Joni Mitchell: Greatest female artist of all time

Gorshin · 04-12-2004, 12:38 AM

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 · 04-12-2004, 7:17 PM

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 · 07-12-2004, 2:09 PM

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

Kenny Glasgow · 07-12-2004, 5:05 PM

CJ

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

**alexs2** · 07-12-2004, 5:20 PM

Quote:

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 · 07-12-2004, 5:28 PM

Alexs

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

Philly112 · 07-12-2004, 6:46 PM

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 · 07-12-2004, 10:31 PM

I reckon 'Hejira' is her masterpiece.

**alexs2** · 08-12-2004, 7:20 AM

Quote:

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 · 08-12-2004, 8:43 AM

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 · 08-12-2004, 10:18 AM

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 · 08-12-2004, 1:41 PM

Quote:

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 · 08-12-2004, 3:47 PM

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 · 08-12-2004, 5:09 PM

CJRoss

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

Gizlaroc

You wont be disappointed

Philly112 · 08-12-2004, 6:20 PM

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!!

keiths · 08-12-2004, 6:36 PM

Thought 'Night Ride Home' (1991 actually) was the best of a somewhat below par run of albums that started with 1985s 'Dog Eat Dog'. Best track on 'Night Ride Home', in my opinion, is 'Cherokee Louise' - but the version of that on 'Travelogue' is the definitive one.

Going to have a serious Joni CD/Vinyl listening session later, methinks.

Philly112 · 08-12-2004, 6:42 PM

Goodness - 1991 for Night Ride Home. Almost yesterday. Actually, would agree with that - Dog Eat Dog was a big seller, but didn't have it emotionally. Night Ride Home seemed to be a bit more heart felt. God, need to play my wife Cherokee Louise, and see the tears flow....!

keiths · 08-12-2004, 6:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Philly112

...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!!

I actually think her deeper and more 'ragged' voice on Travelogue suits some of the songs better than the younger, higher and purer voice did.

If it wasn't for Joni Mitchell, I wouldn't have discovered the music of Miles and Coltrane etc. as soon as I did. Until I heard her 'jazzier' albums, I had no interest in that style, but after hearing such musicains as Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker and others on Joni Mitchell albums, I had to check out their stuff - which led on Mingus, Miles, Coltrane etc.

the_pauley · 11-12-2004, 2:51 AM

A-B compared the DVD-A and the HDCD of "Both Sides Now" and not a lot between them apart from the surround effect. Compared them both on two channel. Playing the CD and DVD-A on my Pioneer universal player, the DVD-A had a slight advantage, but the CD played on my Marantz CD player had the edge.

Noticed this with other discs too. If the disc is well mastered not a lot of difference if played on a quality CD deck.

And this is one superbly mastered disc. Even vanilla CD (non-HDCD processed) sounds stunning. The lush orchestral arrangements by Vince Mendoza are very much influenced by legendary arranger Gordon Jenkins (who actually co-arranged the "Stormy Weather" track on the album).

Jenkins specialized in this lush, string laden sound and arranged a few of Sinatra's downbeat "mood" albums in the '50s for Capitol. Indeed the album "Where Are You" - Sinatra's first stereo album - is one of the earliest stereo releases and sounds phenomenal - even by today's standards (Capitol's engineers had it down pat from almost day one). If you like "Both Sides Now" it is worth checking out the recent 20 bit re-master of this album as it is very similar in sound and mood.

And yes - Joni is a bit of a goddess!

CJROSS · 13-12-2004, 1:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_pauley

And this is one superbly mastered disc. Even vanilla CD (non-HDCD processed) sounds stunning. The lush orchestral arrangements by Vince Mendoza are very much influenced by legendary arranger Gordon Jenkins (who actually co-arranged the "Stormy Weather" track on the album).

Jenkins specialized in this lush, string laden sound and arranged a few of Sinatra's downbeat "mood" albums in the '50s for Capitol. Indeed the album "Where Are You" - Sinatra's first stereo album - is one of the earliest stereo releases and sounds phenomenal - even by today's standards (Capitol's engineers had it down pat from almost day one). If you like "Both Sides Now" it is worth checking out the recent 20 bit re-master of this album as it is very similar in sound and mood.

And yes - Joni is a bit of a goddess!

Thanks for the heads up Pauley, have you got a link for this Sinatra album, as I do indeed think the orchestration on BSN is amongst is main plus points.

Kenny Glasgow · 13-12-2004, 3:37 PM

CJR

You can get it from :

http://www.amazon.co.uk

The re-master is the expensive one!

the_pauley · 13-12-2004, 6:08 PM

That is very expensive on amazon.co.uk! Much cheaper from amazon.com and more info in the way of consumer reviews than on the UK site.

Where Are You? (Remastered with bonus tracks)

Many of these remastered Capitol and Reprise albums turn up regularly in HMV's sales at around £5.99 (next one starts first day of business after Xmas).

Other Sinatra/Jenkins collaborations of note:

No One Cares (Remastered with bonus tracks) - essentially the sequel to "Where are You?"

September of My Years