--- Stephen Toogood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was just looking though the DJRD booklet for the > CD and noticed the extra > lyrics for 'Paprika Plains'. I can't believe she > left all that out! Quite > dark with a definate Native American Indian theme. I > like the instrumental > part but surely she could have used thse lyrics in > the song. Can you imagine > that? 'Paprika Plains' being over 20 minutes long!
I imagine these words being dreamt or narrated against the music, especially when taken in the context of the preceding narrative - Joni's description of the dance scene, interrupted by a storm, which leads her to remembering similar scenes in her youth. She floats off in time to when she was a little girl, remembers the natives who used to come to town in their beads and feathers, then drifts off to what became of them (gets into the music-only thing here), then gears back up with the retreat of the rain, back into the dance scene. I imagine that whole unsung, just-in-print section as almost an interactive thing where the listener reads this along with the music. This thing would work brilliantly as a filmed work with wonderful scenes of the plains and the natives and the beauty and desolation. I imagine this unspoken part as a voice-over narrative which could be done by Joni or, better yet, a native (in my head, I'm hearing the voice of some older guy, like Chief Dan George - one of those kinds of voices) narrating this thing as the music plays and you see these beautiful scenes which could be either just black-and-white, for the starkness; or possibly in the turquoise and rust colours of the album cover itself. The whole thing is wonderfully stream-of-conscious. Of course, the music-only section in this long work is a good opportunity to drift off onto your own stream, where you are then drawn back with "The rain retreats", and then you're into the rhythm of the dance-floor and the lights and noise again. Back to consciousness again - it reminds me of those self-hypnosis, stress management things where you sink down into a state of rest then they slowly bring you back. ===== Catherine Toronto ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
