The article that Les posted the other day sent me scurrying to the lyrics for the
entire DJRD album! Whew! I forget sometimes what a treasure chest of concepts and
symbols and words that project really is...
I was looking at it with Joni's quote in mind:
"Basically it has to do with turning your back on America and heading into the Third
World...at the time Muslims were messing around in Washington, there were radical
tensions. I was disillusioned. The songs on the album have a lot of ethnic references
and there's a certain sentimentality for the North American Indian."
Certainly, we could talk about this record for months...in looking at the lyrics and
thinking about them over the past couple of days, lots of specific questions popped
up, but I'll sit on those for now in favor of a general overview of DJRD. I never
really looked it in depth as a whole, and it was interesting to do so. And it also
fits with how the album was originally released. Not to say that Joni's WRONG, but I'm
having a tough time rationalizing her 'theme' of the project as described above.
Side One:
1. Cotton Avenue - She starts in the country, but is drawn by the city lights and the
excitement, the people.
2. Talk To Me - Is this addressed to someone she just has met on Cotton Ave, or to an
established relationship? It's always seemed to me to be about the latter. In either
regard, from this conflict comes...
3. Jericho - The end of the first side and the resolution of the first "movement" as
she declares her honest sense of love and all it entails with the person in "Talk to
Me"
Side 2:
Paprika Plains - She begins, possibly back in the Cotton Avenue location, some public
place to be sure, steps outside to 'get some air', and begins to reflect on the
country, open plains of her homeland, and the North American Indians. She segues into
a flashback/fantasy/dream sequence, and then returns to her companion in the club with
the 'mirrored ball'.
This is the song that Joni uses to introduce her ultimate theme as she expresses it
above.
Side 3.
1. Otis & Marlena - Perhaps she is totally OUT of this portrait, or perhaps she is
superimposing the relationship she's been discussing with this couple who escape &
observe the superficial decadence of this hotel setting.
2. Tenth World - a segue from the "dream on" chant of O&M, and a segue from that very
consumable commercial world to the African 'Dreamland'. From the tenth world to the
third world...
3. Dreamland - "It's a long long way from Canada"...is Good Time Mary & The Fortune
Hunter the alterego or the antithesis of Otis & Marlena? The song is loaded with
contrasts and is clearly the heart of Joni's theme of entering the third world and
turning your back on the kind of world she descibes in O&M. Completes the song cycle
of side 3.
Side 4.
1. Don Juan's Reckless Daughter - This song is a continuance of Joni's dealing with
her "country" side and her "city" side...missing her fresh white linen...the battle
between the eagle (the standard that others (Myrtle?) hold her to) and the serpent
(the temptations and muses she is drawn to). "Restless for streets & honky tonks,
restless for home & routine".
2. Off Night Backstreet - The flipside of Jericho, she introduces the song by
wondering if she hasn't been kidding herself, and the confidence & extra time she's
asked of her partner have NOT been exchanged. She realizes that she's relegated to the
role of the woman who is there when she's needed and that's it.
3. Silky Veils of Ardor - Now she withdraws herself from the relationship altogether,
but just like in "Amelia", she longs to crash back into the arms of love. She realizes
that only in her dreams can she return to the way things used to be, whether it's her
life in the country and that attitude, or the romance that once was a flame and is now
a cinder.
I don't really see her returning to her theme on the final side, perhaps she centers
it to represent it as the "core" of the record, and "frames" it with a love story.
I don't know...I'm just thinking out loud here. Whatever, DJRD is a VERY dense work,
musically but especially lyrically.
I'd be anxious to hear what you guys think...and perhaps in the midst of some general
thoughts, we can address some specific questions as well.
Bob
NP: Susana Baca, "Negra Presentuosa"
