because i love her

i love joni

so very much. i love her voice. i love her words. i love her art
Joni Mitchell's Muse Returns on 'Shine'
By CHARLES J. GANS Associated Press Writer
Oct 11th, 2007 NEW YORK -- A few years ago, Joni Mitchell had rejected her musical muse, refusing to write or even play music as she devoted her life to painting, watching old movies on TV and reconnecting to the daughter she had given up for adoption in 1965.
Now, at age 63, newly inspired by family, nature and anger at today's politics, Mitchell is enjoying an outburst of creativity. The iconic Canadian singer-songwriter, whose poetic verses on songs like "Both Sides, Now" have inspired countless musicians from Madonna to Wayne Shorter, has released "Shine," her first album of new songs in nearly a decade.
On Sept. 25, Mitchell returned to the public eye as Starbucks' Hear Music label played her new 10-song album in 6,500 coffee houses. Later that evening, Mitchell found herself at the Manhattan premiere of the film "The Fiddle and the Drum" (scheduled for Oct. 22 broadcast on Bravo), an anti-war ballet based on her songs that she co-created with choreographer Jean Grand-Maitre of the Alberta Ballet.
She then rushed to the gallery opening of an exhibition, entitled "Green Flag Song," of her triptychs. Focused on the themes "war, torture, revolution," they were created from ghostly green-and-white negative images photographed off her dying TV set from the History Channel, CNN and Turner Classic Movies............

the fiddle and the drum
joni mitchell

And so once again
My dear Johnny my dear friend
And so once again you are fightin' us all
And when I ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum

You say I have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But I can remember
All the good things you are
And so I ask you please
Can I help you find the peace and the star
Oh, my friend
What time is this
To trade the handshake for the fist

And so once again
Oh, America my friend
And so once again
You are fighting us all
And when we ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry and we fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum

You say we have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But we can remember
All the good things you are
And so we ask you please
Can we help you find the peace and the star
Oh my friend
We have all come
To fear the beating of your drum

what am i doing right now?

i'm in HEAVEN

i'm listening to k d lang doing her bbc radio show on npr called music from the middle of nowhere

holy shite!

joni mitchell talks

a woman (whose name i didn't get) talks about canadian crows

leonard cohen talks

oh and they sing too.

holy shite!

HEAVEN

Close Up: Music From the Middle of Nowhere

...........Grammy award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter k d lang pays tribute to her favourite Canadian songwriters, including Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Jane Siberry, Ron Sexsmith and Neil Young, in a three-part series
In the first programme k d, who has described herself in song as the "big-boned girl from Alberta", is in her home town of Edmonton. Here, at the Sidetrack Cafe, where she performed with her band The Reclines, she talks about her early forays into music. Against the background of the Alberta Scene arts festival in April and May, when hundreds of musicians flock to Edmonton, k d introduces some of her emerging favourites - Nelly Furtado, Doc Walker and The McDades...........

Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
I've heard there was a secret chord

that David played,

and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music,

Do you?

It goes like this,

the fourth, the fifth

The minor Fall,

The major lift,

The baffled king composing,

hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof

You saw her bathing on the roof

Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you

She tied you to a kitchen chair,

she broke your throne

she cut your hair

and from your lips she drew the halleujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Baby I've been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

love is not a victory march

it's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know

What's real and going on below

but now you never show it to me, do you?

Well remember when I moved in you

the holy dove was moving too

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Maybe there's a God above

And all I ever learned from love

Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you

It's not a cry you can hear at night

It's not somebody who's seen the light

it's a cold and it's a broken HallelujahHallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah…

(listen to it by tim buckley as well)

oh joni please say it isn't true!

(i've NEVER had a starbucks, never been IN a starbucks and i plan on never going in one in the future). joni has always been a favorite of mine. she's in my top ten. well, top five, i like her that much. she never got her due. i don't think people understand what she is capable of. she WAS a 'folk singer'. now she is so very much more.

Starbucks signs up Joni Mitchell

Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is to follow in the footsteps of Sir Paul McCartney by releasing her next album through the coffee chain Starbucks.
Shine, Mitchell's first collection of new material since 1998, will be released on 25 September.
McCartney's album, Memory Almost Full, was released last month by Hear Music, the label set up by Starbucks and the Concord Music Group.
It was played relentlessly in the chain's stores, selling 447,000 copies.

blue............songs are like tattoos. you know i've been to sea before. crown and anchor me or let me sail awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

cactus tree........There's a man who's been out sailing In a decade full of dreams And he takes her to a schooner And he treats her like a queen Bearing beads from California With their amber stones and green He has called her from the harbor He has kissed her with his freedom He has heard her off to starboard In the breaking and the breathing Of the water weeds While she was busy being free ......

that song about the midway.......I met you on a midway at a fair last year And you stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear You were playing on the horses, you were playing on the guitar strings You were playing like a devil wearing wings, wearing wings You looked so grand wearing wings Do you tape them to your shoulders just to sing .......

