[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: >Mrk wrote: > >> Nobody ever says this about 'Hejira' or 'Clouds' or any record that Joni >> played acoustic guitar on. Why? >> >> Inquiring TTT fans want to know. > >For what it's worth, I don't like Clouds that much, either! Hejira is >in a totally different category - it's the words that make it a masterpiece, >not the music (IMO).
Well, you're wrong (insert emoticon here). It's the words and the music that make it a masterpiece. >I guess it's the sound of the VG-8 that I don't like, rather than the fact >that all the songs sound the same. It just seems to overpower the song in some >way - I can't explain it too well, I just know that if I heard these songs played >on a regular acoustic guitar (the slower songs, I mean) I'd probably like >them a whole lot more. I think there are two separate issues here. The VG-8 is problematic in the way that all synths have always been problematic when compared with acoustic or even electro-acoustic (i.e., regular electric guitar) instruments. Synths lack the ever-changing, nearly infinite amount of minute variations and nuances in sound that acoustic and electro-acoustic instruments have. Microscopic details of tone in every millisecond of time convey a vast range of emotion and musicality that synths can't. But the other reason I would never say that Clouds or Hejira sound "all the same" as I would about TTT is because of my now annoyingly repetitive complaint about the lack of melodic/harmonic inspiration and invention in Joni's later work. Hejira definitely has an overall sonic sameness (inherent in its design and part of its genius) -- multi-tracked electric and acoustic guitars, Jaco's liquid bass, minimal percussion, vibraphone, Joni's long recitative-like melodies -- and this sameness is a far richer tapestry than synths can impart. Also, within this sonic sameness is an abundance of inspired melodic/harmonic invention and interest. -Fred
