Photo by Erik Christopher Lopez

From ANDRAS JONES: SARA T. RUSSELL of the band Sapphic Musk joins us for a musical divination that delves into the world of Joni collaborators and steers us directly toward one of the hot button topics in Joni-land; her relationship with James Taylor. Taylor’s played guitar on her albums, toured with her, and they were romantically linked in the early 70’s. As I say during the episode, I’ve been in more than one argument about JT who is seen by many Joni fans as a beneficiary of a kind of privilege that she earned and he was given. I’ve spent much of my adult life defending sweet baby James but I can’t argue that, as good as he is, Joni is clearly the superior artist. Funny how privilege ages poorly while toiling on the outskirts ripens the esteem we have for our artists.

The answer to Sara’s question is performed by  TARA AUSTIN with DAVID GOODSTEIN & FUZZBEE MORSE of The Wild Honey Orchestra with GABRIEL GORDON on guitar.

This is as good a time as any to take stock of all the rhymes an alliterations in this episode, beginning with Sara & Tara, not just Sara and Tara though because it’s Sara T and Tara Aus (which sounds like Tara S), but that’s just the beginning. We’ve also got Syd Straw & Emily Elkin & Gabriel Gordon and the songs People’s Parties and For Free, not to mention Kaitlin WOLFberg and “The WOLF That Lives In Lindsey”. That’s a whole lot of alignments, quite possibly meaning nothing, and yet to the synchromystic, such things are harbingers of something. What do you make of it? And are there any I missed?

COLD BLUE STEEL

Cold blue steel out of money
One eye for the beat police
Sweet fire calling
“You can’t deny me
Now you know what you need”
Underneath the jungle gym
Hollow-grey-fire-escape-thief
Looking for sweet fire
Shadow of Lady Release
“Come with me
I know the way” she says
“It’s down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first
Leave someone a letter
You can come now
Or you can come later”
A wristwatch, a ring, a downstairs screamer
Edgy-black cracks of the sky
“Pin-cushion-prick-
Fix this poor bad dreamer!”
“Money” cold shadows reply
Pawnshops crisscrossed and padlocked
Corridors spit on prayers and pleas
Sparks fly up from sweet fire
Black soot of Lady Release
“Come with me
I know the way” she says
“It’s down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you wanna contact somebody first
Does it really matter
If you come now
Or if you come on later?”
Red water in the bathroom sink
Fever and the scum brown bowl
Blue Steel still begging
But it’s indistinct
Someone’s hi-fi drumming Jelly Roll
Concrete concentration camp
Bashing in veins for peace
Cold blue steel and sweet fire
Fall into Lady Release
“Come with me I know the way” she says
“It’s down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you wanna contact somebody first
I mean what does it really matter
You’re gonna come now
Or you’re gonna come later”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkU_c1C2r8I