Joni is a Scorpio, so it comes as no surprise to hear her daydreaming about her own bed, her fancy French cologne and flirting her way into a friendship with someone who was originally unimpressed by her. I’m a sucker for songs that sound like they’re for a lover but are actually for a friend. But then, I don’t need to: Everything you need to know is in the lyrics. I know Joni and I love her, but the subject of that song is not something I would ever bring up with her. She made so many great albums, but "Blue" is her masterpiece and "Little Green" is the most poignant, emotionally heavy thing on it. Psychologically, her style had implanted itself really deep in my subconscious, and it came out in songs like that. It was obviously written on piano and I’d never really heard it played on guitar before. Then, a few nights ago, I heard Brandi Carlile play " Madman Across the Water" on an acoustic guitar. She was a fabulous songwriter and she never repeated herself, never thought “I’m on a roll, I’ll make an album like that again,” she always followed her own path - but I never thought of my music as directly influenced by hers.
It’s strange, I always thought of Joni as an incredibly inspirational figure - I listened to albums like "Blue" and "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" in complete awe. There’s no anger in them, she isn’t castigating herself, she literally sings “ not ashamed” - this thing had to happen, it was painful but it was the right thing to do, she was a “child with a child.” It’s sad, but realistic, which makes it all the more poignant. The lyrics are astonishing, the mix of beautiful imagery - the icicles and the Northern Lights and the spring crocuses - and brutal honesty about an incredibly sensitive topic. It’s a song about the daughter Joni gave up for adoption in the mid-'60s, an incredibly brave subject for anyone to write about, but particularly a woman 50 years ago. "Little Green" perfectly sums up "Blue’s" appeal in that it’s immediately appealing, it’s got a beautiful, plaintive melody, it’s musically straightforward, she’s still working very much in that folk-y singer-songwriter style - but then you peel back the surface and it has this extraordinary emotional depth.
(Photograph by Phillip Faraone / Getty Images for iHeartMedia photo illustration by An Amlotte / Los Angeles Times) Still, I hear a personal message in several of them, her gift to me: the lucky one. I believe that some of those songs were written with me in mind although, as a songwriter, I know how songs can have their own bent truth. To his credit, Henry Lewy had us keep it simple.
#Haim days are gone leak free#
Playing along with her spare dulcimer accompaniment, I was free to substitute whatever chords I felt, which was great but of course, it was her voice and the songs themselves that make “Blue” so singular.
#Haim days are gone leak portable#
Maybe that’s why so many were composed on the three-string dulcimer: a nice, portable axe. I played on “All I Want,” “Carey,” “California” and “A Case of You." She had written most of those songs in the previous year or so while traveling. There was never anyone else there, just Joni, Henry and me. My time with her included the recording of her “Blue” album and I remember the sessions at A&M Studios with Henry Lewy behind the glass. Joni and I had our year together, back when a year lasted three times longer than it does today.
Chun / Los Angeles Times photo illustration by An Amlotte / Los Angeles Times)
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