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

(xp)

I did vote for Taxi, albeit at #20

No Taxi from me, though I did vote for Woodstock.

Mordy, there's three so far missing from the Spotify playlist on my side (and missing from Spotify at all, says a quick search):

thx for checking for me. I don't think I can do anything about tracks that Spotify doesn't have at all.

i totally didn't vote so i have no right to observe, but "trouble child" is too low!

Shit. I come here too rarely. I'd have voted Hissing best album and Harry's House best single, I think.

i would have voted shadows and light best album but it would have been TACTICAL VOTING

A couple thoughts after listening to Blue once at work and twice tonight... 1) There is more piano than I remembered. Her vocals tend to be the focus on those, and the instrumentation has a light touch throughout, so it's easy not to notice that multiple tracks have only piano in the backing track. Plus the piano is kind of jangly and tinny, almost guitar-ish. 2) The sequencing is something else. "Carey" into "Blue" is the most obvious jarring moment but every time you think you get into a positive groove she hits you with a killer quiet track.

http://i50.tinypic.com/2iicy2u.jpg

Original cover of 'For the Roses,' 1972 - Ink and Felt Pen

35. Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire (For the Roses): 132 points, 6 votes, 1 1st place vote

A wristwatch, a ring, a downstairs screamer
Edgy-black cracks of the sky
"Pin cushion prick fix this poor bad dreamer"
"Money" cold shadows reply

Just a quick reminder that as the tracks are revealed they will also be added to this Spotify playlist for listening convenience:

http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/79HgvbsptKvCXt6uKHSBl2

My second vote to show up... another great piece of guitar work in addition to the harrowing subject matter. I still find it hard to believe how much her voice drops in the span of 3 years.

That Moog part in "Cold Blue Steel" after the second chorus = A+++

34. People's Parties (Court and Spark: 141 points, 7 votes

And Jack behind his joker
And stone-cold Grace behind her fan
And me in my frightened silence
Thinking I don't understand

33. The Same Situation (Court and Spark): 146 points, 8 votes

Still I sent up my prayer
Wondering where it had to go
With heaven full of astronauts
And the Lord on death row

you're picking excellent lyrics Mordy! I sing People's Parties to myself when I get nervous and socially awkward, trying to be Stone Cold Grace.

thanks! these are all the lyrics i sing in my head all the time. for some of the songs i have to pick between a few excerpts i constantly sing in my head. i try to pick the one i think about the most.

32. Little Green (Blue): 147 points, 7 votes

Child with a child pretending
Weary of lies you are sending home
So you sign all the papers in the family name
You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed

little green kills me every time i hear it.

Absolutely. It's too sad for me to listen to if I'm in the wrong mood. I forgot to vote for it!

i don't get the "but you're not ashamed" line - what is she supposed to be shameful about?

that she have he daughter up for adoption

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.