I put on O&M from T'log today while a friend was visiting. She listened for awhile and asked me who it was. When I told her it was Joni, my friend said, "When did she stop being white?"
For what it's worth, my friend is a 50-ish, smart, cultured, multiracial -- Ancestors from four contintents! -- jazz lover and cigarette smoker. She isn't a big Joni fan but she loves Joni's 'new' voice. Poor Joni. I don't think people are even getting a chance to hear T'log unless one of us plays it for them . . . and we don't all exactly love it anyway. I wonder if Joni will really climb into that box of paints now that T'log hasn't been a megahit with anyone, from the public to the critics to her own fans. And yet, if T'log had been released by any new artist, it would have been hailed as the CD of the 21st century. (Sure, that's kind of a stupid thing to say since T'log is a career retrospective and no *new* artist could do that, but you know what I mean.) One more thing: I showed my friend the little T'log booklet of Joni paintings and she commented, "They're nice, but no one would ever see them if they weren't Joni Mitchell's." --Bob (Proudly posting to the Joni Mitchell Discussion List during the Super Bowl. How gay is that?)
