Joni and the Machines.

Photo by David Bartus on Pexels.com

Following a favourite recording artist can lead to some interesting places. This thought is in some respect a variation on the famous (or infamous!) ‘difficult third album’ syndrome – you know – a singer or band has a hit album, then they repeat the formula for the second but decide to spread their wings and ‘get creative’ for the third which bombs initially but then finds a new audience years later and receives retrospective acclaim. And sometimes favourite artists travel into a strange and difficult place where all the familiar signposts seem to have been removed. Think Dylan going electric (to cries of ‘Judas’) in the 1960’s, or Miles moving from the period that produced ‘Kind of Blue’ and his collaborations with Coltrane and Gil Evans to the sometimes shapeless studio jams that feature on ‘Bitches Brew’ – it can often be a difficult path to follow.

When I think of Joni Mitchell I think of ‘For the Roses’ which was the first of her records that I bought – hearing it made me immediately want to get her earlier releases starting with ‘Songs to a Seagull’ and ‘Blue’ (another favourite). There was something about ‘Roses’ that intrigued me – here was what looked like a conventional singer songwriter flirting with jazz (‘Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire’), radio friendly pop (‘You Turn Me On I’m A Radio’) and bringing Stephen Stills in as a ‘rock band’ on ‘The Blonde in the Bleachers’. A look at the players involved here gave a massive clue to her next stylistic leap – Stills and band mate Graham Nash mixed with members of the (formerly Jazz) Crusaders and pointed on to ‘Court and Spark’ and the albums that followed. But then in the 1980’s she also embraced a shift towards the greater use of technology in a series of records she made for David Geffen’s label. In a recent article in The Guardian 19 of Joni’s albums were ranked and three of the four Geffen albums were, respectively, 19 (‘Dog Eat Dog), 18 (‘Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm’) and 17 (‘Wild Things Run Fast’) and the fourth (‘Night Ride Home’) was 12th. The writer remarked of 1985’s ‘Dog Eat Dog’ “She is virtually unrecognisable here subsumed by a homogenised 80’s sound that leaves you pining for the astral lifelines of her earlier work”, and asking rhetorically, “is any Mitchell fan truly comfortable with her 80’s output?”.

I have been listening to these records again and whilst I agree with much of what the above writer says about their clanking, synthesised sound palette I think that in places it is quite effective. For example, the ticking (synth?) pattern behind ‘The Three Great Stimulants’ for example, like a time bomb behind the world weary lyric, or the sound collage effects on ‘Fiction’, and the role of Rod Steiger as a crazed televangelist on ‘Tax Free’ (all from ‘Dog Eat Dog’). There are other examples of what I have called ‘Joni and The Machines’ on other record of this period – ‘sound collages’ and sequencers appear on ‘Chalk Mark’, the Native American voice that opens ‘Lakota’ recalls the Burundi tribesmen she recorded for ‘The Jungle Line’ from ‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns’ and, amongst the personnel synth pop maestro Thomas Dolby is present in various capacities. But for all the synclaviers and Fairlight CMI’s I find it interesting that each of these albums ends on a much more ‘organic’ note – witness ‘Impossible Dreamer’ and ‘Lucky Girl’ (both featuring the agile reeds of Wayne Shorter) from ‘Dog’, ‘A Bird That Whistles’ from ‘Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm’, her reading of 1 Corinthians 13 ‘Love’ that closes ‘Wild Things’ and possibly my favourite Joni song ‘Two Grey Rooms’ from ‘Night Ride Home’ featuring a gorgeous string arrangement by Jeremy Lubbock.

The glories of her ‘orchestral’ albums ‘Both Sides Now’ (2000) and the wonderful ‘Travelogue’ (2002) were yet to come but the four Geffen records remain intriguing -sometimes they don’t work but they contain songs and treatments that are worth re -evaluating, and Joni Mitchell is always worth listening to, no matter what period you choose!!

(The Guardian’s writer Kat Lister ranked Joni’s albums on the 15th of August – I read the article online in a County Mayo hotel).

 

 

 

 

A reflection on Holy Saturday.

