Joni Mitchell: Classic or Dud

Ah ok. I thought they'd be in stores by now. Online shops that sell hi-res downloads already have them available. If it's streaming, I may give them a good listen over the weekend.

I think she got better and better over the course of her first four albums, with Ladies of the Canyon and especially Blue being the two great ones, and I feel that's more or less reflected in the contents of the new Archives installment. The Hendrix recordings are a great find, no question about that, but I enjoy the Carnegie Hall recordings more and the final live recordings accompanied by James Taylor even more than both. Similarly, the demos and studio leftovers for Blue are more enjoyable simply because they involve better songs - to be fair, it would be hard for anyone to compete with them - and the earlier live performances of a few Blue songs are wonderful too.

Blue is overrated and most everything else she did is somewhere between under appreciated and vastly underrated.

There's probably some discussion upthread or elsewhere but 'For The Roses' is just as great as Blue but is sadly overshadowed by it. I think the kinda shitty, washed-out cover artwork is somehow partially to blame.

Weirdest discovery of the box for me so far isn't on the discs. In the accompanying booklet, there's an ad for a late '60s Joni performance, and on the bill is Four Jacks and a Jill. The show does not take place at a Ramada Inn in Kansas City. Maybe Fred Willard was on the scene in the '60s and dredged that memory up for Spinal Tap. Kinda neat to find out they were a real band.

Apparently the name was used earlier than that for a film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Jacks_and_a_Jill_%28film%29

The article for the band is also kind of interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Jacks_and_a_Jill#Career

About two dozen mentions in ILX archives. Skot a big fan.

I didn't think Blue is overrated - it's her best work alongside several other masterpieces, not to mention a string of good-to-really-good albums - but given how it's been canonized in recent years as the greatest this and greatest that with virtually no mention of her other albums, I can see how it's overrated at the expense of everything else.

*didn't think Blue was overrated

Appropriate that she was taped by Hendrix, before the debut alb release: they both emerged fully formed---later changes seemed logic of evolution (maybe some devolution in her case, as she lived so much longer, but then the covers album and some other resurgence from time to time). I'd already read sooo much about Dylan, that I wasn't that surprised by finally hearing him, but they just showed up.

Of course, I'm talking late 60s, coulda prep-read tons about them later.

Talking to Cary.

https://www.newstatesman.com/katemossmaninterview/2021/12/joni-mitchell-carey-california-blue-lyrics-cary-raditz-interview

The Last Time I Saw Richeard.

CLASSIC: https://jonimitchell.com/news/newsitem.cfm?id=1592

I think the Spotify fallout warrants its own thread

I wonder where Joe Rogan stands on Morgellon’s

Would it mess up Acts that are not on Spotify ?

Yeah, someone start fresh

Sam Stone interviews Patrick Milligan on Vol. 2 of the archive series: https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=5126

Vol. 3 will apparently cover 1972-1975.

Cant wait for that volume

Joined by Brandi Carlile, Marcus Mumford and other artists, Mitchell played guitar, told stories, and sang a dozen songs in a surprise Newport headlining performance.

“I just realized, Joni’s the least nervous person up here,” exclaimed Brandi Carlile halfway through a historic Newport Folk Festival set that paid tribute to Joni Mitchell, in her first full set-length concert appearance in two decades.

Over 13 songs, Mitchell, who last appeared at the festival 53 years ago, in 1969, held court as a star-studded crew of musicians (Carlile, Blake Mills, Lucius, Wynonna, Celisse, Taylor Goldsmith, Marcus Mumford, and many more) sat around on couches on-stage playing a mix of her favorite oldies (The Persuasions’ “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” The Clovers’ “Love Potion No. 9” as well as an array of Mitchell masterpieces.

Sitting in a throne, Mitchell began the set by occasionally singing along to her own songs, accompanied by vocalists like Carlile, (“Carey”) Goldsmith, (1991’s “Come In From The Cold”) and Celisse (“Help Me”). But by the end of the hour-plus performance, the 78 year-old singer who only recently sang on stage for the first time in nearly a decade had stood up, played a lengthy guitar solo (“Just Like This Train”) and sang a moving baritone lead vocal on Gershwin’s “Summertime'” as well as tear-jerking takes on “Both Sides Now” and “Circle Game.”

The premise: Recreating the recently infamous “Joni Jams,” the informal A-list gatherings of musicians at Mitchell’s Los Angeles home in recent years, where everyone from Carlile to Elton John to Herbie Hancock to Bonnie Raitt gather around Mitchell and trade songs and stories in the years following Mitchell’s aneurysm. ”No one brings folk singers together like the humility of trying out a new song in front of Joni fucking Mitchell,” as Carlile, who curated and organized the entire set, explained in the introduction to the performance.

At the end of the set, Carlile pronounced the night’s eternal important: “Joni Mitchell,” she proclaimed, “has returned.”

(Fellow more or less retiree Paul Simon apparently also popped up to play at the Fest with, um, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats.)

holy shit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aqGjaFDTxQ

also burning jealousy at Mills getting to lead on "Amelia" which is probably my favourite of all

sorry you had to work with Mumford Joni, be well

goddamn joni you make me cry in the office

such an absolute wonder of songwriting I can't fathom how it was written by a 22 year old

it only grows

Truly stunning

“Both Sides Now” just made me bawl like a baby. Such a beautiful performance.

It made me think to myself, you know, one day she'll be gone and I'll probably never get over it.

Annoyingly "twee" hippy songstress with a piercing warble that could make dogs' heads explode.

This could be the single worst take I've read in my (admittedly, relatively short) time here.

Incredible. So happy to see and hear her again.

she sounds fantastic

idk if she'll ever be able to perform a full concert again, let alone go on tour, but i'm incredibly glad that this happened

xxp olde ILM is full of takes like that, it's quite the contrarian time capsule

Damn, i cried. Welcome back.

Beautiful. My cousins were there and said everyone was crying when they did Circle Game.

My only misgiving is that she's gone on for twenty five years or so about how she wants to be finished with music, that only painting satisfies her now. So is someone pushing her to get back on the stage? Or is it that she was only fed up with the business of music?

wynona "im not going to make it..." otm

how dare someone change their mind over time

xp

I just hope it doesn't become a Bruce Willis situation, that's all.

Did I miss something - is there indication that this is more than a one-off?

it's her laughing at the end for me

These videos made have me so emotional. I never thought we'd see her performing on stage again after her aneurysm, given the fact that she almost died and lost the ability to walk and speak for a while.

(Apparently she had to re-learn playing guitar using YouTube tutorials.)

Amazing to hear her sing her classics with the other musicians - but she also sounds so good solo in "Summertime":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwN0dtTYcvs

I'm not crying, you're crying.

I read all the crying comments and scoffed, then watched it and cried - should've known better with Joni.

yeah likewise
What a legend, and what a great way to ease into a comeback. She's made any point she needed to make, but if she enjoyed it as much as it seemed, more please.

Dud