<<I realize my words may be somewhat hard to decipher. Nope, not hard at all, Marianne. I think you make a good point. So much of Joni's body of work is "adult-like", and while the Clouds songs certainly aren't children's songs, I sense a childlike innocence about them that is not evident in her other work, more musically than lyrically I would say. I think it's evident as well in the cover painting, an almost waif-like Joni holding a flower, seeing beauty in a simple thing that so many people pass by.
Ironically, the simplicity of the record can be its undoing as well. Some of the songs are not fully realized musically by Joni, as evidenced by the fact that Bonnie's "Midway" & Christine Sullivan's "I Think I Understand", and even Babs' "I Don't Know Where I Stand" are stronger versions than Joni's recordings. That's purely my opinion of course, and I'm probably the only one who feels that way. And certainly with no intention to take anything away from Clouds, which I consider a masterwork which I could not appreciate until I had looked at some things from both sides as well. Bob NP: Me'Shell, "Dead Nigga Blvd Pt.2"
