> Great post...
> Can't argue with any of this but I wonder why WTRF gets catagorized
> as a 'happy' album....the title track is about loss, only three of
the
> songs really qualify as happy...
> Solid Love
> You're So Square
> Underneath the Streetlight
> Three are philosophical:
> Be Cool
> Moon At the Window
> Love
> The rest deal with more complex emotional themes:
> Chinese Cafe
> WTRF
> Ladies' Man (written for Tim Meadows?)
> You Dream Flat Tires
> Man To Man
> On second thought, 3 positive songs DOES sort of make it Joni's
> 'happy' album ; )
> RR
What a relief! I thought I was going to have to make this point all
over again!
As Randy says there are 3, count 'em, 3 love-happy songs on WTRF (and
Joni didn't even write one of them).
I'm listening to WTRF as I write this. I've never considered it one
of my favorites but listening to it tonight I think it's a damn good
record! It doesn't sound like anything I remember hearing on the
radio in the 80s (neither do DED or CMIARS for that matter). I think
the jazz influence is still very evident on this record (Be Cool, Moon
at the Window, Ladies Man and what great things David Lahm did with
Solid Love!) Joni's originality and genius are all over this record.
I had no idea that Steve Lukather played with Toto but then I never
bought any of their records or paid much attention to them. I have to
admit, I kinda liked 'Africa' - it was sort of dramatic and had some
interesting sounds going on in it. I had forgotten about 'Roseanna'.
Understandable. It was pretty fluffy and forgettable. Sounded very
sterile and canned to me. Anyway, WTRF doesn't make me think of
either one of those records or any other record for that matter.
Also, whoever said there was no synth work on this record is wrong.
Look at the liner notes. Probably 2/3 of the songs have some kind of
synthesizer listed. Joni was moving in that direction and I don't
think Larry Klein or record sales or trends in music or anything but
her own curiousity and desire to explore the possibilities of
synthesized sounds pushed her or influenced her to go that way. And
hasn't Joni always used musicians who were 'in vogue' at the time she
made her records? - CSN, James Taylor, the LA Express, Larry Carlton,
Wayne Shorter, Jaco Pastorius to name a few.
Lyrically WTRF doesn't have that intense, exhaustive introspection
that Hejira has but so what? Joni ain't never gonna make another
record like Hejira, so get over it o-KAY??!
But seriously, there are some great lines on WTRF. Some very clever
and witty, some very deep and some straight to the point.
I'm going to skip 'Chinese Cafe' 'cause it seems most everybody likes
that one:
Winter beat the pines about
He heard the heater cutting in & out
While she dreamed away
To me this paints a very clear picture of a woman sleeping peacefully
next to someone she feels confident is going to be around for awhile
while the man is lying awake, running hot & cold (the heater cutting
in & out), feeling very restless and contemplating running as fast &
as far as he can from this relationship.
You could charm the diamonds off a rattlesnake
I guess you learn to refuse
What you think you can't handle
You're acting like a vandal
Wrecking the dream
At the first bad scene
This theme gets repeated in 'You Dream Flat Tires', somebody who seems
to want to destroy a relationship before it even gets started. Love
happy cheery stuff, huh?
People don't know how to love
They taste it and toss it
Turn it off and on
Like a bathtub faucet
Is it possible to learn
How to care and yet not care?
Since love has two faces
Hope and despair
And pleasure always turns to fear
I find
Nice light-hearted, meaningless, love-silly, throw-away pop lyric,
ain't it?
Ok, Solid Love is a romp. But it's a very clever and fun little romp.
Love has always made me feel so uneasy
I couldn't relax and just be me
More like some strange disease
Than this solid love
moving on...
If your heart is on the floor
Cause you've just seen your lover coming thru the door with a new fool
Be cool
.....
Don't whine
Kiss off that flaky valentine
You're nobody's fool
Perfect lyrics for the title and theme of this song. Witty & biting
at the same time.
With a jack and a spare
You're trying to get to where love is
Coming in on a rim and a prayer
You're trying to get to where love is
Great metaphor and she does a beautiful job of sustaining it
throughout the song.
I don't like to lie
But I sure can be phony when I get scared
I stick my nose up in the air
Stoney, stoney when I get scared
One of her most nakedly honest lyrics. This is as unsparing a bit of
self examination as she has ever written, imo.
I swear by the streetlight on the corner
Shoving back the shadows
One shadow cursing
Another shadow laughing
Underneath the streetlight
I don't know where they're coming from
I just see them passing
Underneath the streetlight
I put this song in the same category as 'Chelsea Morning' and 'Night
in the City' - sheer exuberance. I think this one has some great
poetry in it.
Since 'Love' is an adaptation of a Biblical verse, I'm not going to
quote from it. Having just heard it a few minutes ago, I still think
it is quite lovely.
So pull WTRF out and listen to it again and try to forget about Joni
as 'a girl with a guitar'. We all know she's more than that and I
really can't imagine that Larry Klein had such a profound influence on
her that he 'ruined' all of her 80s output. I honestly don't think
anybody could sway Joni into putting something on a record that she
didn't want on there. He may have wanted to influence her or have
more of a role in the making of those albums and what may have caused
trouble in their marriage was that she probably wouldn't let him.
Anyway that's what I think and that is what I said!
Mark in Seattle
