Hey Joniacs -
I've had to go into lurk mood because I've been swamped with work and am
about halfway through writing a science fiction novel I've been meaning to
write for nine years, but I wanted to respond to a few things. Regarding
Joni's stories, some of us have heard a young Joni talking about the writing
of "Carnival in Kenora" and how she admits to giving all the wrong folklore
about this place. She told people that Kenora was an Indian name and it
meant "lake of many pontoons". She then goes on to talk about the real
Kenora, a small town in Ontario, that she had only glimpsed once from the
wrong side of the train. The reason she used "Kenora" is because it goes
well with Carnival. Carnival in Kenora has consonance and assonance and
sounds much prettier than "Carnival in Sudbury."
I was also struck with a somewhat incomplete story she told about the missing
cat who inspired "Man From Mars". She once told a local D.J. that the song
took two weeks to write and at the end of writing it, the cat came back.
What a fitting ending. However, she tells the more complete story in a
different interview where she talks about painting a picture of the cat and
using that picture for a flyer. The flyer worked, and she went to pick up
the cat from a neighbor. In the previous story, it sounded like the cat came
back to her. She also mentions that the cat ran away from her after she
manhandled him by the tail for peeing on her chairs. That may be why she
didn't tell the whole story.
Joni's whole life has been about exploring personas - she is all and none of
the guises she has assumed. It's interesting to hear early recorded
conversations with her when she was a folkie and Baez was her model and she
speaks in deeper alto tones. Later, her speaking voice was very high and
childlike during her feminine Ladies of the Canyon period when she
personified the hippie chick/earth mother. Everyone who was attached to
this image of her was jolted when she appeared on the cover of Hejira with
make up, a beret and a full length mink coat. Both my sister Jill and I
(hi!) have heard interviews with Joni where she is pouring on the Canadian
accent which vanishes all together at other times.
I remember straight friends of mine in the Seventies who all loved David
Bowie getting ready to see him in concert. These were all men who put on
make up and glitter and midriffs and four inch platforms during the glam rock
days. When they finally went to see Bowie, he walked out wearing a short
hair cut, no make up and a suit. So many artists have manipulated their
personas in order to maintain a mystique. Frank Sinatra was also brilliant
at it and changed his personas throughout his career. I liked him when he
came off as the lonely, urban male with a raincoat over his shoulder, a pork
pie hat tipped jauntily to the side, and songs about both loving and losing.
What singers do is the same thing that fiction writers do: they tell lies
that tell the truth. I could segue that into another Eminem discussion ...
Incidentally, thanks to Mark D. for a great job on the tabs of Carnival In
Kenora. Such a pretty, pretty song that someone should make more famous.
And as for Colin's comment about there being no culture in America - hello?
How about jazz, rock and roll, Hollywood, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hemingway,
Fitzgerald, Dickinson, Whitman, Thoreau, Emerson, etc. etc. I will quote
what one famous Englishman had to say about his own culture: "The only thing
worse than English music and English painting is English food." On the food
part, I must completely concur and whenever I am in London, I would starve
except for restaurants operated by Indians, Chinese, French and Italians.
Colin's right about Bush though and his unpopular stance regarding the Kyoto
treaty. We had some bad blood on this list during the election controversy,
but Colin should keep in mind that many, perhaps most Americans, do not
accept Bush as our genuinely elected official. After a recent New York times
report, it looks as if Gore (a staunch environmentalist) not only won the
popular vote, but the votes of Floridians as well. Putting two oil men in
the Presidency is like putting the wolf in charge of the sheep when it comes
to the environment. I personally am embarrassed to be a part of a culture
that consumes 26 per cent of the world's goods, creates most of its air
pollution, and is ultimately trying to sustain a standard of living which is
damaging and unsustainable.
Regardless, much Joni and good summer tidings to you all!
- Clark
NP: Radiohead, Amnesiac
