track listing of even my favourite Joni CD's and albums from years ago. I know I just love her music. Some T'LOG tracks I love more than others; but there is nothing that leaves me cold, or disappointed. Yes her voice has changed but then very few of us can sing with the same register we did 30 years ago......I certainly can't. But that does not alter her musical prowess or vision, and T'LOG is, I think, a vision. She is, after all an accomplished artist...not to everyone's taste but good enough. My Epiphany came with hearing "Little Green" through and open window one day in 1971... It came floating out of the house of a friend of mine and I just HAD to have that song. I realised I had found one of the voices I wanted to have... I added her to my collection of "If there is a voice God then could I have the voice of Sandy Denny (Fairport Convention) Joan Baez, and then added Joni Mitchell" Somewhere I still have the book in which I made notes about people I admired for various reasons...and the pleas for Joni's voice is in there... Any way... I went home, raided my Piggy Bank and took my money to Weston Hart in Gosport (where I have since returned to live) and bought BLUE... It was my first Joni album, I now realise. It got followed with more and more albums over the years. I have not got everything she has produced but intend to buy the ones I lack and will buy them blind as I did T'LOG I think what I like is her fearlessness...... no contractural obligation thing with her...its "this is what I wanted to do and here it is"...... and we like it or not... You can compare her versatility with James Taylor, I think (another favourite of mine,) He does what he wants to do and someof it is great, some of it not so wonderful. I happen to think October Road is bland...... I also rate her alongside Van Morrison (another fave) as he can do it all, rock, ballad, jazz, you name it and in his style and in his own good time THANK YOU VERY MUCH... (for those of you who have seen him live you will understand that comment) I should have loved to see Joni at the Isle of Wight '70 had I not been 13 and forbidden to go with my brother... who saw her (well I would imagine he saw her through colours brightly!!!!) but he heard her sing live and at a concert that really shook this region... you could hear the applause on the mainland!! and we watched the "great unwashed " crowding onto the paddlesteamers that went from the pier head at Portsmouth Harbour... I think the reason T'LOG is not being played on Radio is that the songs are meant for personal enjoyment and they are not easy listening and are not commercial. I expect some of T'LOG gets played on late night "easy" stations as they are rather special. They do not fit into daytime mainstream playlists for the vast hoards who listen without listening to the pap that gets put out there. Anyway that is another on the "thumbs up" list as far as I am concerned. It is always possible to intellectualise a like or dislike but I go for GUT FEEL and what I feel is grateful. Grateful that I have in my life the enjoyment of an artist who is a real artist, and who puts her art on the line..... WELL DONE JONI.......standing ovation from me... Lucy
