Joni Mitchell: Classic or Dud

i wish i liked anne briggs more.

just noticed gygax's post. well, a 2nd opinion then.

That should read v. famous SCOTTISH guitar player etc., hope you never meet Bert on a dark night!

Expanded 2CD remasters of "Court And Spark", "Hissing Of Summer Lawns" and "Hejira" were supposed to have been released by January this year. They are not yet in the shops half a year later.
Does anyone know what happened and when and if they are due?

she dumped them in the ocean, I heard.

listened to Dog Eat Dog the other day hoping to find a dollar bin gem amidst the 80s production. unfortunately it sucked doggie dick

hence the album title?

...lesbian dogs?!

I only know Blue but I love it. I started a little cult of Joni in secondary school when I traded my extra copy of Psychocandy with my friends extra copy of this. I think we both did well.

I still think the real gems are those mid 70s ones, when she used more instruments and adopted a more "floating" and sophisticated song style. Even if there may be a bit too much chorus guitar on "Hejira" at times.

I agree... Hissing of Summer Lawns is my favourite Joni Mitchell record.

Court and Spark is my favorite because of the incredibly strong songwriting . I prefer it over Blue for sure. I'm shocked at the animosity up-thread.

listened to Dog Eat Dog the other day hoping to find a dollar bin gem amidst the 80s production. unfortunately it sucked doggie dick

"Good Friends" is a good track and single!

"Night Ride Home" is an underpraised gem

the album or song?

"Come In From The Cold" is my favorite Joni song of the last 20 years.

i really enjoy about 1/2 of Dog Eat Dog - 'Fiction', 'Good Friends', 'Impossible Dreamer' and the title track all work for me, esp. the first two.

it's odd to think of Night Ride Home as underappreciated - i always considered it one of, if not her very best, post-'70s albums.

And nobody knows anything about the remasters?

I only have burned copies of those three, and I plan to buy them, but even though they often only a third of the price, I refuse to buy the old editions now that I know remasters are probably on their way anytime soon.

I think there's a thread somewhere on the reissues and someone in the know seemed to imply that the remasters were not gonna happen.

The current bunch of Mitchell albums in the discount bins suggest otherwirse.

The remasters have been done - there were even press releases being released just a couple of weeks before the supposed release date in January. But they were postponed obviously.

To me the HDCD versions of these albums sounded excellent, with nice warmth and dynamics. The enticement of new versions would have to be either in exras (in which case what are they?) or in surround versions or advanced resolution. (I recall that there was a quad version of Hissing....)

SpinCDs.com say August 10, but these have been delayed before — originally they were to be released in February 2006 — so I wouldn't put much store by that date.

I got most of Joni Mitchell's 70s output on vinyl for about $10 bucks out of dollar bins. My favorite album that she did is Coyote. She did other records that are kind of jazzy, but that is the best one. Her other records generally have a few songs that really catch with me. I like the two 70s live albums better than much of the studio records.

I always thought "Help Me" would have been a good song for late 80s Dinosaur Jr. to cover.

The HDCDs are of her earlier singer/songwriter output only. "Court And Spark", "Hissing Of Summer Lawns" and "Hejira" have never been released in HDCD.

Warner's CDs from the 80s sounded better than most other 80s CD, with better dynamics and more stereo separation (I guess that's why they have yet to do anything about the back catalogues by the likes of Prince or Phil Collins), but they still don't hold up today when compared to HDCD ones.

I will say she is Classic for Blue alone.

The HDCDs are of her earlier singer/songwriter output only. "Court And Spark", "Hissing Of Summer Lawns" and "Hejira" have never been released in HDCD.

I spent some time in England and remember that for some reason you could find the HDCD versions of the early albums but not of the mid-late-seventies ones. Presumably this is still the case in the EU. The HDCD versions can be differentiated by the spines: instead of having big block print, the lettering is the same as that used on the back cover, and the artwork wraps around where applicable. I think the catalog numbers are the same.

does "Song For Sharon" have the best chord progression ever or what?

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wow, that didn't work.

what is the chord progression?

i for one, on this cool sunday night, 'm quite ready to happily believe that wot nothinbutcuts posted actally is the chord progression :)

any love for chalk mark in a rainstorm? one of her most melodically accessible albums for sure, and lovely reverb-heavy 80s production with awesome shimmering synth pads. and some really bone-chilling vocal harmonies all over the place.

"my secret place" (feat. peter gabriel vocals), "lakota", "the beat of black wings", and "snakes and ladders" are all tremendous.. the one big obnoxious dud is "dancin clown" (feat. BILLY IDOL and tom petty yelping and yowling all over the place)

anyway, this album stands out (in a good way) from the rest of her catalogue.. i haven't heard dog eat dog in years, though, maybe it's more of the same?

