ILXers Get Out Your Polls And I'll Put On Some Joni Mitchell Voting and Nominations #26 (Voting Deadline: September 28)

I've tried to like Night Ride Home as much as aero and Tim, and while it's the best of her post-peak period -- the billowy synths complement the dark blues and violets of her voice -- the songwriting is maddeningly uneven.

Are you okay with 10 songs? Yet another artist where I can name 10 I already love, but to get to 20 I'd have to start relistening. And I'm lazy. And old. And not crazy about voting for 10 extra songs I'd never given a thought to until this week.

oh yeah, absolutely. 10 is fine.

So I kicked off with Blue tonight. It's not as pleasant a listen as I was anticipating tbh - she's really pretty complex at that point melodically and harmonically, seems like I was more in the mood for something to holler along with. Lord knows how I'll cope when I get to the avantjazz stuff youse've been discussing already.

I often forget that Blue was my first exposure to her and for many her best; when it's on I agree.

I am heartily tired of the "autobiographical" angle though.

Can anyone recommend any standout tracks from the post "Mingus" era? I can't face listening to several entire albums of session-dude jazz-inflected songcraft to get to the nuggets, quite frankly.

I think of the eras of Joni as:
1968-1970: the folkie years, some good songs but still developing.
1971-1976: the peak years, run of 5 amazingly great studio albums
1977-1979: the overstretching years, Don Juan and Mingus are good, but less compelling than what came before.
1980 onwards: I've barely heard any of this stuff, apart from Wild Things Run Fast, which is good but slight, and the material on Misses. I've heard elsewhere that Night Ride Home is good though.

Pick for overlooked song - Love or Money from Miles of Aisles (1974 live album): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfplwJaBN1E

From 'Night Ride Home', check "Passion Play", "Cherokee Louise", "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", "Come In From The Cold", "Nothing Can Be Done" and "Two Grey Rooms".

'Turbulent Indigo' is basically a lesser version of the same album (though ironically won more acclaim), but it's worth checking "Sunny Sunday" and "The Sire of Sorrow", from memory.

yeah i imagine the vast majority of my ballot is gonna be from the 71-76 period

At least three tracks from 1969 alone are sure things for my ballot

Came to vote, stayed a couple minutes to rep for Shine (2007 album). For having not written a song for a decade prior, Joni actually has something interesting to say without blowing up in a storm of bad 80s synths about it. Not a classic, but definitely a great latter-day album from a 60s/70s genius.

I love "Come in from the Cold"

This bit:

Is it just vulgar electricity?
Is it the edifying fire?
Does your smile's covert complicity
Debase as it admires?

The cracks forming in her voice by this point give the song a simultaneous fragility and gravity which allows her to carry off lines like that.

i want to make A CASE for YOU to vote for "Urge for Going" which afaik is not on any of the LPs except for the Hits collection but is gorgeous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMhNTFzmRw0&feature=related

I love "Come in from the Cold"

― Mordy, Tuesday, September 11, 2012 7:28 PM

yes. This is the best example of what she achieved in her later years: the parched vocal does wonders with vowels and punctuates those synth billows with devastating effect.

btw I will defend Dog Eat Dog, particularly the title track, "Impossible Dreamers," and "Good Friends." The last song is a misbegotten attempt (Michael McDonald!) to assume that the late seventies studio rock comity still existed in 1985 (it was also her last Hot 100 appearance in America). I posted the video upthread.

Tom Rush does a really nice "Urge for Going" on the same album he does "The Circle Game." That's the first time I've heard Joni's original, I have to admit.

top ten should basically be Court & Spark tracks 1-10, with Twisted thrown in a bin somewhere

yeah that's gotta be one of the all time worst album closers. Doesn't fit the album at all

it's like someone at the record company was trying to sabotage the album. it's SO BAD.

Was Joni a big influence on Robert Plant by any chance? I'm hearing all sorts of his phrasing and melodic tricks on things like 'Free Man In Paris'.

Not sure why I'm assuming the influence goes that way, actually, except that he didn't start off singing like that, and a vague feeling that 'Going To California' might be a homage to her.

I apologize in advance but I'm going to totally gum up this poll with endless 80s-00s Joni stanning

OK no I won't I'll just submit that ballot but I encourage all serious voters to listen to latter day material
My #1 is from "Night Ride Home"

Have you voted for anything from Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm or Taming of the Tiger?

Definitely "The Tea Leaf Prophecy". Probably another? Taming the Tiger probably not? Maybe nothing from Turbulent Indigo either, but Both Sides Now and Travelogue yes yes yes.

I surprise myself in these polls in how little I care for Widely Celebrated Breakthrough album and am much more interested in later, more mature work-- not mature in that "it's serious" but that I take an enormous delight in hearing musicians' physical and compositional voices change over time and will almost always rank an "Outside" over a "Ziggy" or an "Aerial" over a "The Hounds of Love"

Also +1 on "Urge for going", great song Mordy. When I got the "Hits" CD it was like what is THIS song?!!!

Also, weirdly ignored by all compilations, concerts, etc. is goddamn "Conversation" from Ladies of the Canyon which is my favourite song of those first four records

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=II7PQMCWZwE

Was Joni a big influence on Robert Plant by any chance? I'm hearing all sorts of his phrasing and melodic tricks on things like 'Free Man In Paris'.

Not sure why I'm assuming the influence goes that way, actually, except that he didn't start off singing like that, and a vague feeling that 'Going To California' might be a homage to her.

