Joni Mitchell: Classic or Dud

I love Jaco's bass. Anyone who says otherwise should not be trusted on anything.

I guess I'm not the only one who thinks Hejira would be nowhere near as good without him. I don't like to think of myself as a fretless bass guy but between this and Mick Karn, I guess I am!

I'm generally not a fan of fretless electric bass guitar, but yeah, Hejira is unimaginable without it.

I came late to Clouds, thinking she would still be finding her feet. Boy, was I wrong. Might be my second fave Joni, after Blue.

i'd like a thread of indispensable bass albums, come to think of it!

Listened to some of Heijera on the drive home...fretless bass takes some getting used to, at least for me. But so far i love Amelia, and the title track.

It will grow on you, at least on this record. This record also grows on you, stealthily. But I am now so deep into Hissing of Summer Lawns I can't see out of it.

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/joni_mitchell_amazing_live_bbc_in_concert_performance_from_1970

Brilliant.

Thank you.

2003 was my wake up year, crunched Summer Lawns / Hejira / Don Juan's Reckless Daughter down to one cassette and it never left the car

Oh man, Amelia is something else.

http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2013/06/05/joni-mitchell/

_2003 was my wake up year, crunched Summer Lawns / Hejira / Don Juan's Reckless Daughter down to one cassette and it never left the car_

Just created a Joni Mitchell 1975-80 playlist on Spotify -- will be interested to see if this is finally what makes me turn the corner on her.

Bought Ladies of the Canyon the other day and loved it. Shared "Big Yellow Taxi" on Facebook and promptly got told by one of my friends that Counting Crow's version was "much, much better".

wow, this has to be one of the most obnoxious '2001 ilm' openings to a thread ever

Did you see the 90 min profile done for CBC in 2003? http://vimeo.com/20279550#

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdpTGFZSgfA&feature=youtu.be

Bought Ladies of the Canyon the other day and loved it. Shared "Big Yellow Taxi" on Facebook and promptly got told by one of my friends that Counting Crow's version was "much, much better".

― arctic mindbath (President of the People's Republic of Antarctica), Friday, June 7, 2013 8:28 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I always think Adam Durtz sounds happy that they paved paradise and put in a parking lot, like he had really needed the parking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvtJPs8IDgU

kingfarticus 2 weeks ago
Thumbs up if you heard this at Target, Macy's, or in an elevator.
Reply · 17

Amazing how much people hated her in 2001!

her crime was that she wasn't belle & sebastien

Wasn't there a Neptunes remix of the Counting Crows version or something?

classic:

Dud, Dud and thrice Dud. Annoyingly "twee" hippy songstress with a piercing warble that could make dogs' heads explode. Ick!
― alex in nyc,

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/an_enchanting_two_hour_interview_with_joni_mitchell

I don't think this is the same thing as the CBC doc...this is a 2 hour CBC interview

Watching Joni at her 70th celebration, giving in to the muse and deciding to sing in public once again, damn, that's uplifting.

I wish she'd give up smoking.

She makes a point of smoking!

My friend went to the Massey Hall thing the other night. She also tried to get Mitchell's autograph three different times this past week, no luck.

Any idea if the entire Massey Hall show will be available, beyond the shakey cell phone shots on YouTube?

choosing cigarettes over such a unique instrument is just... ugh

I love Dog Eat Dog. Can't believe it is disparaged even now, even here.

I feel bad for someone who think Joni Mitchell is a "dud," if someone sincerely believes that. If you're not moved (musically and/or emotionally) by at least 'Blue,' it might be time to think a little less about music and hear it a little more.

xpost: I picked up Dog Eat Dog in December and was surprised by how good it was. Definitely not bad.

She's 100% dud at interviews, afaic.

I love Dog Eat Dog and put "Shiny Toys" on my Joni ballot

"Good Friends" on mine.

Court & Spark is such a warm weather record.

hehe yeah - a kind of hazy stunned-by-the-heat listen

It's funny because Hissing was my first intense Joni listen - had liked Blue but not gone deep. I was alone in Perth, Western Australia, it was insanely hot and I walked downtown and bought Hissing on a whim. Sat down for a casual listen and bang, there goes the rest of the day. So that is a hot weather record for me, it's quite liquid in a way.

Yea! Harry's House/Centrepiece, 'heat waves on the runway, as the wheels set down' and the doppler horn-section intro. Such great imagery.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lm3h2mjFOt1qbyeqlo1_500.gif

sigh...

I love Jaco's bass. Anyone who says otherwise should not be trusted on anything.

OTM. The fusion fretless bass and processed guitars were actually what first drew me to JM.

By the time of Don Juan, the bass was the loudest instrument after Joni's voice, some track have two basslines, she must have been very taken with him.

Wait, I had no idea until now that she ever did a live album with Pat Metheny!

I think The Boho Dance might have been the first time I felt like a real "adult" listening to music, like a song could speak to something other than my adolescent desires and mood swings.

It's funny because Hissing was my first intense Joni listen - had liked Blue but not gone deep. I was alone in Perth, Western Australia, it was insanely hot and I walked downtown and bought Hissing on a whim. Sat down for a casual listen and bang, there goes the rest of the day. So that is a hot weather record for me, it's quite liquid in a way.

There's a funny resonance for me to the way In France They Kiss on Main Street kind of sounds like a continuation of Court And Spark both in musical style and content (it really kind of pairs with Free Man in Paris, and it has a similar beat to Help Me), but then the rest of the record kind of departs from that.

Sometimes Hissing feels close to a concept album but I think it's probably not. There are definitely recurring themes about suburbs/city and men trying to possess and control women.

Oh yes, there is a strong sense of being trapped by privilege across the whole album. And a strange tension that anchors the fluidity of the song structures and forms into one thing - folding Burundi drums and a 20s jazz cover into the dissection of upper middle class California makes it seem like anything could happen. That's why it's her peak for me.

would have been a much more interesting album for 33 1/3 to do a book on than C&S (which I love too, just not as good to write about)