Wow - I'm disappointed with Mr. Rockwell, a fine journalist and longtime (as he admits below) fan. I figured whenever the NYT got around to doing it's piece on T'log (they're usually early with their JM press, but I'll allow for the holidays etc.) it would help, not hinder, this seemingly misunderstood chapter in Joni's career.
I wonder if deep under all those layers of anti-industry bravado, this sort of thing bothers Joni...or whether she simply doesn't give a shit. I will say this - I'm tired of folks who know my fascination with JM coming up to me and asking me (with expressions on their faces as though somebody where holding a plate of shit under the nose...) "Did you HEAR the new Joni CD?" - of course I've heard it, and once again will stand up as the underdog, take the critique personally (I can't help it), and defend this piece. -Chris, looking forward to the tribute show at Passim on monday night. ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, January 05, 2003 10:59 AM Subject: Fwd: NYTimes.com Article: Joni Mitchell's Long and Restless Journey > Return-Path: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Received: from rly-xc02.mx.aol.com (rly-xc02.mail.aol.com > [172.20.105.135]) by air-xc05.mail.aol.com (v90.10) with ESMTP id > MAILINXC51-0105095053; Sun, 05 Jan 2003 09:50:53 -0500 > Received: from ms4.lga2.nytimes.com (ms4.lga2.nytimes.com > [199.239.138.148]) by rly-xc02.mx.aol.com (v90.10) with ESMTP id > MAILRELAYINXC29-0105095042; Sun, 05 Jan 2003 09:50:42 -0500 > Received: from email4.lga2.nytimes.com (email4 [10.5.101.169]) by > ms4.lga2.nytimes.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4DA1B5A626 for > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Sun, 5 Jan 2003 09:55:02 -0500 (EST) > Received: by email4.lga2.nytimes.com (Postfix, from userid 202) id > 3042AC43C; Sun, 5 Jan 2003 09:43:32 -0500 (EST) > Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: NYTimes.com Article: Joni Mitchell's Long and Restless Journey > Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Sun, 5 Jan 2003 09:43:32 -0500 (EST) > X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version) > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > MIME-Version: 1.0 > > This article from NYTimes.com > has been sent to you by [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Mingus: > > This article was in today's NY Times. > > Dave Gould > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Joni Mitchell's Long and Restless Journey > > January 5, 2003 > By JOHN ROCKWELL > > > > > > > JONI MITCHELL'S new "Travelogue" isn't billed as a > farewell, but it's hard to see it any other way. Ms. > Mitchell is 58, and her once-girlish soprano is now a frail > and unsteady mezzo. This personally (not to say > idiosyncratically) chosen, newly arranged collection of 22 > of her songs from 1966 to 1994 presumably represents some > sort of retrospective summa. > > Of course, it's always dangerous to presume anyone's > motivations, let alone those of an artist as hermetically > private as Ms. Mitchell. But in addition to this quasi > memorial to herself (Nonesuch, two CD's), she has chosen to > blast the music industry in a recent interview in Rolling > Stone, denouncing the business as a cesspool and MTV's > vulgarity, as she sees it, as "tragic." Having now fled her > longtime base of Reprise, she didn't flee too far, however, > since Nonesuch is also part of AOL Time Warner. > > As a longtime admirer of Ms. Mitchell - I even lived in her > Laurel Canyon neighborhood in the early 70's - I must > confess that my first reaction to this new set was one of > horror. Asked recently by WNYC-FM to appear on air with > some emblematic examples of American music in the 20th > century, I thought of her song "Amelia," which was once my > prime evidence when I called her a 20th-century American > Schubert. > > The song appears on Ms. Mitchell's 1976 album "Hejira," > which is full of songs about flight and wandering and > loneliness. "Amelia" is Amelia Earhart, the doomed > aviatrix. Ms. Mitchell's words tie together place and heart > and mind, myth and history, womanhood and a lost love. She > starts by evoking the emptiness of the desert and the sky, > six jet vapor trails "like the hexagram of the heavens, > like the strings of my guitar." Her "life becomes a > travelogue" - you see how central this one song is to this > new retrospective travelogue of her life in song. > > Suddenly she's missing a lover. She equates herself with > Amelia and with Icarus, "ascending on beautiful