[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> She used Woodstock to close her 83' WTRF shows as well. A very similar
> version to the S&L version, but she plays it with a little heavier rhythm.
> There's a spell-binding recording of it on the Canadaigua NY show, she plays
> the ending riff, the audience starts getting into it and clapping, she starts
> to feed off of them, it's one of those interactive moments where performer &
> audience connects that makes the hairs stand up.
Sounds great! That was one of the tours I didn't know about until reading the
reviews, so I missed it completely. I'd love to hear this recording.
> I think Joni plays BYT as a crowd-pleaser, but I don't think that it has the
> significance of Woodstock for her.
It didn't hit me until last night while listening to the Shadows & Light concert
that she performs Woodstock so often. That surprised me a lot considering how
much she wants to shake off her folkie image. It's a great song, but since it's
about the actual event, it's very 60s and tie-dyed no matter how Edenic the
lyrics become. Even the "get back to the garden" is a 60's attitude.
> I think Woodstock represents her hope for
> humanity, she's saying that we come from dust and have such potential for
> beauty, but stray from that potential most of the time.
There are certainly mythic dimensions to that song. It's one of her few songs,
maybe the only one, that talks about everyone, as in "we" have to... come
together, right noowow, whoops, wrong song... do something together. The search
for the garden is not an "I" undertaking.
Still, I wouldn't have thought Joni would pick Woodstock as her signature song.
I would expect maybe Hejira, or Refuge of the Roads, or DJRD, or... to get away
from a song about herself, Judgment of the Moon and Stars, which I hear as a
call to all of us to do our best.
Debra Shea
NP: Lucinda Williams's new one, Essence. I like it on first listen. She's
singing in her usual drawly sexy way, but the songs are more introspective,
quieter, than on Car Wheels. She's not very happy on this one. Would love to
hear these songs live... lots of places where the music could really take off.
