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

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

wonder if Circle Game will place... it's fine as written but the group vocals really ruin it, turns it into some kind of creepy EST 70s parent singalong

2nd try:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q4foLKDlcE

turns it into some kind of creepy EST 70s parent singalong

thanks. finally nailed why i love it.

California - that's my jam right there

the way she smiles when singing "california" reminds me very much of the look of someone who has found enlightenment. she has got that naive-enchanted expression of a nun who has just seen jesus in the eye. you know what i mean?

They had us sing Circle Game and other hippy dippy songs in my elementary school music class

lol, my introduction to Circle Game was from a grade school concert too, though it was the next-higher grade that sung it and I was in the audience.

Listening to Janet Jackson's cover of "The Beat of Black Wings" - such a weird, random song for her to obsess over, and yet it also makes perfect sense in some ways.

Meanwhile, in this clip of "Two Grey Rooms", a song which I adore, I love how she spends half the clip smoothing out her wrinkles in the mirror. This album is maybe the best album about aging ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjDi_plwi5A

Wait, I'm still not clear on when the deadline is.

Let's say September 28th? Maybe a mod can update the thread title?

I'm only here in spirit for this poll, I wanna report - the make-a-list-and-order-it style of poll is too work-intensive for me generally and especially right now. Hope "Let the Wind Carry Me" gets some action in the final results anyway.

I thought you disapproved of these polls

12 more days? I really don't want to be Mister Rules Man, but an 18-day poll (plus results) would put this one at almost twice the length of the last few. Could I suggest a Monday the 24th deadline and the rest of the week for the rollout?

I agree; I think people either get a ballot in quickly or at the last minute, and the length of the period in the middle doesn't matter much.

We do need to keep this thread bumped a lot more though.

I thought you disapproved of these polls

I think they're generally pretty obnoxious & especially hate the "and now, we must poll absolutely everything" tendency but Joni Mitchell's a favorite artist of mine. Also why would give even 1/4 of a shit what I approve or disapprove of, seriously dude this isn't high school

12 more days? I really don't want to be Mister Rules Man, but an 18-day poll (plus results) would put this one at almost twice the length of the last few. Could I suggest a Monday the 24th deadline and the rest of the week for the rollout?

Honestly, we can make the deadline whenever people want, but there won't be any results on the 25th, 26th, or from the 30th through the 9th, because of the holidays. I'm happy to accede to the mob's wishes in any regard besides those, though.

I'm only here in spirit for this poll, I wanna report - the make-a-list-and-order-it style of poll is too work-intensive for me generally and especially right now. Hope "Let the Wind Carry Me" gets some action in the final results anyway.

Do you want to make a list and not order it and we can do split values or whatever?

Never said I did. Was just asking you a question.

Here's an alternative compromise WMC: Made all polls due on the 28th and I'll try to roll out all results between the 3rd and the 6th... a little compressed rollout but doable for me? Or I could do the 3rd to the 6th and then finish it up on the 10th?

Go with what suits you, Mordy - if you were just picking the 28th at random I'd say it was too long; but if you need to fit in with other stuff, do that.

It has to be what suits mordy. It's his poll.

<i> I think they're generally pretty obnoxious & especially hate the "and now, we must poll absolutely everything" tendency but Joni Mitchell's a favorite artist of mine. Also why would give even 1/4 of a shit what I approve or disapprove of, seriously dude this isn't high school </i>

I find the poll results useful for highlighting the songs thst serious fans like the best - some of which aren't regularly found on "best-of" compilations and aren't well known to non-fans or even to dilettantes of that act.

OK, I didn't know any holidays played any part in the timeline of this poll. Given a Sept 28th deadline, when were the results going to roll, if Sept 30th through Oct 9th were out?

I recommend rolling the Neptunes poll concurrently if V79's schedule allows, and you can finish Joni's voting and results whenever without any schedule pressure.

Whatever is cool with me. I didn't realize we were on a tight schedule.

It's not that the schedule is tight so much as there are 42 polls in line after this one, and everybody's been patient, but a sense of forward motion will keep the enthusiasm level up for future polls.

42!

Hope "Let the Wind Carry Me" gets some action in the final results anyway.

― we don't wanna miss a THING!!! (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Sunday, September 16, 2012 12:26 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah this is a secret classic.

there are 42 polls in line after this one

...

The secret classic is "Electricity." Or "Woman of Heart and Mind."

jeez the whole For The Roses album.

Agreed: I was listening to For The Roses last night and thinking that nearly every song feels kinda underrated and precious. It's perhaps the most Joni of her albums, wordy and flighty and mercurial.

there are 42 polls in line after this one

It's the meaning of life on ILX (and Smithy is Marvin)

For the Roses, I think I've said before, has stealthily put itself in a position for me where I think I may prefer it to Blue. Its songs will never be as fully in my blood as Blue's - I went through multiple dark nights of the soul with Blue, its songs are carved into my heart. But For the Roses, which I didn't seek out until much much later, seems deeper to me - those transitional jazz arrangements just kill me.

a sense of forward motion will keep the enthusiasm level up for future polls.

Wm I feel in the interest of fairness you should also indicate what a person might do if he wished to dampen the enthusiasm level for future polls

You're doing a fine job smithy :)

ahhh, you can't trick me, aero -- these polls fall outside mod duties so I don't have to be fair. Whatever you, in the interest of fairness, think best.

For the Roses, I think I've said before, has stealthily put itself in a position for me where I think I may prefer it to Blue.

def for me

I guess part of that is that For the Roses is, to use a word nobody likes, more mature. Blue is a young person fronting a little about how worldly she is, sometimes. It's still gorgeous and aching and pretty fucking perfect. But the actual world, the miles on the odometer, are in evidence on For the Roses - more has happened.

But I'll never cry to anything on Blue as hard as I cry if I just *think* hard enough about a song that starts "Just before our love got lost, you said:"

if you want me i'll be in the bar

I know next to nothing about Joni Mitchell & will be using the results of this poll as a guide

*to anything on For the Roses, I mean.

crut I think learning the albums is a better idea than learning the best-loved tracks. JM is very much an album artist.