i'm taking this njc, even though it certainly isn't. i'm afraid this would be the joni-onlies' nightmare "oh god, now they're talking about gayness with joni content, i'll never escape it!"
i think andrew got at an important point late in his post. the large majority of straight men don't really care for the female voice. now, before you start yelling, remember, YOU ARE THE EXCEPTION. the r'n'r hall of fame folks who didn't even nominate joni her first couple of years weren't trying to be sexist, they just hadn't really listened. the other four you mentioned, james? all men. i have about one or two albums by each of them, and don't really need any more, but i have everything kate bush, rickie lee jones, and jane siberry recorded and dream of their next releases. i don't believe any of my girls will get in to the hall of fame, but i put their musical achievements in the rock era light years ahead of most of the men who've been inducted in... it's changed a lot, but still a lot of heterosexual white men don't even care what women sing about. like 70% of the men at those agonizing dylan concerts i attended. i also don't think that joni's lyrics are all that exuberantly blatant in their heterosexuality, at least not like aerosmith or mic jagger. she talks about love on so many levels. 'a case of you' is exuberantly blatant? what's heterosexual about 'until love sucks me back that way'? she even cast herself as a gay man in 'two grey rooms'. i think joni's lyrics are incredibly nuanced, and i think that gay men, lesbians and straight women appreciate nuance more, on the average. nuance can be hard to see, when the world is your oyster. and i've always thought that one of her most flamboyant sexual metaphors "he chains me with that serpent to that ethiopian wall" would be kind of uncomfortable for a straight man, whereas it gets me hot. but i do think voice is an important part of it. womens' voices are allowed to be more expressive, as andrew said, more breathy, more feminine. that's cultural, especially in american white culture. black music has always had more room in it ambiguous sexuality and for high notes sung by men. falsetto came from black doo-wop. for what it's worth, the male voices i love the most from my youth are the ambiguous ones, robert plant, todd rundgren, marvin gaye (he's maybe not so ambiguous, but those high notes?) george michael and morrissey, though he's a baritone with a couple of high notes. i don't know if this is what you were looking for. i've rambled a bit, but had fun.... patrick np - silence
