Black Cat Bone

album Mingus

song Goodbye Porkpie Hat



no, not really.................

andymacandy wrote:

Sneelock wrote:

"female Dylan" doesn't even begin to describe her, for me.

I agree-its a very simplistic comparison.
I might even go as far as to say that I think she's a much more rounded artist than Dylan, but never hit his hights.Id have a job justifying that, I admit, but it was just a feeling.

A lot of artists are more "rounded" than Dylan. Any folkie who dabbles in jazz automatically qualifies. Rickie Lee Jones, Tim Hardin, Tom Waits. All more rounded. But Dylan is still the gold standard because of the depth of his canon. I don't think the comparison does her any favors.

Davey The Fat Boy wrote:

andymacandy wrote:

Sneelock wrote:

"female Dylan" doesn't even begin to describe her, for me.

I agree-its a very simplistic comparison.
I might even go as far as to say that I think she's a much more rounded artist than Dylan, but never hit his hights.Id have a job justifying that, I admit, but it was just a feeling.

A lot of artists are more "rounded" than Dylan. Any folkie who dabbles in jazz automatically qualifies. Rickie Lee Jones, Tim Hardin, Tom Waits. All more rounded. But Dylan is still the gold standard because of the depth of his canon. I don't think the comparison does her any favors.

Personally, I think the only thing that makes Mitchell and Dylan similar is that they both write from literary prespectives, rather than as pop writers. You can imagine them writing songs with a typewriter, rather than by jamming.

also, they've both covered a lot of road.

toomanyhatz wrote: I've said before how much I like sexual frankness in songwriters, before Joni, if a female had that quality, it was usually from on their back. Joni was the first to treat feminine sexuality as different but equal.

Hmmm...Interesting idea. I'm not sure if I buy it. Certainly Big Momma Thornton sang from a sexually aggressive POV. Even from a singer-songwriter perspective little Janis Ian predated her by releasing the single of Society's Child for the first time in 1965. Talk about sexual frankness - listen to Ian's 1967 debut album.

Davey The Fat Boy wrote:

toomanyhatz wrote: I've said before how much I like sexual frankness in songwriters, before Joni, if a female had that quality, it was usually from on their back. Joni was the first to treat feminine sexuality as different but equal.

Hmmm...Interesting idea. I'm not sure if I buy it. Certainly Big Momma Thornton sang from a sexually aggressive POV. Even from a singer-songwriter perspective little Janis Ian predated her by releasing the single of Society's Child for the first time in 1965. Talk about sexual frankness - listen to Ian's 1967 debut album.

But I'm not talking about sexual aggressiveness, I'm talking about sexual honesty with depth beyond the listeners prurient interest. Like the line in Coyote: "He picks up my scent on his fingers/While he's watching the waitresses legs." I can think of many songwriters who might have written a line that direct before 1975, and they're all male. Although I liked that Janis Ian record when you played it for me many years ago. I'll have to give it another listen.

toomanyhatz wrote:

Davey The Fat Boy wrote:

toomanyhatz wrote: I've said before how much I like sexual frankness in songwriters, before Joni, if a female had that quality, it was usually from on their back. Joni was the first to treat feminine sexuality as different but equal.

Hmmm...Interesting idea. I'm not sure if I buy it. Certainly Big Momma Thornton sang from a sexually aggressive POV. Even from a singer-songwriter perspective little Janis Ian predated her by releasing the single of Society's Child for the first time in 1965. Talk about sexual frankness - listen to Ian's 1967 debut album.

But I'm not talking about sexual aggressiveness, I'm talking about sexual honesty with depth beyond the listeners prurient interest. Like the line in Coyote: "He picks up my scent on his fingers/While he's watching the waitresses legs." I can think of many songwriters who might have written a line that direct before 1975, and they're all male. Although I liked that Janis Ian record when you played it for me many years ago. I'll have to give it another listen.

I'm not sue that Janis Ian wrote about it from as positive or adult a POV as Joni - at least not on her first album. But she wasn't an adult. She was a 17 year old kid writing about incest, rape, prostitution and inter-racial relationships. Gotta give her some credit for being a pioneer in terms of frankness.

.

Album: I really can't see past the peerless trio of Court & Spark, Hejira and The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Track: Just about anything from the above 3, but to give mention to a few other hidden gems.... Cactus Tree, Otis & Marlena, Sire of Sorrow, Cherokee Louise.

There's probably no bigger Joni fan than me and yet I really just don't get Blue at all.

Album: Hejira

Song: Harry's House-Centerpiece (sounds like the soundtrack to a David Lynch movie)

Can I just devolve this discussion for a moment? I love Twisted. The lyrics kill and the way she sings it is amazing. I mean the song shows off her range, and she puts such emotion into such a whack-job of a song!