Richard Rice wrote many good things, among them:
<Wow>
Yeah, wow. Every day a new intellectually stimulating topic from you guys to
ponder upon. Well, given a leading lady such as ours, that shouldn't be too
surprising. What you say - just checked in and saw Richard and Mark's posts
- is just so very interesting. May I join in again?
Those early years certainly hangs on. Not only for the ones "who were
there", but also for the generation who wish they were, born around the time
of their initial release, who's parents have them in their vinyl
collections. These people, today in their thirties, might also finally have
spotted Joni behind that great wall of songladies known for example as Vega,
Jones, Schocked, Colwin, or Morissette. Some of these claim to be her
disciple in spirit, as so many others all over the western world (though
some of them, I fear, are not) and most of these are "early
Joni"-influenced, too.
Early Joni also concides with the Woodstock era, probably one of the most
romantizised periods in American 20th Century history, not least here in
Europe, where so many young people of the last three decades wish more than
anything else that they "were there". They love the fashion (or lack it),
the lifestyle (even the illegal parts?) and, of course, the music. They
might never have been to Woodstock (but neither was Joni), but they sure
live the whole fantasy out. We have Woodstock-type festivals all over the
place with a lot of peace, love and understanding going on - and early Joni
is of course one of the icons in this design. Therefore, the atmospheres of
LOTC and Blue might emanate so much more of a pleasant atmosphere than for
example, a Reagan-era DED. Here in Scandinavia and maybe some other places
around Europe, I feel that Blue would have won out over Hejira.
Mid (Carter-era, if you will) Joni is my personal favourite, if forced to
choose (but then, I never am). Hejira would be the grand contender for her
to bring to the pearly gates and show to St Peter if he should ask what
she's done to deserve an entrance. It's just so right, one foot in jazz, one
foot in "folk-rock" (for lack of a better expression - I would prefer the
slightly more pretentious term "midwestern impressionism", something Debussy
would write, had he been North American, a woman and looked that good in a
black beret). Hejira is just the perfect Joni release, for it has enough
"folk" to keep the old (sorry, elderly) fans happy and not too jazzed out,
but a lot of jazz for the listeners who regard her as one of the best jazz
singers ever. DJRD, Mingus and SAL (which was my first Joni and made me
discover Metheny as a bonus) just gets better and better. But then, I'm kind
of a jazz cat who confesses to wishing I'd been to Birdland rather than
Woodstock.
I know DJRD and Mingus put a lot of people off and that she initially got
some really bad reviews for some of these post-folkrock things, right?, as
early as the Burundi drums (10-15 years later when Peter Gabriel and others
did similar things, it was described as great innovation) or giving a go at
jazz. One reviewer (another one who's name I forget) simple wrote "Dylan she
ain't" on the release of DJRD. !?Que?! What did they expect from her -
someone other that who she was, it seems.
Another musical renaissance artist - Miles Davis - went through similar
critisism from both fans and critics when he decided to venture of into a
new direction. First for adding a Fender Rhodes piano to the line-up in the
60s and later for getting into synthezisers (he got a very advanced one as a
present from Willie Nelson! - one of my favourite musicworld stories)
recording Cyndi Lauper songs, doing hip-hop and so forth. It just seems like
there is this thing about filing people into a certain one-trick-pony
category, thus missing out on a unique journey.
And, (as with Miles) there's no such a thing a passed peak with Joni. Just
wait - when you least expect it, she'll blow you away, big time. It has
happened to me time and time again.
I think it's a shame, but from around mid-Joni and up to NRH, I have the
feeling that she lost some of her early fans and more and more of her circle
of admirers were made up by musicians and so called connaisseurs rather than
the larger record-buying group of people, even the always reliable college
crowd, who instead went for the Vegas and the Jones's. NRH should have
changed that, but by that time all the other singers had taken over her
would-be fans of her more soft and acoustic style. I really enjoyed some of
these artists, but always felt a little sad about the fact that there was a
top banana up there, tasting more ripe and succulent than anything else.
And so it goes on... there are simply not enough people around to testify to
her whole glorious body of work. Yet. For with people like Phil, who gives
his Hejira to his cousin for her long ride home, who will eventually see to
it that justice prevail. Good work, Phil! Tomorrow I'll give a THOSL (a soft
start) to one of my colleagues at work. Lets all do it, like that movie,
2Invasion of the Body Snatchers2, but with a much cooler outcome.
Different phases of Joni in relation to the different presidential eras in a
more elborate form would be an interesting discussion, by the way. What, I
ask, is she going to do next, now that you've got Alfred E Newman for
president?
Goodnight, music lovers (it's passed midnight CET)
PS Tom Waits once said that he would listen to Miles Davis playing just one
note for an hour. I'd say I could do the same with Joni's voice. Not Tom's,
though.
NP: Grace Jones - Liber Tango/I've seen that face before (it's Piazolla,
Wally!)
