Joni heading for 90

[johncorrigan]

Archive on 4 on BBC R4 has a programme on Joni at 8pm this evening:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00019d9

Thanks for the info, Belgrove. Really enjoying this programme.

[muzzer]

Thank you I will give this a listen. While continuing to wish for remasters of The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira.......

[johncorrigan]

If you want a wee greet to yourself, 'Soul Music' this last week centres on the healing power of Joni's masterpiece, 'River'.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0001l70

Here's an earlier version of it with Joni performing live.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbWg2GcB7c4

[Stunsworth]

Apologies if it’s been posted before, Joni Mitchell entire concert at the Isle of Wight festival 1970...

[johncorrigan]

I heard this mentioned on the radio this morning - demos from Hissing of Summer Lawns, including 'Hunter' an unreleased piece. More in the style of earlier Joni. Interesting stuff. I hadn't heard of them before.

https://waxy.org/2008/02/joni_mitchells/

[Lat-Literal]

I heard this mentioned on the radio this morning - demos from Hissing of Summer Lawns, including 'Hunter' an unreleased piece. More in the style of earlier Joni. Interesting stuff. I hadn't heard of them before.
https://waxy.org/2008/02/joni_mitchells/

Very interesting!

What can be heard on "In France They Kiss on Main Street" is a confirmation of her progression in the first half of the 1970s and by dint of what isn't in it what the impact was of the mid 1970s production which of itself was a progression and distinctive. They do appear to have sort of met at a midway point. The next bit is quite difficult to word without sounding condemning but increasingly I am amazed that Joni and ilk were ever selling millions to the masses. "....Summer Lawns" was on - would it have been eight track cartridge? - in a Ford Cortina in Essex when my mate and me were with his older sister and her oikish boyfriend, Bruce. That, I feel, was typical and, well, somehow they had been sold on the sophisticated.

[Lat-Literal]

Apologies if it’s been posted before, Joni Mitchell entire concert at the Isle of Wight festival 1970...

Many thanks for this, Steve - very much appreciated!

[johncorrigan]

Very interesting!

What can be heard on "In France They Kiss on Main Street" is a confirmation of her progression in the first half of the 1970s and by dint of what isn't in it what the impact was of the mid 1970s production which of itself was a progression and distinctive. They do appear to have sort of met at a midway point. The next bit is quite difficult to word without sounding condemning but increasingly I am amazed that Joni and ilk were ever selling millions to the masses. "....Summer Lawns" was on - would it have been eight track cartridge? - in a Ford Cortina in Essex when my mate and me were with his older sister and her oikish boyfriend, Bruce. That, I feel, was typical and, well, somehow they had been sold on the sophisticated.

Listening to them had me thinking what wonderful songs they were and are, when I hear them like this in their raw state. 'Hissing' is such a unique record, way ahead of its time, and you're probably right, Lat...I've listened to it more and more as the years have gone on and it may be my favourite of her records now, which it would not have been when it first came out.

[cloughie]

Listening to them had me thinking what wonderful songs they were and are, when I hear them like this in their raw state. 'Hissing' is such a unique record, way ahead of its time, and you're probably right, Lat...I've listened to it more and more as the years have gone on and it may be my favourite of her records now, which it would not have been when it first came out.

...and the next one Don Juan’s Wreckless Daughter took a further step.

[Conchis]

Blue is good, but overrated, I feel.

I prefer J.M. when she's more musically adventurous - so, for me, it's Court & Spark, Hissing...and Hejira.

I think ...Don Juan's.... and Mingus have their virtues, too, though they're not for everyone, perhaps.

Not that familiar with her work post-Dog Eat Dog.

[gurnemanz]

Saw Mojo (not a regular purchase) in the newagents's the other day and bought it when I saw a Joni special. It has a cover disc of recent singers (ie mostly not known to an old fogey like me) who have been "inspired by the genius of Joni Mitchell" - interesting selection. In the mag there are twenty page of diverse articles/features/interviews cataloguing her life.

[cloughie]

Saw Mojo (not a regular purchase) in the newagents's the other day and bought it when I saw a Joni special. It has a cover disc of recent singers (ie mostly not known to an old fogey like me) who have been "inspired by the genius of Joni Mitchell" - interesting selection. In the mag there are twenty page of diverse articles/features/interviews cataloguing her life.

May give it a try - though I am very sceptical about what might be done to my favourite Joni songs! - I see it also includes features John Sebastian - The Spoonful are a long term favourite of mine!

