22. Woodstock (Ladies of the Canyon): 201 points, 10 votes
And I dreamed I saw the bombersRiding shotgun in the skyAnd they were turning into butterfliesAbove our nation
― Mordy, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:25 (eleven years ago) link
xp"...Sorrow" should be higher definitely - was in my top #3.
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:29 (eleven years ago) link
Very pleased to see "...Morgantown" so high though
― Jeff W, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:30 (eleven years ago) link
"In France They Kiss..." is a terrific single; it shouldn't have bombed.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:31 (eleven years ago) link
Black Crow is extremely strong
― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:37 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― skip, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:40 (eleven years ago) link
Ladies in their rainbow fashionsColored stop and go lights flashingWe'll wink at total strangers passingIn morning Morgantown
is my favorite set from MM...
― skip, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:41 (eleven years ago) link
Ok, last one for today:
― Mordy, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:50 (eleven years ago) link
21. Hejira (Hejira): 204 points, 9 votes
n the church they light the candlesAnd the wax rolls down like tearsThere's the hope and the hopelessnessI've witnessed thirty years
― Mordy, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 18:51 (eleven years ago) link
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.
― Tim F, Wednesday, 3 October 2012 20:42 (eleven years ago) link
First he bought a '57 BiscayneHe 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
― Lee626, Thursday, 4 October 2012 12:11 (eleven years ago) link
what time does the rest of this thing roll out?
― Iago Galdston, Thursday, 4 October 2012 15:48 (eleven years ago) link
20. Refuge of the Roads (Hejira: 217 points, 10 votes, 1 1st place vote
I pulled off into a forestCrickets clicking in the fernsLike a wheel of fortuneI heard my fate turn turn turn
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 16:01 (eleven years ago) link
10 today i think and then final 10 tomorrow
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 16:02 (eleven years ago) link
love that bass riff on the chorus
― Euler, Thursday, 4 October 2012 16:14 (eleven years ago) link
19. The Jungle Line (The Hissing of Summer Lawns): 230 points, 10 votes
In a low-cut blouse she brings the beerRousseau paints a jungle flower behind her earThose cannibals of shuck and jiveThey'll eat a working girl like her alive
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 16:15 (eleven years ago) link
18. The Hissing of Summer Lawns (The Hissing of Summer Lawns): 231 points, 9 votes, 1 1st place vote
He put up a barbed wire fenceTo keep out the unknownAnd on every metal thornJust a little blood of his own
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 16:34 (eleven years ago) link
17. River (Blue): 238 points, 12 votes
I'm so hard to handle I'm selfish and I'm sad Now I've gone and lost the best baby That I ever had I wish I had a river I could skate away on
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 16:48 (eleven years ago) link
"Jungle Line" and "River" are both stunning.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 4 October 2012 16:54 (eleven years ago) link
16. Come in from the Cold (Night Ride Home): 244 points, 11 votes, 1 1st place vote
I am not some stone commissionLike a statue in a parkI am flesh and blood and visionI am howling in the darkLong blue shadows of the jackalsAre falling on a pay phone by the roadOh, all they ever wantedWas to come in from the cold
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:01 (eleven years ago) link
Hm, I should listen to more of her later stuff. I didn't vote for anything post-Mingus because I don't know it well.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:02 (eleven years ago) link
I'm the #1 vote for "The Hissing...". Structurally, I think it's Joni's most interesting song. Too damn short (barely 3 minutes!) but that's also part of the appeal. Talk about "you don't know what you've got til it's gone" - this song is the epitome of that phrase.
― Jeff W, Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:16 (eleven years ago) link
shocked at "River"s low placement!
hoping you got my ballot Mordy! never got a reply from you
― Euler, Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:17 (eleven years ago) link
I did get it and it was included in the results :)
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:34 (eleven years ago) link
14--TIE. Chelsea Morning (Clouds): 250 points, 11 votes
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morningAnd the first thing that I knewThere was milk and toast and honeyAnd a bowl of oranges, tooAnd the sun poured in like butterscotchAnd stuck to all my senses...
Oh, won't you stay We'll put on the day And we'll talk in present tenses
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:36 (eleven years ago) link
<3 the high placement of "Come in from the cold", that song and album rules
― flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:43 (eleven years ago) link
14--TIE. Song for Sharon (Hejira): 250 points, 11 votes
Sharon you've got a husbandAnd a family and a farmI've got the apple of temptationAnd a diamond snake around my arm
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:51 (eleven years ago) link
Love the way "Chelsea Morning" bursts out so confidently on the LP after the dark "Tin Angel" (which I also voted for but assume won't make it now).
