From ANDRAS JONES: STEVE GREGOROPOULOS plays keys and sings in the band Lavender Diamond. He joins us for a musical divination that delves with fierce specificity into the lyrical architecture and iconography of Joni Mitchell’s catalogue. Steve was suggested to us by Kaitlin Wolfberg as someone with “an alternate opinion” of Joni, and he certainly stirred conversation and got me thinking. The answer to his query was performed by KP and JOHNNY HAWTHORN, who are also part of the band Calico. KP is one of the most valuable players on this session, performing 2 songs, as well as singing the wonderful Joni-themed R8B song that opens each podcast.

Steve is mildly obsessed with a connection between Joni and Neil Young which certainly has a fair amount of historical data to back it up. (I’ve shared videos of the 2 songs Steve references in his question to the bottom of this post so you can do your own research). I, on the other hand, find myself pondering a connection that is far more tenuous yet one which keeps asserting itself in these sessions, and that is to Pete Townshend.

Here’s what I found when I did a quick search for Joni Mitchell and Pete Townshend (from the Cameron Crowe site, The Uncool):

“Check out The Who’s Pete Townshend, writing on his web site, just the other day: “I am listening to Joni Mitchell’s CD called Travelogue. It is a revisit to her career with full orchestra. It is, quite simply, a quantum masterpiece. Joni is a the peak of her powers. Even her paintings seem to me to be especially revelatory gathered as they are in the sleeve. Someone told me last night, after The Who’s show at Madison Square Garden, that she plans no more recording. If she never made another record, this one will stand as a testament not only to her work, but to the greatness of American Orchestral music.”

It would appear there is a mutual appreciation between these artists. Jody Porter mentioned Joni coming out to watch him play at a tribute to John Entwistle and Keith Moon in our previous reading, and in People’s Parties she sings of “fumbling deaf, dumb and blind” like The Who’s Tommy. There are more Townshend syncs to come but here’s what I’m thinking…

Both Joni & Pete have had big, generation defining hits and yet, are primarily regarded as artists, as opposed to pop stars. This is a very rare strata. One which may not always be understood by those outside the craft of song. For example, as big as Bowie or Jagger or, say, Patti Smith are, for the most part they are singers and that’s a different thing (to other musicians) than being a singer who is also a virtuoso musician, like Pete or Joni or another cat who gets name-checked a lot in this episode, Prince. The loyalty both Joni and Pete inspire in their fans and peers flows from the strength (leader-ness?) of the music, but also from the transparency of their insecurities and failings. This combination of strength and brokenness casts a mighty spell if it “saved” you as it has so many of us participating in this session. Not everyone gets these artists or what they are doing, but nobody can deny them, and both have a kind of pretension that isn’t pretentious because they back it up. That kind of inside-outerism speaks to the smart kids, the ones who bloom late if at all. The ones who go on to become artists so we can attend shindigs like the one in People’s Parties (or this session) and feel the “frightened silence” Joni describes, while Townshend’s working himself “to death just to fit in”.

It’s a nifty trick, conquering the world while being accepted as a fellow nerdy boy or awkward girl by generation after generation of misfit teens. If you can pull it off for 50 years over hundreds of songs,  it’s probably because you’re the real deal. And I don’t mean a real deal rock star. There are plenty of them. I mean doing all of that and still being a real deal loser, like the rest of us.

PEOPLE’S PARTIES

All the people at this party
They’ve got a lot of style
They’ve got stamps of many countries
They’ve got passport smiles
Some are friendly
Some are cutting
Some are watching it from the wings
Some are standing in the centre
Giving to get something
Photo Beauty gets attention
Then her eye paint’s running down
She’s got a rose in her teeth
And a lampshade crown
One minute she’s so happy
Then she’s crying on someone’s knee
Saying, laughing and crying
You know it’s the same release
I told you when I met you
I was crazy
Cry for us all, Beauty
Cry for Eddie in the corner
Thinking he’s nobody
And Jack behind his joker
And stone-cold Grace behind her fan
And me in my frightened silence
Thinking I don’t understand
I feel like I’m sleeping
Can you wake me?
You seem to have a broader sensibility
I’m just living on nerves and feelings
With a weak and a lazy mind
And coming to people’s parties
Fumbling deaf dumb and blind
I wish I had more sense of humor
Keeping the sadness at bay
Throwing the lightness on these things
Laughing it all away
Laughing it all away
Laughing it all away

“There’s a whole lot of crazy people up there living out life in sweet ennui”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgxCvg0E1b4