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The Joni Journey

Woodface said:
I probably won’t bother with the later stuff. Wish I’d bought the box set now, at one point you could get it for around £30!
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Don’t pass on Night Ride Home, it’s probably her strongest effort outside of that untouchable run of 70’s classics. Turbulent Indigo is no slouch either. I really enjoyed her albums of standards and her reworked back catalogue on Both Sides Now and Travelogue.
 
Marchbanks said:
To be brutally honest (and speaking as someone who thinks Hejira is probably the best album ever) I think you’ve got the essential ones.
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Certainly the best Joni album. It's brilliant.
One tip - there is a live recording of some radio sessions made when she was probably still learning how to play an instrument. I'd pass that by unless yours is an historical interest.
 
Disagree. Hejira is a great album.. but it lacks that 'connection' that I have with her earlier stuff. But then..as I think I've said before.. you had to be there..

For me Blue is her absolute, unchallengeable 'Magnum Opus' It is an album which utterly transcends time and place.

Clouds is her most underrated and least appreciated. It's worth it for 'Songs to Ageing Children' alone.

I can understand why Song to a Seagull might be difficult for some.. but it really is beautiful.

I have the later stuff such as Night Ride Home, Chalk Mark etc.. They don't offend... but they don't 'grab' either.

For me, the beauty and genius of Joni's poetry, her voice, her lyricism and her complete transcendence of 'normal' music are still summed up by this...


I'm shocked to see how much the studio albums box set has increased. I think I paid about 28 quid.
 
Mullardman said:
Disagree. Hejira is a great album.. but it lacks that 'connection' that I have with her earlier stuff. But then..as I think I've said before.. you had to be there..

For me Blue is her absolute, unchallengeable 'Magnum Opus' It is an album which utterly transcends time and place.

Clouds is her most underrated and least appreciated. It's worth it for 'Songs to Ageing Children' alone.

I can understand why Song to a Seagull might be difficult for some.. but it really is beautiful.

I have the later stuff such as Night Ride Home, Chalk Mark etc.. They don't offend... but they don't 'grab' either.

For me, the beauty and genius of Joni's poetry, her voice, her lyricism and her complete transcendence of 'normal' music are still summed up by this...


I'm shocked to see how much the studio albums box set has increased. I think I paid about 28 quid.
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I'd never seen that video, not did I know the song. I love the 'folk club' seriousness of everyone's faces :)
 
I see that seriousness differently. The guy with the glasses in the audience is obviously entranced by her. ( As am I ) The other musicians look both puzzled and defeated. It looks like it is dawning on them that they are witnessing the moment that their own talents are quietly swept aside by a force beyond their comprehension.
 
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stevec67 said:
Certainly the best Joni album. It's brilliant.
One tip - there is a live recording of some radio sessions made when she was probably still learning how to play an instrument. I'd pass that by unless yours is an historical interest.
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I don't agree that Hejira is her best. Good as it is. It always strikes me as being too much on one level. IYSWIM. It somehow lacks punctuation.

I have the recently released archive stuff, including the early radio demos. I like them both for the history and the performance. It's obvious that she is in some ways mimickimg Joan Baez/Carolyn Hester style singing, as they were the established female folkies at the time. Most artists start out that way before they find their own voice. Ray Charles imitated Nat Cole until he found his own voice..for e.g.

I am intrigued by the number of people who came to Joni via Hejira. I supose it's an age thing. Some then seem happy to delve back into her earlier stuff.. some don't.
 
Mullardman said:
I don't agree that Hejira is her best. Good as it is. It always strikes me as being too much on one level. IYSWIM. It somehow lacks punctuation.
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For me it is one of those ‘can you remember where you were’ moments. I was sitting at my desk in my University hall of residence. John Peel was broadcasting one-hour shows in the early evenings at the time, and he announced that he was going to play the entire new Joni Mitchell album as it was so good. She had always been a peripheral figure to me, so I carried on working. I was surprised to find how much I was enjoying it, then (I remember this exactly) at the words ‘Handy’s cast in bronze, and he’s standing in a little park with his trumpet in his hand’ I put down my pen, sat back and listened to the rest with rapt attention. I thought it was stunning - still do. I find it a fully-fledged work of art, even down to the sleeve design and the outfit Joni is wearing. It seems to me to have a real sense of maturity about it.

And the line ‘there’s comfort in melancholy when there’s no need to explain’ gives me a shiver of recognition every time I hear it.
 
Mullardman said:
I can't find my order but I purchased the box set from Amazon on release. Around 2014? I certainly didn't pay more than £30 and remember sayng what an absolute bargain it was at the time. Current Amazon listing has it at £30+ forMP3 download and £99+ for the CDs

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0097AQEOK/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21
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I bought it in 2012 according to Amazon and it was £27, though I had a voucher or two to cushion the blow :)
Hejira was a return to Joni after a gap of many years after her early output was bought as it appeared.
"Dog eats Dog" is one to swerve away from, Thomas Dolby is just sooooo unnecessary there.
I do enjoy "Wild Things run Free" now and again as it does rock along, I bought "Turbulent Indigo" last month on CD for £2.79 from Music Magpie and find it enjoyable.
 
