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

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.

I'm with Crut here but will be checking out the albums people recommend.

noted. I'm going to be paying more attention to the discussion than the track order anyway.

just before our love got lost you said "I am as constant as the northern star" and I said "constantly in the darkness? where's that at? if you want me I'll be down at the bar" on the back of a cartoon coaster by the blue tv's screen light I drew a map of Canada - O Canada! - with your face sketched on it twice ah but you are in my blood like holy wine you taste so bitter and so sweet O I could drink a case of you and still be on my feet I would still be on my feet

that is what polls are about crut (imo anyway)

a good late-material comp imo:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beginning_of_Survival

sometimes i think 'you are in my blood like holy wine' is the greatest lyric ever written in the history of pop music

is "hangin' on to your BOOM BOOM pachyDERMMMM" the worst?

I could explore a cave of you.
I could eat a cake of you.
I could wear a cape of you.
I could flip a crepe of you.

I might be wrong about this, but is there any recorded cover of a Joni Mitchell song that has been anything less than a complete embarrassment-- not owning to any deficiencies on the part of the interpreters, but because of some feature of the original material? The only time I've ever thought "now that's a cover" re: Joni has been tiny private performance where somebody really needs to hear it i.e. my mom singing 5-year-old me to sleep.

You don't like the Herbie Hancock album, I take it?

I heard Fairport Convention's "Chelsea Morning" and "I Don't Know Where I Stand" years before hearing Joni's. I do prefer Joni's (though only by a tiny margin on "Stand"), but Fairport's versions are far from an embarrassment.

xp

i think we can all agree that counting crow's yellow taxi is a horror show tho

I guess she's been covered SO MUCH that I ought not to go so far as "it all sucks, folks" but I've heard so many Joni songs covered by musicians I adore and been deeply disappointed-- to the point that I just think it's a bad idea to cover Joni songs

Price's "A Case of You" is marvelous, Owen!

I was thinking a little more about how "Blue", especially "Blue", those songs all feel unfinished, that is, not "incomplete" but more like the whole story isn't there, that the epiphany is only half-there, and Joni's world is easy for the listener (or an interpreter) to inhabit

i really like kd lang's version of 'jericho'?

Price... who? This line of thinking came up when I realized I didn't care for Antony's version of "A case of you" and typically I love everything that guy touches

Prince

Oh yeah I love kd's "Jericho" but I can't recall the original

i only heard the original after the kd version and... have never been able to like it as much? it's sort of... aimless, where the lang version is very straightforward and sappy.

Prince's "Case of You" is OK. It gets extra points for being Prince but it's still not in the same galaxy as the original.

I remember Judy Collins's "Both Sides Now" as being just great, checking now...yes it is terrific!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8jGFu7ys64

does janet jackson sampling "big yellow taxi" count?

apparently there is a james blake 'case of you'

but is there a James Blunt covers Joni?

Lex, Janet actually covered "The Beat of Black Wings", as I mentioned upthread, and in the intro says it's her favourite song ever (!)

!!!

i've never heard either original or cover

I got into Joni via this Tori cover of "A Case Of You", and I still think it's lovely, really simple and heartfelt:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGc6cx-KWu8

beautiful cover, Tim. i had never heard it before so thanks for sharing.

she doesn't say 'canada' like joni does - longingly...

"be prepared to bleed" - also so devastating

Not expecting agreement, but I love Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now" (and that's the one I heard first, of course). I think Three Dog Night's "Night in the City" is probably pretty good--haven't heard it in ages--though the original's better. And, as already mentioned, Tom Rush's "The Circle Game" and "Urge for Going" are, I believe, as good as the originals--not better, but just as good.

Oops--missed the Judy Collins post.

You know, Tori does "Landslide" great and even sells "Strange Fruit" just fine but even as a teenager I didn't buy her "A case of you".

That said, before I heard the Cornflake Girl b-side studio version, I'd heard an over-emoted live version on the radio that was, well, it was no good.

I like that Judy Collins version but "Both sides now" is kind of perfect to cover, the hippie stuff in the first verse is real quaint.

I actually love Bjork's version of "Boho dance" I've been listening to that tribute album now

Should mention Nazareth's "This Flight Tonight" also--not a fan, but I like that.

WHOA didn't mean to dis "Both sides now", just that Joni's lyrical voice is clearly as a part of a community and a culture on that one

xp haha yeah forgot about Nazareth that is great

OH. CSN+Y Woodstock cover obv classic too.

Listening to Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and Mingus today and thinking this is where things really start to get interesting for me. For whatever reason, the singer-songwriter alone at her/his piano or guitar has a hard job of work to get into my head. (Similarly, I'm not a huge fan of pre-electric Dylan.)

that tori amos cover is very pale compared to the original. she kind of slurs the words, she delays them, her pronunciation is horrible, totally not like the original. obviously i heard joni first.

¡I had no idea Woodstock was a Joni original! I had it on earlier & was thinking she'd done a terrific job on it.