Hi Shane, you wrote:
>she was, after all, a proved and larger creative than larry klein as
well...and so therefore we must give her responsibility for >the turn on
some tracks in the eighties that tried to be too poppish and therefore
failed to meet her full capability... we can't >blame him for decisions that
she, as SIQUOMB 'president', gave the final o.k....
I think you might have a point about her feeling vulnerable after losing
many fans and critics in the late 70s DJRD/Mingus period. What she chose to
do in the 80s is just as valid as anything else she has created - it
reflects where she was at then to one extent or another. While I am one of
those who immediately drove off the freeway to the nearest record store the
first time I heard Night Ride Home come on the radio, amazed that she was
"back", I do find much value in the 80s works. I think DED is very good and
her tightest album of the period, Chalkmark is strange but in a beautiful
way (it just may be her DJRD of the 80s) and I think there are some stunning
songs on WTRF. But it took other versions and performances of the WTRF
songs to make me truly appreciate them. Hearing Marian play Moon at the
Window the first time made it all new to me, hearing Paz play Chinese Cafe
had the same effect, and after hearing Joni's jazzed up, orchestrated Be
Cool last year, I thought it was one of the best songs I'd ever heard. I do
like the album much more now than when I first heard it, but still get those
feelings it is a little choppy. No, she wasn't drugged out on anything but
love and exhilaration when she made it, but consider how many people
participated in that album - somewhere around 19 musicians and 12 people
besides Klein with "production credits." There is some truth to the old
sayings that "too many cooks spoil the broth" and about "too many chiefs and
not enough indians." I think many of us ultimately resonate more to 90-100%
Joni in an album. We just don't like her voice being muffled or drowned
out.much ;-)
Kakki
