Joni Mitchell
- Thread starter maccar
- Start date
VanDerGraaf
pfm Member
Yes, the wide vibrato she has can really put some off- especially when she multi-tracks herself and there's 4 of her all wobbling away.
I just see it as part of the package. When extreme talent/giftedness/genius graces me with its presence, I often accept the stylistic quirks contained therein that aren't quite my first choice. It's the message, not the medium. I don't think there is anything she ever really did that I dislike, and plenty that leaves me jaw agape or heart on the floor. A contender for best singer-songwriter of all time, without a doubt. She is directly wired into the emotional grid and can tap untold current to proclaim her magical tales.
Her observational life-sketching style on The Hissing Of Summer Lawns is a high point for me.
Anyone ever heard Travelogue where she reinterprets some of her work with an orchestral flavour? One of the last things she ever did before the smoking stopped her in her tracks- it's bloody brilliant. Haunting, aged genius. I must now go and find out if I can find it in a high-res format. Could play that album again and again.
I just see it as part of the package. When extreme talent/giftedness/genius graces me with its presence, I often accept the stylistic quirks contained therein that aren't quite my first choice. It's the message, not the medium. I don't think there is anything she ever really did that I dislike, and plenty that leaves me jaw agape or heart on the floor. A contender for best singer-songwriter of all time, without a doubt. She is directly wired into the emotional grid and can tap untold current to proclaim her magical tales.
Her observational life-sketching style on The Hissing Of Summer Lawns is a high point for me.
Anyone ever heard Travelogue where she reinterprets some of her work with an orchestral flavour? One of the last things she ever did before the smoking stopped her in her tracks- it's bloody brilliant. Haunting, aged genius. I must now go and find out if I can find it in a high-res format. Could play that album again and again.
Tony L
Administrator
I think I’d go for the more jazzy period from Court And Spark through to Mingus as my favourite era, but that doesn’t diminish the earlier folky stuff at all. I’m less familiar with what came later. I realise that’s quite a lot of albums, but with some artists you just need quite a lot of albums. She’s amazing IMO; a master lyricist/storyteller with a truly astounding grasp of musical construction. As good as it gets.
This video is so worth watching! Rick Beato deconstructs one of her finest songs, Amelia from Hejera, and explains how it works. It really is a work of genius.
This video is so worth watching! Rick Beato deconstructs one of her finest songs, Amelia from Hejera, and explains how it works. It really is a work of genius.
Stunsworth
pfm Member
So many, almost anything off Blue, HoSL or Hejira would be ok, but I’ll pick Little Green or Amelia.
Tony thanks for the Beato link.
Tony thanks for the Beato link.
Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
Either Hejira, or Black Crow, or Refuge of the Roads just for the lines
In a highway service station
Over the month of June
Was a photograph of the Earth
Taken coming back from the moon...
It was years before I realised what ‘over the month of June’ meant! Doh!!
In a highway service station
Over the month of June
Was a photograph of the Earth
Taken coming back from the moon...
It was years before I realised what ‘over the month of June’ meant! Doh!!
I must admit, it took me quite a long time to appreciate Joni's genius, I do struggle with her newer albums where her voice has gone... same thing happened to Kiki Dee.
www.realmusicnet.wordpress.com
www.realmusicnet.wordpress.com
webster
Listen & enjoy.
That's a fair point but Joni really was in a class of her own - the quality of her back catalogue is the stuff most other artists can only dream about.
seagull
Seabird flavour member
I must get round to giving some time to explore Ms Mitchell.
I bought the CD box set of her first 10 albums for very little money a few years ago with good intentions but never got round to it.
I have them all on my Fiio X5 and individual songs crop up occasionally when I'm out for my early morning walk. Very good they have been too, though I couldn't tell you which song from which album.
I bought the CD box set of her first 10 albums for very little money a few years ago with good intentions but never got round to it.
I have them all on my Fiio X5 and individual songs crop up occasionally when I'm out for my early morning walk. Very good they have been too, though I couldn't tell you which song from which album.
webster
Listen & enjoy.
I think the period from the album Blue up to and including Hejira is quite superb.
If I was going to recommend an album to start with it would probably be Court & Spark - it sounds as good today as the first time I heard it back in the mid 70's.
MVV
pfm Member
Erm...I still don't. Can you help?
Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
MVV
pfm Member
Ah yes, but obviously I knew that all along!
Last edited:
Space is the Place
pfm Member
I really like the later albums, Travelogue is brilliant...
Turbulent Indigo always moves me...
Mullardman
Moderately extreme...
Despite my enduring love of the whole of Blue.. I think my favourite would have to be Joni's staggering performance of 'The Urge For Going' on the Canadian programme 'Let's Sing Out'. In 1966. She not only has the audience totally rapt, but the onstage musicians are all either lusting after her.. or watching their world crumble in the face of a new order. The later studio version is pale and wan by comparison, but only comparatively.. it is still streets ahead of most other stuff.
And all this about 3-4 years before I properly heard of her.
As a few have already hinted.. my current favourite is usually dependent on which album I'm listening to.
But I can't escape the fact that all of her albums from 'Song To A Seagull' through to 'Court and Spark' just about count as part of my 'yoof' and thus have that special emotional connection that only works for stuff originally heard in that context.
And all this about 3-4 years before I properly heard of her.
As a few have already hinted.. my current favourite is usually dependent on which album I'm listening to.
But I can't escape the fact that all of her albums from 'Song To A Seagull' through to 'Court and Spark' just about count as part of my 'yoof' and thus have that special emotional connection that only works for stuff originally heard in that context.