The first question I want to ask is what is Holy Saturday? The easy answer is that “Holy Saturday is the day before Easter and is the date during Holy Week when Christians engage in preparations for Easter services. Among Anglicans it is typically referred to as Eastern Even (Easter Eve) and among Filipinos as Black Saturday. Eastern Orthodox Christians call it The Great Sabbath because Jesus “rested” in the tomb on this day. Sometimes it is called Easter Saturday, but that is incorrect – technically, Easter Saturday is the Saturday following Easter.

Some early Christian legends recount how the “Harrowing of Hell” occurred on this day. While his body lay in the tomb, Jesus visited hell to rescue the many just and good non-Christians held there. This descent into Hell created a way for all those born before Christ to be redeemed, thus eliminating the problem of teaching that good people would be tormented for all eternity. However, some Christians believe that Jesus only went to Sheol or Hades because this place of shadows is a temporary place whereas Hell is a future realm to be accessed after judgement. In the very early Christian church, Christians would normally fast during the day and participate in an all-night vigil before a baptism of new Christians and celebratory Eucharist at dawn. During the Middle Ages many of the Holy Saturday events were transferred from the night-time vigil to dawn services on Saturday. Modern Catholic churches observe Holy Saturday by severely restricting all religious observances. Altars are stripped bare. No sacraments are administered except in emergencies, for example, if someone is close to death. Neither weddings nor funerals are held. This is the only date in the liturgical calendar on which masses are not held. On Holy Saturday the Church waits at the Lord’s tomb, and meditates on His Passion and Death and His descent into Hell. With prayer and fasting we await His glorious Easter resurrection. Mary is also a Holy Saturday symbol. According to Catholic tradition, Mary represents the entire body of the Church. As she waited in faith for the victorious triumph of Her Son over death on the first Holy Saturday, so we too wait with Mary on the present Holy Saturday. This faithful and prayerful symbolic waiting has been called the Ora della Madre or Hour of the Mother.

This is clearly an ‘in-between’ time after the Crucifixion and before the Resurrection. As has been suggested earlier it is ‘a liturgically sparse time of reflection’. One writer has even gone as far as describing Holy Saturday as ‘a day of atheism’ (Alan E. Lewis), because, as one reviewer of Lewis’ book (‘Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday’ W. B. Eerdmans 2003) puts it; “Jesus is dead, his message and person discredited. The kingdoms of this world have won, and the God Jesus trusted in is seen either to have failed Jesus or as ultimately powerless against sin and death”. It is only against the background of Jesus death and the failure of his mission that the glorious mystery of the Resurrection can be fully appreciated.

It could be argued that life itself is full of these ‘in between’ times. Between birth and death for example, as the songwriter Joni Mitchell puts it in her song ‘Hejira’ (1977);

“I know- no one’s going to show me everything

We come and go unknown

Each so deep and so superficial

Between the forceps and the stone’”

There are also the years of childhood and adolescence, times of great change and development which can be both a time of difficulty and maturity. Without seeming too flippant, what I have called ‘in between’ times can be found in the most ordinary experiences, the reading between starting a finishing a book, or the walking between the start and the end of a journey. If you want to look at the biblical narrative think for a moment of the desert experience of Israel, their ‘in between’ time lasted for 40 years. They wandered as a result of their inability to appreciate God’s love but they also learned a great deal about divine provision for them both in their imprisonment and the ‘freedom’ of the desert. These ‘in between’ times can lead to impatience but they are essential if we are to learn the lessons of life, for example when making a journey we can be so fixed on our arrival that we can easily miss the insights to be gained on the way. Robert Louis Stevenson may have been thinking of this when he said ‘To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive’.

But then I also want to take a cue from the insight I mentioned earlier and see Holy Saturday as a ‘waiting time’, it is a day when we just have to sit still and not do anything. Sometimes Christians seem to live in a continuum where everything is happening at the same time, yet the gospels and church traditions ask us to be patient and enter into this story and honour it. This means keeping Easter Day for Easter Day and being content to be where we are now. This may seem artificial but Christians have always followed the season of Lent and the time of Holy Week as a devotional exercise that honours the story and lead us into its meaning step by step. Some see the church itself as an organisation in waiting. In an article in the ‘New Yorker’ magazine called ‘Confessions of a Church Goer’ the novelist John Updike wrote this; “The future is not just an extension of the past; like a particle being measured, it eludes prediction. Judaism and Christianity are both religions of waiting-waiting in one case for the Messiah, in the other for the Messiah’s Second Coming. Christian time is an interim, which has stretched linger than the prophets and early saints expected. Something might happen in faith’s future”

Even the most cursory examination of a concordance will show you how important the theme of waiting is in the Judaeo Christian scriptures – my favourite is from the prophecy of Isaiah;  “those who hope in the Lord……those who look to the Lord” (REB) and  “those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength” (NRSV).

