Joni Mitchell Never Lies

I've got to stop reading Rosie's blog, because tonight it is influencing what I was going to write. I was going to talk about weight, because that's a thorny issue with me, and I am sorta on a diet again, or trying to start one, but then I accidently clicked on her link and BOOM, she's talking about Joni, which just freaks me out, so I am going to too - You see, as Margo can attest, there has been no singular influence on my life as great as Joni Mitchell has been. You think I am kidding, but I am not. Dead serious. Discovering Joni was one of those moments that completely alters your life. I remember it well. Being from Canada in general, and Saskatchewan specifically, you just sort of learn to hate your own, or at least that's how it was when I was coming up (LOL, had to throw in an Oprah term). Didn't know sweet fuck all about Joni, except that she sang Big Yellow Taxi and a couple other songs. However, she was Canadian, so I lumped her in with Gordon Lightfoot as someone sucky.
In 1987, however, Rolling Stone put out the 100 best albums issue, and as I was desparately trying to get in on everything critically acclaimed, I studied it like the Bible. You see, music was my passion, my life, and while I was preoccupied with New Wave, funk, and folk, I wanted to "know the masters". Well, I saw that Joni was in there twice, with BLUE and COURT AND SPARK. So, keeping that in mind, that December, one Thursday evening, I was downtown at our local library, and I saw Blue on the shelf, so I signed this decrepit old album out. I walked home, threw it on my old Kenmore stereo, and heard the opening dulcimer or whatever it is start playing. Then I heard the following lines: "I am on a lonely road and I am travelling, travelling, travelling, looking for something, what can it be?" and I swear, I am not being dramatic here - I got this huge welling of bliss in my chest, and I was so excited. Nothing had really hit me like that before. Well, listening to that song made me almost jump out of my skin. I called Margo to tell her, but she was watching the Cosby show and didn't want to talk, and I even hauled my mother upstairs into my room to try and listen to this. I just became transfixed with the whole album. It was what I lived and breathed. I ended up snapping up all the Joni I could find, which was very difficult, because at that time, nobody carried her stuff. So when we'd go to Edmonton, I'd be too excited to sleep at the thought of Sam the Record Man. I think I bought Chalkmark in a Rainstorm next, and Court and Spark, which came a close second to BLue at that time - nothing like the lines from Down to You - "Everything comes and goes/Marked by lovers, and styles of clothes". I got 86's Dog Eat Dog, which I still love (most Joniphiles don't, but it rocks my world), and, long and short of it, I got all of her albums and loved each of them in different ways. It's gotten to the point where I don't know what my favorite is anymore. Blue got me hooked, but For the Roses has grabbed me the past few years and I am addicted to it. Hegira was my favorite at one time too, and "Amelia" can't be beat. Hissing of Summer Lawns also holds a soft spot, but I am really enraptured with Don Juan's Reckless Daughter lately, specifically the title track and Off Night Backstreet. But I won't bore you with any more of the album talk.
But back to Joan - i never knew she was from Saskatchewan until after I was under her spell. THEN, freakishly enough, she started dating Don Freed, who was still living in Saskatchewan, and who accepted a postion as a writer in residence in my hometown. WELL - I was living in Saskatoon at that time, but whenever I would go home, I would hear of these Joni sightings - "Joni was at the gas station" or "Joni was at the jigging contest" and "Joni was at the Art's Center" - on and on and on. Well, one night, arond 11, my sister Libby calls me. She makes small talk and then she says "JT... ummm, I just got back from having coffee at Amy's.. you know who was there? Joni" WELL, to steal a line from SOH, I almost soiled myself three times over. I was still smoking then, and I couldn't reach my smokes while on the phone, so I frantically fished around for a butt in the ashtray - this was too hard on m nerves to get through without a smoke. So she says "hey, my friend Lou is a waiter there - lemme call you back" and so 2 minutes later she calls back and says she has Joni's used wineglass for me. WELL, that was the funniest fucking thing ever. We laughed and laughed... LOL, I still have it somewhere I think. But just that gesture from my sister shows how everyone knew how Joni was wrapped up in the fabric of my life.
So flash forward a year or two - we are living in the hometown again, and one day my other sister Lois calls me. Her husband works for a stationary company, and she calls me to tell me Joni was in the store at that moment. Well, I was too conflicted to go down there. I was so excited, but something just told me to respect her privacy... LOL, I wish I woulda just went.. but anyway...
In 98, I joined the Joni discussion group, which was so cool. Met tons of likeminded people, got some really good discussions out of it, and met a bunch of them when they came to Saskatoon in 2000 when Joni did her art opening. I also met Joan then, briefly. My wife and I were walking by the gallery the afternoon before the opening, trying to get a glimpse of her and there she was, having a smoke. Well, i freaked out and just sort of took off, while I watch Rach out of the side of my eyes walking up, in her no-nonsense, calm way and saying "Excuse me, my husband is a huge fan, can I get a picture?" and the next thing you know, she's holding my hand sorta and I am standing there like some big fucking retarded looking whale (I was wearing the worst outfit imaginable). I didn't have the wherewithal to actually say anything really, and then the moment was gone. I wish I would have thanked her for all that her music has done for me, and for being the soundtrack to our lives - "I remember that time you told me love was touching souls, well surely you touched mine".
Anyway, sorry for the boring post, as I wanted to rage about this Pope nonsense, my weight issues, American Idol, and Survivor, but I guess it will have to wait for another night.
xo
JT