Lynne Truss on Joni Mitchell - Radio 4

[Serial_Apologist]

Amidst a wealth of stimulating radio programmes for next week - too many with time to mention, the following repeat:

Sun 4 Oct
4.30pm - My Muse
Programme 1 of 3
Another chance to hear a series in which artists celebrate the people who inspired them. First up is author Lynne Truss, who sings the praises of Canadian singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, with particular attention to the folk-jazz star's series of acclaimed albums stretching from Ladies of the canyon (1970) to Heijira (1976).

[johncorrigan]

Amidst a wealth of stimulating radio programmes for next week - too many with time to mention, the following repeat:

Sun 4 Oct
4.30pm - My Muse
Programme 1 of 3
Another chance to hear a series in which artists celebrate the people who inspired them. First up is author Lynne Truss, who sings the praises of Canadian singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, with particular attention to the folk-jazz star's series of acclaimed albums stretching from Ladies of the canyon (1970) to Heijira (1976).

Heard it a couple of times, S_A, and most enjoyable it is. Especially enjoyed hearing former Scottish Makar, Liz Lochhead enthusiastically talking about Joni in her Cumbernauld accent!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0952jk9

[cloughie]

Heard it a couple of times, S_A, and most enjoyable it is. Especially enjoyed hearing former Scottish Makar, Liz Lochhead enthusiastically talking about Joni in her Cumbernauld accent!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0952jk9

I think my top Joni Albums are Song to a Seagull (1968) and Both Sides Now (2000) and the late 70s Don Juan’s ... and Hissing. But there’s not really a bad one in the whole of her repertoire.

I see the next up is Hank Williams - should be interesting.

[johncorrigan]

Even when not in top form, cloughie, her work is always worth listening to, and at her best she is the greatest of all singer/songwriters, in my opinion. I'd probably go for 'Hejira' because it has so many of my favourite Joni songs on it, 'Amelia', 'Song for Sharon', 'Coyote', 'Furry Sings the Blues', 'Refuge of the Road'...such wonderful images she creates.

I loved the compilation 'Songs of the Prairie Girl' which has her songs from Saskatchewan including 'Paprika Plains' and 'Let the Wind Carry Me' and 'Cherokee Louise' among others. So many wonderful songs. Wish she'd make just one more E.P. even...not holding my breath.

[Cockney Sparrow]

A high point in my radio listening yesterday afternoon whilst painting. Don't listen to Joni M much these days but it all came back to me.

Also, good to hear some fresh voices - none of the usual squad of BBC presenters (however multi-talented)who crop up here, there and everywhere in BBC Radio programmes these days.

I see that another programme in the series has The Young 'Uns folk group - their muse is North East songwriter Graeme Miles. So this afternoon -the painting continues - I will be listening to that programme.

Martin Wyndham Read's album - all Graeme Miles lyrics -"Where Ravens Feed" (and that song) has been a particular favourite - long car journeys to & from the Scottish Borders the CD had regular plays (together with June Tabor albums, also Natania Davrath's Canteloube Songs of Auvergne).

https://www.folkmusic.net/htmfiles/webrevs/fecd157.htm

[cloughie]

Even when not in top form, cloughie, her work is always worth listening to, and at her best she is the greatest of all singer/songwriters, in my opinion. I'd probably go for 'Hejira' because it has so many of my favourite Joni songs on it, 'Amelia', 'Song for Sharon', 'Coyote', 'Furry Sings the Blues', 'Refuge of the Road'...such wonderful images she creates.

I loved the compilation 'Songs of the Prairie Girl' which has her songs from Saskatchewan including 'Paprika Plains' and 'Let the Wind Carry Me' and 'Cherokee Louise' among others. So many wonderful songs. Wish she'd make just one more E.P. even...not holding my breath.

I know what you mean - I just wonder if she is physically able to do it - we really do not know the state of her health - a parallel may be to Linda Ronstadt whose Parkinson’s means that she has not been able to sing since 2011 or thereabouts. Something which Lynne Truss’s programme emphasised is something which I have often thought and that is Joni was never a bandwagon jumper and her music evolved in the way she wanted to do it and there was never a ‘reinvention’ heavily reliant on commercial pressure.

Listened to the Hank Williams - very little about Hank - a lot of self, self, self about Mark Billingham.

The Graeme Miles one is much more interesting.

