Joni Mitchell: Greatest female artist of all time

[Gorshin]

I reckon she is for sure. Her voice is right up there with Aretha F's. Her songs are truly sublime and she is an awesome guitar/piano player. Lets have it

The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Hejira
Court & Spark

+ around 5 other album masterpieces

[Kenny Glasgow]

Gorshin

I suppose what she has written and recorded you can't be far off. Carol King would be a runner-up.

"Modern" contenders would be Shawn Colvin and Aimee Mann

[CJROSS]

Both Sides Now is the one for me TBH, Followed By Blue.

[Kenny Glasgow]

CJ

Have you got/heard Both Sides Now on DVD-A? Awesome

[alexs2]

Originally Posted by Kenny Glasgow

CJ

Have you got/heard Both Sides Now on DVD-A? Awesome

Yes....sublime,as is the later Travelogue.
She also has superb production values,and has always had the good sense to surround herself with the very best in terms of session musicians.
Wayne Shorter,in particular has never sounded better.

[Kenny Glasgow]

Alexs

Never seen (heard) that on DVD-A. Tried Amazon and Play

[Philly112]

Seem to remember having a bit of a hard time on here when a reviewer thought the Shadows and Light DVD was a pile of doggy doo (read the review in the reviews section) and I posted a thread saying that the review was even more doggy doo!
Still, each to his own - glad to see there are others with a bit of taste (but where were you all on my thread when I needed you most!!!!!)
Phil

[Gorshin]

I reckon 'Hejira' is her masterpiece.

[alexs2]

Originally Posted by Kenny Glasgow

Alexs

Never seen (heard) that on DVD-A. Tried Amazon and Play

Sorry,Kenny....it's not a DVD-A release,just ordinary red book CD,and is available from MVC for certain(where I got it from!)...double CD with the following on it


1 Otis And Marlena 7 Judgement Of The Moon And Stars (Ludwig's Tune)
2 Amelia 8 The Sire Of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)
3 You Dream Flat Tires 9 For The Roses
4 Love 10 Trouble Child
5 Woodstock 11 God Must Be A Boogie Man
6 Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Based On A Poem By W.B. Yeats)

Disc : 2

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Be Cool 7 Cherokee Louise
2 Just Like This Train 8 The Dawntreader
3 Sex Kills 9 The Last Time I Saw Richard
4 Refuge Of The Roads 10 Borderline
5 Hejira 11 The Circle Game
6 Chinese Cafe / Unchained Melody

Nice selection of some of her best work.

[Kenny Glasgow]

Alex

Great line-up of tracks. I would love Hisssing of Summer Lawns on DVD-A.

Years ago the now long defunct Hi-Fi for Pleasure arranged for a series of classic albums to be cut by Nimbus and that was one of them. I never bought it (too young and no money) A friend did buy it though and it sounds better than the current CD version.

Other albums included Sgt.Pepper (no chance of Apple allowing that now) and Band on The Run which were also very good (got them)

[gizlaroc]

http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=s...A&title=104838


I was listening to Both Sides Now last night, and I thought to my self, if there was only one album I could have for the rest of my life, this would be it.

Just ordered the DVD-A version, so it will be nice to see how it compares.

[keiths]

Originally Posted by Gorshin

I reckon 'Hejira' is her masterpiece.

Agreed. My Joni top 10 is:

1. Hejira
2. Travelogue
3. Hissing of Summer Lawns
4. Both Sides Now
5. Shadows and Light (DVD is poor quality and cheesy/dated, but the album is excellent and it introduced me to Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius)
6. Wembley 1983 (Radio 1 concert [bootleg] Not the highest quality but a flawless performance)
7. Court and Spark
8. Blue
9. Taming the Tiger
10. Mingus

Biggest dissappointment was Hejira's follow-up "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" which has only 1 really good track on it (Jericho). Great version of Jericho on k.d. lang's new album 'Hymns of the 49th Parallel', by the way.

Very sad that she has retired from music and will almost certainly never again release any new material.

[CJROSS]

Kenny G (Somehow that does not have the proper ring of Kenny Glasgow)

Actually I borrowed the DVD-A from the library to hear the DVD-V mix on my DVD player & DAC and very good it sounded, but not the DVD-A material, anyway even in DVD-V form 48Khz it sounded pretty damned fine to these ears (downmixed to stereo on my DAC), the CD as you will know is HDCD and it sounds stunning (even when A Case of You & Both Sides Now are not HDCD encoded) Anyway glad to see some other Mitchell fans.

If I ever buy a Universal disc spinner if will be one of the first DVD-As I would buy even though I have the HDCD CD of it.

Out of interest as Keith mentions, KD Lang has covered “A Case of You” in her latest album : Songs for the 49th Parallel, a great album but even as a massive fan of Lang, she comes nowhere near Mitchell version in Both Sides Now. But a wonderful album from Lang a few of you guys should like IMHO.

[Kenny Glasgow]

CJRoss

Yeah I've got the kd Lang Cd and it is superb.

Gizlaroc

You wont be disappointed

[Philly112]

Just for the record, I would also recommend Night Ride Home (some time in the 80's) as a wonderful wonderful Joni album, in many ways up with the Hissing... and Hejira heyday (OK so not quite up there, but those two albums are impossible to follow for anyone. period!)
It makes me so sad that so many people have never heard her music (or believe it started and stopped with Big Yellow Taxi)
I played my wife 'Furry Sings The Blues' last week. We were both almost in tears at the end, and my wife confessed she had heard of Joni Mitchell, but could not name any of her songs.
So very very sad - a bit like some of Joni's wonderful songs!
And I have to admit that her voice has definitely been damaged by a lifetime of fags (and age?) - although Travelogue is a great album in many ways, her voice, well, just isn't quite there for me.
But all in all, she has influenced my musical life as much as Miles Davis or John Coltrane have, and I love her to bits!!