The following videos just went up on YouTube. Joni in London in 1974. "Joni at her creative peak," as the description says, though that makes me cringe, as I'm certain she'd be pissed. (Tip: never tell an artist, particularly an artist who's worked for decades, that you love the work she's best known for.) These performances are obviously from the Miles of Aisles era, not my favorite Joni era (mine would be The Hissing of Summer Lawns through Don Juan's Reckless Daughter), though they're remarkable to see and hear. What startles me is her face, the shifts and colors in it. Intensity, yet poise and restraint: does she ever crease her brow or tense up her mouth? And the pitch-perfect rightness of "getting them to FEEEEEL like that."
6 comments:
"The kind of crazy you get from too much choice" -- That line keeps coming up lately ... so apt.
This has been up for a while but I just heard it: http://broadcastpioneers.com/bp8/3-17-67.html
It's a 1967 interview with JM at good old WMMR in Philly. She's still married to Chuck Mitchell...this must have been just after she gave up her daughter....
Oh and I just loved the thought of the two of you cavorting with the Heffalumps. Piglet would be very jealous.
Joanne, that line has stayed with me since I first heard it in my teens. Funny that such an otherwise "light" song could have such a succinct bit of wisdom in it.
"For the Roses" is probably my favorite of her albums, as distinct from my favorite period of her work.
Thanks for passing along the link, Bill. I have an mp3 of that interview--or that set of interviews. Lots of songs that aren't recorded anywhere else.
Thanks for these. I love Joni -- period -- but I really reconnected with her in the 80s with "Chalkmark in a Rainstorm" and "Night Ride Home," which I think are absolutely brilliant.
Hey Collin,
My favorites from those albums are "My Secret Place" with its marching band of guitars and "Two Grey Rooms," in which Joni inhabits the character of a gay man.
On YouTube you can hear a nice acoustic version of "Number One," which she did for Dutch TV some years back.
I hope you had fun in New Orleans!
Post a Comment