[johncorrigan]

I know what you mean - I just wonder if she is physically able to do it - we really do not know the state of her health - a parallel may be to Linda Ronstadt whose Parkinson’s means that she has not been able to sing since 2011 or thereabouts. Something which Lynne Truss’s programme emphasised is something which I have often thought and that is Joni was never a bandwagon jumper and her music evolved in the way she wanted to do it and there was never a ‘reinvention’ heavily reliant on commercial pressure.

Listened to the Hank Williams - very little about Hank - a lot of self, self, self about Mark Billingham.

The Graeme Miles one is much more interesting.

I noticed the Young 'Uns programme and thought I'd listen in, cloughie. Best thing I saw about Hank Williams was the fairly recent documentary, 'The Hillbilly Shakespeare', in Ken Burns' Country Music series ...fascinating stuff, I thought.

[gurnemanz]

Enjoyed the programme. Ever since a friend played me Blue when it came out, I have been totally hooked. The way she sings "Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away" still gets me every time. I sought out Ladies of the Canyon which was just as good. Apropos of which - I watched a fascinating two-part documentary about Laurel Canyon on Sky Arts early this year (I could only find a trailer). Joni lived there for a while with Graham Nash. You see the house and get the story behind Nash's "Our House" - "I'll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today...".

We only saw her once live, in 1983 at Wembley Arena (a barn of a venue alas) but Joni brought out her dulcimer for A Case of You.

I think I have all albums now (even "Hits" and "Misses" which is just duplicates) and not really a dud there. I should mention Court and Spark, a top favourite and a bit special. When I did get my wings and fly away, I went to work in Germany and as the album came out I was courting the woman who became the love of my life (just had our 45th anniv).

Post-Joni!! I'm not switched on enough to know what's around but love Lucinda Williams who is still going strong with a new album out and we have seen twice. I heard that Lana del Ray was a big Joni fan (she has done Joni's For Free in concert) and I greatly enjoyed her latest album "Norman F***ing Rockwell" on Spotify.

[johncorrigan]

Enjoyed the programme. Ever since a friend played me Blue when it came out, I have been totally hooked. The way she sings "Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away" still gets me every time. I sought out Ladies of the Canyon which was just as good. Apropos of which - I watched a fascinating two-part documentary about Laurel Canyon on Sky Arts early this year (I could only find a trailer). Joni lived there for a while with Graham Nash. You see the house and get the story behind Nash's "Our House" - "I'll light the fire, you place the flowers in the vase that you bought today...".

We only saw her once live, in 1983 at Wembley Arena (a barn of a venue alas) but Joni brought out her dulcimer for A Case of You.

I think I have all albums now (even "Hits" and "Misses" which is just duplicates) and not really a dud there. I should mention Court and Spark, a top favourite and a bit special. When I did get my wings and fly away, I went to work in Germany and as the album came out I was courting the woman who became the love of my life (just had our 45th anniv).

Post-Joni!! I'm not switched on enough to know what's around but love Lucinda Williams who is still going strong with a new album out and we have seen twice. I heard that Lana del Ray was a big Joni fan (she has done Joni's For Free in concert) and I greatly enjoyed her latest album "Norman F***ing Rockwell" on Spotify.

'Ladies of the Canyon' was my intro, gurney. I remember seeing on the BBC's 'Disco 2' programme, a psychedelic film of 'Big Yellow Taxi'. It blew me away, I bought the LP, and then bought all others as soon as they came out until 'Mingus'.

In the days of LPs, 'Court and Spark' had the best side of a record. Side 1 is just perfect. I mean, I love the rest - 'Down to You', on the B-side is one of my all time favourite Joni songs - but side one is so great.

Lucinda Williams 'Car wheels on a Gravel Road' is one of my all-time favourite records ever, one of those records that if I play it once I have to play half-a-dozen times. So magnificent.

One of my favourite singers post Joni is Laura Veirs...I've got four or five of her records. Here's the song that sent me there. 'Song My Friends Taught Me'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-IAP-H4_kI

I love lots by her, but I think her CD 'Carbon Glaciers' is fantastic. Worth a listen.

I'm also a fan of the Russian/American singer Regina Spektor...she has such an unusual voice and lots of great songs.

Closer to home, we're always pushing Bonnybridge's own, Karine Polwart who came to attention after her anti-Trump song, long before he was Pressie!

