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Joni Mitchell before she was Joni Mitchell


flatbaroque

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Fantastic - lOVE those kinds of stories. .

Was it the 1974 tour. .

 

Oh man, I have no idea. #-o I really didn't go to that many concerts, either. This must have been the 60s or shortly thereafter, and I was there, so you know what they say. B)

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Question was whether I knew of Canadian singer-picker Ian Tyson.

 

Absolutely. Met him and Sylvia briefly in the spring of '64 at a college folk festival. Ditto Gary Davis, Mike Seeger's group of the era, Bonnie Dobson a Canadian songbird... Big Joe Williams... never got close to Sunnyland Slim and his bunch, though.

 

It was a good time.

 

Actor Peter Coyote was there as a fellow student, he a senior and I a freshman. I've a hunch he'd have far better tales than I might conjure, given the difference in roles at the time.

 

One thing I especially liked about Tyson - and Sylvia too - is that they didn't get political but tended to reflect the human condition from where they sit. Both, it seems to me, still have that tendency.

 

In fact, I'd say that perspective tended to strike me too - topical material is enough fun for the time, but it's not getting at the real roots of human lives anywhere. The "Cowboy" mythos is also a marvelous metaphor for all of our lives. Get bucked off, you can get back on regardless of bruises, you can walk away and do something else, or you can just plain quit.

 

Met Ian a cupla years ago, did an interview with him and then "shot" his concert. I think we'd not likely be friends, because he's as ornery as he claimed his father was - but a definite songwriting "great" whose music will long outlive him, and who has some interesting tales and perspectives on rural life that's disappearing on us.

 

Also, for what it's worth, Ian's been a better picker than he gets credit for. Then again, it's "songs" I think he's tended to emphasize as opposed to his own picking.

 

There's not that much difference between rural Alberta and the Northern Plains area where I call home - so there's a lot of commonality of themes in his music that hits home among folks around here somewhat more - regardless that not all self-identify as "cowboys" - than Mitchell's material. His "Little High Plains Town" accurately described where I live until shortly after 2003 when it decided to grow just short of "explosively."

 

Ian and Sylvia, btw, did "cover" some of Mitchell's material, as they did Gordon Lightfoot material, perhaps best would be the first release of Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain."

 

m

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One thing I especially liked about Tyson that he didn't get political but tended to reflect the human condition ..there's a lot of commonality of themes in his music that hits home among folks around here somewhat more - regardless that not all self-identify as "cowboys"
Spot on. I only got into IT through our song circles in NH, wherehis music is frequently played. Double Diamond, Navaho Rug, Great Divide all come up a lot. And this one:
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<grin>

 

My family left New England after the 1860s "civil war" 'cuz it was too crowded. My great grandpa headed west in the '50s, served in the war, then when it was over, headed yet farther west, settled in a brand new town and brought his Dad "west."

 

Tyson's material always goes over well out here.

 

As for Charlie Russell, I know a lotta folks back east don't believe his colors. Believe them; ditto some of Remington's material around here. Remington, btw, also was in the area and actually rode with the cavalry and wrote of it. He also discovered that "English" riding styles didn't work so well in the environment - at least so he wrote.

 

Both Tyson and Mitchell, interestingly enough, had kinda a rural-phase upbringing.

 

I think Tyson has always been more into the mythos of the plains.

 

Oddly I think both Mitchell and Tyson have tended to let out their pre-rock influences reflecting their age and "pre baby boom" upbringing. That led to something else than a rock or country or true folk sort of composition.

 

Both too, btw, wrote with a lotta metaphor. Tyson's cowboy material tends especially to speak to those who catch onto it.

 

I probably shouldn't, but if there's been a guy who's been a bit cutting loose, and a girl who liked a bit of the real or metaphorical rodeo bronc rider.... you're in this song.

 

m

 

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Ian and Sylvia, btw, did "cover" some of Mitchell's material, as they did Gordon Lightfoot material, perhaps best would be the first release of Lightfoot's "Early Morning Rain."

 

m

 

 

Their version of "Early Morning Rain" is my favorite by far. Saw them perform it in the spring of 1969, my senior year in college. They put on a great show. Outside, audience of maybe a couple of hundred, and my girlfriend (later first wife) and I sat just a few feet away from them. Good times.

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I probably shouldn't, but if there's been a guy who's been a bit cutting loose, and a girl who liked a bit of the real or metaphorical rodeo bronc rider.... you're in this song.

 

m

 

 

 

My favorite Ian Tyson song. Judy Blue Eyes cover of that is still at the top of my list, and it's always the first song played on my ipod when we're wheels-up. Calms me down, makes me wistful.

 

Tyson's voice is wonderful. Really a pure country voice in the best sense of the term.

 

He was plying a D-28 when I saw him, not a D-45 like this one. He really is a good picker, by the way.

