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

12. Edith & the Kingpin (The Hissing of Summer Lawns): 258 points, 9 votes, 1 1st place vote

Edith in his bed
A plane in the rain is humming
The wires in the walls are humming
Some song some mysterious song

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.)

best use of the word "shampoo" in a song imo

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.

Ok, last one for today. Top 10 tomorrow!

11. Amelia (Hejira): 298 points, 11 votes

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly
Like Icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia it was just a false alarm

"Edith and the Kingpin" is my touchstone for a kind of beguiling opacity.

if I were revoting today I'd vote "Amelia" #1. I am absolutely spellbound by it. is that Joni on slide?

It's Carlton, I think.

Best song on Hejira - totally entrancing.

'amelia' would've been my #1

My #2

so it was just a false alarm?

Given a massive showing in the top ten is unlikely, it appears For The Roses has been predictably underrated in this poll. It'd be nice to be proven wrong of course.

I was the no. 1 vote for "Come In From The Cold" - a choice both strategic and genuine.

Last day - top 10 results! I hope everyone has enjoyed the rollout. I've certainly enjoyed running this poll.

10. Car on a Hill (Court and Spark): 300 points, 12 votes

It always seems so righteous at the start
When there's so much laughter
When there's so much spark
When there's so much sweetness in the dark
Waiting for a car
Climbing
Climbing
Climbing the hill

Mordy, you are a gentleperson and a scholar...to Mordy!

Love the way her voice slides on "car on a hilllllll..."

Top 10, Friday on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.. perfect! I think it will be all Joni on our three hour drive to the cottage today :D

09. You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio (For the Roses): 320 points, 12 votes, 1 1st place vote

Oh honey you turn me on
I'm a radio
I'm a country station
I'm a little bit corny
I'm a wildwood flower
Waving for you

Same effect used to great effect in "willllllldwood flower..." Great groove. A bit on the corny side but she owns up to it. My #6.

god I love that song so much. The metaphors are heavy handed but I enjoy that.

"You Turn Me On" is arguably a better let-me-try-and-write-a-hit than "Help Me."

08. California (Blue): 333 points, 12 votes, 3 1st place votes

So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to Spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading Rolling Stone reading Vogue

They said "How long can you hang around?"
I said a week maybe two
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I'm going home to California

'california' is pretty much a perfect song to me

A propros of nothing but I really don't get 'For The Roses'...it sounds like a step backwards from 'Blue' and sounds really vanilla...none of the unresolved tension of her best work...

My husband guessed that's what I'd chose as my #1 since I walk around singing it all the time. Perfect pop song indeed.

"California"'s lyrics just roll right off her tongue, they're great. I hate that "*sigh* that was just a dream some of us had" line though, enough of a preachy Joni moment that it stayed off my ballot

California was my no.1 and tbh I'm amazed it hasn't won this poll. I kept trying to put other things at no.1 instead, but every time it left me thinking 'no, it's Caifornia'.

"Night ride home" on the stereo and Joni just sang:

I feel your leg under the table
Leaning into mine
I feel renewed
I feel disabled
By these bonfires in my spine

07. The Last Time I Saw Richard (Blue): 388 points, 15 votes, 1 1st place vote

He put a quarter in the Wurlitzer and he pushed
Three buttons and the thing began to whirr
And a bar maid came by in fishnet stockings and a bow tie
And she said "Drink up now it's getting' on time to close"

^^^ a masterpiece of tone and emphasis

Joni as piano bar chanteuse...drink up now, it's getting time to close

Anyone know how that guitar sound on California and All I Want sounds like it does? Cheap guitar? Recording technique? Happy accident? Whatever, it's strange but wonderful.

Dulcimer, no?

Oh, also, "Richard" was my #1 and my favourite album closer ever

Here, she explains it for you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQpZXUGRy1U

Jeff: it's a dulcimer

So I hear. Thanks, both.

I dint think Richard would place, so no idea what the last six are going to be

06. Free Man in Paris (Court and Spark): 391 points, 16 votes

I do my best
And I do good business
There's a lot of people asking for my time
They're trying to get ahead
They're trying to be a good friend of mine

LTISR is Joni at her most Didionesque, except for maybe People's Parties

"Free Man..." is the only song from C&S I really rate as high as the ones on the albums either side and Blue.

If we're doing muso questions today, I have one: is Joni playing in irregular tempo at the start of 'Blue', or is she playing regular but doing something clever that makes it seem so?

05. Coyote (Hejira): 412 points, 16 votes, 2 1st place votes

I looked a coyote right in the face
On the road to Baljennie near my old home town
He went running thru the whisker wheat
Chasing some prize down
And a hawk was playing with him
Coyote was jumping straight up and making passes
He had those same eyes just like yours
Under your dark glasses

What was the contemporary reaction to Hejira? A lot of people must have been thrown off when they heard this track.

There's only one song now that I'm certain will be top four. It's weird to feel so in the dark at this stage.

Yay suspense!

Coyote and Blue Motel Room are about Sam Shepard, right?

@ Ismael, you mean the intro arpeggiation? It's rrrrubato