BCB 100 - Joni Mitchell

[purgatory brite]

album Mingus

song Goodbye Porkpie Hat



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

[Davey the Fat Boy]

"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.

[Clippernolan]

"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.

[Sneelock]

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

[Davey the Fat Boy]

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.

[toomanyhatz]

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.

[Davey the Fat Boy]

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.

[This Was]

.

[The Fish]

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.

[BlueMeanie]

Album: Hejira

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

[Owllady]

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!

[Rayge]

Huge fan here, from Song to a Seagull on, I've bought everything, although I disike Blue and Mingus, and find Don Juan's Restless Daughter a difficult listen. Hejira is the peak for me.

As for song, it's too difficult. Shades of Scarlet Conquering, maybe, or Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire. Raised on Robbery never fails to cheer, and Chelsea Morning was the song that sold me on her. I was enormously impressed by her 2000 version of BothSides Now and the the reinterpreted versions of songs from Hejira and elsewhere on Travelogue