She crops up from the dark like a ghost in a rough video shot underlined by the camera's running timer. Her face is enshrouded in an electronic halo generated by the sheer contrast between her extremely pale hair and skin and the surrounding darkness.

She sings Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire on some unknown stage (how many of them has she treaded upon during her years of singing?). With nothing but her poetry and her guitar, backed up by a mysterious wandering clavinet, she fills the room like an orchestra.

She seems to have sailed untouched through the weirdest ages, from the narcotic-high seventies onwards, with the virgin features and frail voice of a young girl.

The technology is sordidly outdated, but it managed to capture a glimpse of undying light, the singing of an angel in her eternal youth. It sums up the tragedy of mankind outdrawn and trapped by its own ephemerous technology, still relying on it to keep an overwhelming trove of experiences and emotions that once was entrusted to human memory and words.

Lately Joni was said to be in a coma. The news floored me with an unusually deep sorrow (and compelled me to write this). Now, they say, she is conscious again. How does she feel when (if ever) she sees such hard evidence of her angelhood?

Cold blue steel out of money
One eye for the beat police
Sweet Fire calling
"You can't deny me
Now you know what you need"
Underneath the jungle gym
Hollow grey fire escape thief
Looking for sweet fire
Shadow of lady release

"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first
Leave someone a letter
You can come now
Or you can come later"

A wristwatch, a ring, a downstairs screamer
Edgy-black cracks of the sky
"Pin cushion prick fix this poor bad dreamer"
"Money" cold shadows reply
Pawnshops crisscrossed and padlocked
Corridors spit on prayers and pleas
Sparks fly up from sweet fire
Black soot of lady release

"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first
Does it really matter
If you come now
Or if you come on later?"

Red water in the bathroom sink
Fever and the scum brown bowl
Blue steel still begging
But it's indistinct
Someone's hi-fi drumming Jelly Roll
Concrete concentration camp
Bashing in veins for peace
Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire
Fall into Lady Release

"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first
I mean what does it really matter
You're going to come now
Or you're going to come later"...