Best Song on Joni Mitchell's Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

It's unusual how this is both an attempted magnum opus and a leftover repository: "Jericho" is re-recorded from Miles of Aisles, and publishing dates indicate that "Dreamland" is from the Hissing of Summer Lawns era, while "Talk To Me" and the title track were published in 1976 and could have been on Hejira.
It's not typical of the era, but my vote goes to "The Silky Veils of Ardor", where she shuffles folk-song lyric fragments to devastating effect.

"Dreamland" was written during/is about the first Rolling Thunder Revue tour, and Roger McGuinn released a Rockin' version w/Mick Ronson in '76.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_KrlcLL9Xg

Has to be Paprika Plains

"Talk To Me" is the most lightweight thing here, but it's given me so much pleasure over the years I might have to vote for it. Between that and the title track...

"Dreamland" was written during/is about the first Rolling Thunder Revue tour, and Roger McGuinn released a Rockin' version w/Mick Ronson in '76.

McGuinn on "Dreamland" (which gets my vote):

I covered "Dreamland" on my Cardiff Rose album. I was riding on the tourbus with Joni on the Rolling Thunder Revue. Sitting next to her, she had a little composition book and she was filling it up with new songs, and I was getting ready to record Carfiff Rose. I didn't have enough songs to complete it, so I turned to Joni and asked her if she had any spare. She said, "Well, McGuinn, I got this one song you might be able to use, but there's a line in it I'm not sure about." I said, "Yeah, what's that?" She said, "I wrapped a flag around me like a Dorothy Lamour sarong. . ." I said, "Well. . .I can work with that!" (laughs) So I changed it to "Errol Flynn sarong." She must have had 25 or 30 songs in there, and then she lost the book! I don't know if she ever recovered it, somehow it slipped out of her possession. I guess she remembered some of them, but I recall she was quite devastated at losing it. On my version, I was trying to emulate some of Joni's phrasing, on the vocals. And I remember she came to the studio, and she said, "Well, it sounds pretty good but you need to work on the vocal, "and I said "Well, no no, that's the way I wanted it." I don't think she appreciated my version. It was so different from hers. Joni's not really a technician of music. She plays by ear, she makes up her own theory, and makes up colours and things to explain what she's feeling, what she's trying to express with her music. I remember being at Leonard Cohen's house for dinner with her, and she and Leonard were talking about this kind of language that they'd developed, about music in terms of colours, which was a very interesting conversation.

A toughy. I don't think of this album on terms of individual tracks really, but went for Talk To Me because of the chicken impression which always makes me laugh

ILM: Did you know Roger McGuinn covered Dreamland and it was about the Rolling Thunder revue?

ME: Hurrr hurr Joni go bwark!

"The Silky Veils of Ardor" or the title track. Every time I try to wrap my arms around the album it runs through my hands like sand.

I prefer this to Hejira. But I always skip Paprika Plains.

Today this is her best album. But it can only be fully and truly appreciated in balmy, hot late summer

I like how a lot of the vocals and lyrics on this one have this half-awake semi-detached sense to them, kind of knight's move thinking to the way they're phrased

ILM: Did you know Roger McGuinn covered Dreamland and it was about the Rolling Thunder revue?

ME: Hurrr hurr Joni go bwark!

― Party With A Jagger Ban (dog latin), Saturday, March 13, 2021 5:07 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

hahaha it me

“i prefer this to hejira”

wow pls put me in touch with your weed dealer

Lol, it's not Hejira but that's spot on. It's like a gloriously stoned fusion of Hejira and Hissing

Dreamland without a second's hesitation

Overall I like the album quite a bit even though it's frustratingly uneven and does feel like a collection of leftovers sometimes. I find that - more than with any of her other records - my perception of it changes with my mood. On a good day, "Paprika Plains" is work of a genius, on a bad one - an indulgent mess.

I voted for "Jericho".

"paprika plains" is a bit sprawling but has its moments for real while most of the rest of the album doesn't quite get beyond feeling like hejira outtakes. there's some decent stuff among those tracks like the title track but the album doesn't really come together as a whole or anything. a whole album of "paprika plains"-esque stuff would have been more interesting at least

Thinking of "Paprika Plains", I was wondering about artists you wouldn't have expected to make side-long tracks (i.e. not prog rock, improvising bands or disco). The only ones I came up with were this and "Foreigner Suite" by Cat Stevens, which is more of a medley even if the songs aren't named or banded on the LP.

