TS: Joni Mitchell - 'Hissing of Summer Lawns' vs 'Hejira'

Having said that, didn't Joni have some erotic obsession with black men in the 1980s or something?

Don't forget, however, that we're talking about an album which is 30+ years old now. A lot's gone on in that time - and we can't really retrospectively apply the values we have today.

The Hissing Of Summer Lawns is a wonderful album, though. It ended up, along with Saint Etienne's last one, being the soundtrack to Summer 2005 for me. Her evocation of West Coast America contrasted with suburbia in Harry's House is intoxicating. And anyone who's had an affair with a 'free-thinking' bastard will relate directly to Don't Interrupt The Sorrow.

Put me down as a huge fan of [i]Hejira[/i] who needs to get [i]Hissing of Summer Lawns[/i] on cd after not having heard it for years. The box set of her 80's Geffen albums is endlessly fascinating. I forgot how good [i]Dog Eat Dog[/i] is. Surely "The Three Great Stimulants" is one of her best late career songs.

William

I think Hejira has some of the most well-crafted, evocative, etc. etc. etc., lyrics of any record I could name. Hissing of Summer Lawns is elliptical and inscrutable and disillusioned in the best possible way, but her narrative powers were at their absolute peak on Hejira, imho. It's had a huge influence not just on my own writing, but on the way I've processed events in my own life.

And in contrast to Hurting, above, I absolutely love the way it sounds - sparse, wintry, bell-clear. It's a gorgeous, timeless record, one of my top five of all time.

C&S has pretty great high points (title track! Trouble Child!) but there are some fillers and it somehow lacks the cohesiveness of the two following albums.

Ironically, for all the talk of Hissing's arty inscrutability she was much better on that album at matching complex lyric and melody, and Hejira simply circumvents the problem by mostly jettisoning choruses. I actually consider For The Roses and Court & Spark to be Joni's "difficult" growing pains albums, and the subsequent two albums to be much more fully realised and comfortable-sounding.

That's why I love it. There are refrains in these songs - The "white lines on the freeway" section of "Coyote"; "Amelia, it was just a false alarm" - but they're narratives, art-songs, not as beholden to a "pop" formula. It taught me so much when I was a kid about what a song can consist of. Mark Eitzel is one of the few songwriters who comes close to Joni's work in this form; for some reason, I find it much more intriguing than feeling shoehorned (to borrow your word) into the standard verse/chorus/verse formula.

I agree with Tim 99%, although I admit to being charmed in a hokey way by the "energetic flapping" of "Raised on Robbery". And, yes, the form of Court and Spark is a marvel - that middle stretch through to "Trouble Child" is hard to beat.

"Twisted" just shoots the plane right down, though. What was she thinking...

Whereas the more complex, visually arresting stuff always comes once, so you're struggling to absorb it even as it fades from hearing (the title track especially, lyricism as exquisite bloodletting)

Even with "Just Like This Train" and the title song and "Down to You"?

I actually consider For The Roses and Court & Spark to be Joni's "difficult" growing pains albums, and the subsequent two albums to be much more fully realised and comfortable-sounding.

This is very OTM, regarding For The Roses, which is never mentioned much even though "Barandgrill" and "Electricity" and of course "You Turn Me On (I'm A Radio) [an even better pop song than "Help Me"].

Is anyone able to describe the differences with the new remixed version on that compilation she released last year? I haven't heard it.

There is absolutely zilch on the Rhino website about this, however, at least as far as I can see.

Can anyone independently confirm? And are there tracklists available? Can we expect previously unreleased material, or is this gonna be the more typical 'alternate, demo and live versions' cash-grab?

!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OTOH it doesn't get much better than Joni. Will wait & see...

Joni Mitchell
December 21, 2006, 3:30 PM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
Bjork, Prince, James Taylor and Elvis Costello are among the artists who have recorded covers for "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell," due in the spring via Nonesuch. The 12-track set also boasts contributions from Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang, Emmylou Harris and Sufjan Stevens.

In related news, Billboard.com has learned that Mitchell has been recording original material at a Los Angeles studio in recent weeks. It is unknown in what form she plans to release the music; she angrily announced she was quitting the music business in 2002 after her last album, "Travelogue."

Here is the track list for "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell":

"Free Man in Paris," Sufjan Stevens
"Boho Dance," Bjork
"Dreamland," Caetano Veloso
"Don't Interrupt the Sorrow," Brad Mehldau
"For the Roses," Cassandra Wilson
"A Case of U," Prince
"Blue," Sarah McLachlan
"Ladies of the Canyon," Annie Lennox
"Magdalena Laundries," Emmylou Harris
"Edith and the Kingpin," Elvis Costello
"Help Me," k.d. lang
"River," James Taylor

lol @ Sufjan Stevens "unfettered and alive" my ass

Phil Collins, "A Song For Sharon"

This absolutely frightens me... I can only imagine Surfjan trying to recreate Joni's take on the song. And he'll fall completely short. Unless he's got a magic bag of tricks, nothing I heard on Illinois has the depth of emotion that Joni brought to this - that up-sound and excitement, but the way her voice undercuts the song, so you hear the desperation and loneliness. Like being in a crowded room of people but feeling alone.

"A Case of U," Prince

haha. He changed "A Case of You" to "A Case of U." God knows what Prince will do with this. I drew a map of... Minneapolis?

The rest seem obvious enough. I actually think I heard James Taylor do River on a bootleg once. There's this great Taylor/Mitchell show (10-28-1970). I love it when they sang together.

And of course - super-psyched about new material. (Like a fanboy waiting for the new Good Charlotte album.)

REVIVE

I can't really imagine Bojork doing getting the Boho Dance

the Prince cover is really lovely.

And the Sufjan one is awful. This coming from someone who actually really liked Illinois.

Has anyone heard the Joni cover album Herbie Hancock put out? Some intriguing pairings... Tina Turner singing 'Edith and the Kingpin' anyone?

i only listened to <a href="http://blog.zeit.de/tontraeger/2007/09/28/liebesbriefe-nach-kanada_532";>leonard cohen reading "the jungle line"</a>. which i liked a lot.

sorry: the jungle line

anybody heard of this before?
http://www.bigozine2.com/archive/ARrarities07/ARjmseeding.html
i haven't listened yet, but it seems like a good thing.
still curious about that herbie hancock thing. have heard samples and it sounds pretty good. there's a danger of it sucking though, no doubt about it -- i recently heard that Gershwin's World CD Herbie did a few years back and ehhhhhh ... i understand that having big name guest stars on your record means it'll sell a bajillion more copies, but still ...