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

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.

I love the way those lines build up to "Or me here least of all..."

It's amazing how many self-puncturing references the album has to Joni's own self-absorption.

on that topic, a pretty interesting background note on that song (and teh overall topic of self-absorption): http://jonimitchell.com/research/g_entry.cfm?id=16

That last paragraph from 'Refuge' I alread quoted ALWAYS slays me.

Fabulous.

In case someone is interested in hearing the Travelogue version

no, thanks. when she released travelogue for me she lost the last bit of credibility she had. what a syrupy piece of overproduced crap.

travelogue = killing your own babies.

I don't mind the version you've linked baaderonixx, but I don't know if that sort of treatment can do much for Hejira songs. Whereas I love the similar treatments of "Both Sides Now" and "A Case Of You" that she did previously.

or travelogue = flooding your kittens in strings.

I still have very mixed feelinsg re. Travelogue. Often I feel that it's very close to being brilliant, the nearly-noirish vibe, the husky late night voice ... but it kinda falls short and ends up being, yes, sirupy and "grown up".

wtf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kins8_pA9M4