I just watched the PBS documentary "Woman of Heart & Mind" and realized how much I need to invest in her music. I love what I heard so far from her, upon listening to Chaka Khan & Prince all these years, I can understand the influence she left on their music.

Any fans?

both classics, recorded within about three years of each other but completely different in style/tone.

Once you absorb those you can figure it out for yourself from there.

I wish I was in your position to be experiencing her catalog for the first time. Enjoy.

Hissing of Summer Lawns is my fave.

Bombastic's recommendation is good. start w/those 2 and go from there.

He says 'bring that bottle kindly & I'll pad your purse/I got a head full of quandary and a mighty, mighty, thirst'.

^^^One of my favorite Joni couplets/songs ever.

I love her style of writing, and it took me a long time to appreciate it, and her musicianship.

My sister used to play "Blue" all the time couple of years ago, and I didn't appreciate it back then to be honest, it was so gloomy it damn near felt like an open wrist was in order.

Esp when I was told that "Little Green" was about her daughter that she gave for adoption. Boy, did that stop me at my tracks.

Chaka's rendition of "Ladies Man" revived my interest in this lady's music.

shes awesome

greatest classic rock (or maybe any genre) movie of all time: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2rfbuaMXKM

Or at least here in Canada (Might be to keep up Canadian content though). Maybe it's the fact that she was willing to incorporate more rock influences in her music than her folk contemporaries or her general influence on classic rock (Either through covers by others or groups like Led Zeppelin praising her) but I would consider her classic rock.

in Philadelphia growing up.

*maybe* Big Yellow Taxi on a special occasion.

That's about it though.

Real Joni joints are tough to work in between 'We're An American Band' and 'Carry On My Wayward Son'.

But I would hear "Big Yellow Taxi", "Raised on Robbery", "Free Man in Paris" & "Help Me" a lot. Sometimes "Turn Me On I'm A Radio", "Carey", "This Flight Tonight" (This and her version of "Woodstock" was always annoying hearing on the radio b/c the DJ always act like they're dropping something Earth-shattering by playing the originals instead of the more famous covers) & "The Last Time I Saw Richard".

>in Philadelphia growing up.

maybe on Michael Tearson shows... he and Ed Sciaky were the two classic Philly DJs in the '80s I think woulda played her. Maybe Helen Leicht too back when WIOQ was a player. Gene Shay of course, too, but he wasn't commercial. And of course by 1991, WXPN had morphed into a no-longer-a-college-station powerhouse and she's been on their playlist from jump.

At any rate, she was easily known to classic rock fans because of her associations and esp. the writing of 'Woodstock', though the CSNY cover is the only version that got any classic rock airplay. Plus the fact that a few of her songs were pop standards with steady currecny in the '80s (I sang 'Clouds' with my elementary school chorus ca. 1982, which was probably the first time I heard one of her songs). And I would has assumed that in the latter 1990s when the Isle of Wight DVD came out that her performance there kept her known.

At any rate, growing up I didn't know many classic rock fans that *didn't* know who she is and know at least a few songs.

>*maybe* Big Yellow Taxi on a special occasion.
>
>That's about it though.
>
>Real Joni joints are tough to work in between 'We're An
>American Band' and 'Carry On My Wayward Son'.

yeah, but not so much between 'carry on' and 'dust in the wind,' you know?

That's a staple on classic rock stations here

maybe it wasn't that big of a hit in the US or something b/c it's played once a day here lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylW6sC6NNhY

>>in Philadelphia growing up.
>
>maybe on Michael Tearson shows... he and Ed Sciaky were the
>two classic Philly DJs in the '80s I think woulda played her.
>Maybe Helen Leicht too back when WIOQ was a player. Gene Shay
>of course, too, but he wasn't commercial. And of course by
>1991, WXPN had morphed into a no-longer-a-college-station
>powerhouse and she's been on their playlist from jump.
>
I'm talking MMR & YSP, c'mon, love Gene Shay but yeah that doesn't really count.

I'm talking about hearing Joni when you walk into WaWa, hear the radio playing her at a party or tailgate, etc.

