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

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.

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.

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.

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.

"Paprika Plains" finally started sounding lovely and strange instead of diaphanous and strange last week. Talk about a sleeper.

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

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

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!

We didn't talk enough in this poll.

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.

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

She seems to be putting the guy down in the first verse, though.

It could just as easily mean "you don't do anything for me (anymore)".

"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

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 are
a) 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 infatuation
b) the beautiful preceding lines:

Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter
And so sweet

If you wanted to criticize wine for being weak or harmless, this is not how you would describe it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_dY2cy0E2I

That's phantastic dreamy stuff. It reminds me of another song, something from "wild things run fast"?