From ANDRAS JONES:

“Name a woman you don’t have an issue with who is as accomplished as Joni”

This is a challenge KAITLIN WOLFBERG put before me on the road to her question for the Pop Oracle of BRITTA PHILLIPS’ songs. I was so busy hosting and trying to avoid offending her that I don’t think I answered Kaitlin’s question adequately. Having had a little time to think on it I’d like to try.

First of all, I have to take some offense on behalf of Britta Phillips, a pretty accomplished woman who was sitting right next to us. Of course, as I’m sure Britta would acknowledge, she’s not as obviously accomplished as Joni Mitchell, the artist I was being accused of having a problem with. I don’t think I have a problem with Joni Mitchell. I devoted four hours of Radio8Ball to paying tribute to her and if you’ll listen to the episode I don’t think I said anything disparaging about Joni. The closest I came was reporting my experience of conversations with Joni Mitchell fans getting heated in ways I have found confusing. Sort of like the interaction captured here between me and Kaitlin. In all fairness, I have to consider what Kaitlin is trying to express to me. This is her third time being invited onto the show and if she feels that I have a problem with accomplished women, like herself, I should be open to the possibility that I’ve invited and celebrated all the powerful women who have been on Radio8Ball over the years simply as a ruse to distract from and compensate for my inherent lack of respect for them. I know that sounds ludicrous but the human mind works in some weird and circuitous ways and I’m a feminist raised guy so its entirely possible I am simultaneously demonstrating my support for strong women while secretly harboring more nefarious Freudian intentions that may even be hidden to me but which Kaitlin is picking up on.

That’s a possibility and I’d like to suggest another one to consider alongside it. It is possible that men who have a lot of attention for womens’ anger and sense of injustice become safe targets for women to express that anger and frustration toward, in which case I should probably take Kaitlin’s projections onto me as a compliment and a show of kinship and sister/brotherhood. That’s not always easy but in this case, for some reason, it is so I’m going to choose to take it that way and when Kaitlin returns to Radio8Ball, which she is always invited to do, we can continue the dialogue.

Of course, all of this is just the context. The official question is if real instruments will ever come back and, if Marshall McLuhan was correct abut the medium being the message, it makes sense, in an age of misdirection, projection & cognitive dissonance, that the popular music would reflect an ersatz quality. In light of this, one might suggest playing real instruments as an antidote to all the phoniness, just as one might encourage looking at things as they are as the precursor to a change in the cultural aesthetic towards the genuine. As the song says, it will be those who have the last word who get to determine what it all meant, which is why I always try and keep the conversation going. Last words are for the shortsighted.

DO IT LAST
by Britta Phillips

You can pin me up on your wall/ oh no I wouldn’t mind that at all

But then u better come when I call/ And that’s not all

And I don’t care who did it first, cos I’m gonna do it last

No I don’t care who got to u worst, I’m gonna get to u best

I had a dream about you/And I’ve got a feel in’ that it’s true

No, I don’t care where you been/Cos you’ll never go back again

But then you better run when I fall/Boy, that’s not all

And I don’t care who did it first, cos I’m gonna do it last

No I don’t care who got to you first, I’m the future and she’s the past

Don’t matter who you knew before

Now you won’t know her anymore

Be who you are now, not who you were

You’re past is over, forever and ever

You were a shadow in the shape of man

And you told me to take what I can from you

A shadow in the shape of a man