On A Case of You

"To show that all things are possible, and permissible, for me, as a singer-songwriter - They're my roots. Joni was part of my life from the moment I heard her. And on the single I want to move from the Keith Jarret jazz plus reggae undertones in Cornflake Girl into Joni's A Case of You and make it a seduction, heightening the undertone that was always there, when a woman sings to a man "I could drink a case of you"!"

"I could name five songs, right off the top of my head, that I would have given my right arm to write. Case Of you: You don’t get it any better. A better song hasn’t been written. I don’t care what female singer/songwriter you throw up in my face: None has done anything in the league of Case of You, me included. I sing Case of You almost every night in concert because of that. For a woman to be able to say what that says, with that kind of addiction and yet that kind of grace, is just not done. Even Zeppelin and those guys listened to Joni. They were totally influenced by Joni.

"Any time I would ever slip, I would put on Case Of You, and there is not a song that could move me about the way a woman loves a man the way that song does. I wish I had written that song. I’m living that song, I should have been able to have written it."

"I wanna play you one of my favorite songs of all time. This is my song...with my first....love, hmmph!"

"Certain songs that I think change your life, anyway. This is one of those songs that um…you know when the parents would go away. Eileen Gallehger's parents would go away. And we'd go over to her house. All the kids in our class and the older boys which is always good. two years older. and they'd come over Eileen's house and uh, you know, girls, there's always that one you kind of wanna be in a corner with. And your friend Cindy gets him. But um, anyway, she's like your best friend so you can't kill her. But um, so you're like hanging out thinking well maybe Cindy'll get tired and I'll take seconds, it's ok. But um, she doesn't get tired. So you're sitting there, you know and the guy in geometry that you kind of hate is sitting over there um rubbing himself and stuff. And you figure ok it's definitely time for me to go get the pizza. So you go get the pizza and you hear this song and it doesn't matter that Cindy is with that guy because you can have anybody you want when you listen to this song."

"I have a couple things on the back burner. I’ve done something on the Leonard Cohen tribute that I’m very excited about, because you know what an influence his writing’s been to so many."

"Losing My Religion just kinda came to me. The girl who's being attacked and lets part of herself go, that's where Losing my religion was appropriate. Michael's idea of what Losing My Religion is, is probably different than mine. I asked him to come to the studio and listen. And he came and sat there and there were tears running down of his face. And that was important to me because I needed to know that he thought that I had honoured his song. I wanted him to understand. We never talked about what his version or mine meant, there were no words necessary."

"This video Losing my Religion, I remember seeing it for the first time, it was like a film to me. It wasn't about just making a clip to titillate it had so many dimensions, kinda like FAUST, that is what I felt. This song is one of my favorites, too. I think it is unforgettable."

"I did that for a John Singleton film, Higher Learning. I don't play it that much, but I enjoyed cutting that. That was always one of my very favorite songs. "

"I did a tribute to Kurt Cobain with Teen Spirit and American Pie this night in Dublin because American Pie is what I heard over and over in my head the night he killed himself. I played it to 2,500 kids; it started like a whisper, and then in perfect pitch, in perfect rhythm, very softly, they all sang American Pie with me. None of us in the crew had ever experienced anything like it....I felt like I knew him . I miss him as a musician. It's just painful when you see someone who had so much to give - especially musically - gone. We've lost quite a significant voice for this generation."

"I was just ready to start the chorus, and all of a sudden, in perfect pitch and very quietly, as only the Irish can do the audience started singing it like a hymn. It was like they were sending his spirit off. It was an honor to play his music that night."

"Strange Fruit is there because that is the South, where I was born and raised, and here I directly experienced that kind of racism myself. As a white woman in the South I experienced many forms of racial hatred, deeply, and my grandfather did, because of his Cherokee background. I understand the energy of those racial tensions so well and that's what I tapped into for Strange Fruit which I recorded at 5:30 am, having been called out of bed by forces, to do so."

"But the thing is, in the morning...I recording something at 5:30 in the morning, Strange Fruit, Billie Holliday, for a British import. And the reason is because I need that 'Sou-uh-thern lea-ves bear stra-ange fruit.' You have to have a certain quality to your voice."

"Ummm, when I would hear her sing. There was almost a memory that happened with me when I would here her sing. And I would remember things that I didn’t even know I had experienced. I’m sure some of you have had that, whether it’s a scent sometimes a smell or something that you hear. Just for a minute the veil lifts, and she has always done that for me."