There's no denying Joni's no great shakes in the personality dept (funny how this comes up with women but men, not so much!) but such a freakin genius, indisputable. I also am stunned by the misogynistic stuff at the beginning of the thread, wow.

will put Night Ride Home in my JM top 3 these days - certainly a peer for Court & Spark & Blue & Hejira

that's another one i need to check.

i don't care for anything before for the roses, but all that stuff seems to be what her haters base their hate on, which is perfectly understandable. there's a part in barney hoskins' "hotel california" where she's fretting about not being able to find musicians who can play her songs well. someone suggested "well why don't you try playing with some jazz peopls" and that's pretty much where her brilliance begins/mediocrity ends for me

I never checked Night Ride Home or Chalk Mark Rainstorm, on the grounds that Turbulent Indigo was supposed to be her artistic comeback and yet I only just kinda liked it.

I now suspect that i'd like them more than TI though, based on what I've read about them.

would post youtube of "lakota" video but they seem to have cut the audio out of all the copyright shit

yeah "chalk storm" is way different sonically than turbulent indigo (lol 80s)

I lovelovelove "Come In From the Cold" -- the sounds Joni gets from those billowy synths and her ravaged pipes is awe-inspiring.

I have nothing against Turbulent Indigo (it doesn't feel as natural as the record before it, but some great songs still), but it's a classic case of the "artistic comeback" retrospectively applied to the previous album's real comeback... so check it out.

will put Night Ride Home in my JM top 3 these days - certainly a peer for Court & Spark & Blue & Hejira

― worm? lol (J0hn D.), Wednesday, May 13, 2009 1:09 AM

I don't know where I'd place it but cosign on the quality for sure.

He was sitting on stage, had a microphone like everyone else, and I honestly think he almost never opened his mouth

I did clearly hear him begin the chorus to "I'm Still Standing" but he realized that he was early, so he only got as far as "I'm..." before correcting himself

Wonderful description of the cane Elvis

Elton wasn’t there on Saturday but she did sing “I’m Still Standing”

Yeah, great description!
Here's another report ("I'm still sitting.") Mentions live debut of song from Shine--is that a good album?

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/oct/21/joni-mitchell-lets-rip-at-donald-trump-at-rarity-laden-us-concert

I was so curious to hear how she did "I'm Still Standing," and it turns out she's done it before. This sounds better than the phone videos from this weekend's show (though the ones online are phone recordings of an amazing performance).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxqFJLm6Hp4

(This is from PBS coverage of the Gershwin Prize.)

My wife and I also went to the Sunday night Joni Jam show at the Hollywood Bowl. We were out in California for a wedding near San Diego on Saturday and drove up for the Sunday night show. Our seats were way up high but it was still a great night. I really liked new song “If I had a Heart ( I would cry)” where Joni’s was mostly just backed by piano. “Amelia” and “A Case of You” also stood out .

Carlile mentioned that Joni changed some of the words to the Elton John song when she was first asked to participate at the Gershwin Prize event and do one of his songs .

Years ago she changed a little of Rudyard Kipling “If” poem when she put it to song .

I hope at least one album, live and/or studio, comes out of this era---with new songs and new versions of early ones that were always demo-only, like "Eastern Rain."

holy shit I never knew she wrote that, prob in my top 5 Fairport songs

Mine too! Here's Joni doing it, via Archives Vol. 1:
http://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&sca_esv=f3c510255100d4e3&tbm=vid&q=%22Eastern+Rain%22+song+written+by&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjK2M6G-aKJAxUXRzABHcEyLTUQ8ccDegQISxAH&biw=1082&bih=502&dpr=1.25#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:a2ab6cd8,vid:h68LXXCGnDM,st:0

Wouldn’t be surprised if we got a video release out of this, lots of camera ppl all over the stage

Of the guests who got to lead , Marcus Mumford didn’t wow me. Am thinking he was a Brandi Carlile choice. He at least dueted with Mitchell though. Lennox powered through “Ladies of the Canyon “ and Mitchell couldn’t be really heard on that . But Mitchell was lead on virtually everything, so I guess I shouldn’t complain

Chappell Roan and Lucy Dacus were singing along backstage

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/watch-joni-mitchell-elton-john-chappell-roan-lucy-dacus-brandi-carlile-more-sing-im-still-standing-together/

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/joni-mitchell/2024/hollywood-bowl-los-angeles-ca-2bab90c6.html

Amazing how many years it had been since she had done some of these songs live ( although she never toured a ton )

Can I say...she doesn't sound good at all on "I'm Still Standing."

Wouldn’t be surprised if we got a video release out of this, lots of camera ppl all over the stage

I was at the Saturday show, and feel lucky to have been there.

Really nice posts, pgwp, captured the vibe of the show really nicely.