Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 14:42:32 -0500
From: "Scott Miller" 

Subject: Joni picks "Sweetheart Like You" for her Starbucks artist's choice CD

Don't have a link for this, alas, but I do have the CD from Starbucks,
"Artist's Choice:  Joni Mitchell---music that matters to her" (Hear
Music/Rhino Records), with the CD cover declaration, "We talked to Joni
Mitchell about her favorite artists and songs.  Here is what she had to
say."  "Sweetheart Like You" is Joni's choice of a favorite Dylan song,
cut no. 16, sandwiched between Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man" and Leonard
Cohen's "Stories of the Street."  

Joni's CD short notes on "Sweetheart Like You":  "It was another Dylan
song, "Positively 4th Street," that had the most influence on me.  I
remember thinking as I heard it for the first time, "I guess we can
write about anything now---any feeling."  As I reviewed it for this
collection, though, I found it a little too grumpy for my current state
of mind and so I chose this one, more in keeping with the spirit of this
collection---for its Damon Runyon style of storytelling."

The (unsigned) liner notes for "Sweetheart Like You":  "The iconic
madrigalist of folk-rock released "Infidels" in 1983.  It was his first
secular record since 1978 and was another return to form that reflected
Dylan's masterful '70s work and also his rare but preciously penned love
songs.  Witty and adept, Dylan's lyrics continued to be original and
uncompromising on this album."

And the entire Dylan quote for his "Free Man In Paris" choice on the
other Joni Starbucks CD:  "I always liked this song because I'd been to
Paris and understood what being a free man there was all about.  Paris
was, after all, where freedom and the guillotine lived side by side. 
I'm not so sure that the meaning I heard in the song was what Joni
intended, but I couldn't stop listening to it."  One of Bob's nice and
pithy historical observations.

It's always a pleasure to contribute a link to expectingrain.

Scott N. Miller 


Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 18:11:40 -0500
From: "Scott Miller" 

Subject: "in 1969, Joni Mitchell met Bob Dylan for the first time, on
	Johnny Cash's television show."

Last quotes from the Starbucks Joni CDs---I discovered in the fine print
that the liner notes that are not byJoni or her friends/admirers are by
David R. Legry:

After Dylan's note for his choice of  "Free Man in Paris" on the
Starbucks Joni CD, the liner notes by DRL on the song:  "A character
study that takes a bit of a poke at the music industry, this amusing
song features some nice turns of phrase.  It's just one example of the
unparalleled songwriting found on 1974's "Court and Spark," which was
further enhanced by Tom Scott's saxophone riffage.  In 1969, Joni
Mitchell met Bob Dylan for the first time, on Johnny Cash's television
show."

I've read elsewhere that "Free Man in Paris" was about David Geffen.

and cheers,

Scott N. Miller