Can Someone Help Me Understand the Appeal of Joni Mitchell?

[g6120]

Originally Posted by rlouie

Jaco's bass work is astounding on this song!!!!!!!!!!!

and look at the lineup of this group!!!!!!!!!! unbelievable.................

Don Alias
Michael Brecker
Lyle Mays
Pat Metheny
Joni Mitchell
Jaco Pastorius
______________

At that time I was already a Pat Metheny Group fan so imagine my delight when I go to a Joni Mitchell concert and see the PMG backing her up!
I'm so glad they recorded this concert and later issued a DVD release. What a great way to remember and re-live a wonderful show!!

I went back and listened again to Coyote because as you said Jaco's bass playing in that perfromance is out of this world!!!!

[valleyguy]

To me Joni's career had three periods. The early folk period, the short pop period, which was primarily the Court & Spark album (my favorite), and then a jazz period, where I lost interest.

But she is not everyone's taste, just like Neil Young.

[wthurman]

Things change.

Hejira did it for me when released, although I liked Ladies of the Canyon and Blue.

Her wide warped-record vibrato she uses at times drives me nuts but I have to admit I love her work.

Also Turbulent Indigo (Job's Sad Song is amazing).

Anyway, Kel, my wife, didn't care for Joni and then one day I put some on and she was blown away.

And anyone who could write "A Case of You" can be forgiven anything else.

[Kabalan]

Originally Posted by g6120

At that time I was already a Pat Metheny Group fan so imagine my delight when I go to a Joni Mitchell concert and see the PMG backing her up!
I'm so glad they recorded this concert and later issued a DVD release. What a great way to remember and re-live a wonderful show!!

I went back and listened again to Coyote because as you said Jaco's bass playing in that perfromance is out of this world!!!!

joni is lucky, the best band in the world playing her song!!
by the way, she was married to a good composer from michigan call chuck
mitchell, i sow him once playing a 12 twelve string guitar and singing,,so she
keeps the ex husband name.
Eblen

[fitness1]

Blue and Court and Spark are in my "desert island 100 collection" for sure...

There are others that stand out as well. I saw her on the Shadows and Light Tour in '79 (?) with Jaco, Metheny and the Breckers......whoa.

I can understand why she'd be an acquired taste for some folks, but it didn't take long for me

[dancingdogmuse]

Take a couple of minutes and read this interview with her..its an old one but gives great insight about what she is about....
http://www.conlanpress.com/CFCpage_R...0for%20RUG.pdf

Joni Mitchell's approach to the
guitar isn't like anybody else's on the planet. Whereas most people are content to play in standard
tuning, and a few brave souls venture into the occasional open D or E, at last count Joni's song
list comprised 51 different tunings. 51! This is an extraordinary diversity of chordal structure and
color... but it doesn't exactly make for an easy show. One of the big reasons Joni stopped touring
in 1983 was that it had simply become impractical to either (A) change tunings between every
song, or (B) carry enough guitars and hire enough techs to handle it all backstage.

( joni mitchell )...
I used to go over to David Crosby's place and play his guitar, putting it into one of
my tunings, and then he'd pick it up and say "Oh, the Martians have been here."

http://jonimitchell.com/

[guitaniac]

Its interesting to note that Joni Mitchell had already achieved significant success as a songwriter (most notably, Judy Collins' 1967 release of "Both Sides Now") before the release of her own debut album in March 1968. This "Circle Game" video includes snipets of various interviews which help tell that story.
http://jonimitchell.com/video.cfm?id=14&from=search

Tom Rush, Judy Collins, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Dave Van Ronk and George Hamilton IV were some of the folk and country artists who covered Joni Mitchell songs in those early years.

Gary

[zenpicker]

I love Youtube....here is a SPECTACULAR performance of Help Me. Her voice is at its liquid (and sexy) best...tight band...great love song...a total winner IMHO. Well worth the watch!

[Chicago Sandy]

Originally Posted by Raystrack

Joni's first album is unlike anything else ever written and that in itself is amazing. She wrote using open tunings when only a few did and they were mainly instrumentalists. Her melodies were original, exquisite and her lyrics emotional and cinematic.

