Hokay.
Fracas Monday Melee time.
I enjoyed my single artist lyric melee so much last Monday that I've decided to narrow it even further and do a single album melee.
In case any Joni Mitchell fans are wondering if the new album's any good after all those years of tetchy "retirement," I'll do today's melee purely from Shine.
It may not be "Blue," but it's her best album for twenty-five years.
1: The Misanthropic.
(Name something - about humanity - you absolutely hate).
"Holy war
Genocide
Suicide
Hate and cruelty...
How can this be holy?
If I had a heart I'd cry."
"If I Had A Heart" from Shine - Joni Mitchell
2: The Meretricious:
(Expose someone or something that's phony, fraudulent or bogus).
"Strong and wrong
What is God's will?
Onward Christian soldiers...
Or thou shall not kill?
Men love war!
Is that what God is for?
Just a rabbit's foot?
Just a lucky paw
For shock and awe?
Shock and awe!"
"Strong And Wrong" from Shine - Joni Mitchell
3: The Malcontent:
(Name something you're unhappy with).
"Let your little light shine
Shine on good humor
Shine on good will
Shine on lousy leadership
Licensed to kill
Shine on dying soldiers
In patriotic pain
Shine on mass destruction
In some God's name!"
"Shine" from Shine - Joni Mitchell
4: The Meritorious.
(Give someone credit for something and name it if you can).
"So they paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel
A boutique
And a swinging night spot.
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot."
"Big Yellow Taxi 2007" from Shine - Joni Mitchell
I'm giving credit to Joni for forty years of beautiful songs and protest against all things shite.
5: The Mirror.
(See something good about yourself and name it).
"Strong and wrong
You lose everything
Without the heart
You need
To hear a robin sing
Where have all the songbirds gone?
Gone!
All I hear are crows in flight
Singing might is right
Might is right!"
"Strong And Wrong" from Shine - Joni Mitchell
I've spent my whole adult life as a bolshie Marxist awkward bastard; fighting the "might is right" brigade.
And I feel pretty good about that.
6: The Make-Believe:
(Name something you wish for).
"Sparkle on the ocean
Eagle at the top of a tree
Those crazy crows always making a commotion
This land is home to me.
I was talking to my neighbor
He said, "When I get to heaven, if it is not like this,
I'll just hop a cloud and I'm coming right back down here
Back to this heavenly bliss.""
"This Place" from Shine - Joni Mitchell
Next week? Who knows.
15 comments:
perfect reading to end my night...thsnks, sugar..enjoy your day!
You just can't beat Big Yellow Taxi. They should make it a national anthem.
Oh Crap - Crapedy Crap and Crapola.
I believe I said I'd join in this madness and forgot about it completely. Sorry Dive - maybe next week!
Savannah: Cheers. Sleep well.
Kate: Damned right! Forty years old and more relevant than ever.
Vic: You're excused melee as you're recovering from a birthday weekender.
How'd it go?
I'm with Kate about Big Yellow Taxi. Great post, Dive. Now, I'll have to buy more Joni Mitchell.
And a great James Taylor melee from you, Robyn.
Oddly enough, a lot of the same subjects come up in both of them.
Hoorah for old folkies.
Glad to hear that the album's decent. I don't have anything past The Hissing of Summer Lawns, but perhaps I'll check this one out.
I'll do a single artist melee next week just to catch up.
You've not got Hejira, Sassy?
I'll pick myself up and say that again …
"You've not got HEJIRA, Sassy?"
Go and buy it before you even make coffee.
Good grief! Kids today know nothing …
Kate: Cool. I wonder who you'll do?
I'm thinking Garth Brooks or Steve Earle
Ah...I haven't listened to my Joni albums (and that is exactly what they are: albums) in a long, long time. I think I need to jump back into her skin for awhile.
2: The Meretricious:
(Expose someone or something that's phony, fraudulent or bogus).
She came from Providence, the one in Rhode Island
where the old world shadows hang heavy in the air.
She packed her hopes and dreams like a refugee,
just as her father came across the sea.
She heard about a place people were smilin',
they spoke about the red man's way, how they loved the land.
And they came from everywhere to the Great Divide
seeking a place to stand or a place to hide.
Down in the crowded bars out for a good time,
can't wait to tell you all what it's like up there.
And they called it paradise, I don't know why.
Somebody laid the mountains low while the town got high.
Then the chilly winds blew down across the desert,
through the canyons of the coast to the Malibu
where the pretty people play hungry for power
to light their neon way and give them things to do.
Some rich man came and raped the land, nobody caught 'em,
put up a bunch of ugly boxes and, Jesus, people bought 'em.
And they called it paradise, the place to be,
they watched the hazy sun sinking in the sea.
You can leave it all behind and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did so many years ago.
They even brought a neon sign 'Jesus is Coming',
brought the white man's burden down, brought the white man's reign.
Who will provide the grand design, what is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here.
We satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds
in the name of destiny and in the name of God.
And you can see them there on Sunday morning
stand up and sing about what it's like up there.
They called it paradise, I don't know why.
You call some place paradise - kiss it goodbye.
The Last Resort
Don Henley/Glenn Frey
http://www.risa.co.uk/sla/song.php?songid=12703
Kate: Great choices.
Maria: You so do!
Katherine: That's the first time that's happened in decades: I delved into my ridiculously huge vinyl collection and dragged out Hotel California (Yikes! There goes my credibility with my muso friends).
The Last Resort is truly a great lyric. Thanks for the reminder.
I have a thing for Don Henley. He marches to save Walden Pond in Concord. And of course, his writing...and voice. What's not to love? : )
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