Oh I Wish I Had a POLL, I Could Skate Away On: The Joni Mitchell Tracks/Albums Results Thread (ILM ARTIST POLL #26)

gave the*

didn't realize adoption is shameful, but whatev

maybe she felt there were cultural expectations of shame around giving a child up* for adoption in 1971. that is how i always understood the line, tho. i agree w/ you that there shouldn't be anything shameful about.

*even that expression 'giving up for adoption' obv contains a sort of negative implication - to give up on a child. it's sorta embedded in the cultural discourse around adoption.

Both of those C&S tracks are more effective in the context of the album than in isolation. And for some reason I had trouble voting for the "slow" Blue songs, the best stuff from Hejira and For the Roses grabs me a bit more.

She has since reconciled with her daughter fwiw

31. Big Yellow Taxi (Ladies of the Canyon): 155 points, 8 votes

They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em

hate Counting Crows forever for covering this song

According to Girls Like Us, giving up her daughter haunted so much of what she wrote, right up to their reunion.

$1.50 always seemed reasonable to me for a tree museum

there's an Amy Grant cover of this where the lyric "dollar and a half" is changed to "25 bucks". That's some serious tree-museum inflation

hate Counting Crows forever for covering this song

hate that lots of ppl think it's a crappy song because they only know the Counting Crows version

My brother-in-law hates the laugh at the end, and I think someone on the voting thread hated it, too. I think it's an amazing moment.

30. Don't Interrupt the Sorrow (The Hissing of Summer Lawns): 159 points, 6 votes, 1 1st place vote

Anima rising
Queen of Queens
Wash my guilt of Eden
Wash and balance me

you're darn right!

I have Mordy on FB & I saw he was listening to this song and guessed it was next. Insider trading!

uh oh. i'll have to be more discrete. or switch it up more.

righteous bass line on this one.

I won't spoil anything, promise :)

hate Counting Crows forever for covering this song

The Pinhead Gunpowder version wasn't so bad.

29. Court and Spark (Court and Spark): 161 points, 8 votes

He was playing on the sidewalk
For passing change
When something strange happened
Glory train passed through him
So he buried the coins he made
In People's Park
And went looking for a woman
To court and spark

28. Black Crow (Hejira): 167 points, 6 votes, 1 1st place vote

My whole life has been
Illumination
Corruption
And diving diving diving diving

I may be an unusual JM fan in that I listen to her almost entirely for the sound of her music.

It's funny: "Black Crow" is a huge favourite of mine but seeing those lyrics, I had to think for a moment - "Oh yeah, those words are in that song!"

27. Barangrill (For the Roses): 168 points, 8 votes

The guy at the gaspumps
He's got a lot of soul
He sings Merry Christmas for you
Just like Nat King Cole

Her mind's on her boyfriend and eggs over easy... Love the flutes. Great storytelling, all those little unimportant things that add up to a memorable road trip or important experience.

Does she have any tracks that are more sinister than Black Crow?

26. Blue (Blue): 178 points, 9 votes

Blue songs are like tattoos
You know I've been to sea before
Crown and anchor me
Or let me sail away

That seems low.

up against River and A Case of You maybe it got pushed down people's lists.

I can start tearing up just thinking about "Blue," it's such a beautiful song and lends the title to one of my fave ILX threads (okay, more appropriately I appropriated the lyrics for the thread):

Songs Are Like Tattoos: Female Singer-Songwriter Rolling Thread

Also, these lyrics always reminded me of Dorothy Parker's poem "Resume:"

Acid, booze and ass
Needles, guns and grass

Resume goes:

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp;
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

It's not the only Joni song that reminds me of DP -- also "People's Parties." I've always wanted to unpack the connection between the two further, but I'm not sure there is one besides these light evocations that might only resonate for me (not exactly a strong critical relationship) -- and maybe only bc they were the two poets that most deeply impacted me in high school.

Acid, booze and ass
Needles, guns and grass

One of her most memorable lines - and then the way she says "Lots of laughs". Devastating.

25. Raised on Robbery (Court and Spark): 182 points, 8 votes

First he bought a '57 Biscayne
He put it in the ditch
He drunk up all the rest
That son of a bitch
His blood's bad whiskey
I was raised on robbery

I wonder where Tim is today. I'm gonna keep posting -- but ppl should feel free to comment on stuff from earlier whenever they get an opportunity.

This next song is one of my all time faves and I'm really happy it placed so high.

24. Morning Morgantown (Ladies of the Canyon): 184 points, 10 votes

Morning Morgantown
Buy your dreams a dollar down
Morning any town you name
Morning's just the same

I agree with the 33 1/3 book on C&S: "Raised on Robbery" is fun but stiff.

23. In France They Kiss on Main Street (The Hissing of Summer Lawns): 197 points, 11 votes

We'd all go looking for a party
Looking to raise Jesus up from the dead
And I'd be kissing in the back seat
Thrilling to the Brando-like things that he said
And we'd be rolling rolling rock 'n' rolling

Glad IFTKOMS made it...great album opener.

would've put the other tracks listed so far ("Shades..." and "...Sorrow") way over it though

22. Woodstock (Ladies of the Canyon): 201 points, 10 votes

And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation

xp
"...Sorrow" should be higher definitely - was in my top #3.

Very pleased to see "...Morgantown" so high though

"In France They Kiss..." is a terrific single; it shouldn't have bombed.

Black Crow is extremely strong

Three of my votes in a row. Morgantown is the most precious little song. And "ROLLIN, ROLLIN" put Main Street over the top of some of the other ones for me.

Ladies in their rainbow fashions
Colored stop and go lights flashing
We'll wink at total strangers passing
In morning Morgantown

is my favorite set from MM...

Ok, last one for today:

21. Hejira (Hejira): 204 points, 9 votes

n the church they light the candles
And the wax rolls down like tears
There's the hope and the hopelessness
I've witnessed thirty years

I wonder where Tim is today. I'm gonna keep posting -- but ppl should feel free to comment on stuff from earlier whenever they get an opportunity.

― Mordy, Wednesday, October 3, 2012 5:23 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Asleep! It's now 6.40am over here.

"Hejira" was my favourite song in the world at 14, I printed out all the lyrics and stuck them on my bedroom wall.

First he bought a '57 Biscayne
He put it in the ditch

incidentally, Chevrolet didn't start making Biscaynes until 1958. I hope it's a '57 in the song not because she was oblivious to this factoid, but rather just her taking poetic licence because '57 Chevys are so much cooler than the '58s