Joni and some Not Joni stuff

[William Chavez]

Mack
You will love the album Song to a Seagull. It is jam packed with really "artsy" folk like music. It was so clear from her increadible writing on this album that more great stuff was going to come out of her. There is not one song on this album that could in any way be regarded as a throw away song. This is definitely a concept album. She could have never developed an album like Blue without first doing something like STAS. Its a prelude for thing to come!

As far as Linda goes Get Closer is not bad but albums I would recommend from her Don't Cry Now, Heart Like A Wheel, Prisoner in Disguise, Hasten Down the Wind, and Simple Man/Simple Dream. These albums came out in this sequence and she was on a winning streak here!!! As you stated, her Nelson Riddle Stuff in almost flawless in a technical/vocal sense but there are quit a few recordings out there of the same material that have "half" her voice, yet have a better interpretive feel to them.

Talking about standards, Diana Ross Lady Sings the Blues is a beautiful piece of work (musically) in my opinion. She also has a live version called Sings Jazz and Blues Live which is also very good. Other than Supremes and the two albums mentioned above, I don't bother much with Ross. She is just like Whitney, Mariah, etc... Great voice, crappy material.

I'm with you on your Carole King comments. Loved Writer, Tapestry(little tiered of this one at this point), Music, Rhyme and Reason, and Fantasy. After that, as Joni would say, down the "crapper". It is such a shame. I think being stuck in a small piano room crancking out songs for all those years(being pushed by musical business tyrants) must have really depleated her well.

Its hard to find a poor Aretha album even though they do exist. I would stay away from her gospel stuff. She lets her voice get away from her on a lot of these spiritual excursions. The only problem with Aretha is that at times she is more preoccupied with showing off her voice than the song. A lot of female singers and electric guitarist have this same
problem and it just screws up a good song. That is why it is sometimes safer to go with a singer with some vocal limitations. They tend to rely more on interpretation, vocal character and phrasing.

One last thing, don't you just hate it when they put so much sticker junk on the CD at the store that you can't make out the art work, the album title or the song list. Good grief! LPs didn't have this problem. There was nothing like sitting on the couch with a Joni gate-fold LP sleeve while she sang "You called me beautiful..."" Aaaah yeeeessss...
Calabaza!!
Workingwilly



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