The Hissing of Summer Lawns: a poll

court and spark is so much jazzier than steely dan at the same point imo. it's true that they both used "jazz" but the dan were writing pop songs with "jazz" chords whereas *to me* joni's writing just naturally progressed to "jazz". in fact, the book hotel california points out that her hiring jazz musicians was a result of being frustrated that none of the folk/rock dudes could play her stuff well enough or properly or w/e

Edith, but tough poll. Joni is like religion around here.

"around here"? like, to your wife?

tough poll because joni is revered in these parts. are you the head of a fiefdom or something

sorry, too harsh. just thought it was a funny thing to say. glad this album gets so much love here.

Oh love love love. Lovey dovey

very difficult choice though my first instinct is "don't interrupt the sorrow"

voted "In France They -*wooahoooahh ooooo ooooahhhoohh*- Kiss on Main Street"

mainly because 0:36 of that song is when I fell in love with the album

Poppy poison. Poppy tourniquet.

mouth...piece.......spit

shades of scarlet conquering, a woman must have everything. what a flow that song has. she really is herself there.

i doubt that steely dan influenced joni in taking the jazz avenue. i don't hear so much jazz in their music, maybe a little fusion here and there but over-all steely dan will always stay a pop band with some funky elements.

they would disagree vehemently I think.

SRSLY who the fuck does an electrified cover of St. Louis Toodle-Ooo but a heavily jazz-influenced band.

*East

anyone up for a Hissing vs. Hejira poll? I can't figure out which one I like more

i doubt that steely dan influenced joni in taking the jazz avenue. i don't hear so much jazz in their music, maybe a little fusion here and there but over-all steely dan will always stay a pop band with some funky elements.

I think Joni's influence is more cosmic bop -- Monk and obv. Mingus -- but Dan is pretty plainly influenced by big band and bop, the 33.3 about them breaks down a lot of their chord stuff - there aren't a lot of pop songs doing stuff like the title track from Aja or the breakdown in "I Got the News," or any of their tremendous horn arrangments

whereas Joni doesn't show a whole lotta interest in horns - they're there sometimes, but they're just supporting the song, as in a normal pop arrangement. whereas the "I Got the News" horns - they're so key to the whole recording that they're as important as the lyric

Went for 'Shades' eventually...truth be told it was never gonna be anything else...can't think of a song that aches so much...absolutely devastating

This is eye-opening. I had assumed that "The Jungle Line" would be by far the consensus favorite here. I don't talk to other Joni fans enough.

I think Joni's influence is more cosmic bop -- Monk and obv. Mingus -- but Dan is pretty plainly influenced by big band and bop, the 33.3 about them breaks down a lot of their chord stuff - there aren't a lot of pop songs doing stuff like the title track from Aja or the breakdown in "I Got the News," or any of their tremendous horn arrangments

― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Saturday, May 31, 2014 7:32 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally, or the chord progression at the beginning of "Deacon Blues" -- it could be the intro to a hard bop tune. Not to mention that the verses sit on 13th chords, or that the chorus sounds like a bossa nova jazz progression. I mean how often do they play a chord that doesn't at least have a 7th in it, let alone a 9th, 11th, 13th, etc.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I mean how often do they play a chord that doesn't at least have a 7th in it, let alone a 9th, 11th, 13th, etc.

my dad plays jazz piano and has straight up told me "always play the 7 or the maj7." straight chords just do not exist for him

Some old jazzers call straight maj/min chords "cowboy chords."

Title track, for so perfectly a lazy, faintly sinister summer's day in 70s LA, but The Jungle Line is obviously incredible too.

And I fell in love with Shades of Scarlet after the ILX Joni poll. The lyrics!

not a fan of this artist, but played this yeasterday and wd have to go w/ The Boho Dance.

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 raven 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 thirty 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

i could've easily voted for any of the first six songs, they're all of them As. probably then i would've voted for sorrow. but i voted for harry. such captivating imagery. amazing.

took me foreverrr to get into this record, in comparison both court and spark and hejira seem open and intelligible, less clustered and walled away. but now i love it, its vibe is so specific, all these deep, ever-shifting character studies, the song structured as dimensionally as the lyrics. this was between "scarlett" and "boho," and i went with "boho" almost arbitrarily

like a priest with a pornographic watch
looking and longing on the sly

it always annoyed me that Bjork covered that song because she seems like pretty much the opposite of its narrator

There can hardly be a better lyric than:

His eyes hold Edith's
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight?

A: a wank

synth tone on "shadows and light" so evil

the band sounds like typewriters....disco, maybe?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

That's interesting...

the big poll arrives

From what I've heard, in France they...

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c8/Charles_Marville%2C_Urinoir_en_fonte_%C3%A0_2_stalles_avec_%C3%A9cran%2C_Chauss%C3%A9e_de_la_Muette%2C_ca._1865.jpg/352px-Charles_Marville%2C_Urinoir_en_fonte_%C3%A0_2_stalles_avec_%C3%A9cran%2C_Chauss%C3%A9e_de_la_Muette%2C_ca._1865.jpg

urine real trouble for that one.

god this album is such a masterpiece

i have been like living and breathing these songs day and night for months

i love everything here very much but especially that run from "edith" through "boho dance", it is just astonishing

Jungle Line is incredible. Totally out there. What I especially like about Joni is she manages to be 'jazz' without shoving in a load of skronking brass or even that much traditional jazz instrumentation, but it's still jazz in spirit.

kind of been wanting to do a thread of Jungle Line vs Bowie's African Night Flight but not really sure how it would work, or even if there are other songs that could be wedged into a similar category.

well joni's "dreamland" would fit!

but yea jungle line, even if i prefer other tunes on the album, is so out there, such a forward-thinking piece of music, always felt like bjork really took that tune to heart and internalized it

oh i didn't know she'd done a version. yeah it's one of those tracks from the past that you could define a whole career by in that respect. we've got a thread for that somewhere, haven't we?

oh sorry i didn't mean she did a version! just that as soon as i heard it for the first time i thought "bjork must have listened to this a thousand times"

yes - incredible delivery on that line

Never gave this one any time and now...now I'm in love.

but...will she love you?

I will take my chances.

I'd have picked "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" or maybe "Sweet Bird". I'm surprised to see all the admiration for "The Boho Dance", it always struck me as unremarkable.

I love the balls out confidence to place ‘The Jungle Line’ as the second track on this album...it’s such a jarring jumpcut it really disturbed me for such a long time, but now see it as someone so in control of their artistic vision...breathtaking...consequently I have a penchant for weird/off kilter second tracks

I think it's her best album. Everything is lockdown inflected now but I listened to this in what feels like the briefest of window of being able to listen to music in public spaces and it utterly transformed me and the dull urban space I was occupying at the time.

"The Jungle Line" was the song that got me into Joni Mitchell. I was into Bow Wow Wow at the time and I immediately recognized the "Jungle Line" beat as a Bow Wow Wow beat played at half tempo.

I agree that it's hard to imagine these ten songs in any other order.

today is the day this album really clicked for me. thanks, thread!

It’s funny: this record’s sonic influence is strikingly all over Kate Bush’s “Never For Ever” but I’ve never read a KB interview where she gives Joni M more than a passing acknowledgment.