I'm about a week late posting this, but what the heck. Shiny Toys and Dancin Clowns
"Jenny I am STILL trying to figure out what to do with my life when I grow up, but then I digress. LOL! Flat Tires is a great tune. I love that album. It's a falling in love album (which is a good thing). How about Shiny Toys as a least fave? Don't worry Don Rowe is gone and won't have a shit hemmorage over that one.. HEH hee." OK. But you'll still have to deal with Bob S (for Senseofhumour). I like Shiny Toys a lot. And I like Dancin Clown. Here I am bucking the two macho icons of the JMDL (Paz and Bob Muller over). I like Joni's playful side (I like the side on the inside of the FTR album jacket, too ;-)). There's Something About Joni Hey, speaking of senses of humor, I just saw "There's Something About Mary" for the second time. I was in tears-runnin-down-my-face stitches again over the slapstick scenes with the dog. And please don't mail me any animal rights/ politically correct cough medicine. I've got two cats in the yard (the two luckiest pets in the world - both adopted strays - following in the pawsteps of our late poodle and other cat, who lived to age 15 or so). Also, does anyone else see a resemblance between the male characters in TSAM and us male characters in the JMDL. There's something about Joni..............:-) The 80's Albums I am on record as reversing Bob Muller's ratings on the 80's albums (I prefer CMIAR, then DED, the WTRF). Maybe I don't like when Joni's having fun with some other guy. And how can love be really solid in a year or two ? Anyway, in order to show humility and do penance, I have been listening to WTRF twice a week for the last month. I have a feeling I may change my ratings before I am done....... again - as Joni sings in later version of BYT ;-) I think Lucky Girl (more individually personal) would have made a better closing cut to WTRF, and Love (more universal - the antidote to society's darker side ?) a better closing cut to DED. (I realize that chronology probably dictated against that). Still - what do you all think ? Opening and Closing Cuts I have found that, in designing a pleasurable album/CD, the musical artist (like the golf course architect) needs to pay special attention to the opening and closing cuts (holes). The opening should be substantial, but inviting, to seduce and capture. The closing should be a dramatic, memorable statement, one of the best if not the best work of the creation. So it is with my town's golf course (I'm a Lucky Guy). And so it is (I would say) for the most part with Joni's records. However, on some occasions, her close is a simple or lighthearted goodbye (nothing so banal as "Her Majesty", but in that vein). When that anitclimactic approach is taken, the penultimate cut should be powerful. To refresh our memories: Album Opener Closer JM - STAS I Had a King Cactus Tree Clouds Tin Angel Both Sides Now LOTC Morning Morgantown Circle Game Blue All I Want The Last Time I Saw Richard FTR Banquet Judgment of the Moon & Stars C&S C&S Twisted HOSL In France They Kiss.. Shadoiws & Light Hejira Coyote Refuge of the Roads DJRD Cotton Avenue Silky Veils of Ardor Mingus God Must Be a Boogie Man Goodbye Pork Pie Hat WTRF Chinese Cafi/ UM Love DED Good Friends Lucky Girl CMIAR My Secret Place A Bird That Whistles Night Ride Home NRH Two Grey Rooms Turblent Indigo Sunny Sunday Sire of Sorrow TTT Harlem in Havana My Best to You BSN You're My Thrill BSN I love Joni's choices, except as follows: Tin Angel - too much like I Had a King (which was a fine "here I am" for album 1), and not inviting enough. Still, with 5 "relationship" songs, how does one space them out ? Tin Angel, Chelsea Morning, I Don't Know Where I Stand, Midway, The Gallery. Is this 5 different guys - on one album ? Maybe she should have opened with a cover of I Get Around ....;-) Banquet - Feels wrong as an opener to me. I think I would have moved the title song in first. (That produces some re-ordering issues; I would then go with Banquet, Barangrill, WOH&M, LIS, LTWCM, YTMOIAR, CBS&SF, BITB, Electricity, SYS and JOTM&S). That would have retained a sequences that I like - Lesson in Survival/ Let the Wind Carry Me and produced something of a 5-song romance (JT ?) sequence right before the end. I know - I am not worthy to comment on this. Still, ... Twisted - needs a killer before it (I think Down to You). A Bird That Whistles - really needs a big song in front of it. Joni was apparently partial to Reoccurring Dream - I am not. Unfortunately, there is no big song on the album. In fact, I think the album has a strong opening but then sort of peters out. Hmmm. I still like it. Has she ever made an album that was not at least very good ? (Mingus is my next project after WTRF, though I like Goodbye PPH and Dry Cleaner a lot). TI - I would have opened with Sex Kills. TTT - I have a feeling I would have opened differently - perhaps with the title song - but I find this album so homogeneous that it hardly matters. That's only 4 complaints, out of 34 total opening/closing choices (plus wishing for two improved penultimate cuts). I must have good taste, too. :-) Bob S