[gurnemanz]

May give it a try - though I am very sceptical about what might be done to my favourite Joni songs! - I see it also includes features John Sebastian - The Spoonful are a long term favourite of mine!

Only one is actually a cover version - a quite nicely done piano/mandoline and whispery vocal rendition of Marcie from Chris Thile and Brad Mehldau. It's here

[Lat-Literal]

Listening to them had me thinking what wonderful songs they were and are, when I hear them like this in their raw state. 'Hissing' is such a unique record, way ahead of its time, and you're probably right, Lat...I've listened to it more and more as the years have gone on and it may be my favourite of her records now, which it would not have been when it first came out.

JC, I don't know how well it sold compared with the others. It was the one I found several times in the record collections of fellow students in the 1980s. That suggests to me that via their older siblings it had stood out. Given it was the first one I listened to then in its entirety, it took an early lead but from a position of a lack of knowledge. As with Dylan at that time. I found it quite difficult but was also intrigued, especially by "The Jungle Line". That subsequently seemed like World Music not that far from how parts of The Clash's "Sandinista!" did.

This is sort of where the generational gap applies because I didn't have money until my mid 20s to buy many albums and there were not a lot of album tracks on the radio. It's strange to think of it now but before 1989, Joni was largely "Big Yellow Taxi", the Matthews Southern Comfort version of "Woodstock", and one or two singles like "In France...etc". I only knew the titles of most albums. Similarly, Judy was "Both Sides Now", "Amazing Grace" and "Send in the Clowns"; Joan was The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", Neil Young was "Heart of Gold", "Only Love Can Break Your Heart" and Prelude's version of "After the Goldrush"; Van was "Moondance", "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Bright Side of the Road"; Springsteen was "Born To Run" and some tracks from the very early 1980s albums; and Dylan was some of the early protest songs, "Lay Lady Lay" and "Knockin on Heaven's Door".

That is, apart from four or five albums in the abovementioned collections of others, which built on affectionate memories from very early childhood. Well, no maybe seven or eight. But my breakthrough years for these artists were 1989 in the case of Dylan and Morrison, sometime in the 1990s for Springsteen, Young and Baez as well as, actually, Nick Drake and Gil Scott-Heron but not until the 2000s for Joni and as for Judy it is arguably 2019. This is to say these were the moments when an album or two suddenly resonated. Then I felt a need to find as many as I could to listen to like readers do with books on finding a good author. I was listening only this morning to Judy's version of Joni's "Michael From Mountains". As with His Bobness, an occasional rendition by someone else not only works but brings out a new strength in a song. And so it is as you suggest with other versions by the artist him/herself.

Blue is good, but overrated, I feel.

I prefer J.M. when she's more musically adventurous - so, for me, it's Court & Spark, Hissing...and Hejira.

I think ...Don Juan's.... and Mingus have their virtues, too, though they're not for everyone, perhaps.

Not that familiar with her work post-Dog Eat Dog.

"Blue" was the one which took over from "Lawns" as my favourite initially but then there was "Travelogue" which really opened the door. I am crazily keen about this album. It could hardly be regarded as new work but it is the post 70s one I would most recommend most. Yes, it is full of orchestration. That is its point. Then came the amazing "Shine" which is virtually the swansong. Do not miss it. I could talk about the others from the greater decades but I won't do here. All I would say is that the 80s and early 90s works of Joni (and also Dylan) are great fun to explore. They were often panned. They bore the weight of that period's productions and to a large extent still do but much depends on how you want to tackle them. You can dismiss things out of hand for, say, synths, drum machines etc or accept them as a part of the package. If the latter can be done, you have more scope for enjoyment.

[Belgrove]

Many thanks for the link to the demo's john, they make fascinating listening. And thanks too gurnemanz for the Mojo alert, I now have a copy and will give the disc a spin later. Joni's covers of her own material are interesting. There is a jazzy version of In France... on the Shadows and Light live album, with Jaco Pastorius' wonderful bass playing, very different from the original but, if anything, even more joyous. The live album also has a beautiful haunting version of Hejira. It is interesting to contrast these with the later cover on Travelogue (with full orchestra), all so different renditions of an epic number, but all nearly the same length. The Herbie Hancock River: The Joni Letters album has some fine covers, where she appears herself covering Tea Leaf Prophecy. I particularly like Tina Turner's understated take on murky world of Edith and the Kingpin, and even prefer to the original Leonard Cohen speaking his way through The Jungle Line (sacrilege I know...). Is Ian Shaw's Drawn To All Things worth a punt?

If Bob Dylan can be awarded a Nobel Prize, then surely the poetry in Joni's work should make her a contender too?