Today, I shall face the North in awe...
Profoundly grateful that on this day in 1943, a child was born...
Gifted beyond words...
Crafting her lyrical pictures in sound...
A true poet, painting on the canvas of imagination.
| Rainy Night House Ladies of the Canyon (1970) Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire For the Roses (1972) Both Sides Now [orchestral] Both Sides Now (2000) Free Man in Paris Court and Spark (1974) |
Earthquake, tsunami,
How could you stop at 4, and why these songs?
ReplyDeleteInstrumentally, it's a showcase of different styles: percussive piano, her self described "Joni's weird chords" achieved by forming standard chord shapes on differently tuned strings, working with an orchestra and then pop/jazz Tom Scott's L.A. Express at the height of her commercial popularity.
ReplyDeleteThematically it's about the loss of innocence: the choirgirl's one-nighter with the counter-culture poser DJ, the junkie's search for chemical bliss in the nether land between life and death, the change of perspective of looking at life after another generation of living and finally disillusionment with the music business. Although originally written to describe manager David Geffen's dilemma, it also applies to herself 30 years later... Joni chose to withdraw from the "cesspool" and recording between 2002-2005.