raised on robbery (which of course contains one of my all time favorite lines).......He was sitting in the lounge of the Empire Hotel He was drinking for diversion He was thinking for himself A little money riding on the Maple Leafs Along comes a lady in lacy sleeves She says let me sit down You know, drinkin' alone's a shame It's a shame it's a crying shame Look at those jokers Glued to that damn hockey game Hey honey-you've got lots of cash Bring us round a bottle And we'll have some laughs Gin's what I'm drinking I was raised on robbery I'm a pretty good cook I'm sitting on my groceries Come up to my kitchen I'll show you my best recipe ...........

coyote...........Coyote's in the coffee shop He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs He picks up my scent on his fingers While he's watching the waitresses' legs He's too far from the Bay of Fundy From appaloosas and eagles and tides And the air conditioned cubicles And the carbon ribbon rides Are spelling it out so clear Either he's going to have to stand and fight Or take off out of here I tried to run away myself To run away and wrestle with my ego And with this flameYou put here in this Eskimo In this hitcher In this prisoner Of the fine white lines...........

talk to me........There was a moon and a street lamp I didn't know I drank such a lot Till I pissed a tequila anaconda The full length of the parking lot! Oh I talk too loose Again I talk too open and free I pay a high price for my open talking Like you do for your silent mystery.

the jungle line......Rousseau walks on trumpet paths Safaris to the heart of all that jazz Through I-bars and girders, through wires and pipes The mathematic circuits of the modern nights Through huts through Harlem through jails and gospel pews Through the class on Park and the trash on Vine Through Europe and the deep deep heart of Dixie blueThrough savage progress cuts the jungle line.....

shadows and light.....Every picture has its shadows And it has some source of light Blindness blindness and sight The perils of benefactors The blessings of parasites Blindness blindness and sight Threatened by all things Devil of cruelty Drawn to all things Devil of delight Mythical devil of the ever-present laws Governing blindness blindness and sight.....

Joni Mitchell - why the fuss?

By Andrew Walker
Having vowed never to record again, one of pop's most lauded singer-songwriters, Joni Mitchell, is returning with a new album this year. A tribute album is also due for release and Radio 2 was recently granted a rare interview. Is this the resurfacing of just another rock relic or that rare event: a comeback worth waiting for?
Not one to shy away from controversy, our Joni. "To enjoy my music, you need depth and emotionality," she recently told one interviewer. "Those two traits are bred out of the white, straight males who control the press."
That's not to say she has much time for feminists either. In the same interview she called them "amazons", adding that the women's movement "created an aggressive-type female with a sense of entitlement that's a bit of a monster". .....

official website

(all lyrics by joni. portrait by joni as well. cover photo from hejira. i love the photo on the BACK even more though. i love her very much indeed......)

rant: i can watch

the last waltz a million times. there is one thing i don't get. i'll never get

WTF is neil diamond doing there?

but that's not really what i wanted to say. i wanted to say i love joni mitchell. i love her a great deal. i was lucky enough to have seen her a few times (early on).

in the movie, she sang one of my favorite songs:

Coyote (joni mitchell)


No regrets Coyote
We just come from such different sets of circumstance
I'm up all night in the studios
And you're up early on your ranch
You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail
While the sun is ascending
And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel
There's no comprehending
Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes
And the lips you can get
And still feel so alone
And still feel related
Like stations in some relay
You're not a hit and run driver no no
Racing away
You just picked up a hitcher
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway

We saw a farmhouse burning down
In the middle of nowhere
In the middle of the night
And we rolled right past that tragedy
Till we turned into some road house lights
Where a local band was playing
Locals were up kicking and shaking on the floor
And the next thing I know
That coyote's at my door
He pins me in a corner and he won't take no
He drags me out on the dance floor
And we're dancing close and slow
Now he's got a woman at home
He's got another woman down the hall
He seems to want me anyway
Why'd you have to get so drunk
And lead me on that way
You just picked up a hitcher
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway

I looked a coyote right in the face
On the road to Baljennie near my old home town
He went running thru the whisker wheat
Chasing some prize down
And a hawk was playing with him
Coyote was jumping straight up and making passes
He had those same eyes just like yours
Under your dark glasses
Privately probing the public rooms
And peeking thru keyholes in numbered doors
Where the players lick their wounds
And take their temporary lovers
And their pills and powders to get them thru this passion play

No regrets Coyote
I just get off up aways
You just picked up a hitcher
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway

Coyote's in the coffee shop
He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs
He picks up my scent on his fingers
While he's watching the waitresses' legs
He's too far from the Bay of Fundy
From appaloosas and eagles and tides
And the air conditioned cubicles
And the carbon ribbon rides
Are spelling it out so clear
Either he's going to have to stand and fight
Or take off out of here
I tried to run away myself
To run away and wrestle with my ego
And with this flame
You put here in this Eskimo
In this hitcherIn this prisoner
Of the fine white lines
Of the white lines on the free free way

i don't understand why she never achieved the fame she deserves. well, i understand she never wanted to (or did for that matter) to bend for the suits at the record companies. i know she wanted to (and did) make records HER way. i know goodbye pork pie hat isn't to everyone's taste. but c'mon. i don't understand why someone gets to be so popular and they have so little talent and someone oozing talent like joni never got her due. this upsets me. i just mentioned something like this in a recent posting and i will mention it again many other times. i have to, it eats at me.