Monday, 2/25

Oh, look. It snowed again over the weekend. It NEVER does that around here...especially 14 wind-blown inches at a time

8-(

In and between the snow and the crud and the SAIL Chocolate Festival (where only about a quarter of the people who bought tickets actually showed up, not that I blame them) yesterday, I managed to finish a book I've been reading for a week or so now. The book, “Girls Like Us”, is the story of three great singer/songwriters, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon. The book was actually quite interesting. Having grown up listening to a lot of the songs they performed, it was interesting to see what they were actually doing in their lives when they wrote and recorded their classics.

It also caused me to pull out a couple of CDs we have buried in our massive collections to re-listen to a few of those songs. And, me being me, I now have one stuck in my head. I've probably listened to it a couple of dozen times since yesterday, and yet (or because of that) it won't leave my brain.

If you haven't heard it recently, let me reintroduce you to Joni Mitchell's “Free Man in Paris”--

I knew of the song as a kid, but I had pretty much totally forgotten about it. According to the book, it's about the life of Joni's friend David Geffen, the then music executive to went on to found Dreamworks with Steven Spielberg. Listening to the lyrics now, especially after reading the book, you can certainly tell that. But what captured my interest, and caused me to listen to it over and over a couple of dozen times, is the musical complexity of the song. The chord and time changes, and the way everything glides from one to the other, actually made Joni Mitchell look for a jazz group to back her up. Most standard studio musicians just couldn't give her what she wanted. So she teamed up with Tom Scott's group LA Express, drafted Jose Feliciano to play guitar and half of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young to sing background, and then recorded the little 3 minute and three second song that's been stuck in my head.

Who knew that reading something could be so dangerous?

Anyway, if you ever come across the book, I highly recommend it. I can't guarantee you'll get one of the songs they discuss stuck in your head; in fact, I hope for your sake that you don't. But it IS an enjoyable way to get through a snowy couple of hours.

Not that we'll ever have THAT happen again...

(jim@wmqt.com), sarcasm professional.