Interesting Interview with Word Magazine

[LilyRose]

Originally Posted by sparky

What is slightly more interesting is her now on again focus on Lindsey as her muse. Sometimes it is off again, but now it is on, and I am perhaps the only person in fandom who finds it so sad, boring, unhealthy and utterly uninteresting. Who cares if it is true? The only thing less interesting than her dwelling on it is the endless fascination that fans have with it.

The true value of of art is how it moves us relative to our own experiences. Is anyone out there sobbing over "You May Be The One" or HAEWAFY because it is about Whoever the hell she wrote it about? No. It is because it reminds us of our own loss, and expresses something we have been unable to express of our own volition and talent. Good art moves people because it stirs inaccessible or difficult to express feelings within them - relative to their own lives. Not because they are living vicariously through people they have never met and will never know intimately.

I have no knowledge of other rabid fan groups, but I have never talked to another Joni Mitchell fan who endlessly references Larry Klein when talking about how the songs on Night Ride Home are so great. Is that because Joni never mentions him? I dunno. Chicken or egg. Maybe Stevie encourages all this bs by constantly talking about Lindsey.

The thing that I find lost in not only Stevie's harping on Lindsey, but also in the discussion of her most potent songs, is why in the hell these songs affect people so much. It is almost an endless circle of denial and shame about why her songs have such deep meaning to them. I appreciate the fact that she is so open about her influences, as much as I find the LB references tiresome. If nothing else, I have always loved TLH for her honesty. But there is a strange dichotomy between the reverence fans have for her backstory and the wide open blank pages about why the songs have resonance to them. I have almost ZERO interest in her inspirations for her songs. Almost ZERO. What amazes me is that she so often captures my emotional experiences at the perfect times of my life when she puts the songs out.
And that helps me to learn more about myself and has been invaluable in helping me to traverse the sometimes difficult moments I encounter in my own life.

Such personal discussion is ridiculously, glaringly, and shockingly absent from almost all exchanges about her songwriting. It is a black hole that leaves me both shocked and dismayed. I am not sure if it indicates a shallowness among most Stevie fans or a lack of insight that her most ardent fans have into their own psyches. She writes some shattering, jarring and devastating pieces of music about the deepest of emotional experiences and all people have to say is "LINDSEY LINDSEY LINDSEY".
Or maybe, "OMG IS IT ABOUT JOE?"

Seriously, folks?

Do people think that her songs are merely a Shawl draped National Enquirer version of her love life thrown onto tape for her own personal edification? And the one who figures it out gets a made in china crystal ball from a Hollywood Blvd gift shop as a grand prize?

The LB or other past lover song inspiration obsession reminds me of a bad B movie scenario. A gifted Freudian psychotherapist has just delivered a 6 phrase response to a very sad and lifelong troubled patient and has explained the origin, nature of, and solution to a problem that has haunted them for many years. In those 6 phrases all is explained. The seed, the problem, and the solution. And the patient bolts out of the chair and screams, "This is all about your mother, Freud! And you based your research on a bunch of mentally ill women and drug addicts! I finally figured you out!" and promptly runs screaming from the room. And the patient spends the rest of their lives repeating that to everyone they ever meet. In the process, they forget everything the therapist ever said to them. The key to their freedom is lost.

Bitch was truest of all in her writing in these lines: "Don't listen to her, listen through her."

It amazes me, these 35 years of hearing her voice, that so many people cannot, and WILL NOT hear that.

I do believe she is partially to blame. Before, she maintained a certain mystique when it came to her music, lately she's more and more comfortable telling the stories behind her songs.

However, as much as I like to hear the backstory, it doesn't make me any less inclined to have the want to look at the song as a true piece of art. As humans we have more than just one layer. I find myself able to appreciate her reason for writing the song, as well as my ability to turn it on myself and find my own personal meaning.

Maybe those of us who are fascinated by who or what her songs are about are shallow. Okay.

"Only the shallow know themsevles." - Oscar Wilde