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Mullardman said:
I see that seriousness differently. The guy with the glasses in the audience is obviously entranced by her. ( As am I ) The other musicians look both puzzled and defeated. It looks like it is dawning on them that they are witnessing the moment that their own talents are quietly swept aside by a force beyond their comprehension.
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I thought the guy with glasses was wondering what alternative career he should pursue. That was an entrancing performance, thanks to the OP for posting it.
 
I love Joni and have most of her records but I can't think of any gags on them. Thing about Dylan there are a lorra lorra laffs even John Wesley Harding had "a gun in every hand".
 
MVV said:
I love Joni and have most of her records but I can't think of any gags on them. Thing about Dylan there are a lorra lorra laffs even John Wesley Harding had "a gun in every hand".
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“You turn me on I’m a radio” the ambiguity in the phrase “you turn me on”.

“There was a moon and a street lamp
I didn't know I drank such a lot
Till I pissed a tequila anaconda
The full length of the parking lot!”

That’s always made me smile.
 
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Marchbanks said:
For me it is one of those ‘can you remember where you were’ moments. I was sitting at my desk in my University hall of residence. John Peel was broadcasting one-hour shows in the early evenings at the time, and he announced that he was going to play the entire new Joni Mitchell album as it was so good. She had always been a peripheral figure to me, so I carried on working. I was surprised to find how much I was enjoying it, then (I remember this exactly) at the words ‘Handy’s cast in bronze, and he’s standing in a little park with his trumpet in his hand’ I put down my pen, sat back and listened to the rest with rapt attention. I thought it was stunning - still do. I find it a fully-fledged work of art, even down to the sleeve design and the outfit Joni is wearing. It seems to me to have a real sense of maturity about it.

And the line ‘there’s comfort in melancholy when there’s no need to explain’ gives me a shiver of recognition every time I hear it.
Click to expand...

Mine was hearing Hissing of Summer Lawns played on Nicky Horne's Your Mother Wouldn't Like It on an album of the year roundup in December 75. It had only been out for a couple of weeks but came joint top with Blood on the Tracks. My nan gave a me a record token for Christmas when we visited her on Christmas morning and I talked my dad into going home via record store in Bounds Green tube station that was open on Christmas morning so I could get a copy. I played it all day and it is still, although not in any way festive, a Christmas record for me.

I was 15 at the time and think I'd already got Ladies of the Canyon but Summer Lawns was my real intro to Joni and I kept up with releases through to Mingus and then went back via Miles of Aisles to some earlier records. The Hissing of Summer Lawns may still my favourite - I love Hejira and named my daughter Amelia after the song, but, for me, the songs are slightly stronger on Summer Lawns and i find the whole record a little richer - but there's barely the proverbial cigarette paper between them.
 
billo said:
"Dog eats Dog" is one to swerve away from, Thomas Dolby is just sooooo unnecessary there.
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Bit harsh on Dolby.
"Mitchell was enthusiastic about the potential of sampling and played a proactive role in incorporating it. Dog Eat Dog also featured an expanded role for Mitchell's bass-playing husband Larry Klein, who not only co-produced and played keyboards, but played a significant part in shaping the album's technological pop sound and also wrote the music for two of the songs.
British electro-pop musician Thomas Dolby plays a prominent role on Dog Eat Dog, although his involvement led to friction. Dolby thought he'd been hired to produce the album, whereas it was Mitchell's understanding that he'd been hired as a sampling and production consultant. On the original issue of the album, Dolby was credited as a co-producer, but on the version released as part of the 2003 Mitchell box set The Complete Geffen Recordings albums he's only credited with "sound file assistance".
 
I have to admit it took me a while to get Hijera, initially I thought it a little noodly/pretentious, but I retract that entirely now. My biggest annoyance is I don’t have a vinyl copy of it despite having sold at least two absolutely mint 1st pressings over the years. So annoying, but I’ll find one eventually. My favourite Joni now is definitely this Jazz/Weather Report phase, i.e. from Court & Spark through to Mingus. I do like the earlier more folk/stripped back stuff, but this is what I reach for, and ideally on original vinyl which comfortably beat the CDs with Joni IMO. I’ve got the CD box (about £30 IIRC) which fills some gaps (I’ve got nice 1st press vinyl of Blue, Roses, Court, Hissing (Nimbus!), Don Juan and Mingus).
 
It's great that there is so much love for Joni, I am 60 this year and don't actually know anyone who likes her ! it would appear I've spent my life in a musical club of one. My taste borders on the obsessive; melancholic female vocalists, I make a couple of concessions, Leonard Cohen & some deep voiced bloke who sings with a petite blonde girl. But I listen to folk, Irish, jazz, americana, country (not Dolly, Shania or twangy guitars). it's always something in the voice that makes it work for me. Qobuz has been a revelation for me, being able to access so much music that otherwise I would never have had a chance to experience both old and contemporary. Hissing of summer lawns is probably my favourite, I find it deeply moving but also love Blue, Hejira & Mingus although that's almost too upbeat for me.
 
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