>At any rate, she was easily known to classic rock fans because
>of her associations and esp. the writing of 'Woodstock',
>though the CSNY cover is the only version that got any classic
>rock airplay. Plus the fact that a few of her songs were pop
>standards with steady currecny in the '80s (I sang 'Clouds'
>with my elementary school chorus ca. 1982, which was probably
>the first time I heard one of her songs). And I would has
>assumed that in the latter 1990s when the Isle of Wight DVD
>came out that her performance there kept her known.
>
she was known, just not 'known' on a catalog level.

>At any rate, growing up I didn't know many classic rock fans
>that *didn't* know who she is and know at least a few songs.
>
>>*maybe* Big Yellow Taxi on a special occasion.
>>
>>That's about it though.
>>
>>Real Joni joints are tough to work in between 'We're An
>>American Band' and 'Carry On My Wayward Son'.
>
>yeah, but not so much between 'carry on' and 'dust in the
>wind,' you know?

>I just watched the PBS documentary "Woman of Heart & Mind"
>and realized how much I need to invest in her music. I love
>what I heard so far from her, upon listening to Chaka Khan &
>Prince all these years, I can understand the influence she
>left on their music.
>
>Any fans?



Yep...I'm a black man from the Southside of Chicago, and I dig Joni...

I dig the more commercial shit she did like Clouds, Blue, and Court and Spark to her "fuck you I'm Joni Michell" work like The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira, and Mingus. It's all about her lyrics, cadence and counter melodies...She's one of those artists that you have to at least listen to even if you don't dig her genre of music (which is all over the place...Joni was a bad chick...)

Joni and Jaco fit together perfectly.

i love her writing on that album, some really deep stuff & interesting themes.

>Yep...I'm a black man from the Southside of Chicago, and I
>dig Joni...
>

She's one of
>those artists that you have to at least listen to even if you
>don't dig her genre of music (which is all over the
>place...Joni was a bad chick...)
>
>
>


and ^^^^that sums it up well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S8SgNy11eI


"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

I was listening to the band more than her...

Sorry, Joni.

One thing people don't usually mention is how GREAT a guitar player she is. She uses alot of different tunings and stuff so it can be difficult to learn how to play her stuff.

But yah....she's never mentioned with other guitar greats cause people usually define her based on her songwriting. But she can flat-out PLAY.

But yeah usually not mentioned as a great, maybe b/c picking styles and weird tuning is a more subtle talent than say in your face guitar solos.

I've tried learning a couple songs by her awhile ago. Effing HARD to play.

I agree!

Her piano skills are good too.

which was a natural fit for her songwriting, given her guitar tunings. So natural that lots of people don't notice when she's playing a dulcimer instead of a guitar.

>So natural that lots of people don't notice when
>she's playing a dulcimer instead of a guitar.
>
>

some family members of mine play it and love bluegrass & folk music with it...but yeah, it's a gentle instrument, & sounds a little like a guitar with gut strings on it. And strummed a certain way..lol

She's amazing...

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Coultrain - GodMustBeABoogieMan:
http://seymourliberty.tumblr.com

you inspired me to listen to it, i'm deep into her discog (have listened to at least 8+ albums) but never mingus, i'm gonna peep

& adds a whole nother weight/emotion to it


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Would love to learn more about her, especially just to understand how personal each song she sings is actually about.

For those who want to check it out, which I HIGHLY recommend. It really showcased how much of a versatile artist she is.

I can't imagine what the Charles Mingus collaboration would've sounded like. Both artists are very unpredictable in their approach to music. It would've been a landmark project.

Thanks for the tips, I purchased those albums from Itunes as well as the Geffen boxet.

Joni, Jaco, Pat Metheny, Micheal Brecker… it's an awesome album. Have not seen the video, but I got this on vinyl a few years back. Score!

I'm perhaps in the minority around here as I prefer her more straight singer-songwriter material to the more obtusely artistic and/or heavily jazz-inflected stuff.

Blue is probably a top ten album for me, simply terrific. I offered a lot of thoughts on why in the post that was supposed to focus on the album a few months back, but suffice to say it's a combination of production, instrumentation (esp. the dulcimer out front), and melodies. It's really the only album of hers that I go gaga over, but most of the other ones I either have or have heard are at the very least quite good.

