I havent posted in a long time, but the Prince and Joni thread got me interested in
chiming in again. I was a Prince fan before I discovered Joni, and was always drawn to
his songs with more interesting harmonic colors. My favorite Prince song is "Sometimes
it Snows in April". When I got into Joni and got Court and Spark, I was immediatly
struck by the similarities. There are string and vocal arrangments, particularly in
Car on a Hill and Down to You, which made me exclaclaim "How very Prince circa Around
the World in a Day & Parade", then I realized Court and Spark came out about 10 years
before ATWIAD, meaning ATWIAD and Parade are very Joni circa Court and Spark. I also
wonder how much this Joni connection has to do with Wendy & Lisa. W & L have been
heavily influenced by Joni and contributed a lot of material, including arrangments to
Around the World in a Day and Parade, which are my favorite and in my opinion his
most Joni influenced work. I highly recommned thier solo!
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work, esp "Eroica" and thier most recent "Girl Bros"
I am sure most of us have heard by now that Prince quotes "Help Me" in "The Ballad
of Dorothy Parker" (...mind if I turn on the radio..and it was Joni singing "Help me I
think I'm fallin" )I have heard so many more Joni influences in his work over the
years, a good example is the string arrangments/chordal changes on the Batman album.
(listen to the song Electric Chair, who else but Prince would write a line like "You
took my mind out, like a G flat major with an E in the bass" and have the melody and
bass in the arragment actually be a [GbMaj/E bass], and the word "flat" is sung by a
seperate background voice, giving the chord a sense of "being flatted" at that
moment).
There are certain approaces to tome color and harmonization that Primce picked up
on that I think are a big part of what draws me to both artists. This leads me to
point out that Joni is often compared to people like Joan Baez & Bob Dylan and more
recently people like Tracy Chapman and other (as much as I love them ) more
traditional folk artists. Joni actually has a lot more in common with Stevie Wonder,
Prince, jazz artists like Miles Davis & Cassandra Wilson, and Bjork and Ani Difranco
(esp. her new double album)!! There are also colorings of Joni in the work of the
Indigo Girls, particularly in Emily's choice of guitar chords. I almost forgot Jill
Scott, Erykah Badu and Lauren Hill. When I think of who is like Joni, I dont think
genre, which is why I think of people in jazz, neo-soul/hip-hop etc. what all these
people have in common with Joni, is essentially "Painting with Words and Music". They
all reach for interesting colors to paint with, colors of emotions, sounda !
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of landscapes, cityscapes, icelandic glaciers,and other environments, words which
evoke images, smells, etc. These are people who tend to create a world, a stylization
all thier own. This is the common thread of artists like Joni. I think one of the
reasons Joni is so influential is that she was the first to do this kind of thing in a
"pop" framework, saying that popular music could be so much more than 3 minute excuses
for the chorus to get stuck in your head.
--my $1 and 50 cents
Frederick D. Freeman
Hear my music at www.mp3.com/freddyfreeman
My homepage http://farneddy.home.mindspring.com/index.htm
