I mentioned there was a 2 hour Joni saga on radio the other day. The DJ did a terrific job, as always, and mentioned quite a few facts I didn't know, but I must confess I haven't read the Joni bios which are sitting on my bookshelf. The DJ had done his homework: He even mentioned that Chuck promised to provide for Kilauren even though he wasn't the father, which has been recently discussed on JMDL. He called Hejira a masterpiece, good man.
Other facts: * "Joni's 1st hit was You Turn Me on I'm a Radio, and the band Nazareth had a hit in the UK in 11/72 with This Flight Tonight". That's kind of hard to imagine, isn't Nazareth a heavy metal band? * "DJRD in 1977: Mingus contacts Joni being impressed with Paprika Plains." * "After S&L, Joni takes a long pause to paint after realizing that her interest in music isn't compatible with a large audience." * I didn't understand any of the following: circa 83 there's a movie called "Love" which has not been seen, "with 9 women" (?), then she paints, then there's something about a refuge group. Can anybody make any sense of this? * "Amnesty show in 86: Rolling Stone calls it the worst performance of the year". (RS gets my "worst asshole of the year award" too). * "Clinton explains about Chelsea but declares he was more impressed with Judy Collins' version". * "How Do You Stop is a James Brown cover". * late 80's: "Joni gets the Polar Prize, the music equivalent to Nobel". When ending with T, the DJ calls it a "re-reading of a 30+ year career" which I though was a nice way to put it. I taped the show if anybody is interested and of course understands french. Comments are welcome. Laurent