I
>offered a lot of thoughts on why in the post that was supposed
>to focus on the album a few months back, but suffice to say
>it's a combination of production, instrumentation (esp. the
>dulcimer out front), and melodies.

heh heh

in some ways I actually miss the olde olde days of posts dropping off after page 9 - sure to always keep the discussion lively while it was going on. There are benefits to leaving posts around longer of course, but there were also benefits to posts having a short lifespan...

Definitely one of the all time greats. My only regret is that I was not into her pre Court & Spark, which is the first I heard of her besides Big Yellow Taxi. The artistic jump she made from her her folky mainly acoustic work to the sophisticated quasi jazz is in credible and IMHO opinion is even more iconoclastic than when Dylan went electric. Listening to For the Roses and then Court & Spark is like night and day. Yes there are some horns and flutes on Roses and the outro of Blond In The Bleachers give hints but it must have blown her fans minds when Court and Spark came out.

My all time fave is The Hissing Of Summer Lawns which could have been sub titled Joni Mitchell meets Carl Jung. Her lyrical perfection went up a notch with album which highlighted and chastised the American dream. Exposing its decadence and dark side. She had touched on this theme before on her Ladies Of The canyon album but here she hit the bulls eye. Equally important is the development of her music as well, which, using Court & Spark as a launching pad, went all over the map. From world music (pre Talking Heads, Paul Simon and Peter Gabriel)to even more sophisticated chords and melodies approaching and sometimes surpassing the work of Steely Dan.

Hejira, her next release is my second favorite. On here she did an about face from the jazz influence and went back to her singer songwriter mode. In some respects this could be seen as Blue revisited. But far from being a sequel this album came with a twist in the person of bassist extraordinaire Jaco Pastorious.I was (and still am) deep into Weather Report and while Jaco held his own playing besides the legendary Wayne Shorter and Josef Zawinul playing along side Joni, he did things he never did with WR.

As the Arabic word translates Hejira was about her migration and travels to simultaneously flee from and find herself, after a broken romance. It is a dark and moody album and perfect to play on a rainy Saturday night.

Joni's self indulgent album (as all great artists have done with various degrees of success or failure) was Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. It is a car wreck of an album mainly because it was a double and she really didn't have enough material for that. With that being said, the title track and the magnificent Paprika Plains and Dreamland (with yes Chaka Khan) make it worth your while.

Her most adventurous is the album she did with the legendary Charles Mingus. While it could be said that she was just dabbling and teasing with jazz, with this album she was pushed in the pool. Backed by Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Jaco and WR drummer Peter Erskine she wrote lyrics to four songs he wrote and added to lyrics to his classic Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. What makes this record a strange curio are the two songs she wrote. God Must Be A Boogie Man which Jaco burns and The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey which comes complete with a wolves choir.

After that she was poised to make another collaboration album Wild Things Run Fast, this time with The Police but they were not able to do it, so she recorded with other musicians. I did not learn this until years after I heard it. Then it all made sense. This is arguably her last great album. Subsequent albums still showed flashes of brilliance, such as Chalk Mark In A Rain Storms "The Beat Of Black Wings" and Dog Eat Dog (an album with Thomas Dolby) "Ethiopia."

She then returned to reinventing her older work with the orchestral Travelogue and singing the classics ala Linda Ronstadt on Both Sides Now.

Blue was the first album I came across of hers, and it had me amazingly in the zone, especially given the pared-down instrumentation behind so much of it.

She can let it rip over a piano and it sounds as natural as can be.

I have several of her albums.

. . .is her best.

In fact, I would take any of her first three over anything that came after them.

~Austin

one of my favorite Joni joints.

David Crosby on the stoned guy who somehow got production credit.

~Austin

is one of my favs period.. I discovered it a couple of yrs ago. Blue & For The Roses are 2 of my fav albums from her. Everyone knows she's lyrically a beast but it's really the way she interprets her words that move me and the candor for the instrumentation.

I'm still trying to get into The Hissing of Summer Lawns(I do own it) and I'm curious on that black face joint she did, Court & Spark is surface level where everyone starts besides Blue imo. Seek.