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I don't know if it is true today, but when I lived in Canada in the 70's, laws were passed forcing radio stations to play 50% canadian content in their music playlists……SOOOO we heard a LOT of Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Ian and Sylvia, Joni, and ugh…Anne Murray……..along with bands like Steppenwolf and Guess Who……Lots of good music. Canadian way to prevent the "Americanization" of music on the radios

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onewiley...

 

Yup. Magazines too. That cause me no end of trouble when I was running a magazine that had at one point a decent Canadian readership that was beginning to grow. It ended because it was just too much trouble to go through the hoops.

 

m

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I don't know if it is true today, but when I lived in Canada in the 70's, laws were passed forcing radio stations to play 50% canadian content in their music playlists……SOOOO we heard a LOT of Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young, Ian and Sylvia, Joni, and ugh…Anne Murray……..along with bands like Steppenwolf and Guess Who……Lots of good music. Canadian way to prevent the "Americanization" of music on the radios

 

Interesting to hear on this side of the ocean -

 

So (not especially radio-suited) Young was allowed airplay, , , also with the american bands CSN&Y, Crazy Horse and Stray Gators.

 

Wonder if the laid back dampened word-smith Leonard Cohen enjoyed broadcasting too. .

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Kinda funny on Cohen. I was aware of him pretty early in the '60s, but never, ever saw or heard him. Knew of a lotta his material, but...

 

He's a Kohen who got involved heavily in Zen. So also is actor Peter Coyote, also a singer and picker.

 

Life has its odd coincidences.

 

m

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I can't speak to Leonard, but Peter Coyote - I knew him a bit in college although he was a senior and I a freshman - mentioned the same connections that brought him deeply into zen that took me instead to a lotta reading, but also into some of the, to me, more interesting aspects of Asian martial arts. Each to his or her own. Meditation in zazen or in movement... both have purpose.

 

So, I guess you could say I'm not really a koan-head.

 

m

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In a sense, I can't argue but... it may well have nothing to do with the ciggies.

 

I could go on, but the bottom line is that first, none of us look at 70+ the way we did at 25. I'm some months away from 70 and some "surviving" kids my age are barely alive regardless of lifestyles. To the contrary, some can run the average high school athlete into the ground and then... simply drop dead. Stuff happens.

 

Much as most of us deny it, most of us also have at least a couple very unhealthy habits we tend not to admit are just that, unhealthy. Bad stuff "I" do is okay for me because I can rationalize it, but bad stuff "you" do is horrid and that's why I want it to be illegal, immoral, fattening and otherwise forbidden poisons???

 

Genetics plays a huge, huge role, along with general lifestyle.

 

That includes even singing a lot with incorrect technique, especially if one's genetics are a certain way, and changing one's voice more than "average" at one's age. It's no secret that most of our voices do go lower as we age, even as we tend not to hear as well - even taste as well as we did in our younger days.

 

Voices? I'll wager some folks, including a lot of 'em in the biz, would be surprised at how many singers end up with major problems with their larynx whether they smoke or not. More than a few I've known have had semi-secret surgeries for just that reason.

 

Canadian singer Ian Tyson had that legendary clear singing voice regardless of other stuff he may have put his body through - but he finally blew it out at one concert. Personally I'll wager there was earlier weakening of the larynx but...

 

Bottom line is that lots of stuff ain't good for us that we wanna do; and lots of stuff that's good for us, we ain't gonna do regardless.

 

And then "we" humans tend to go with a lotta fads and justifications for what we do that's not good for us on a personal basis, and those things we don't like to see others do, "we" tend to make illegal and find justification for that.

 

Meanwhile... it's a crapshoot on our own genetics as to how our bodies might survive into age 70 and beyond. I wish I looked like I did when I was 25 again. Heck, I'd be happy if I looked like I did when I was 50. Get killed in a car wreck and it doesn't make much diff. Get batches of high-quality surgery cosmetic and "restorative," and ... you're still not turning back the clock.

 

m

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It's just a shame that someone with such a pristine, gorgeous, magical voice would ruin it with cigarettes. I saw an interview with her several years ago and it was depressing.

 

Excuse me, but did she ruin her voice. In that case it came very late - within the last 5 years or so.

 

If her vox over time developed a slight rough edge here and there, smoke would have played a role, , , but it was probably on purpose too.

 

I bet she found that clear bell too innocent for expressing various hues of life from very early on.

 

And her vocal performances certainly didn't miss anything on those many albums.

 

 

 

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Love the pix.

 

When I was 18-25 and dating girls that age, most of 'em looked pretty similar.

 

Oddly now some 50 years later, they're old women talkin' about old men, grandchildren and whatever else strikes their fancy.

 

Not one of 'em managed to stay in their 20s. A lot of 'em have storebought hips and knees, too.

