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  • Respect Due: Joni Mitchell

    Joni Mitchell is revered as quite possibly the greatest female singer/songwriter ever. She’s also a patron saint of sorts for the bohemian black: lauded by everyone from Prince to Janet Jackson to Q-Tip. There’s a reason for that. Much like kindred spirit Nina Simone, Mitchell’s voice radiates truth and conviction.

    Not sure exactly when I discovered Joni. It must have been at some point in the early or mid Nineties when my musical spectrum was widening rapidly. ‘Cause like most artists whose music sticks to the ribs, Joni’s not a one-listen and “get it” type artist. Actually, it might have been (believe it or not) VH-1 who got me started on the Joni path by playing the video for “How Do You Stop”, a remake of a song written by the late Dan Hartman and performed by the late James Brown (believe it or not). Wouldn’t you know it, YouTube has the video, which features Seal.

    From there, it was pretty easy to pick up the classics: “Blue”and “Court & Spark”. However, the performance that sealed my undying love for Joni (after being put off by some crochety comments she’d made towards reverent singer-songwriters of the present) was another unlikely source: the movie “Love Actually”.

    That’s a lie. It wasn’t the actual movie (which I don’t think I saw until last year). It was the soundtrack. There, nestled amid songs by Kelly Clarkson & Maroon 5, was an absolutely stunning orchestral version of “Both Sides Now”. Look, the original version of this song is brilliant as is, but listening to it as sung by a woman who has gone through life and has 35 more years of experience with which to view this song’s lyrics…it’s an amazing experience.

    This live version is similar enough to the version found on the soundtrack (actually, they’re more or less identical if you take out the crowd noise) for you to get a feel of the difference between a more idealistic, younger Joni, and the wizened, reflective Joni now. If there can be any argument made in favor of smoking cigarettes, it comes from the fact that Joni’s voice is even more beautiful now than it was then.

    So right now I’m still trying to grasp “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” and “Mingus”, but her 2007 album “Shine” was a gem, and I’m sure Joni has some more great music left in her. But these two performances leave no doubt as to why she’s so beloved.

  • Friday Throwback – My Lucille

    I may have mentioned this before, but back in the day, my dad used to record videos from MTV and VH-1, when those channels used to pretty much solely play music videos. I was able to see some pretty sweet stuff.

    One of those videos I remember watching was by B. B. King. It was a weird video where Dan Akroyd, Michelle Pfeiffer (who I thought was Jane Curtain), Steve Martin, and Eddie Murphy were his band mates. All I really remember from the video was Eddie smiling on the drums and Steve Martin screwing up the choreography. Ever since YouTube became the place to find this kind of stuff, I’ve been looking for this video. I found it.

    What I’ve been able to figure out so far is that B. B. King was in a movie with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jeff Goldbloom called Into The Night. This video was probably a result of him having a song on the soundtrack. That makes a lot of sense because I never knew why Pfeiffer was at the beginning of the video. And now that I notice, Goldbloom is in it as well. Enjoy.

    – Who is that mustachioed guy on the guitar? He’s the only one I can’t make out.

    – B. B. has once dance move.

    – Smile until it hurts Ed.

    – Ed has some hair on him.

    – Pfeiffer couldn’t hold it in when Martin screwed up his moves. She was cracking up.

    – That’s a mighty bar crowd there.

    – I wish I could belt it out like B. B. King. “My Lucille!!!!!!!!!”

    – Who are those guys hosting? At least one guy was rockin’ a Michael Jackson Thriller shirt.

  • “Lost One” Lauryn Hill: 10 Years Since “Miseducation”…Where’s The Follow-Up?

    A decade ago (has it really been that long?), Lauryn Hill was on top of the world. Blessed with the rare double talent of being able to sing beautifully and rap skillfully-I dare you to name a better female MC EVER-she had superstar juice all over her. After initially gaining notoriety as an actress (“Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit” and “As the World Turns”), Lauryn broke through for real as the most talented third of the Fugees, a group that smashed together hip-hop, R&B and Caribbean flavors and scored the most left-field hit of 1996 with “The Score”. This album turned out to be the biggest hip-hop seller of the year, not a small feat during the year in which we lost Tupac.

    Lauryn Hill performing live. Photo by Lisa Liang.
    Lauryn Hill performing live. Photo by Lisa Liang.

    There had been some internal drama within the group for some time. The rumor mill had Lauryn and bandmate Wyclef Jean dating (something that’s been confirmed by Wyclef’s wife, although both Wyclef himself and Lauryn have more or less stayed mum on the topic), while Lauryn was immediately singled out for her beauty and talent, which led to some discontent on the behalf of Wyclef and third member Pras, the Andrew Ridgeley of the group. ‘Clef struck first, reaching Platinum status with his album “The Carnival”, but Lauryn struck best, releasing her stunning record “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill” on 8/25/98. Despite A-list support from the likes of D’Angelo and Mary J. Blige, “Miseducation” was all about Lauryn. The album sold 7 million copies, registered the highest first week totals for a female artist at the time, became the first hip-hop record to win the Grammy for Album of the Year, and was arguably the best R&B record of the entire decade. Lauryn was the entire music world’s “it” girl. Gorgeous, brainy, talented, and seemingly grounded. (more…)