<<<In a message dated 4/3/2003 4:37:16 AM Pacific Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> They did really gloss over a lot of stuff that happened after the first
> three or so albums, didn't they? It kind of made me think they were
> planning to do a lot more and then realized they had already used up the
> first half of their time and were in a rush to get it finished >>>>
I've watched the Joni documentary two times already. I think, given a three
decade long career, it's unrealistic to expect everything to be weighted
equally in a 90 minute documentary. To be quite honest, they could have done
the whole documentary on just BLUE and I would have felt happy, since every
musicologist and their grandmother would have wanted to comment on the
importance of the album. As it was intended to be a whole sweep of her life
(let alone career), I think they were justified in emphasizing her early
solo-folk albums (with a big spotlight on Blue) since these were her "heydey"
so to speak, at least in the minds of the public at large. Personally, I
admire her for branching out, but I think it's strange to say she was a
pioneer in world music hybrids. George Harrison was thoroughly employing
Indian music in his songs back in 1966-1967, and he was quickly followed by
people such as Donovan and The Incredible String Band. For that matter, the
U.S. version of Help! in 1965 had a version of "A Hard Day's Night" performed
on Indian instruments, so maybe that was the first pop/world music hybrid. It
certainly was that movie that turned George onto the sitar.
So the documentary focused on Joni's merger of the melodic stylings of
the crooners with the storytelling lyrical style of Dylan, and the
ultra-confessional twist to it that was Joni's early trademark, which
culminated in BLUE. They easily could do another 90 minute documentary on
her post-Blue career. I think it would take a filmmaker with a much better
knowledge of world music and jazz to accurately highlight that aspect of her
career. It would also take more time. Personally, I was hoping for a 2 hour
documentary, and I had no idea it was even being aired until the last minute,
and watching it prompted me to join this list to see if there were any videos
being leafed containing these early TV appearances. =-- Jai Ma--- Nick