Title track for me. Poor Jaco but I love a bass line that just does that and nothing else

I generally am pretty whatever about this album but the lyrics are really beautiful

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Wish I'd voted for Off Night Backstreet. Yes, Joni go BWARK but also that weird creepy harmonic bass strum that punctuates every few verses is just the best

mod please update thread title to include “ AKA the one where she’s in blackface”

Joni Go BWARKface

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

“Dreamland” is the correct answer.

I wonder if the chord progression in the McGuinn cover was his invention or her original intention? His singing is shocking, though, it sounds like he's done more damage to his voice in 10 years than Brian Wilson (or Joni herself) did in 50.

I've been giving this another chance, and I'm appreciating it more despite its flaws. The cover is still unfortunate, not to mention the naive defense Mitchell gave back in the day, and given the loose, extended nature, I think ditching the snide "Otis and Marlena" and the overlong dead-end percussion experiment "The Tenth World" would have kept the flow moving. (By the time you get to those two tracks, "Paprika Plains" has already stretched everything to the limit.)

On top of that, "Jericho" feels very redundant when a better version was already released on the previous album, Miles of Aisles - and that recording wasn't actually a live recording either, it was a polished studio recording that they slotted in there for some reason. So take those three tracks out, and you have a single LP with seven tracks at 45:19 - still not quite a great album, but it would be one that I can get into.

amazing album. anyone who rejects it for the cover is justified tho

After cutting out those tracks (and pushing "Paprika Plains" to the second slot to make a vinyl edition more viable), I noticed that it actually clarifies and strengthens some motifs that run through four songs. Having these four sequenced together actually suggests a narrative that makes the album feel a bit more cohesive:

1. Overture/Cotton Avenue (which paints a vivid picture of an imaginary night life that draws in the singer)

2. Paprika Plains (after caught in a sudden down pour, a woman enters a club's bathroom - nausea sets in, she gets some air and dreams of the rural hometown where she grew up, after which she's sucked back into the dance floor inside and meets a man...)

3. Talk to Me (immediately into a conversation with perhaps the same man, talking about getting drunk and pissing through a parking lot, all part of a long and failed attempt to get some interesting conversation from the guy)

4. Dreamland (a dreamscape through history, but it begins in a way that connects with her physical memories of her hometown, perhaps even those that surfaced in "Paprika Plains")

And then the remaining three tracks are the same as what was on side four of the original double LP release. Regardless, this seven-track "single-LP" program really helps. Even with the looser sprawl of the longer tracks, it feels conceptually much tighter and cohesive.

Side four of this is incongruously brief and straightforward - after so much wandering through the first three sides, it gets right down to work: title-track, single, acoustic closer, done.

In an interview with Greg Tate, she said that Mingus worked with her after this record because "he was intrigued that I dressed up as a brother on the cover".

The more I dissect that cover and what's she doing, the more it bothers me - there's more than Art Nouveau that's bad on that sleeve - but given who else was on the album, has any of them commented on at least Joni's persona as Art Nouveau? Obviously they all continued to work together and be on good terms, so I'm wondering if the conversation ever came up or if they've ever publicly defended what she did.

"Talk to Me," "Otis and Marlena," maybe "Jericho," certainly the title track -- like to love them. After spending a week at the beach playing "Paprika Plains" on a chaise, on my morning walk, in my studio cooking dinner, I'm not convinced it's a success, but I'm sure glad it exists. It persuades me to keep playing it.

sry if old news, but the cover has been retconned, at least on spotify-
https://i.postimg.cc/MHHWKFMs/Screenshot-20240627-101612-Spotify.jpg

also re: the album
i don't remember if i voted, but like the two studio records that preceded it, it's a nearly impossible task to narrow it down to just one. hissing->hejira->this album is definitely definitive joni for me. yeah, blue is as classic as it gets... but i think about tequila anacondas way more often.

lol can't believe "Dreamland" won over "Talk to Me" or"Jericho."

utter lol it took that long get updated.

and that "revised" cover is 100000% more striking anyway

It was done for the new box set that gathers the last batch of Asylum albums, so if you pick that up, the album will have the new cover too.

I just picked this up over the weekend and Paprika Plains was my favorite on my first listen. The Tenth World and Dreamland also great; love Joni with African percussion.

I still have not heard Hejira. I wait until I bump into nice copies of her albums in the wild.

wow life is too short to leave the part you get to spend with Hejira to chance

I will probably look a bit harder than I have previously. Hearing a track from Mingus on the radio spurred the further exploration.