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

...and she's still writing fabulous songs.

[gurnemanz]

'Ladies of the Canyon' was my intro, gurney. I remember seeing on the BBC's 'Disco 2' programme, a psychedelic film of 'Big Yellow Taxi'. It blew me away, I bought the LP, and then bought all others as soon as they came out until 'Mingus'.

In the days of LPs, 'Court and Spark' had the best side of a record. Side 1 is just perfect. I mean, I love the rest - 'Down to You', on the B-side is one of my all time favourite Joni songs - but side one is so great.

Lucinda Williams 'Car wheels on a Gravel Road' is one of my all-time favourite records ever, one of those records that if I play it once I have to play half-a-dozen times. So magnificent.

One of my favourite singers post Joni is Laura Veirs...I've got four or five of her records. Here's the song that sent me there. 'Song My Friends Taught Me'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-IAP-H4_kI

I love lots by her, but I think her CD 'Carbon Glaciers' is fantastic. Worth a listen.

I'm also a fan of the Russian/American singer Regina Spektor...she has such an unusual voice and lots of great songs.

Closer to home, we're always pushing Bonnybridge's own, Karine Polwart who came to attention after her anti-Trump song, long before he was Pressie!

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

...and she's still writing fabulous songs.

Forgot to mention Karine Polwart. We have several albums and got to know her quite early on when she appeared at Swindon Arts Centre, a pleasantly small venue. She chatted a bit about about herself, including pointing out that her surname was an anagram of Paltrow

[teamsaint]

Forgot to mention Karine Polwart. We have several albums and got to know her quite early on when she appeared at Swindon Arts Centre, a pleasantly small venue. She chatted a bit about about herself, including pointing out that her surname was an anagram of Paltrow

KP was the first musician I heard railing about donald trump.( edit, oops sorry, just read JCs earlier post)

If only overly large golf courses were our biggest problem right now.....

( Her music does require an intimate venue...)

[Belgrove]

I thoroughly enjoyed the programme. I’m a huge fan of her work, she’s one of the major singer/lyricists of any era. All the discs already mentioned I regard as being essential. Some others worth exploring are the (live) Shadows and Light, with Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny in magnificent form, Travelogue as a follow-up and in the vein of Both Sides Now (with a fabulous version of Hejira), and Turbulent Indigo from the 00’s. The use of Blue from Blue that permeated the NT’s last production of Hedda Gabler with Ruth Wilson was devastating. That her songs are capable of being covered by other performers and used in so many different contexts is a testament to their quality and indeed universality.

[johncorrigan]

KP was the first musician I heard railing about donald trump.( edit, oops sorry, just read JCs earlier post)

If only overly large golf courses were our biggest problem right now.....

( Her music does require an intimate venue...)

Karine Polwart appeared on BBC Scotland's 'Quay Sessions' last night, performing music from her recent 'Scottish Songbook' collection. Very enjoyable with Karine and her band doing versions of songs by the likes of Frightened Rabbit, Bronski Beat and Ivor Cutler. Venue was quite intimate too, sainty.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07smsy3

I had to spend a bit of time in the car late last week, and following the Joni Mitchell conversations I thought I'd dig out a CD I hadn't heard in a while. I decided to go back to her second record 'Clouds'. I didn't hear 'Clouds' when it first came out, and only came across a copy of the record in a second hand shop in the early 80s.

Listening to it these last few days has been a delight. The record from 1969 has two of her more famous songs, the wonderfully upbeat and uplifting 'Chelsea Morning', and 'Both Sides Now' which she wrote in '67 and originally called 'Clouds', which I see has been recorded by almost 1400 other performers. I always liked 'That Song about the Midway', but this time it was the likes of 'Tin Angel' and the totally wonderful 'I Don't Know Where I Stand'. I suppose she would have been 25 when this record came out with some of the songs going back a couple of years, which is incredible given the quality of the lyrics and ideas. I often hear records that remind me of being in my 20s, but never one that makes me want to be back in my 20s. 'Clouds' did make me feel that way. Wonderful from start to finish, I thought.

[johncorrigan]

From a forthcoming release of archive recordings here's Joni in '63 on Radio Saskatoon doing, from the sound of it, a Baez-inspired take of 'House of the Rising Sun'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wWR3ZkyyGY