foolish > arms." > > "I've spent my whole life at icy altitudes," she muses. > "And looking down on everything/ I crashed into his arms." > > Finally she pulls in to a desert motel, showers and sleeps > "on the strange pillows of my wanderlust," dreaming "of > 747's/ Over geometric farms." > > On the original studio recording, the accompaniment is > electric guitars and vibraphones, electronically sustaining > Ms. Mitchell's own inimitable vocals, cool and clipped, and > almost pushing this sad, intimate, conversational song > along to its conclusion. Even better, really, is the live > version on her album "Shadows and Light" of 1980, just as > nervously forward-moving but with a guitar backing closer > to her folkish roots. > > The new version, indeed the entire album, comes dressed > (overdressed) in orchestral /soft-jazz arrangements by > Larry Klein. Mr. Klein and Ms. Mitchell were married for > eight years, and although they broke up domestically in > 1994, they have continued to collaborate professionally, > having now completed nine projects together. > > Having heard "Amelia" in its new guise, I think I called it > an abomination on the radio. Now I've listened to the whole > album. One must make allowances for an artist's right to > evolve and for fans' right to cling, even unfairly, to what > they once loved. And one must concede a certain winsome > communicativeness in Ms. Mitchell's vocal weaknesses. But I > still think this set is pretty terrible. > > Part of the problem is simple taste. I personally have > little use for the kind of bloated symphonic jazz heard > here. Ms. Mitchell clearly does have a taste for it, so > much so that she now chops up the urgent flow of "Amelia" > for soggy orchestral ditherings between the verses. > > Any artist must constantly question his or her past > accomplishments; to repeat oneself risks becoming a hack. > In fairness, Ms. Mitchell has undertaken a hejira of her > own over some 23 albums (depending on how you count). From > folk to folk rock to jazz (or jazz folk), all with her own > highly personal inventiveness, and now to this, it's been a > trip that has alienated fans along the way, throwing them > off the curves, as it were. But the journey has presumably > helped keep her fresh. > > That said, restless experimentation also suggests a quality > of unwelcome self-indulgence that has always marked her > music and her personality. When one confronts the really > naove paintings that proliferate in the lavish booklet with > which these two CD's are packaged - let alone the > rudimentary "multi-media content" on the one "enhanced > audio CD" - one has to wonder whether Ms. Mitchell has slid > too far into her own world. There is usually some kind of > healthy link between creator and public, or at least > imagined public, a link that sustains even the most private > artists and helps dampen the temptation toward vanity > projects like "Travelogue." > > Her early jazz experiments could be welcomed as the > honorable efforts of a folk-rock singer to connect with the > wider world of improvisation in jazz. One fears that this > album marks some sort of aspiration to "art" in the > classical, formalized sense. Nonesuch is, after all, AOL > Time Warner's prestige label, especially for classical > music and crossover projects of a certain vanguard sort. > But a self-conscious aspiration for gentility can kill the > essence of the idioms that Ms. Mitchell grew up with. > > Above, I called her singing inimitable. But of course it > isn't, quite. Right now, the best live Joni Mitchell is the > countertenor-falsettist-drag artist John Kelly in his > periodic revivals of his Joni Mitchell act, fabled in > downtown Manhattan. Mr. Kelly sings Ms. Mitchell far better > than she sings herself now. If you want her unadulterated, > buy albums like "Ladies of the Canyon," "Blue," "Court and > Spark" or "Hejira." If you want to see her in person, catch > John Kelly. > > > http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/05/arts/music/05ROCK.html?ex=1042777812&ei=1&; en=b93d8bcebd0f6a5e > > > > HOW TO ADVERTISE > --------------------------------- > For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters > or other creative advertising opportunities with The > New York Times on the Web, please contact > [EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit our online media > kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo > > For general information about NYTimes.com, write to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
