I think an importnat difference for me is that Joni employs
melody alot more than Dylan. For instance there is the classic story when
Joni and Bob had both just completed their new albums in a 3-4 month period.
(Bob's "Planet Waves" and Joni's "Court and SPark")
Well, in Joni's Opinion Bob's album was good, but not as good as everyone
had thought it was. (people remarked that it was a 'return to form' etc
etc). Everyone was in the studio, at this one moment, (including bob) and
they were listening to Court and Spark as it had just been finished. Joni
told us how the men in the control booth just feel asleep before the album
was over, (including bob). People sometimes look at Dylan as this really
masculine hero and some Dylan fans have dismissed Joni as "not-as-worhty"
because she lacked the rawness and energy that Dylan had. but, what they
don't realize that JOni's Melodys in combination with her wonderful lyrical
sensibilty and truthfullness are RAW and ENErgetic, but not in Dylan's
sense, they are Emotionally RAW and ENERGETIC, for many on the list would
agree that they get some charge of spirit or mind when deluged with her
music. That is my skewed opininon. I know I don't have the clearest thinking
on this list and tend to ramble, But i hope some people understand what I am
trying to say.
Much love
blair
NP: Dillinger, "Jah Love"
>From: "Steve Harper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: "Steve Harper" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Bob: Animus; Joni: Anima?
>Date: Wed, 02 May 2001 17:04:28
>
>Hello, all! (I will here take up my boyfriend's challenge.)
>
>Ken and I are in the midst of listening to all of Bob Dylan's
>released works(!) including some bootleg material (we are up to Nashville
>Skyline.)
>
>(Major caveats: I am neither an expert on Dylan nor psychology,
>and since many of you out there are, indulge me, please!)
>
>I mused recently with Ken on the subject of Bob and Joni being two sides of
>the masculine/feminine coin: Bob--animus, Joni--anima.
>Predominantly, anyway, and, I think, significantly from an artistic
>viewpoint.
>
>His Bobness, as Ken likes to call him, often focuses on details
>and references that can be quite obscure and open-ended. He will
>weave an evocative story from which one can feel an importance to what he
>is
>communicating, even if the text cannot be completely explicated
>easily. You know, "something is happening but you don't know what it is,
>do
>you, Mr. Jones?"
>
>While it would be an easy statement to declare Joni's lyrics
>more accessible, they are often similarly inscrutable, except that
>their focus is more on describing the emotions of situations, rather than
>the events. Joni seems to me more emotionally direct, and I personally
>connect more closely with her "versions" of things, if you will, though I
>very much appreciate Dylan.
>
>It is as if Bob wants to bring attention to the world and say "pay
>attention, here's something you may have missed," and Joni says, more
>cosmically, to me, "oh, you remember THIS, don't you?"
>
>So, what different stimulation do we get from the very different songs of
>these two artists? When I listen to Bob, I tend to feel he
>is attempting to communicate how things ARE. When I listen to Joni, I feel
>her attempt to communicate how things FEEL. I respond more strongly and
>more consistently to Joni's way of communicating, and I'll leave it to Ken
>to share more of his thoughts. Though with any particular lyric we might
>say that here Joni is writing cerebral and there Bob is waxing poetic, I
>get
>an overall feel from them along these lines. (And of course it has
>something to do with their styles of music and the sounds of their voices,
>but I think their differences run deeper.)
>
>Men and women both find in their personalities pieces
>of the other's perspective. We need both halves to be whole.
>But does my personal identification with Joni's "take" on things
>make me more feminine; does it indicate that my psyche is more rooted in
>the
>feminine perspective, though I am male?
>
>For all of us men on the JMDL--self-identified fans, gay and
>straight--does our interest and appreciation of Joni suggest we are more
>(dreaded cliche) "in touch with our feminine sides" than others?
>
>Doesn't it make sense that the music that we "get," that we
>intrinsically understand somehow, should indicate something about us? (Well
>beyond gender stereotypes, of course.)
>
>Some beginning thoughts on the subject.
>
>Steve in Atlanta
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