JGeropoulas
The Living Force
As a life-long fan and admirer of Joni Mitchell, I was delighted to come across this book compiled from recorded conversations (1973-2012) between Joni and her friend, author Malka Marom. This book provides an rewarding peek into the mind and heart of Joni, as well as her observations about the music industry and cultural changes during the past sixty years. Here’s some excerpts from the final pages of the book:
Malka: I'd like to turn to Nietzsche now, you'll be glad to hear. [laughs] You mentioned Nietzsche before, a few times before.
Joni: There's a lot of Nietzsche in my songs. I think that what I have in common with him is you can keep your religions as long as you know that it's allegory. Let's not believe in Santa Claus into adulthood. But the main thing I took from Nietzsche is a sense of support. . . he's describing how Germany decayed. And I take that thought, and I show how America is decaying in my song "The Three Great Stimulants":
"I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other people's little wars
Wouldn't they like their peace?
Don't we get bored
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence."
It's basically, since innocence is lost, it's innocence defiled. It becomes a new obsession. People want to f**k children because they're innocent and they want to make them dirty. They want that innocence but they want to f**k it because they're not innocent. So in decadence, there's an increase of pedophilia.
The next verse, "no tanks have ever rumbled through these streets," it's describing peace time. Machiavelli knew this. He said, "Peace. People don't know what to do with it. It always degenerates into fornication and fashion." Isn't that a great quote? What is the point of peace if people are just gonna change their clothes and f**k a lot.
The whole song is a warning. We are repeating history. We are now on the brink as Rome was in its fall, Germany in its fall. And we're slipping further and further into pornography, into the cesspool of it all.
"No tanks have ever rumbled through these streets
And the drone of planes at night has never frightened me
I keep the hours and the company that I please
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones."
Malka: So this is your sorrow ─ a sense of loss of what you had when you were a child, growing up in a small community and being very connected with the earth?
Joni: No. It’s a sense of stupidity that people would do the things they’ve done for a buck. Because of the short-sighted nature of my species not being able to see into the future, the consequences of their actions. No ancestral worship. Me, me, me, me, me. The “me”-ness of my generation. No generation before us could afford to be that selfish.
Malka: Because of your independent nature, especially in being faithful to your creative muse, you don’t really fit in any particular box. In many ways you’re alone. It must be lonely at times. To me, you’re one of the bravest women I know.
Joni: I am good in a crisis. I don’t panic. I think karmic destiny has to be wrung out of you by hardship. If things are going smooth, in the spurts of health that I have, I just go out and enjoy, which the right thing to do because it’s a respite. A little R&R before the next battle.
Malka: I'd like to turn to Nietzsche now, you'll be glad to hear. [laughs] You mentioned Nietzsche before, a few times before.
Joni: There's a lot of Nietzsche in my songs. I think that what I have in common with him is you can keep your religions as long as you know that it's allegory. Let's not believe in Santa Claus into adulthood. But the main thing I took from Nietzsche is a sense of support. . . he's describing how Germany decayed. And I take that thought, and I show how America is decaying in my song "The Three Great Stimulants":
"I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other people's little wars
Wouldn't they like their peace?
Don't we get bored
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence."
It's basically, since innocence is lost, it's innocence defiled. It becomes a new obsession. People want to f**k children because they're innocent and they want to make them dirty. They want that innocence but they want to f**k it because they're not innocent. So in decadence, there's an increase of pedophilia.
The next verse, "no tanks have ever rumbled through these streets," it's describing peace time. Machiavelli knew this. He said, "Peace. People don't know what to do with it. It always degenerates into fornication and fashion." Isn't that a great quote? What is the point of peace if people are just gonna change their clothes and f**k a lot.
The whole song is a warning. We are repeating history. We are now on the brink as Rome was in its fall, Germany in its fall. And we're slipping further and further into pornography, into the cesspool of it all.
"No tanks have ever rumbled through these streets
And the drone of planes at night has never frightened me
I keep the hours and the company that I please
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones."
Malka: So this is your sorrow ─ a sense of loss of what you had when you were a child, growing up in a small community and being very connected with the earth?
Joni: No. It’s a sense of stupidity that people would do the things they’ve done for a buck. Because of the short-sighted nature of my species not being able to see into the future, the consequences of their actions. No ancestral worship. Me, me, me, me, me. The “me”-ness of my generation. No generation before us could afford to be that selfish.
Malka: Because of your independent nature, especially in being faithful to your creative muse, you don’t really fit in any particular box. In many ways you’re alone. It must be lonely at times. To me, you’re one of the bravest women I know.
Joni: I am good in a crisis. I don’t panic. I think karmic destiny has to be wrung out of you by hardship. If things are going smooth, in the spurts of health that I have, I just go out and enjoy, which the right thing to do because it’s a respite. A little R&R before the next battle.