Joni Mitchell

[greedy_lars]

You know, was never big on American 'folk rock' like Dylan, Biaz? ect ect...


But theres always been one exception to that, Joni Mitchell. When I was little, there was a time when we were traveling in a buss my dad converted into a motor home, and it had an 8 track, and there were 4 tapes of interest, belonged to my older siblings, and they formed the basis of my musical tastes. They were


1. James Gang - James Gang Rides Again
2. Moody Blues - A Question Of Balance
3. Emerson Lake And Palmer - Tarkus*****

and

4. Joni Mitchell - Court And Spark

Still love all 4, and with all have explored the crux of their works. Currently I am so so so so fixated on Joni Mitchell - The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. The voice, so sweet, the music, so melodic. A true songwriter, she tells storys and tales that make sense, takes you places, through emotions, through lifes.

If yer not familier and yer interested you might try a couple off hissing...


The Jungle Line
Harry's House/Centerpiece
The Boho Dance


Much respect to Joni.
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HARRY'S HOUSE-CENTERPIECE

Heatwaves on the runway
As the wheels set down
He takes his baggage off the carousel
He takes a taxi into town
Yellow schools of taxi fishes
Jonah in a ticking whale
Caught up at the light in the fishnet windows
Of Bloomingdale's
Watching those high fashion girls
Skinny black models with Raveen curls
Beauty parlor blondes with credit card eyes
Looking for the chic and the fancy
To buy

He opens up his suitcase
In the continental suite
And people twenty stories down
Colored currents in the street
A helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof
Like a dragonfly on a tomb
And business men in button downs
Press into conference rooms
Battalions of paper-minded males
Talking commodities and sales
While at home their paper wives
And paper kids
Paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid

Yellow checkers for the kitchen
Climbing ivy for the bath
She is lost in House and Gardens
He's caught up in Chief of Staff
He drifts off into the memory
Of the way she looked in school
With her body oiled and shining
At the public swimming pool ...(you love me, you love me, you love me)
* * *
The more I'm with you, pretty baby
The more I feel my love increase
I'm building all my dreams around you
Our happiness will never cease
'Cause nothing's any good without you
Baby you're my centerpiece

We'll find a house and garden somewhere
Along a country road a piece
A little cottage on the outskirts
Where we can really find release
'Cause nothing's any good without you
Baby you're my centerpiece
* * *
...Shining hair and shining skin
Shining as she reeled him in
To tell him like she did today
Just what he could do with Harry's House
And Harry's take home pay

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Stole from cdnow

Joni Mitchell
The Hissing of Summer Lawns
(Asylum)

By 1975, Joni Mitchell had already well established herself as a bit of a lovable fruitcake. Although she was well regarded as a perfectly capable acoustic performer with a penchant for amazing lyrics, the stylistic twists and turns she had taken since her debut (a 1968 album produced by David Crosby) had continually placed her head and shoulders above the then-crowded pack of female folkies. Whether it was the intimate wooziness of Blue, the loose funkiness of Ladies of the Canyon, or the jazzy sparsity of Court & Spark, Mitchell's thoroughly unique voice shone through all of her work. Nonetheless, all of that work had remained barely within the broad bounds of "acoustic" pop stemming from a folk background. After all, this was the woman who wrote "Woodstock" and "The Circle Game."


But, with the release of 1974's live album, Miles of Aisles, Mitchell seemed to completely abandon folk in favor of forging a very real connection between her uniquely evocative lyrics and the music that accompanied them. The result was The Hissing of Summer Lawns. A dense piece of work that combines jazz undertones, multi-track technology, rhythmic explorations, and an unrelenting spaciousness, Summer Lawns utterly defines the possibilities of a musician fully realizing her inspiration. Like Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (which it preceded by a full year), it's a complete and self-contained work that could have been created by nobody other than the artist whose name is on the cover.

Previously, Mitchell had used her lyrics as the template on which to build her songs. Whether it was "Big Yellow Taxi," "Blonde in the Bleachers," or the woeful entirety of Blue, she had always been an artist to whom the lyrics were paramount. Even the sonically experimental Court & Spark (which is the most direct stylistic antecedent of Summer Lawns) rested upon the direct beauty of her words for its success. Here, however, the words and music are wrapped tightly together, knitting a complex tapestry that's more tone poem than pop music. To be sure, Mitchell continued her "storytelling" on this album, and most of these songs evoke fractured characters in bizarre situations.

Yet on a track like the intense and tough "The Jungle Line," she manages to paint a picture using both Rousseau references and a combination of the throbbing rhythms of "the warrior drums of Burundi" and a Moog synthesizer. Likewise, the jazzy touches of the title track amplify the shallow melancholy of the subject matter, while the deceptively simple acoustic guitar and atmospheric touches of "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" betray the sweet anger of which Mitchell is singing. However, it's the closing track -- "Shadows and Light" -- that most clearly defines the ethos of Summer Lawns. A soaring and majestic solo piece, Mitchell accompanies herself using an Arp, a Farfisa, and dozens of her own vocal tracks. The effect is somewhere between Catholic liturgy and sheer sonic bliss. And there's not an acoustic guitar in sight.

Jason Ferguson
CDNOW Contributing Writer

[floydian slip]

Hey were you the guy at Isle of Wight who was meeting your friend on stage while Joni was playing?

Joni can make your hangover go away in the morning if you play it really loud. The sweetness of her voice just eats your brain (in a good way).

I never really got in to Joan Baez tho, Dylan is awesome and hes coming to KC next week.

ELP - Tarkus***** ???

Never heard of it but it sounds intriguing.
veeeeeerrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyy intriiiiiiiiguiiiiiiiiing!!

[ipswichite]

Joni's album "Blue" is a great collection of songs. Carey, A Case of You, Blue, See you Sometime. Court and Spark is great too. Another lesser known album, I forget the name of, has the single, "Not To Blame" features Joni in much older voice, which I would not even had recognized as hers. The song brings to mind the OJ Simpson case, though it must have been recorded before that. Joni is a true pioneer, her piano is exceptional, perhaps no peers besides Elton John.