― Jeff W, Thursday, 4 October 2012 17:56 (eleven years ago) link
I like Tin Angel, but in a Bleecker Street café is such a lame line to get the big overwrought treatment
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 4 October 2012 18:22 (eleven years ago) link
I promise this will be the last time I post a Fairport Convention youtube in this thread, but this is too great to not rep for
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ga0GQ_PTog
― Lee626, Thursday, 4 October 2012 19:12 (eleven years ago) link
I'm glad to see Song For Sharon there - it was my #3, and was worried that it wouldn't make it. Hoping 'That Song About the Midway' makes it in too.
― funk79, Thursday, 4 October 2012 19:44 (eleven years ago) link
I voted for both "Morning" tracks. Chelsea Morning makes me want to move to NYC even though I know it's nothing like she's singing about.
― skip, Thursday, 4 October 2012 19:54 (eleven years ago) link
damn, just noticed the results thread was going. stupid illness wiped out any chance i had to submit a last-minute ballot
― these wilburys taste like wilburys (donna rouge), Thursday, 4 October 2012 20:08 (eleven years ago) link
posting lyrical excerpts along with each ballot entry = A+ idea for this thread, btw
― these wilburys taste like wilburys (donna rouge), Thursday, 4 October 2012 20:11 (eleven years ago) link
13. All I Want (Blue): 253 points, 12 votes, 1 1st place vote
I want to knit you a sweaterWant to write you a love letterI want to make you feel betterI want to make you feel free
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 20:59 (eleven years ago) link
<3
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:00 (eleven years ago) link
Ha, I would post tuning guides and chord charts. [ / ducks]
I will acknowledge that on Blue, I do notice and appreciate some of the lyrics.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:01 (eleven years ago) link
just listening to the guitars on Hejira the last couple of days, with attention focused by this poll, has enraptured me; & I'm not even catching very many lyrics
― Euler, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:05 (eleven years ago) link
jonimitchell.com does have some tablature and instructional videos that I can recommend, such as:
http://jonimitchell.com/music/transcription.cfm?id=477
it looks like there's a bunch of them, including tips on how to play like joni, such as:
Third, if you use a capo, buy a "G7th" brand capo. Don't use the Kyser or Dunlop. The G7th is the only capo that lets you capo up without stretching your strings sharp.Fourth, practice playing the songs with a light left hand touch. When the strings are tuned low you are basically stretching the notes sharp as soon as you fret them. Learn to press the string only to the fret and not beyond towards the fretboard wood.
Fourth, practice playing the songs with a light left hand touch. When the strings are tuned low you are basically stretching the notes sharp as soon as you fret them. Learn to press the string only to the fret and not beyond towards the fretboard wood.
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:10 (eleven years ago) link
(there is piano transcription too.)
12. Edith & the Kingpin (The Hissing of Summer Lawns): 258 points, 9 votes, 1 1st place vote
Edith in his bedA plane in the rain is hummingThe wires in the walls are hummingSome song some mysterious song
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:12 (eleven years ago) link
very unexpectedly All I Want ended up being my #1. It has a bit of everything - uptempo and laid back, happy and sad, low key thoughtful vocals that look forward to what her voice would become and as well as some acrobatics, intricate and interesting backing instrumental that could stand on its own, strange mix of the profound and the mundane in the lyrics, and that great outro. It's hard for me to get my head around the fact that one person could come up with both the song and the production and perform it with no help in a single take. (I'm not sure about the recording process but I assume she was playing and singing at the same time.)
― skip, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:18 (eleven years ago) link
best use of the word "shampoo" in a song imo
― flamboyant goon tie included, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:22 (eleven years ago) link
All I want is so great, but Edith kept sneaking higher and higher - ended up my no.2. Sadly not on spotify, so I've had to put Elvis Costello's version on my playlist instead.
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:22 (eleven years ago) link
Ok, last one for today. Top 10 tomorrow!
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:49 (eleven years ago) link
11. Amelia (Hejira): 298 points, 11 votes
A ghost of aviationShe was swallowed by the skyOr by the sea like me she had a dream to flyLike Icarus ascendingOn beautiful foolish armsAmelia it was just a false alarm
― Mordy, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:51 (eleven years ago) link
"Edith and the Kingpin" is my touchstone for a kind of beguiling opacity.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:54 (eleven years ago) link
if I were revoting today I'd vote "Amelia" #1. I am absolutely spellbound by it. is that Joni on slide?
― Euler, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:55 (eleven years ago) link
It's Carlton, I think.
― the ones that I'm near most: fellow outcasts and ilxors (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:56 (eleven years ago) link
Best song on Hejira - totally entrancing.
― skip, Thursday, 4 October 2012 21:57 (eleven years ago) link