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, September 12, 2012 5:46 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Definitely yes. I've read in a number of places that Robert Plant was strongly influenced by Joni Mitchell. This is from Joni Mitchell's wiki page:

Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" was said to be written about Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's infatuation with Mitchell, a claim that seems to be borne out by the fact that, in live performances, Plant often says "Joni" after the line "To find a queen without a king, they say she plays guitar and cries and sings." Jimmy Page uses a double dropped D guitar tuning similar to the alternative tunings Mitchell uses.

Page and especially Plant were WAY into the Cali folk/Laurel Canyon scene

Court & Spark tracks 1-10, with Twisted thrown in a bin somewhere

yeah that's gotta be one of the all time worst album closers

Oof. What an awful track. I honestly can't think of a worse finale, anywhere. Has it ever inspired a 'worst closer' thread? That'd be its one redeeming feature, if it had.

I don't mind Twisted! It's like a song-and-dance routine at the end of an intense drama, sending everyone home with a spring in their step and humming a catchy tune.

Shine is pretty nice. It fits right in with my big discovery from all these polls - as time goes by acts get worse at writing hooks, but in a way they get better at putting together albums.

All the albums I've looked at on spotify have at least one track missing. Why is that? It's very annoying.

definitely gonna use this poll as an excuse to explore her post '80s material

listening to 'night ride home' now and wow "nothing can be done" is up every possible alley of mine, sound/arrangement-wise

One of the things I love about Night Ride Home is the sense that, on at least half the album, her songwriting pushes past 'Hejira' even - shifting from that in the moment specificity (with Hejira there's this sense of her looking out her car window and capturing in fine detail absolutely everything she sees) to sweeping, panoramic-back-through-time reflection. Hard to think of music that sounds wiser in this regard than "Passion Play", "Come In From The Cold" or "Two Grey Rooms".

Of course, "The Windfall (Everything For Nothing)" is also one of her most graceless songs, so.

Turbulent Indigo always struck me as rather blunter, more the old woman shouting at her tv that you might expect from an artist at that point in her career.

The video clip for 'Come In From The Cold' naturally cuts out about half the song, but it's still such a perfect visual accompaniment. Nonetheless I'm posting a fan video to get the full song instead - this is a song that works by accumulation:

hxxp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbJo-dsFGfI

Yeah "Nothing Can Be Done" is a fave of mine - musically it's like Tango In The Night, or The Commodores' "Night Shift".

haha yeah anything with that late-era FM super-indulgent production is ok by me

It's got a bit of FM's sense of inevitability to the melody as well I think, the way she leans into the chorus from "oh, I'm not old... I'm told".

"Sex kills" is my least favourite lyric by a favourite artist, that song makes me so sad

Yeah

I don't find "Twisted" to be awful in and of itself, it's just that it doesn't fit the album at all. I think she was trying to end it on a lighthearted, less serious note or something, but it doesn't work.

"Sex kills" is my least favourite lyric by a favourite artist, that song makes me so sad

but, boy, I love the synths, insistent bass hook, and how ominous she sounds. I wish she had sung it in Polish so I couldn't understand the words.

Hissing has the opposite problem.

Xpost

I love Twisted!

for starters, this famous song of hers played on a dulcimer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-q4foLKDlcE

Either that or I have listened to so much pre-Don Juan Joni that I think the whole damn thing is the canon.

I mean, I think "The Arrangement" is a historically critical musical achievement so getting down from a shortlist of 50 to 20 is going to be difficult.

If it's Taxi #1, Woodstock #2 and the rest nowhere, I'll be underwhelmed

It's really tough narrowing down the tracks on Summer Lawns - lots of great mini-hooks in almost every track and a very consistent sound throughout.

Oooooh finally did my listen-through this past week, made my ballot and boy did my memory foam underestimate the immensity of Hejira giant corpse.

1968-1971: 6
1972-1976: 7
1977-1991: 5
1992-present: 2

Three (!) albums-I-love got shut-out on the tracks list.

boy did my memory foam underestimate the immensity of Hejira giant corpse.

Wait, what did you mean by this?

Not trying to be a dick, just interested.

I mean Hejira is unspeakably unstoppably good and "hmm! what Dog eat dog song could I vote for?" quickly became "Why can't I vote for all the Hejira songs"

submitted!

It's really tough narrowing down the tracks on Summer Lawns - lots of great mini-hooks in almost every track and a very consistent sound throughout.
― skip, Friday, September 28, 2012 2:41 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

it's all about In France... and Edith... for me

In France is actually one of my least favourite Hissing tunes, feels kinda forced to me. Whereas Edith is amazing, probably my favourite. It's the song which most fully embraces that dazzled soft-jazz glow she's going for.

The "riff" so to speak of Edith just slays me....and the lyrics are amazing

"Why can't I vote for all the Hejira songs"

Oh, totally. Double-tracked flanged guitars + fusion bass = musical heaven

Voted

I applied a rule of no more than 5 songs from one album mainly to avoid voting for all the Hejira songs.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0097AQEOK/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=amz08223-21&camp=2902&creative=19466&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=B0097AQEOK&adid=1BRVAX2FD11094H92M7B

Just a reminder that though the deadline was yesterday I will still take ballots until aggregation probably sometime tomorrow evening. I will give fair warning but if you don't want to be caught out before tabulation occurs, get your ballots in now!

ballot sent, hopefully not too late.....

sending in a bit

I'll be accepting ballots until late tnite.

Ballot sent - hopefully in time.

voted finally, hope to read this thread someday!

voted. MOrdy and Joni rule!

Jessica Hopper review of the new studio albums box set: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17269-the-studio-albums-1968-1979/

This is a basic set-- no frills, just all the albums' original layouts reproduced in envelope sleeves, the fonts so tiny only mice could read them. There are no extras, outtakes or re-anythinged.

Ugh, why??