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

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 ...

I like the Herbie Hancock album. I think the guest stars are fairly understated, and Tina Turner's rendition of "Edith and the Kingpin" is pretty fantastic actually.

Yes, what I've heard from that album was actually very good. Need to pick it up.

Awesome link by the way. Thanks! Can't wait to hear these.

Wow - the guitar demo for Harry's House is awesome.

So... Whatever happened to those remasters?

they happened already dude

[reads upthread]

oops i thought you meant the remasters from 2 years ago or whatever

They are still nowhere to be seen around here. Other than up to "For The Roses" that is.

both of these are so good. long time coming. i feel like those last two tracks on 'hejira' bring it down a notch. too cute. need more digesting time though. i love joni right now, probably too much.

but i'm thinking 'hejira' ftw

"Refuge of the Roads" is cute?

yeah. not 'cute,' but not 'black crow,' you know? cute.

1+ fretless bass
1- chords, song

1++++ fretless bass.

these are the clouds of michaealangelo
muscular with darts

fuck this, this is no contest, i'm just loving joni more and more.

For me, 'Refuge' is both the essence of the album and its natural conclusion.

I mean:

In a highway service station
Over the month of June
Was a photograph of the earth
Taken coming back from the moon
And you couldn't see a city
On that marbled bowling ball
Or a forest or a highway
Or me here least of all
You couldn't see these cold water restrooms
Or this baggage overload
Westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads

Weird - listened to "A Song for Sharon" this morning. I don't know anyone who can write these melodies for these polysyllables, or have the inspiration to use high-pitched whoops for emphasis.