From: moebius17@insightbb.com
Kyle wrote:
> On Jun 14, 3:54 pm, Noam Sane wrote:
>> "Wild Things Run Fast" is one of my favorite records ever. It's
>> distilled Joni. Klein is a great bassist and a fine producer. He also
>> produced the first Tracy Chapman album.
>>
>> "Dog Eat Dog" has some great stuff on it too. Side two drags. "Chalk
>> Marks" didn't work for me at all. But to slag "her 80s albums" as if
>> they were a monolith is off base.
>>
>> On the other hand, anyone who searches out a Ben Orr album, let alone
>> listens to it, probably has way too much time on his/her hands to
>> begin with.
>>
>> Klein is a Jaco devotee, so expect plenty of moaning fretless bass (if
>> indeed he is the bassist of record).
>>
>> And yeah, Joni is president of her own fan club, so to speak. I find
>> that easy to ignore. Unlike "Hejira".
>>
>> Noam
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 18:03:24 -0000, Kyle wrote:
>>> Okay, I've been starved for ages now for an update on Walter Becker's
>>> new solo record. I can't remember when WB's site was last updated.
>>> But I read last week in one of the guitar magazines that the new album
>>> is finished -- and that it was produced by Larry Klein, who also
>>> cowrote all of the songs.
>>> I'm thankful for the info, and glad to hear the record's done. Larry
>>> Klein? I don't know; he's a bass player/producer who was married to
>>> Joni Mitchell in the 80s, and who worked on some of her 80s stuff
>>> (which I thought was terrible and hideously dumbed-down) and on other
>>> projects, like Cars' bassist/vocalist Ben Orr's late-80s album "The
>>> Lace" -- which, I have to be honest, I thought was bland commercial
>>> dreck (and I love the first three or four Cars albums). Watch; some
>>> Larry Klein fan's going to jump on me.
>>> Obviously, the LK aspect of the news doesn't thrill me. But WB has
>>> enough of an edge that I'm sure he can cut through whatever hack
>>> blandness they attempt to smother him in.
>>> Anyone heard anything else? Does anyone have *any idea* when, if
>>> ever, the record is expected to be released?- Hide quoted text -
>> - Show quoted text -
>
> I lump Joni's "80s albums" together only insofar as they're all bad,
> in my view. On each record, I hear the sound of JM retreating from
> her more ambitious 70s stuff, and knuckling under to record company
> pressure. Indeed, each record was promoted with lots of "Joni's doing
> pop songs again!" PR. For example, Thomas Dolby had struck in big in
> the early-to-mid 80s, and he was pushed to produce (and add his
> signature synth sounds) to DeD. The result was awkward and
> compromised-sounding. Then, on Chalkmark, Joni strove to copy the
> sound Peter Gabriel had on his "So" album from a few years earlier.
> There was a stench of compromise to the whole thing.
>
> I wouldn't say I "sought out" Orr's "Lace" album. I didn't have to;
> it was everywhere, having received a big push from the record
> company. It had none of what was great about the Cars (not a huge
> surprise, since Orr didn't write the Cars' songs), and was blandly
> commercial and devoid of noteworthy musicianship. Orr himself said
> once that parts of it "make me cringe."
>
> Finally, if Klein is a Jaco disciple, I don't hear it. There was more
> to Jaco than fretlessness, and Klein's playing struck me -- like
> everything he does -- as bland and uninteresting.
>
For me the Klein produced albums were hit and miss, but some of the cuts
were quite good. But they don't compare to the production and music
direction work he did on her retrospective redux "Travelogue" and the
standards album "Both Sides Now" before it. Superb sound, which may have
attracted WB.
bruce
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* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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