"there's something lost, and something gained in living every day."
Age, smoking, poor health and much more smoking have taken a toll on her
voice. The clear highs are lost. She's prone to loosing her voice more
now. And yet,
She's gained much in her ability to interpret a song with heart and
feeling. Her pitch has greatly improved over the years. Anyone fortunate
enough to actually hear her in person can't help but admire the quality
of her singing voice.
It's not the greatest in the universe. But she never claimed to be that.
And the legion of singers who 'sing' better can't hold a candle to the
breath of creativity she has exhibited, then or now.
And to all those so focused, including reviewers, on what she's lost, I
pray you're not doing the same with your receeding hair lines, widening
waist lines, or accumulating crows feet.
My god, people grow old.
No one is what they were in their youth. Get over it. Move through your
life with grace and accept the things you cannot change.
Not that growing old means surrendering. -And Joni's hardly done that.
In fact, she has remained as true to her muse today as any time in her
life. To her credit, her music and art have always been honest, frank
and vigorous examinations of her life
and her desire to know. She is not making products for consumers. She is
making artifacts, -an honest examination, questioning, answering, and
hopefully beautiful form- to share with the world as a gift.
In this regard, the old girl hasn't lost a step. I'd give my left '...'
to say I'd created the cover of TI, written Love Puts on a New Face, Man
from Mars or Passion Play.
You can measure her success from the point of view of a consumer... who
creates nothing, can second guess everything with perfect hindsight, or
lay any set of standards to what is created. That's fair game. As a
consumer, we are not so conscerned with how the artist or creator felt
when they made an artifact. All we really care about is how 'we' feel,
or better, how they made us feel. That's fair game too. But how we feel
often demands a connection, a universality so to speak. We all share in
Joni's tribulations sung in Blue. Fewer of us connect to the urge to
throw a drink in the face of a record executive.
Perhaps fewer and fewer of her new pieces speak to the life experiences
of a mass audience.
I do believe that to be true. But it's not a fault of Joni or a sign of
diminishing talent, or quality of her work:
She was once a child, became a un-ruly teenager, lived her young adult
hood growing wise from hard knocks and making precocious art, found
success, artists and forms that thrilled her, followed her muse, became
middle age and is growing into an elderly grandmother. -Now do you
really expect the artifacts of her life experiencing, questioning are
meant to be mass audience wide during the whole of this journey?
If you've done any creating in your life, other than consuming...
When she made Blue, Joni lived that album and released it's demons by
making artifacts of the experience.
It was not something to mine, like gold, stamping out one pressing like
it after another. Her life isn't Ground Hog Day. It took me a while to
appreciate it, but I've always loved the winding journey and the
puzzling turns her music has taken. She has never taken a turn that
wasn't a surprise.
Ok, from a musical standpoint, BSN was not cutting edge. But it was a
twist of fate, change coming at Joni like a car accident, for her to
find herself up on a stage, performing songs that allowed more freedom
interpreting than her own songs did, with the rush of such a full sound
behind her. It thrilled her. It was a moment in her life that meant
enough to her to do something about it.
As a consumer, if we aren't equally as moved, if she didn't make us feel
it... well, do what consumers do: consume something else.
I recall watching A Day in the Garden with Rich, and he paused a moment
to listen (!!!) to Joni sing Summertime. At the end she loses her voice
and hits a false note, then bravely tries to recover.
She is beaming anyway, because she knows she was rocking on this song
for 99.9% of it.
And Rich looks at me, like... "What the '....' was that????
I said nothing. Pretended I didn't hear a word and he left the room as
she moved on to 'her' material. And I thought to myself, "I don't listen
to Joni Mitchell because she's perfect. I listen to Joni because she's
Joni Mitchell."
The scope of her life graces mine. Every step and mis-step.
