That was a strategic placement in a way "Come In From The Cold" wasn't - in truth it's on a level with Hissing for me. I had a feeling Blue wouldn't really need my help.
But Night Ride Home did sneak three tunes into my top ten, and I could have easily put "Cherokee Louse" and "Nothing Can Be Done" in the second half of my songs list except I started to feel like I was just throwing votes away.
― Tim F, Sunday, 7 October 2012 05:16 (eleven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q4foLKDlcE
― Mordy, Wednesday, 24 October 2012 12:34 (eleven years ago) link
I just finished reading/listening to all of this. Cheers Mordy and everyone who voted for a good education.
― "It's like death metal lyrics, but about a vagina." (a hoy hoy), Saturday, 10 November 2012 16:58 (eleven years ago) link
Man why did I not bother with this? Maybe guilt that I only know four Joni albums well: 1971-76. But those four albums mean so much to me.
― jaymc, Saturday, 5 January 2013 06:51 (eleven years ago) link
But wait, you say, there were five albums between '71 and '76. I forgot, as I often do, about For the Roses. Need to give it more of a chance, IIRC.
― jaymc, Saturday, 5 January 2013 06:52 (eleven years ago) link
Listening to Ian & Sylvia's greatest hits with a cover of Circle Game on it right now. :D
Came home depressed last night & put on Blue and sung along loudly to the whole album. Made me feel so much better.
― she started dancing to that (Finefinemusic), Saturday, 5 January 2013 16:48 (eleven years ago) link
After about two weeks of obsessing over everything she did from 1975-79 I'm a little stunned at how little of it actually made it into this poll. Part or me thinks there are different kinds of Joni fans -- pre-jazz and post. Judging by some or the comments here, that doesn't mean you exclusively like one or the other but that often only one makes you an obsessive.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 23:05 (eleven years ago) link
And as a total latecomer to the party on this stuff, what I guess surprises me is that with the reappraisal of that era that's taken place since (ie, PFM calling Hissing her "most timeless" record) I kind of figured that bifurcation would have been left in the 70s.
― Naive Teen Idol, Wednesday, 13 February 2013 23:10 (eleven years ago) link
"Paprika Plains" finally started sounding lovely and strange instead of diaphanous and strange last week. Talk about a sleeper.
― the little prince of inane false binary hype (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 13 February 2013 23:19 (eleven years ago) link
just wanted to say, I don't know Joni's music well enough that I didn't participate in this poll at all, but listening to the Spotify results playlist is making my day, thanks for the crash course you guys
― Algerian Horsebeater (some dude), Monday, 20 January 2014 18:08 (ten years ago) link
I may be an unusual JM fan in that I listen to her almost entirely for the sound of her music.― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, October 3, 2012 5:38 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, October 3, 2012 5:38 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
count me in, though reading Mordy's choice excerpts make it clear I'm missing out
it's not as if I don't pay attention to the lyrics at all, I just mostly notice fragments, certain phrases and motifs...
anyway, great poll, Joni's the best!
― niels, Saturday, 11 November 2017 19:04 (six years ago) link
We didn't talk enough in this poll.
― Tim F, Saturday, 11 November 2017 22:07 (six years ago) link
how did i miss it? just listening to that bbc concert with james taylor from 1970 where john peel speaks the introduction. there are already quite a lot songs which later were published on blue on it (carey, california, river, my old man, a case of you) and her soprano is really perfect here. not as high-pitch as on the first album but still very girlish and innocent sounding. and all that great in between song banter. where she explains that the circle game was her uplifting answer to that kind of sad song from that unkown young canadian folk singer whose name she doesn't mention. the song was sugar mountain.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Saturday, 11 November 2017 22:28 (six years ago) link
there's some discussion upthread about the meaning of being able to drink a case of somebody and still be on your feet, and while it is similar in structure to "I eat x like you for breakfast", I don't see how it could mean anything but I can't get enough of you
― niels, Sunday, 12 November 2017 10:14 (six years ago) link
She seems to be putting the guy down in the first verse, though.
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Sunday, 12 November 2017 13:57 (six years ago) link
It could just as easily mean "you don't do anything for me (anymore)".
― No purposes. Sounds. (Sund4r), Sunday, 12 November 2017 14:24 (six years ago) link
"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, October 3, 2012 10:42 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I am now 14 year old Tim F
― droit au butt (Euler), Sunday, 12 November 2017 16:01 (six years ago) link
xp well she's certainly teasing the guy, answering his metaphysical boast with an acerbic and then a prosaic remark, but anyway since the next thing she remembers is drawing his face on a map of Canada it's reasonable to suggest there's also a level of vulnerability, even love (though it's ofc slightly undercut by the drawing being on the back of a cartoon coaster lit by a tv screen)
what makes the central metaphor unlikely as a putdown imo area) the singer's fetichization of the lover - even if she does not explicitly desire drinking a case of the lover, the repeated focus on the act suggests infatuationb) the beautiful preceding lines:
Oh you are in my blood like holy wineYou taste so bitterAnd so sweet
If you wanted to criticize wine for being weak or harmless, this is not how you would describe it.
― niels, Sunday, 12 November 2017 21:49 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_dY2cy0E2I
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 13 February 2018 17:43 (six years ago) link
That's phantastic dreamy stuff. It reminds me of another song, something from "wild things run fast"?
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 20:46 (six years ago) link