<<who do you think Bob (et al) that joni loved , and therefore would still play a role
in her creative consciousness?>>
Shane, thanks for the good words; unfortunately, this topic is not one that holds much
interest for me. When I think of Joni's songs, whether from Blue, Hejira, whatever,
they WORK for ME because they speak to me about MY life, not about hers. Like the
aforementioned Circle Game, to me it's about my son Nathan, not about Neil Young. The
line in Hejira:
"there's a man and a woman sitting on a rock, they're either gonna thaw out or freeze"
is about me and a girl named Laura. And so on...
I don't have any qualms with those who want to debate whether this song is about JT,
or that one is about Graham, or that one is about Leonard, but those discussions hold
little value for me. The recent discussion about Coyote was great, but it won't change
any of the mental images I previously had regarding the song. That's just part of the
magic of Joni's writing.
But for those who like to talk about those sorts of things, (and I would always
encourage ALL types of Joni discussion in this forum) here's some
information/misinformation about the Joni/LC connection by way of the "shaky at best"
Hinton biography:
***********************************
p. 79: Like Neil Young, Leonard Cohen is a companion--and compatriot--and not a
threat. The two did not really meet until both had left Canada. Both
are famed for their restlessness, geographically and in matters of the heart. Cohen
appears in three of Joni's songs: in 'That Song About the Midway' [on _Clouds,_ Oct.
1969]--about their brief affair--he is a devil
wearing wings. In 'The Gallery' [on _Clouds_] he is a saint, though a tainted one.
'Rainy Night House" on _Ladies of the canyon,_ May 1970] is said to be a tender
farewell from her to him, though he was the one who instigated the parting. He left
his melancholy spell on her music: "I think I'm rather Cohen influenced. I wrote
'Marcie' and afterwards thought that it wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for
'Suzanne'."
Cohen's influence has been verbal rather than musical, showing her how poetry can be
integrated into the popular song. "My lyrics are influenced by
Leonard. After we met at Newport last year (1967) we saw a lot of each other. Some of
Leonard's religious imagery, which comes from being a Jew in a predominantly Catholic
part of Canada, seems to have rubbed off on me too."
Elsewhere, she described Cohen and Dylan as points of departure. "Leonard didn't
really explore music. He's a word man first. Leonard's economical, he never wastes a
word. I can go through Leonard's work and it's
like silk. Dylan is coarse and beautiful in a rougher way."
p. 100 (about songs on _Clouds_): Side two opens with an extremely sinister item, 'The
Gallery', supposedly about Leonard Cohen, and portraying a man as manipulative as the
narrator of, say Robert Browning's poem 'My Last Duchess'. This lover collects women;
like the traditional song 'Reynardine', there is the suggestion he might kill them.
Like Rose, he
appears brainwashed. ...
p. 108 (about songs on _Ladies ..._): 'Rainy Night House' is a strange song, quietly
underpinned by cello. Joni becomes a whole choir at one point. It's a gentle farewell
to Leonard Cohen--a boy who gave up his inheritance to become 'a holy man on the FM
radio'--who is gently parodied in the religious imagery she calls up. The way 'called'
is used twice, in two different senses, is pure Joni. 'The Priest' [Incidentally, "The
priest" is JM's song, not LC's "Priests".] is also Cohen territory, an agnostic age's
nostalgic for faith, but given a sexual charge. ...
p. 131 (about songs on _Blue,_ July 1971): 'A Case About You' returns to that lonely
northern star, shining through the night. It could be both Nash
and (more secretly) her lost daughter being bid goodbye to; the lyrics imply that love
is never lost, but
can be recreated in the memory, as if new born. Taylor [singer James Taylor, another
lover] plays second guitar here, which, with the re-evocation of the
devil in the second verse, suggests that he too could be the subject of the song. My
own uninformed guess is that 'A Case About You' is about Leonard Cohen--though the
couple had parted some years before. If so, this would explain its religious imagery,
the map of Canada, the lines about northern stars, and particularly the phrase "love
is touching souls," which sounds
like neither Nash [singer Graham Nash, another lover] nor Taylor, but straight out of
the mouth of 'Laughing Len' It is a deeply heretic song, in which the changing of
Jesus's blood into holy wine transmutes into sexual
love.
***********************************************
Bob
NP: Marshall Tucker Band, "Too Stubborn"