 

m

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Love the pix.

 

When I was 18-25 and dating girls that age, most of 'em looked pretty similar.

 

Oddly now some 50 years later, they're old women talkin' about old men, grandchildren and whatever else strikes their fancy.

 

Not one of 'em managed to stay in their 20s. A lot of 'em have storebought hips and knees, too.

 

m

 

 

Hey Milo, getting old ain't for sissies, as my wife always tells me......

 

I look at pictures of me with my J-45 when I was 20, and then I look in the mirror today. It's not a very pretty sight almost 50 years later, and I wonder if I was ever that young.

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Yeah... I'm almost to the point I don't wanna look at the pix of this kid I once was and somehow in ways remain inside.

 

It's just that the mirror while shaving in the morning tells a different story.

 

Whether other readers listen to George Strait or not - I don't usually myself - here's a piece that I think sez it for a lot of us...

 

I still feel 25 most of the time.

I still raise a little cain with the boys.

Honky Tonks and pretty women,

But Lord I'm still right there with 'em

Singing above the crowd and the noise...

 

[CHORUS]

Sometimes I feel like Jesse James

Still tryin' to make a name.

Knowing nothing's gonna change what I am.

I was a young troubadour

When I wrote in on a song.

And I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone...

 

Well the truth about a mirror...

Is that a damn old mirror...

Don't really tell the whole truth.

It don't show what's deep inside.

Or read between the lines.

And it's really no reflextion of my youth...

 

[CHORUS]

Sometimes I feel like Jesse James

Still tryin' to make a name.

Knowing nothing's gonna change what I am.

I was a young troubadour

When I wrote in on a song.

I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone...

 

I was a young troubadour

When I wrote in on a song.

And I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone...

I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone...

 

m

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Great song!!!

 

Yeah... I'm almost to the point I don't wanna look at the pix of this kid I once was and somehow in ways remain inside.

 

It's just that the mirror while shaving in the morning tells a different story.

 

Whether other readers listen to George Strait or not - I don't usually myself - here's a piece that I think sez it for a lot of us...

 

I still feel 25 most of the time.

I still raise a little cain with the boys.

Honky Tonks and pretty women,

But Lord I'm still right there with 'em

Singing above the crowd and the noise...

 

[CHORUS]

Sometimes I feel like Jesse James

Still tryin' to make a name.

Knowing nothing's gonna change what I am.

I was a young troubadour

When I wrote in on a song.

And I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone...

 

Well the truth about a mirror...

Is that a damn old mirror...

Don't really tell the whole truth.

It don't show what's deep inside.

Or read between the lines.

And it's really no reflextion of my youth...

 

[CHORUS]

Sometimes I feel like Jesse James

Still tryin' to make a name.

Knowing nothing's gonna change what I am.

I was a young troubadour

When I wrote in on a song.

I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone...

 

I was a young troubadour

When I wrote in on a song.

And I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone...

I'll be an old troubadour when I'm gone...

 

m

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With reference again to aging - and Joni has to be in her early 70s that once I thought was horridly old and hardly worth a continued life - here's an Ian Tyson Piece I used at a Cowboy poetry and music gig a few years ago. Wish I'd learned the words a bit better...

 

But if there's a bit of the cowboy, or love for the metaphor in your own lives... Funny thing is I've known a few old cowboys, the real thing, that I've heard pretty much speak this song after a bit more whisky than they should, and if married may yet make fun of themselves to save themselves from "the look." And of course the wives won't admit that perhaps they were in their own way somehow a Juanita to a wild young "cowboy."

 

BTW, Sylvia Tyson at least once said that Ian was far more "romantic" than she... taken with the cowboy lifestyle. Where I'd say perhaps it's more living in the moments of the reality and reflecting it in metaphor - where some folks live the metaphor without admitting or even recognizing they're missing the realities.

 

 

If I could roll back the years

Back when I was young and limber

Loose as ashes in the wind

I had no irons in the fire

I could ride them wild young broncos

The adrenaline came quickly

And Juanita down at Mona's

Was my only hearts desire

 

Verse 2.

 

We were living for the moment

And the sunlight on my silver bits

The ringing of my jinglebobs

Was the music of my soul

In the alley back of Mona's

I held Juanita in the shadows

How we held on to each other

And the lovin' that we stole

 

Chorus:

And the sighing of the pines

Up here near the timberline

Makes me wish I'd done things different

Oh, but wishing don't make it so

Oh the time has passed so quick

The years all run together now

Did I hold Juanita yesterday

Was it fifty years ago

 

Verse 3.

 

If I would have quit them broncos

She might have quit that business

But that was back in the fast days

You know before the wire

I bet I could still find her

Bet she's still as pretty

As when she's Juanita down at Mona's

And my only heart's desire

 

Repeat Chorus twice

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