Wow,
I'm a little surprised that early Joni (mid-Joni?) has so clearly won
out with the vocal majority. Of course, if lurkers to the issue like
myself stood up to be counted, the voting would probably change.
I'm surprised that such a sweeping group that "gets" Joni, compared to
the general public, would in the end obsess over her earlier work. I
refuse to believe the finest of her music ended with Hejira. --And to
think we wonder why the general public thinks she died after her
folk-rock days????
Early Joni strikes a chord in us for various reasons: Certain songs were
our Joni intro. Her music at the time was in syncronicity to the general
music of the times. The themes relate to our own experiences on a more
personal level. And then, there's the issue of nostalgia. "When's the
greatest age of comic books?" The answer, "Whenever it was that you were
twelve." All of these may be impetus for us to have an emotional
attatchment to certain sounds, but none of them stand as ground for
measuring the true worth of poetry and melody behind Joni's work. In
fact, it probably won't be for another 15 years that the true measure of
the body of her work is fully understood, just for these false points of
evaluation.
I, myself have often stated that Hejira is the finest work by Joni.
Finest in the sense of being the most perfect cumulative whole of
concept, themes, melody (?!), and music. But the quality of this
recording has easily been met again and again by Joni. Her ability to
wax poetic??? Passion Play, The Sire of Sorrow are as fine a piece of
poetry as any earlier work.
Her adventurous nature to test the limits of harmony on the neck of her
guitar with open tunings?
She hasn't missed a step here! (Old bag that she is...) The Wolf that
Lives in Lindsey, Turbulent Indigo, Harlem in Havana. These songs, and
many more, have more fresh harmonic movement than you would find in a
multitude of other performers. To this day, a first listen to original
joni tunes means just going with the flow. You can't possibly anticipate
the harmonic movements. And yet, after a few listens and the whole of
the form sinks in, the structure of the music seems such a perfect,
almost obvious whole.
Her creative, painterly instincts to extend the boundaries of song form
beyond "Your hit parade" mentality... and STILL deliver entertaining,
enticing songs...
Come in from the Cold. Stay in Touch. Sunny Sunday. Chinese Cafe.
Listen to Speachless and tell me she's lost her touch at the piano!
Do I think Joan's peak is behind her? Actually, I do. Not behind her in
the sense of quality, just that I can't picture her putting out 3 or 4
more original recordings at this stage in her life. I believe a couple
of Joni's own comments would be rather meaningful to this thread. As I
recall, she made a comment of being horrified that they were teaching
Circle Game on a college level. She felt a song like Moon at the Window
or Edith and the Kingpin were more appropriatefor a college level music
course. In her mind, popular was being confused with quality and depth.
And when asked what her favorite Joni song is, she is obviously going to
reply, 'Whatever is the newest she's working on.' -I'd like to think
that we are as forward thinking and progressive as Joni is. The issues
in her life may mean she no longer speaks for a generation. But she
speaks beautifully as a human being, thank god. I don't care to hear
much regarding this generation...
Not that we shouldn't love the early stuff... but to disregard the
quality of later material. Gee, that's like Joe Public calling her a
Folk singer. -Thank god Joni's NOT on the list. She'd take our top 10 as
fightin' words.
John. (Putting up my dukes for Joni.)