Song To A Seagull is up there in my top 5 all time great albums alongside Revolver and Pet Sounds. Blue was also ground-breaking but too piano-oriented and doleful for my tastes. Most of my muso mates rate Hejira highly but I thought the melodies were lacking on that one though Jaco was ace. I agree that I don't always like her octave-jumping.

Kristofferson on the other hand is a joke and was booed off stage at the Isle Of Wight Festival here in the UK - Americana of the most vapid and derivative variety.

I'm with you on Joni--I found her earlier stuff to be the most trailblazing and influential. Any woman of a certain age who found herself using open tunings, picking up a dulcimer for other than traditional Appalachian/Celtic music and writing multi-octave songs was probably a fan of her first three or four albums. "Song To a Seagull" was probably my favorite too, followed by "For the Roses" and "Court and Spark" (which was the last album of hers on which I liked every cut). She began to lose me on "Hejira" ("lose" being defined as my not liking most of the songs). Until her voice changed in her late thirties and she began concentrating on her lower register, I did get a bit annoyed by her deliberate vocal "wobble" (not a "bleating" Buffy Ste.-Marie tremolo), and gratuitious register breaks, especially at the end of "Woodstock." But musically, vocally and lyrically, I began tuning out starting with "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter." From then on, I found every one of her albums contained a gem or two, but the rest of the songs left me cold. I'm not a big fan of her "new" (post-vocal-trauma---some, including fan club sites, say cancer but she denies it) vocal style. I really miss that crystal soprano vocal clarity that peaked on the "Blue" album's guitar and dulcimer numbers.

Them's fightin' words re: Kristofferson, however. Sure, he's not the most riveting performer (forgettable voice, so-so guitar), but what a writer--his best songs are simple and direct, belying his Rhodes scholar background, devoid of pretense and manipulation. Definitely an influence on Townes Van Zandt and Lyle Lovett, IMHO. (Of course, every songwriter is sort of like a puppy: we need to learn when to grow up, quit whining and know what not to leave on paper. Or at least not release).

[guitaniac]

Thanks for the link, Edward. Its a joy to hear her stretch out a bit on the vocals there. Its an interesting contrast to those more "tastefully understated" vocals on the 1966 videos of "Urge For Going" and "Circle Game". One has to wonder how much her popular acceptance (starting around 68', 69') helped to encourge and embolden the emergence of playfully soaring melodies.

Gary

[Chicago Sandy]

Originally Posted by Kabalan

joni is lucky, the best band in the world playing her song!!
by the way, she was married to a good composer from michigan call chuck
mitchell, i sow him once playing a 12 twelve string guitar and singing,,so she
keeps the ex husband name.
Eblen

I know Chuck--he's living in Keokuk, IA and is a charming and utterly riveting performer (albeit a flirt even at his age). Broke my heart when he didn't feel he was up to coming back to FARM the last couple of years. As I watched him command an entire room a cappella without a mic, and cause instant rapt attention when it came his time in our song circle jams, I knew exactly what Joni meant in "I Had a King*:"

"Ladies in gingham still blush while he sings them of whores and wine.
"But I, in my leather and lace? I could never become that kind"

* at a Joni tribute guerrilla showcase at Folk Alliance in Austin, I had planned to sing that, until Chuck came in just before my turn. Quickly switched my selection to "Just Like This Train."

[rmyAddison]

How amazing is this..................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZio...eature=related

from a man's perspective, a woman singing this to you is about as sexy as it gets..............WOW!

then you add Diana Krall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGrsc...eature=related

stick a fork in me!

[kydave]

A little LSD and Joni in the '60s...
A little doobie and Joni in the '70s...
A little sour mash and Joni in the '80s...
A little ... uh, What was the question?

[guitaniac]

Originally Posted by rmyAddison

How amazing is this..................

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QZio...eature=related

from a man's perspective, a woman singing this to you is about as sexy as it gets..............WOW!

There's a raspy vulnerability to this performance which I find very touching and poignant. Thanks for sharing.

Gary

[open-road-matt]

Wow!
I have a lot of homework to do! Thanks for posting all of this info. I've been running crazy the last couple of days so I haven't had a chance to dive into all of this but I will!

I had Radio Margaritaville on today and they played Joni's "If." It's a newer song, released in 2007. I was feeding our son and he starting messing around, singing and talking so I didn't get to pay as close attention as I wanted to but I liked the sound of it.

Thanks again!
Matt