Waiting has some very negative connotations, waiting for something seems to be nothing, a ‘no space’ where nothing happens, a space we fill up with all sorts of things to distract us, but Christian spirituality demands that we pursue a sort of active waiting, a sitting still in prayer and reflection until God is revealed. I suggest that this attitude is summed up very well by the Welsh poet and priest R. S. Thomas in his poem ‘Kneeling’ which is short enough to quote in full;

“Moments of great calm,

Kneeling before an altar

Of wood in a stone church

In summer, waiting for the God

To speak; the air a staircase

For silence; the sun’s light

Ringing me, as though I acted a great role.

And the audiences

Still; of all that close throng

Of spirits waiting, as I,

For the message.

                         Prompt me, God;

But not yet. When I speak,

Though it be you who speak

Through me, something is lost.

The meaning is in the waiting”.

My final reflection here is a familiar one. These verses may not seem appropriate for Holy Saturday but they illustrate the tension between the ‘now’ and the ‘not yet’, that place where knowing is partial and where it will be complete. Holy Saturday is a place of waiting but it is not somewhere we are meant to stay because we are on a journey towards the light and one day, as Paul writes; “At present we only see puzzling reflections in a mirror, but one day we shall see face to face”. Easter Day holds before us that tantalising glimpse of God’s ‘new thing’, that new reality which is both the present state for the faithful and the ultimate destination of everything. But for’Holy Saturday’ there are no voices and we must wait in silence.

(The John Updike quote is taken from ‘Confessions of a Church Goer’ ( The New Yorker Magazine/ The Guardian 8th January 2000). The R.S. Thomas poem from his ‘Collected Poems’ 1945- 1990 p. 199). And Isaiah’s words are from Isaiah 40; 27- 31. The Apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians in the 13th chapter of his first letter).

“Well, I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk…..”

Far away from the winter woods and the winter light on the beaches I had the house to myself……and Steely Dan on the stereo. Particularly the album ‘The Royal Scam’ and the guitar work of Larry Carlton. Mr. Carlton’s session work is well documented and the list of sessions he has played on is almost endless. His solos on the opening track of this album (‘Kid Charlemagne’) are surely worth its inclusion in the greatest guitar solos of all time (as ‘the composers’ note in their sleeve note that accompanies the ‘Scam’ album; “Here comes a guitar solo – Larry Carlton, no problem there”). But let’s not forget his work (I think) on ‘Don’t Take Me Alive’ where the feedback sustain lasts just long enough and then we’re off again. Or ‘Green Earrings’ where I think both Carlton and Walter Becker solo. The trouble is that five guitarists are listed in the personnel but no detail as to who plays on what – ‘the composers’ are at it again!!

Listening to Carlton’s guitar work on this and other albums by the Dan reminded me of his work as a member of The Crusaders (particularly on the albums ‘Southern Comfort’ and ‘Those Southern Nights’ – the track ‘Spiral’ on the latter has another jaw dropping solo). It also reminded me of one of my all time favourite examples of his work – there is a song on Joni Mitchell’s album ‘Court and Spark’ called ‘Help Me’ which features the musicians from the L.A Express and there is the background is Mr. Carlton (he is listed on the personnel), his solo from about 2. 50 onward is a delight, understated and totally in service of the song, but a delight.

It seems to me that Larry Carlton has appeared in some form or other on most of my favourite albums. Whether he solos or just provides a guitar part that is, in the vernacular, ‘in the pocket’, he speaks as a player schooled in whatever genre you like to mention. He also brings that subtlety and expertise that jazz and blues players often bring to other people’s records. Witness the Dan’s exhaustive roster of players drawn from the jazz world, and Joni Mitchell’s move in that direction, initially with the L.A Express (which features another fine guitarist in Robben Ford) and later with members of The Crusaders, Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny. To repeat the words I borrowed from Bruce Springsteen, he makes the guitar speak, in any language you like.

(The line from Bruce Springsteen is from the song ‘Thunder Road’ on the album ‘Born to Run’).